New York Cork Report

3 Heads “The Common Man”

By Mark Tichenor, Rochester Beer Correspondent

Craft breweries make their bones by marketing big, unique beers to big, unique individuals. High alcohol levels, forceful flavors and innovative ingredients put many great brews on the map, but remain the characteristics of a niche product.

Most of the “great” American beers are a bit much for the casual beer drinker  to have out on the porch with the sun beating down. Conversely, most “mainstream” craft beer styles, brown and pale ales come to mind, bore hardcore beer lovers to death. It’s hard for a brewer to win.

Three Heads Brewing, however, thinks they’ve found the perfect formula, and it is “The Common Man.”

Brewery co-owner Geoff Dale describes it as the beer that will unite the craft beer lover and casual drinker. Time will tell if he’s right, but it only takes one sip to discover that the Heads are onto something extraordinary. The Common Man blends an audacious idea with an “everyman” sensibility, yet with enough aggression to keep each sip extremely interesting.

When Dale told me the beer was a California Common I was skeptical. The style originated in mid-19th century San Francisco, where brewers, out of necessity due to lack of refrigeration, had to ferment lager yeast at warmer ale temperatures. The prime example  is the astoundingly milquetoast Anchor Steam Beer, and other breweries’ attempts to jazz up the style either come off bogus, like a Ford Pinto with a hood-scoop, or revel in the nasty off-flavors that are possible when this volatile method of fermentation goes horribly, terribly wrong. Damned if 3 Heads, however, didn’t pull it off.

The Common Man is a great beer. It is a superlative beer, and will serve as my primary summer refresher.  And I’m not just saying that just because Dale drove me around on the launch day pub crawl and bought me a poop-ton of it.

The beer pours a deep golden color, with no trace of thinness, nor any dark hues that would lead a casual craft beer drinker to question its refreshment potential. Slightly aromatic, the beer presents a bit of plum and raspberry in the nose with a definite hop prickle. It pours enticingly, bubbly with a creamy head that pillows above the rim of the glass.

It takes a bit of self-discipline to keep a sip of this beer from turning into a gulp. The light body does not come at the expense of character. It’s a mix of uncomplicated malt and light fruit hints that mix together extremely well, creating a powerful flavor that easily recedes from the taste buds, with a lingering hint of blackberry on the exhale.

The Common Man finishes with a Kölsch-like hop snap. It doesn’t bludgeon you with a ton of bitterness or bury you in grapefruit. Just a wave of gentle herbal bitterness that doesn’t need to do anything more than serve as a lead-in to the next sip.

At 5.5% alcohol by volume, The Common Man can fit into the common appetite. It’s 3 Heads’ lowest-alcohol beer to date, and, while a touch on the strong side for a session beer, remains friendly enough to encourage the enjoyment of more than one.

There’s no doubt that The Common Man will have to overcome some prejudicial notions about gravity and alcoholic strength to be accepted by the big-beer community, but it’s worthy of consideration among the greats. As for everyday beer drinkers, this is the brew that will turn your light beer -swilling cousin on to craft brewing.

If The Common Man were slightly less awesome, it might go the way of your typical summer seasonal, faded by August and possibly re-released at the same time next year. As it is, I think this beer could become the next New Belgium Fat Tire. It’s that good, and that accessible.

In that respect, there’s nothing common about it.

Producer: 3 Heads Brewing Company
Style: California Common Lager
ABV: 5.5%
Stemware: straight pint
Price: $8/22 oz.

(5 out of 5 | Extraordinary, Can't Recommend it More)

(Ratings Guide)

 

Shmaltz Hop Manna

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

Selecting a beer called “Hop Manna” is about as close as I’ve come in years to celebrating Passover/Easter, but it had been too long since I’d had a Shmaltz Brewing Company (Saratoga Springs, NY, and San Francisco) brew and I was feeling particularly like a chosen person.

Hop Manna is a new IPA brewed with Citra, Warrior, Cascade, Centennial, Amarillo, and Crystal hops and dry hopped with Centennial, Citra, and Cascade. It’s the brewery’s first single IPA, released last year in four test batches and in distribution for the first time this year.

It’s got a beautiful hop nose: fresh, with orange peel and tangerine notes and just a little bit of pine. I was expecting more of a potpourri-like dried-flower thing going on but it’s much more alive than that, and very enticing.

