MARLBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS
Inside a cavernous Marlboro Square Shopping Mall backspace, TACKLE BOX BREWING COMPANY opened for biz, November 5, 2020. Entrepreneurial brewer Adam Krasinski, a Penn State grad, spent several years honing his craft at Strange Brew – the home brew shop concurrently occupying this Marlborough hotspot.
The high-ceilinged, pale blue-walled pub features a bark-sided serving station (with high-back chairs, four-seat tables, twin TV’s and two billiards tables), backroom red-white-blue vinyl floored game lounge, expansive brew room, separate keg-bottling section and grain mill section under a black ceiling.
Krasinski’s traditional American-styled fare stays on the mark, appealing to casual mainstream thirsts as well as seasoned aficionados.
My wife and I grab one of the six side-decked community picnic tables (with red umbrellas) to imbibe nine tasty suds this sunny Saturday afternoon, June ’21.
Efficient best-selling moderation, Gail River Trophy Amber Ale topped its toasted amber grain minerality with herb-spiced hops, fizzy lemon licks and latent wood tones.
Stylishly dryer than expected, Hefe On The Horizon leavened its tart banana-soured clove spicing with lemon-rotted herbage.
Wild blueberry pureed golden ale, Money Lure Blueberry, retained sweet-tart berry fizziness over Graham Cracker-honeyed malts.
Crisply clean clear-yellowed kolsch, From Streams Come Dreams, engaged orange-dried lemon oiling with bubbly champagne fuzz and wispy herbs.
Lightly lingered jalapeno peppering cut thru the fizzy lemon spritz and soft wood base of Ripped Up Jalapeno IPA, leaving only a mild green pepper burn.
Lemony grapefruit bittering darted across serene juniper-smoked pine tones for Jiggin For Pigs, a semi-sharp IPA.
Flagship IPA, Colorado Fisherman, let perfumed grapefruit, orange and pineapple tanginess splash into resinous Nugget hop oiling over dry pale malts.
Dark chocolate-malted peanut buttering smeared Dock Side Peanut Butter Porter, leaving wavered black grape, walnut and granola illusions upon its mild hop-charred nutty bottom.
Sweet brown chocolate and milk-sugared coffee tones bustled inside Baltic Sea Monster, a dark-roasted Baltic Porter-derived stout with confectionary Milk Dud-candied finish.