Tap take overs are awesome, usually we see them from some of our more premier craft breweries here in the US but there are times when our own local breweries pull out all the stops and bring out some of the breweries best concoctions. Tuesday night brought us to Cloverleaf Tavern for seventeen taps of Kane Brewing. Kane, a young brewery, has been opened a little more then a year and they sure have been making waves with the beer drinkers of New Jersey. Making every thing from hopped up IPA’s to imperial stouts, and barrel aged Belgians. Michael Kane brought out some of his staples and a lot of rarities that brought drinkers from all over the state.
Seventeen beers is a lot for such a young brewery. It was a little difficult to figure out what I wanted with so many options. I eventually made my decision for the Creamsicle Port Omna, Kane’s American Stout aged on orange zest and vanilla beans. My friends Matt and Chris opted for the hoppy side of things and got the Mosaic Dry Hopped Overhead and Galaxy Head High.
Beer number two had to be the sessionable Single Fin, Kane’s Belgian Blonde Ale. This one was dry hopped with Sorachi Ace hops giving it a nice Saison quality. Most certainly my favorite beer of the night.
There was even bottles of Three Hundred Sixty Five floating around, Kane’s blended Anniversary Ale.
It was cool to see the different line up of tap handles. The handles are all generic wood with the Kane logo on them but every one is carved and stained from reclaimed wood that Michael finds in the area.
Kane fully recycles their barrels using the staves as tap handles. Neat idea.
The turn out was amazing! Cloverleaf owner, Ryan Dorchak, said he has only seen a turn out like this for Dogfish Head nights. That tells you something about the beer that Kane is producing.
Owner, Michael Kane and Sales Manager, Glenn Lewis were on hand to chat with everyone one that came. Even signing autographs at times.
Unfortunetly we could not sit there and drink all the beers they had to offer, as the night went on the kegs got lighter and lighter leaving only six of the seventeen left that were originally on. Seeing the amount of people at this event and the amount of beer that was drank tells me Kane is doing all the right things. They are producing some great offerings for the craft beer consumers here and helping put New Jersey back on the brewing map. I hope to see continued progression from Kane and with that hopefully more people will recognize them next time they are out for a pint. Cheers Michael, Glenn and the staff at The Cloverleaf Tavern for putting on such a great event.
-Brian