Shhh...among?
With breweries and brewpubs popping up all over NJ like dandelions on a Spring lawn, it's getting more difficult to get to them all--and then get home safely.
Fortunately, there are plenty of quality beer bars that offer some of the best beers Jersey has to offer, and Mike Proske's (photo, right) Tapastre is one of them. That his new Project P.U.B. sits atop Tapastre like beer icing on a beer cake is, well, icing on the cake. They are, however, two distinct operations, both bearing the Proske stamp of quality, while sharing the culinary skills of Executive Chef Carlton.
So I made an afternoon run to the best basement tapas bar in central Jersey (see photo below), despite knowing I'd have to fight 287 rush hour traffic on the way home.
After trying a beer called Jersey Devil Double IPA from Brotherton Brewing Company, I decided the traffic was worth it. The brewery is located in Shamong, which is considered South Jersey, and I recall the first time I saw the town on a road sign many years ago. "Shamong?" I thought. "Who the hell names a town Shamong?" Then I saw a sign that said "Repaupo," and I stopped wondering, attributing the names to being a "South Jersey thing."
But apparently Shamong may become a destination for beer nuts, if the Jersey Devil Double IPA I had yesterday is any indication. Brotherton's own description is pretty darned good:
Made in the hazy, obsessively aromatic Northeast style, and showcasing intense aromas and flavors of classic American hops with soft, drying bitterness and gentle malt character that makes the mouth water. Jersey Devil Double IPA is soft and juicy, with intense aromas of peachy tangerine juice, pine resin, and dank earthy-green hops! My own take is that it is a pleasure to drink, tasty, smooth and exceptionally well balanced. Were it not for its 8.4% ABV, I'd qualify it as a session IPA.
Mike Proske allowed that Brotherton is tuned into what he's doing at his tapas restaurant, Another Brotherton brew on the menu was called Now it's Dark, a 9.6% imperial stout. It's description, which waxed pretty poetic (one writer to another) was thus:
A stout so rich and deep you'll think you're gazing into your true-love's eyes in the night! This silky, ink-black Imperial Stout was brewed with a heavy dose of Lactose and finished lustily with Mosaic hops. It then fermented atop 200lbs of tart Montmorency and Balaton cherries from Michigan and aromatic Madagascar vanilla beans. Rich chocolate, tart red fruits and red-berry notes, and a freshly cut grass aroma in the background. Soft and velvety carbonation with a rounded and balanced bitterness. I did not sample that, because I wanted to be able to navigate 287 with my wits about me.
As it was, my sample of Czigmeister's abacabb, made from an 8.5% secret brew barley wine wort mixed with fresh-pressed NJ cider fermented in bourbon barrels with champagne yeast, then aged in vanilla and cinnamon was temptation enough. And Proske had the only keg in Jersey outside Czigmeister. And lovely Diana (photo, R.), upstairs at Project P.U.B., offered me a Neshaminy Creek J.A.W.N., so I needed to save some room.
Even though Somerville is closer, The PubScout may have to lead a two-wheeled ride of the PBBC (see photo of that group of rascals above) to Brotherton's operation in Shamong to sample its wares sometime this riding season.
If necessary, maybe we can find accommodations in Repaupo.
Cheers!
The PubScout
