POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK
At the bottom of the hill in Poughkeepsie’s bustling Main Street promenade, ZEUS BREWING COMPANY began operations December ’19. An exquisite Industrial chic pub on the large-windowed first floor of the Queen City loft, its rooftop bar and lounge overlook the Hudson River. Rising to prominence quickly, Zeus joins King’s Court, Mill House and Blue Collar as Poughkeepsie’s first four modern microbreweries.
Brewmaster Amit Ram (formerly of nearby Peekskill and Newburgh breweries) utilizes a left side seven-barrel system to craft his brisk IPA-centric fare as well as nifty one-offs and recurring fare. The upscale pub menu includes brick oven pizza, artisanal entrees, burgers, wings and sandwiches plus specialty cocktails, wine and ciders.
Two colossal neo-Classical wood cabinet murals grace the ten-seat bar. The beautiful black brick-tiled bar back features one bronze draught station with twelve tap handles (and a TV peering out from each corner). Several four-seat wood tables fill out the high-ceilinged black and white-walled pub.
Classic soul music played as my wife and I enjoyed all ten available brews during our December ’21 trip prior to dinner up the street at Schatzi’s.
Muskily earthen grained German-styled light-body, Queen City Pilsner, left a dainty floral-spiced lemon spec upon its French-breaded spine.
Dewy Aviator Doppelbock let rye-spiced brown breading, peaty mossing and dried fig combine alongside sugary toffee malts.
Rustic P.F.L. Harvest Lager retained leathery hay dryness, earthen truffle musk and honeyed rye buttering for mild butternut squash adjunct.
Crisp moderate dark lager, Crown & Anchor English Mild, filled its dewy peat meadow with sashayed red-orange fruiting and leafy hop astringency above biscuity cereal malts.
A Mosaic-hopped West Coast pilsner (collaboration with Wayward Lane), Everything For Everyone brought sharp floral-perfumed lemon bittering to mild lacquered pine tones contrasting cereal grained pilsner malting.
Similarly West Coast styled, Cruisin’ The One, a bright IPA, let juicily yellow grapefruit-peeled orange tanginess and candied lemon absorb floral-daubed piney hop resin.
Escaping to two East Coast IPA variants, dry Nelson Sauvin-hopped Nelson Road hid sour gooseberry tartness beneath lightly lingered grapefruit and mandarin orange bittering.
Meanwhile, fellow New England IPA, Mall Santa, provided spicier sweetness to its zestful grapefruit, orange, pineapple and peach tang.
Delicate yellow-hazed Imperial IPA, Square Two, retained dry grapefruit-orange zesting, mild pine bittering and floral-herbed snips as subtle apricot-tangerine notions waver.
Easygoing Berliner Weiss, Urban Oasis Italian Plum & Cranberry, allowed sour cranberry and dried plum tartness to gain briny lemon liming without overloading citric acidity.