The midpalate is crisp and delicate; Citra hops are dominant but the whole sip experience is very restrained and pleasant. Wheat and Vienna malt are included in the malt profile and, I think, add to the light, delicate, smooth character of the palate. It’s only a touch sweet, just a drizzle of honey on this hop salad, and the finish is balanced and clean.

It did seem a little short but I found it to fill out as the beer warmed. 

Where this could have gone way over-the-top, it manages to be a very deft study in hop blending. It’s only 6.8% ABV and definitely not your sticky hop bomb, but it’s a really enjoyable spring ale and and a great pairing for a salad of roast vegetables, olives, and grilled potatoes. 

Producer: Shmaltz Brewing Company
Style: IPA
ABV: 6.8%
Stemware: 10 oz. goblet
Price: $8/22 oz.

(3.5 out of 5 | Very Good, Recommended to Outstanding and Delicious, Highly Recommended)

(Ratings Guide)

Saranac White IPA

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

You never know what’s going to shine in a blind tasting. That’s why it’s so important. Big-name beers from lauded breweries may actually be lackluster in a lineup, without the pomp and circumstance their fame would normally require, while lesser-known or less respected breweries may surprise and force the drinker to reconsider relegating it to “party beer” status. The latter is exactly what happened the first time I tried Saranac’s new white IPA.

I was blind-tasting Belgian styles with a group of experienced tasters, and after several samples that turned out to be from Ommegang, Dupont, and Lindeman’s we were served a delightfully refreshing, deliciously hoppy lighter ale with soft coriander notes and a surprisingly bitter finish. We tried to guess the brewery. It had to be Belgian, or at least a legitimately Belgian-inspired brewery, we agreed. Another agreement: we’d drink it all day. 

This fine summer brew, holding its own among the top names in Belgian beer, turned out to be a limited  release white IPA from Saranac. Ubiquitous in my area and a staple at parties all over the state, Saranac has its standbys and its misses amid myriad styles and special releases, but this is the first of their beers I’ve tried that I would truly recommend for hopheads. Furthermore, it’s the first of their beers that I’ve tried and then promptly purchased, to crack on the front porch in the unseasonably warm weather and sip in pure beer bliss. My friends, recruited to taste and opine, agreed wholeheartedly. 

What’s in it? Wheat and oats for a creamy, floral malt bill. The hop is Citra, a winner in this style for its fierce bitterness and gorgeous orange and tangerine notes. The color is a cloudy, peachy tangerine; a one-finger head and pretty lacing suit the style and the summery weather. It’s a burst of fruit and delicate malts before a mouthwatering hop finish, and after a weekend of enjoying it I can confirm that this is truly a beer to “drink all day”––but unlike many such beers, you'll actually notice its pleasant flavors sip after sip.

Consider me surprised, pleased, and thirsty for another.

Producer: Saranac by Matt Brewing Company
Style: Belgian white/IPA
ABV: 6%
Stemware: pint glass
Price: $10/sixpack

(3 out of 5, Very good/Recommended)

(Ratings Guide)

At Gene McCarthy’s, a Local Irish Pub Gets a Beery Makeover

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

A very old Irish pub in a very old part of Buffalo is getting a fresh start and a bright future thanks to a group of local-obsessed craft beer freaks.

Gene McCarthy’s, located in Buffalo’s historic Old First Ward, has long been a cozy setting with a surprisingly sophisticated tap list thanks to the influence of its neighbor, the world headquarters of the Brewing News publications. Now, Brewing News founder and owner Bill Metzger is teaming up with passionate locavore and brewer Willard Brooks; general manager David Bittner, an avid gardener and brewer; and Matt Conron, former head of Buffalo’s Breckenridge Brewery, to turn the old-world pub into a craft beer haven with an emphasis on New York beer and locally sourced food. The owners plan to bring the region’s farm bounty to cozy Irish pub fare, beginning with classic rustic dishes and eventually adding more bistro-type dishes. 

“We want to have the food mindset of a wine bar, but with beer,” explains Brooks, whose background in the San Francisco Bay Area informs his love of locally minded bistros and bars with small plates and fun pairings. He hopes to incorporate Niagara wine into the bar’s list and eventually host the occasional wine event as well. 

Beer will be front and center, however; Gene McCarthy’s already hosts a once-monthly Better Beverage Society brewery tasting, and those events will not only continue but expand to lesser-known breweries and more rare beers.

