FARMINGDALE, NEW JERSEY
In the “serene countryside” of Farmingdale (a few miles west of Asbury Park), panoramic family friendly microbrewery, TALL OAKS FARM & BREWERY opened its doors, January ’24.
At a white aluminum sided, shutter-doored barn house on 5-acre farm, Tall Oaks includes a pristine barroom, heated covered porch and separate large pavilion. Inside, white plastic seats and tables spread across the post-Mod pub where unique metal piping fills the brew tanks servicing the rounded elixirs poured for beer-centric minions at the wood top serving station.
Head brewer Rebecca Barry honed her skills at popular brew school, UC-Davis, joining Pennsylvania’s Weyerbacher and Newark’s Anheuser Busch before becoming Tall Oaks’ top cat.
My wife and I settle at the fenced-in picnic grounds, grabbing a few Adirondack-chaired round wood tables to suck down eight fine suds, July ’24.
Freshly baked breaded sourdough wheat engulfed crisp light pilsner, Berm, leaving slight floral herbage upon its sour lemon surge.
A West Coast IPA vibrancy enhanced bolder pale ale, Redwood Grove, bringing slightly embittered Cascade-hopped lemony grapefruit tanginess plus orange-peeled peach, pineapple and papaya sweetness to dry Centennial-Chinook-hopped pining atop dainty Vienna-Crystal malting.
A mild IPA, Open Field allowed brisk lemony grapefruit and orange sunshine, salted guava-passionfruit tropicalia and floral-daubed evergreen minting to rise above biscuity Vienna malts.
Lacquered mango sweetness grazed glutenous white wheat for Fruit Stand Mango, a summery soft-toned pilsner-malted wheat ale.
Spritzy lemon fizz sparkled above the freshly baked French breading consuming Meadow, another soft-toned moderation (with ‘white grape skin and pear’ nuances).
Offbeat farmhouse-styled grisette, Petal Rustic Ale, dripped Lemon Pledge-wafted citrus moisture into white-peppered sage and parsley herbage atop pilsner-malted cracked wheat backbone.
Serene dark-fruited date, plum and apricot fronted easygoing doppelbock, Cultivator, a German-style lager with musky cellared fungi digging into cardboard-like brown breading.
Light-roast coffee nuttiness, chalky cocoa powdered Black malt bittering and musky dried fruiting received dry hop char for Cottage, a mossy English mild ale.