A Rainy fall night at Max’s on Broadway

By Greg B. In the post collegiate years, I’ve drank in a good many bars.  But there is one bar that is the one my friends and I always fall back on, Max’s on broadway.  For years this bar has offered an enormous variety of beers to drink, has a staff that will get you your beers, tab, food, check, menu, etc very expediently, and an atmosphere this is a real mixing pot of social classes and age groups, something that happens rather uniquely in Fells pt. 

This particular night was a Monday, it was cold and it was rainy.  There are several excuses to hit a bar on the way home from work, but walking in cold rain ranks rather high in my book.  After calling a few buddies to meet me out there for dinner and a few drinks, I saddled up to the bar and began ordering.  What was a night of 1 or 3 beers became a night of many many more.

First, I had the Ommegang Rouge, after talking with Mike about Ommegang beers the week prior, this was on my mind.  This is Flemish styled Red ale, something I have never tried before and I must say it is muy interesante! Creamy white head that faded quickly from the tap.  Had a flavor like a real farm yogurt, sour and intense.  Tiny bubbles like a framboise but hardly noticeable carbonation.  Still somehow creamy and thick on the body, but more of a creamy note at the start of each sip.  Not my favorite beer, but worthwhile checking out.  5.50% abv.

Next I tried the Ommegang Abbey Ale.  This is a real classic Belgian ale.  Tall creamy head with excellent retention.  Great malty flavors hide the 8.5% abv very well.  Smells and tastes of sweet, chocolatey toffee.  A very nice beer.

I then progressed to the Ommegang chocolate indulgence.   What a treat to drink!  Again, amazing head and retention… they do it up right there in Cooperstown, NY.  Light brown color on the head.  Subtle chocolate aroma after the pour, no doubt most of the aromatics are held down with the liquid under the tall head.  Rich chocolate taste of a real dark dark chocolate which hides most of the alcohol.  Great amount of chocolate on one’s breath after drinking this.  Medium bodied beer, and leaves a great lacing as you drink it, really a great beer.

At this point, my food for dinner had arrived.  I ordered the Beer chili.  Now, it’s not often I eat at Max’s.  Over the past 3 years I’ve eaten 1 chili cheeseburger (which was excellent, btw) and a plate of nachos.  Now the beer chili.  It was a good chili with a nice mellow flavor that really combined all elements of the ingredients together.  The bread bowl it was served in was good (I love ordering chili and soups in bread bowls, seems ergonomical!).  The chili came served with a bunch of nachos, some of which I used to eat the chili, others I just munched on.  I only wish it has a small portion of salsa and maybe some sour cream for the chips, but it was a very good meal and good bang for you buck.

So at this point, I decided to go back and try another Italian beer.  You may remember that I tried a few Italian beers a while back and felt they were… not really that good.  Max’s had two more on tap, so I decided to give them a shot.  Beba Sangra del Toro was the first one I tried.  White head, large bubbles.  Smelled sweet, like cherries and raspberries.  Despite the larger bubbles, it had a very light carbonation on the mouthfeel.  Rather sweet, malty but still sweet on the taste.  Next I tried Beba Molto Molto.  This was a sweet smelling, pale yellow colored beer, which had a small thin head and no lacing.  It was slightly opaque in sight, tasted sweet but rather winey on the finish, like those beers I didn’t like from last time.  I’d give this beer an ‘eh’ rating, probably a pass, but I would say check out the Sangre del Toro, that might be worth sampling.

Following these Italian beers, I tried a Rogue Smoke beer.  I had one smoke beer a few years ago and it was interesting… it basically tasted like smoke!  This beer was a clear, light brown color on the pour, white creamy head and smelled like a nice wheel of Gouda cheese.  It had a creamy mouthfeel to it, but really tasted like I was biting into a wheel of Gouda cheese!  Thick malty body… very nice.  For the Gouda cheese lover in your life (Donna), this is probably a highly recommended beer!

So, next up was the Arcadia Jaw-Jacker pumpkin ale.  This beer is pretty bad, and I’m kind of glad we didnt try it at the pumpkin beer tasting video.  It smelled bitter, was opaque.  Tasted like nutmeg, huge malt profile but really tasted like someone refined the stem or rind of a pumpkin into a flavor.  Not very pleasing.  Also, their web page is kind of annoying… you’ll see if you click the linkand search for beers.

At this point in the night, my notes are getting a little scribbley. I drank a dogfish Head 60 min IPA to get my palate back on track.  This is a great beer, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to actually try a hoppy beer but not one that is over hopped or hopped improperly.  Compared to this, I tried the Rogue 2PA.  This was bitter, but not as bitter as the Dogfish head 60 min.  Had more of a wet hopped aroma and taste to it.  Not bad, but I only got a sample of this beer, so I’ll have to come back and try it again.  I did enjoy it though.

And last but not least, I closed out the night with a Labatt blue.   I know you may be confused, but we went to Bleacher’s for a drink with some people we met and they were out of Sam Adams Oktoberfest.  Really, it’s not a bad cheap beer.  Mild, had a good amount of body for a cheaper beer, has some malty feel to it but not hops or specific malts to taste really.

In general, this was a good night.  Met some people, drag some good beer, and got a chance to get out of the cold rain and into a warm bar with some good friends and good beer.  Mondays, in my experience, usually do not get any better than that!