Most exciting, the owners will also incorporate a small brewery––a venture guaranteed to make a splash in a town with precious little locally-made beer for all its enthusiastic drinkers. The brewers hope to have their own beer flowing this fall; they plan to feature an aggressively hopped IPA––no surprise given the owners’ hophead reputations. Brooks adds, “We will also delve into pale ales and riff on different hops as our take on exploring the terroir of hops.” Brooks has connected with Rich and Bree Woodbridge of McCollum Orchards, Niagara’s newest hop farm, to begin plans for a fresh-hop beer featuring their hops. Dave, Matt, and Willard will brew the beer together.

Follow the pub’s new journey on Twitter, on Facebook, and at genemccarthys.com. And stop in and say hi, if you’re in town––yours truly will be bartending a few nights a week!

 

2011 Beer of the Year: CB's Brewing Company Krysztoff Baltic Porter

By Mark Tichenor, Rochester Beer Correspondent

Some breweries just don't get a lot of respect. Then again, some breweries haven't always taken the steps to earn it. For most of its history, Custom Brewcrafters subordinated the desire to make truly world-class beers and clung to their original business model, making small-batch, neutral, house-label beers for Rochester area bars and restaurants.

You could see that mentality start to shift a few years ago with the launch of the CB's line of signature beers launched by then-brewmaster Jason Fox and continued by Bruce Lish, the current head of brewing. These beers marked a turnaround for the brewery, which even changed its name as it oriented toward marketing its own beers. The culmination of the new direction is Krysztoff. 

Shelves and taplines are strewn with delicious dark craft beers, and today's drinker is in very little danger of getting something awful by ordering at random. Far less common among all those stouts, porters and imperials is complexity. The bulldozer nature of dark roasted malt overwhelms most other flavors save vanilla, chocolate and coffee. 

Kryzstoff retains a ton of dimension for a beer so dark, mostly manifesting as dark fruit such as date, plum and cherry. These become more evident when the beer warms, but, personally, I find it an exercise in willpower to wait long enough for a refrigerated bottle of Krysztoff to come down to temperature. These flavors are buoyed up by a burly body with zero tolerance for wateriness. The body keeps the sweeter favors distinct from the earthy notes confusing the palate at first but, ultimately allowing each drinker to settle on which element he or she likes most. 

Finally the finish. In a beer that uses so much roasted malt, it's tempting to shut your eyes and assume a crash position just before the swallow, in full anticipation of the sour, bitter finish that... just doesn't come. Instead there's a rounded, seductive wash of light coffee across the back of the tongue, and the finish recedes like a gentle wave. Of course, this forces you to go right back in for another sip. 

Most impressive of all is how Krysztoff hides its alcohol. This is a 10% beer, but it feels smells and tastes like a 6%. This could lead to some dangerous and/or hilarious situations, depending on how much respect a drinker affords this porter. 

The reason this beer won New York Cork Report 2011 Beer of The Year: CB's was able to take a traditional, established style, treat it with respect, and scale it up into something great without going over the top, getting trendy or turning the beer into a cartoon. That is a simultaneous exercise in creativity and restraint you just don't see too often with American craft beer. 

 

 

The "Beers of the Year Finalists" That Didn't Win... That We Loved

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

The best and worst aspect of our "Beers of the Year" program is the difficulty of choosing a favorite; while we agreed on Krysztoff, and Mark Tichenor has plenty more to tell you about that particular Baltic porter (look for his post next week), several beers caught the crew’s attention in a big way.

I highly encourage NYCR readers to try all of the finalists if they haven’t already. 

The first time I had Ithaca Beer Company's Brute I found it truly staggering. I had just begun exploring sour beers and this one was a pucker-inducer of epic proportions — a real surprise from the brewery I knew as the mother of Flower Power IPA. Somehow I couldn’t stop drinking it. That was two years ago. Brute became a regular item on my see-it-and-grab-it list, and it seemed to get better every time I tried it.

This year I picked up four bottles at the brewery during an autumn trip. When I cracked one open to introduce to a first-timer, I knew instantly it was brewer Jeff O’Neil’s (now of Peekskill Brewpub) best yet. The Brett pucker is still there, but the bready Champagne yeasts character and soft, pillowy malt bill (barley, wheat, and corn) are singing right in harmony for a beer that’s so balanced and luscious it drinks more like a great dry riesling than a tongue scraper. This is absolutely one of my favorite sours in the world and a true achievement. The acid hounds at the table, like me, Lenn, and Bryan, could’ve downed a bottle of this; team members less accustomed to such prickle in their beers found it bracing and weren’t sure they could drink a glass.   

