Cricket Hill Bourbon Barrel Aged Paymasters Porter

At Al’s of Hampden, I ordered a glass of Cricket Hill Bourbon Barrel Aged Paymasters Porter. The beer pours a red tinted dark brown color with a thin filmy off white colored head. The aroma consists of bourbon, toasted malts, chocolate, and vanilla. The taste is dry and chocolate with lots of bourbon up front. There is a drying finish that sucks moisture off tongue with coffee and vanilla accents. The alcohol content is 6.7% ABV. It was almost indescribably as to how this beer dried the tongue out, but you could possibly compare it to eating saw dust. However, it was quite a tasty beer.

Cricket Hill Hopnotic IPA

I ordered a Cricket Hill Hopnotic IPA from O'Reilly's in Harrisburg. The beer pours an amber color with a frothy white head. The aroma consists of caramel with lemon and pepper. The taste is big and smooth at first with a burnt caramel taste, followed by a good peppery hop bite, and a light lemon accent. The alcohol content is 6.0% ABV. I thought that the Hopnotic IPA was very delicious and a rather off-the-wall IPA. The burnt caramel taste was very pleasant and a very different offering from most IPAs out there.

Cricket Hill Fall Festivus

I ordered a glass of Cricket Hill Fall Festivus from Brewhouse in Camp Hill. The beer pours an orange amber color with a foamy white head. The aroma is sweet and malty with caramel and faint sour hops. The taste is big and malty and takes up the whole mouth with a big presence. It is creamy with a faint lemon hint, a good sour hop finish, and a lightly dry and bitter after taste. The alcohol content is not posted online, but I would assume it to be around 5.0% ABV. The Fall Festivus is a really good Oktoberfest beer with a tasty malt profile.

Cricket Hill Reserve Ale- No. 3 Barleywine

Another bottle that my friend Jeff picked up from Cricket Hill for me was the Reserve Ale- No. 3 Barleywine. The beer pours brilliant amber color with a frothy white head that sticks to the side of the glass. The aroma is malty and sweet, with bits of orange peel, caramel, and toffee. The taste is sweet and malty with a good dose of raisin, toffee, and caramel. It has a slight orange zest on the finish with a modest compliment of dry hops. The alcohol content is not posted online, but I would guess around 8% ABV. This barleywine is everything that a barelywine should be, and I highly recommend checking it out. The orange zest that came with the drinking of this beer was a pleasant surprise and really rounded out the flavor.

Cricket Hill Reserve Ale- No. 2 Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter

I had my friend Jeff in New Jersey pick me up a bottle of Cricket Hill Reserve Ale- No. 2 Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter. The beer pours a dark brown color with a foamy tan head that is about a finger thick. The aroma has bits of chocolate and an underlying bourbon alcohol bite. The taste is full of chocolate and toasted malts with some cream rounding out in a sweetening manner. The beer finishes with a bit of a bite from the bourbon aging. There is also some oak accents and a hint of black licorice. The alcohol content was not available online, but I would guess it to be around 5% or 6% ABV. This was a delicious porter that goes above and beyond the call of duty. The bourbon barrel aging really brings a new dimension to this beer with a nice alcohol bite and bits of oak laced in with the chocolate and toasted malts.

Cricket Hill Cricket's Nocturne

While in Philadelphia, I picked up a bottle of Cricket Hill Cricket's Nocturne. The beer has a dark amber color with a thin bubbly white head. The aroma consists of chocolate and malt. The taste is malty and smooth with a light chocolate hint and a faint oak flavor. I though that the beer was very delicious and smooth with a light carbonated bite on the back of the mouth and a very faint hint of hops. The alcohol content is not posted on the website, but I would assume it to be around 6.0% ABV. I really enjoyed the Cricket's Nocturne, and likened it to a cross-breed of Yuengling Lager and Smithwicks, both of which I really enjoy.

Cricket Hill Brewery

I went to Cricket Hill brewery located in Fairfield, New Jersey. The set up inside is very laid back, as you are sampling beer in the middle of the brewing process. Tours are available, but not really necessary because you only have to look around to see the entire brewery. Cricket Hill has four samples available on draft, and by far my favorite of the group was the Paymaster's Porter Ale. The Ale has such a smooth and round flavor. But the most surprising beer to me was the IPA Hopnotic, as seen below:

The IPA is brewed in the more traditional style rather than the American style with as many hops as one can fit into the beer. The hop balance is excellent in the IPA and it has a very clean taste. I highly recommend trying this beer if you are not an extreme hop fan.

Finally, the Jersey Summer was not available for sampling, but I decided to buy a 12-pack.

This wheat beer has a beautiful cloudy coloring, indicating that it is not over filtered. Pair it with the 70-degree weather outside, and you have the perfect experience.