Sons of Liberty (SoL) is one of the major local stars of spirits and craft beer. They originally produced only whiskey, but have since moved on to rye, gin, vodka, cocktails in cans and of course, craft beer.
These proud sons have deserved far more attention than I’ve been able to give, which I deeply regret since I finally made my way to their swanky little South Kingston cellar and sampled their fine fare. SoL has a fantastic little tasting area with games, couches, pool tables, a dart board and a very relaxed atmosphere reminiscent of an old world bar that ran smack into a modern lounge.
But their true treats are the libations they offer. My first taste was of their Nitro Stout Ale, which is a truly underwhelming name for such a delicious stout. It is dark, rich and creamy, with some wonderful subtleties in the malt character that hint at the flavors present in their distilled whiskey. It has a solid body — not too heavy — and the nitro gives it that perfect creamy head. The chocolate and roasted barley notes are perfect without being too sweet. It’s a truly lovely little stout, and they also had a barrel-aged version on tap because of course they did. Wouldn’t you? The barrel-aged is a whole different beast. It assaults the tongue with chocolate and bourbon-like sweetness, but goes down as smooth as silk with surprisingly little alcohol heat. It’s almost like a molé sauce with a sharper and more aggressive flavor than the regular stout.
The other most noteworthy brew to talk about is their Love Handles IPA. They also had a guava-IPA (Guava Padre) on tap, and when I first sniffed this brew, I was sure they’d poured me the wrong one. The aroma coming off of this IPA is nothing but tropical fruit juiciness. Each sip was a guessing game as to which citrus fruit I was picking up — a little guava here, passion fruit there, a little kiwi there, some mango and some lingering fresh tangerine on the end. This IPA was a true delight to taste. Tropical, light and perfectly balanced with its sweetness, it hit the best parts of my palate and left me wanting more. I never expected the people who successfully made an incredible pumpkin whiskey to be slouches in the craft beer department, but my expectations were well and truly surpassed.
I’ve been to many breweries in my time, but SoL clearly knows what craft beer nerds and whiskey snobs want, and I’ll be back. I heard they are cracking open their Oktoberfest beer soon, and if I don’t get a sample of that, I’ll never forgive myself.
Sons of Liberty, 1425 Kingstown Rd, South Kingstown.
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