 The Cork Report team is a little more than half hophead, give or take, so I knew the two double IPAs at the table would be rock stars as well. I was correct, and the act of comparing Captain Lawrence Captain’s Reserve (the hometown IPA of my downstate friends) with Southern Tier 2X (my own beloved local favorite) was intense. Captain’s Reserve had its claws out, with fierce hop bitterness but a controlled and drinkable intensity; 2X showed sweet and sultry even though the Captain has it by 1% ABV in the booze department. In a style category that often amounts to hop swordfighting, these beers showed power and ferocity and had the hopheads among use drooling with pleasure. 

Also showing beautifully was Brooklyn Brewery’s Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen Weisse. This gorgeous collaboration between Schneider brewmaster Hans-Peter Drexler and Brooklyn’s Garrett Oliver, in which each brewer made a hoppy weissbock in the other’s brewery, shows incredible layers of citrus, yeast character, and beautiful Amarillo and Palisade hops — a marriage of exceptional old-world brewing skill and good old American hop character. This beer is truly a joy to drink; it kicked off the tasting and I think some of the team members were reluctant to move on to the next finalist. 

I’m thrilled for the chance to taste with such a diverse crew: while our backgrounds, day jobs, tastes, and experiences may differ, our passion for great artisan beverages brings us together. It’s a great exercise to taste your favorites with such a mixed group, and because I believe it’s the mark of a great beer to occasionally be able to win over converts, it’s an important practice too. 

2011 Beer of the Year: Custom Brewcrafters Krysztoff Baltic Porter

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

On behalf of the New York Cork Report I’m proud to announce our 2011 Beer of the Year: Custom Brewcrafters Signature Series Krysztoff Baltic Porter.

We’ll have more commentary on this amazing beer, and on other beers that impressed the entire crew, in the next few days, but at this time I would like to congratulate Bruce Lish and his team on a simply fantastic accomplishment. I’d also like to congratulate all the incredibly skilled New York brewers who created this lineup of finalists.

I think I can speak for all Wines/Beers of the Year attendees when I say that tasting these finalists was an unforgettable experience. The discussion around the table as we sipped and compared two flights was a joy for me; to have such a variety and such a high level of quality, from all over the state and from brewers of widely diverse backgrounds, was a treat and a mind-blowing example of how much progress our state’s beer culture has made.

Stay tuned for more on the Beers of the Year, but for now, I raise a glass to the Custom Brewcrafters brewing team on crafting the most exciting beer we tasted this year.

Flying Bison Brewing Brindle Porter

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

A good porter feels like your favorite pair of jeans. It just fits — your tastes, the meal, the moment. I’m constantly in search of the perfect porter. It’s one of my favorite styles not least because brewing it correctly requires skillful composition and, I would argue, a sense of honor for the style’s history of comforting and sustaining the Industrial Revolution workforce.

Flying Bison Brewing has produced such a beer.

Brindle Porter, a limited release inspired by the classic English porter, pours a deep brown color with a one-finger head and wide, faint lacing. Hints of coffee, chocolate, and toffee come forth on the nose.

I was struck by the amazing balance of the mouthfeel. Overroasting is something I always notice and never appreciate, and this beer strikes just the right note, with subtle roasted English chocolate malt and a mellow, seriously smooth flavor profile that lingers. A kiss of Kent Goldings hops gives it just enough zip on the finish. The weight is excellent, just what a porter should be — hefty enough to stick to the ribs but crisp and comfortable enough to drink all night. I sucked down two in the time it took me to take these notes.

This is my new favorite Flying Bison product, hands down, and one of my favorite porters. I truly hope it becomes a regular part of the brewery’s lineup.

Producer: Flying Bison Brewing Company
Style: English porter
ABV: 5.6%
Stemware: pint glass
Price: $4/draught pint

 

 

(3 out of 5, Very good/Recommended)

(Ratings Guide)

Naked Dove Brewing Company Helles

By Mark Tichenor, Rochester Beer Correspondent

Color matters in the beer world. It's a disappointing truth, but some people make snap judgments about, and shy away from, some styles just because of the color of the brew. It's ironic because of the inherent self-deprivation; tragic because some drinkers who turn up their nose at all liquids not obsidian black would miss out on as wonderul a beer as Naked Dove Brewing Company Helles.

