SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS

A rustic hillside pub in the heart of Somerville and a mile east of Aeronaut, WINTER HILL BREWING COMPANY opened in 2016. Specializing in small batch beer as well as craft coffee and fine pub fare (BBQ, sausages and sandwiches) this freestanding industrial brewery-cafe overlooks the Boston skyline in a shop-filled residential neighborhood.

Winter Hill’s interior features a capacious lacquered wood serving station with a few chairs surrounding the bar and Edison lights plus exposed pipes dangling from a black ceiling. A four-tabled patio deck with Trex composite decking adds further seating.

My wife and I took seats at the front window across from the large refrigeration unit during our March ’21 rendezvous to try all three current draught offerings.

Sessionable saison, Testing Testing, bent stylistic boundaries as its expectant lemony perfumed herbage and earthen wood rusticity received intensified lemongrass tartness and quirky lavender-chamomile-mums florality.

Zestful hazy yellow glowed IPA, Johnny Juice Bomb, paraded sweet orange-peeled pineapple, mango and peach tanginess alongside salted lemon-candied grapefruit tartness, leaving floral-daubed pine resin upon its sharp citrus-spiced finish.

Bittersweet raspberry-pureed carob tartness anchored Raspberry Russian Ending (a fruited offshoot of Russian Ending Imperial Stout), picking up chocolate-covered cherry, strawberry rhubarb, raspy raspberry and blueberry compote illusions in a semi-sweet chocolate setting.