PLEASANTVILLE, NEW YORK
Inside a window-fronted cornershop in the Westchester village of Pleasantville, SOUL BREWING COMPANY opened March 2020. Founding brewmaster, Allen Wallace, traveled to Belgium and Germany, getting so inspired by small town Euro breweries he started his own local brewpub downtown near the train station.
Wallace’s admiration for soul music gets intertwined with his love of beer and the back wall pix salute the famous Wattstax R&B concert and Otis Redding. The light Industrial cement-floored pub features a bronze-topped bar (with nine tap handles and large bronzed menu) plus ten metal-tabled two-seaters. The mezzanine area stores the stainless steel brew tanks.
My wife and I hit Soul Brewing on the way back from Connecticut to down proprietary nine suds, mid-July ’24.
Upfront glutenous sourdough yeast guarded the banana-clove-sugared Freya Weizen, relegating its fizzy lemon spritz.
Lemon curd tartness seeped into white peppered herbage and for Summer Soulstice Saison, a silken Belgian styled farmhouse ale.
Polite orange-tangerine tanginess emerged with barnyard-dried herbal musk for sweet breaded moderation, Pollinator Maibock.
Dry cucumbered watermelon rind and briny lime combined for lightly coriander-salted Watermelon-Lime Pop Gose, picking up vinous green grape esters at the tartly puckered finish.
Zesty orange-peeled grapefruit bittering, peachy melon sweetness and salty pineapple-guava tropicalia lifted Rise Above Double IPA, contrasting subsidiary floral herbage with resinous pine atop light oated creaming.
Sunshiny El Tropical NEIPA stayed brightly brisk as yellow grapefruit-peeled pineapple tanginess gleamed alongside evergreen pine.
Dried orange musk, dewy moss and dark floral whims surfaced for Sly West Coast IPA.
Candi-syruped plum spicing gathered alongside chocolate-covered raisin, black cherry puree and sugared date illusions to lightly sweeten Monk’s Dream Dubbel, leaving molasses cookie remnants.
Fudgy chocolate, milk-sugared coffee and creamy vanilla merged for 2-Tone Milk Porter, regaling mild toffee and dark cocoa whims.