Helles is the iconic golden lager style of Munich. It's the rejuvenator you get a liter of when you drag your jet-lagged tourist butt into the Hofbräuhaus. It's proof that a beer's hue isn't always an indicator of character, body or flavor.

The Helles offered by Canandaigua, New York's Naked Dove Brewing Company indicates a deep grounding in Bavarian brewing tradition. You get that in the first whiff. The aroma hints at freshly baked bread and green hay.  Although strikingly pale (more so than any German example) the beer is a river of alluring grain sweetness and clear finish, both hearty and refreshing, with a slight viscosity that gives it heft on the tongue. This is the kind of beer that supports the old cliché about 'liquid bread.'

In that sense, Naked Dove Helles is a great beer for the other extreme of color-shyness. It looks like a refreshing golden beer, so it's perfect for introducing the beer-averse to something more interesting and present than the big-box stuff. 

Naked Dove Helles is a limited release, so please, cling tightly to your prejudices of beer color. That way there will be more available for me. 

Producer: Naked Dove Brewing Company 
Style: Helles 
Stemware: Straight 16oz pint
ABV: 5.5% 
Price: $5.00

 

 

(4.5 out of 5 | Outstanding and Delicious, Highly Recommended to Extraordinary, Can't Recommend it More)

(*Ratings Guide)

Finalists Announced for NYCR 2011 New York Beers of the Year Tasting

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

On behalf of the NYCR Beer Team, I'm proud to announce that our "Beers of the Year" program has grown to ten nominees this year.

2011 was a huge year for growth and exciting change and we are thrilled to recognize these outstanding breweries, scattered all over the state, for crafting some amazing brews. The following beers represent numerous styles (and riffs on styles), brewing philosophies, techniques, and ingredients but all demonstrate a commitment to quality that makes us proud to say we're from New York. 

Western New York breweries:

• Southern Tier Brewing Company XXIPA
• Southern Tier Brewing Company Choklat
• Three Heads Brewing "The Kind" IPA
• Custom Brewcrafter's Brewing Company Signature Series Krysztoff Porter

Central New York breweries:

• Brewery Ommegang BPA
• Horseheads Brewing, Inc. Hot-Jala-Heim
• Ithaca Beer Company Brute

Downstate New York breweries:

• Captain Lawrence Brewing Company Captain's Reserve IPA
• Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen Weisse
• Southampton Publick House Cuvee des Fleurs

We will taste these beers and select a Beer of the Year at our tasting over the weekend of February 10-11. Congratulations to all of the finalists.

Upstate Craft Beer & Oyster Bar: A Small Town Haven in the Big City

By David Flaherty, New York City Correspondent

"Why craft beer and oysters?" I asked. "Because those are the two things I know best," Shane replied. 

New York City. For those of you who don't call this crazy place home, you really can't understand the small town feel of this place. "The what?!," you ask dumbfounded. I said, the small town feel---community, routine, rhythm, familiar faces and integrity. 

You may not know it from the outside, but NYC is a patchwork of neighborhoods, a mosaic of people with different backgrounds and passions, all stepping up to the same deli counters, walking the same grocery aisles and sitting down at the same familiar bar stools. It's these comforts that help release the steam on the pressure cooker. Were you to wander through Times Square for more than an hour, you might just implode.  

One needs the neighborhood here. 

I, myself, haunt the East Village. It's where I work, its where I walk each day, noting the usual characters, discovering new enclaves and befriending fellow mates in the food/wine industry. Cocktail joints, beer geek havens, pork chapels, we've got them all. We're a strange lot in the hospitality industry; usually quirky, a bit geeky, overworked but always passionate... at least those who are doing things right. It's artistry and craftsmanship of the highest caliber.  One such gentleman is Shane Covey.

Shane is the proprietor of Upstate Craft Beer & Oyster Bar, a small, cozy joint at First Avenue and 6th street. Walking in the 28-seat joint, one steps through a set of French doors filled with windows, reminding guests where they are each moment: the heart of the East Village. Shane (and his talented wife) have done two things: create a neighborhood joint for its residents and built the place with their own hands.

After disassembling a barn in upstate New York and transporting it to the city, they fashioned the lumber into the bar top, the tables and the chairs (there's a great photo montage of them building out the space on their blog). You can feel the authenticity at every turn.  

