CulturAle Press

No Guinness?  Great Stouts for St. Patrick’s Day: Beach Haus Parade Day Irish Style Coffee Stout, Belmar, New Jersey

Date:  March 17 ,2019

The Story— The New Jersey shore teems with tourists in the summer, but in early spring, there’s room in the inns and room at the bar in pubs and breweries.

Beach Haus is a giant shore-brewpub place on a central corner –all glass on 2 sides, 3 stories. When they converted the former bakery to the brewery, they repurposed the wood into rows of massive rustic picnic tables and benches.  It can hold a small army.

It sports 15 taps and offers a new “Test Dept.” beer each Friday.  They freely admit that not all of the 15 are intended to appeal to beer geeks – because brewery tap rooms can’t sell other alcohol, breweries have to make “beers” that appeal to wine and cocktail drinkers.  Nevertheless, Beach Haus does its best brewing for serious beer drinkers.   Lighter lagers pale before their very commendable IPAs and stouts.

We brought back a bottle of their Irish Coffee Stout and tasted it when it was only two weeks old.  featured waves of dark flavors, well-balanced coffee, and just enough hints of fruit and hops to make it interesting.  Meant for St. Patrick’s day, it was almost gone by the end of January.  No wonder.

If you go there, a top tier B&B is the Tandem Bike Inn sits a few blocks away on the way to the beach.  Breweries tap houses must close at 10PM in New Jersey—an attempt to shore up bars that pay vastly higher licensing fees.   When Beach Haus throws you out, walk across the street for a good dinner, acoustic music on some nights and the tasty Beach Haus IPA on tap.

The Beer—    A wave of dark flavors opens with dark malt, dark chocolate, and some dark roast coffee, following along.  Some fruit and a kiss of hops add breadth later.  Black background lasts nicely into a long and inviting aftertaste.  It’s almost good enough to make you forget about wanting to go to Ireland.

Value — Very good.   Ten bucks for a 75cl. big bottle of brewery-fresh happiness.

 About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

St. Patrick’s weekend interruptus:  St. Paddy’s day on a weekend.   What a huge benefit for bars across America!   Even in Ireland, where the holiday was a decidedly small change event until recently has started to embrace the excuse to party.  Most of this month, we’re looking at some of the many “spins” brewers put on IPAs these days.   We have enough, even holding ourselves to no more than two of a style, to range into April.

But it’s Saint Pat’s day and if the Irish still don’t celebrate like we do, Boston is the third largest city in Ireland by population, so here are three stout stouts that deserve a tip of bowler to these gems styled for the emerald isle.