Shane is doing exactly what he wants to do. "Offering simple, fresh seafood and pairing it with great-tasting regional beers," is the way he describes it. And get this...he doesn't own a freezer. He hits the market daily and fills the place with the treasures of the ocean he finds anew.

Featuring a menu with 20 different oysters and 8 draft beer lines (7 of which featured New York breweries on my last visit), the place is a wee chapel to the grain and to the sea. Seriously, I break into sweats of ravenous craving when I think about just how damn good the grilled squid is; fresh, simply grilled, near heavenly. If you start with great ingredients, don't mess with them; they'll speak for themselves.    

This is how I want to dine. This is how I want to drink. The proprietors are there and you get to know each other. You share stories and you break bread together. This is what small towns are all about.  

Sixpoint Craft Ales Diesel

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

A good winter stout in a can. I dig it -- great packaging and I have to admit I like the visual and tactile experience of popping a can of stout.

Diesel looks scrumptious in the glass: an eponymous black and pours a nice one-finger head with beautiful lacing. Like many stouts, this beer needs to warm up to cellar temperature to before any of its wonderful flavors wake up.

After a few minutes, rich malty aromas of toffee, coffee, and licorice emerge, making for a welcoming, sumptuous nose suggesting a winter ale; the palate, however, shows just a flash of sweet maltiness before the cold shower of a substantial hop profile.

There's a little bitterness from the roast, too, making for more than enough zip to balance out that hint of sweetness. Diesel's only 6.3% ABV but feels a little boozier, likely due to the rich malt character.

This is a punchy, interesting winter brew, with a deceptively malty nose but a surprisingly hoppy finish. I'd like to see it paired with big ole porterhouse, my beef-and-not-Guinness stew, or an aged Gouda.

Producer: Sixpoint Craft Ales
Style: American Stout
ABV: 6.3%
Sample Size: 16 oz. can
Stemware: 12-oz wide-mouthed goblet
Price: $2.50/can

 

(3 out of 5, Very good/Recommended)

(Ratings Guide)

Tap and Barrel Micropub (Smithtown, NY)

By Donavan Hall, Long Island Beer Correspondent

I had arrived at Tap & Barrel just a few minutes before Rich Thatcher, long enough to have studied the menu of 52 tap offerings -- well, it was 51 that night. Nothing was on tap #42. I had asked the bartender if the absence of a beer on tap number 42 had any special significance. 42 is just one of those special numbers. Just saying “forty-two” can conjure up whole worlds, universes even, in the imagination. Locked inside that number are the deep mysteries of life, the universe, and everything. To contemplate that number is to seek after the meaning of it all. To penetrate the mystery is to taste the good life. And not having a beer on tap #42 just might be a sign that ultimate meaning is unattainable.

Or perhaps, there was a beer on tap #42 and the fact that it couldn’t be named was further evidence of this tap’s role as a gateway to the unknown.

I ordered a pint of Greenport Harbor’s Chinook Red. When Rich arrived, he glanced at the taps and ordered a glass of Spider Bite’s Boris the Spider Russian Imperial Stout.  “How is it?” I asked. “Too cold,” he said. “I’ll let it warm up.”

Rich wears a couple of hats in the local beer scene. As president of the Long Island Beer and Malt Enthusiasts, a craft beer appreciation and brewing club with over 500 members, he commands an army of drinkers who have helped shape the craft beer culture on Long Island through their patronage of craft beer bars like Tap & Barrel. Rich is also craft beer salesman. He works for one of the Island’s largest beer distributorships and he represents a number of craft brands (such as Avery Brewing Company). So when Rich and I get together, he tells me all about the business side of things, and the games that some distributors play to influence what a beer bar puts on tap for its customers.

Even though I’m on a slow track into the beer business (on the beer production side) I will try to hold onto my outsider status as long as possible. The benefit of being an outsider is that my imagination is not inhibited by trivialities such as facts. You see, as someone who is ignorant of the realities of running a craft beer bar (or store or bottle shop) I am free to imagine ideal, beery Utopias where bar owners can put whatever beer on tap that they want.

So it’s a little annoying to me to hear Rich tell me, “No, Donavan, Tony has to deal with these specific distributors and sometimes the beer he wants just won’t make it to him for reasons that have to do with how the system works, or doesn’t work, depending on how you look at it.”  Tony is Anthony Celentano, the owner of Tap & Barrel.

Rich already knows about my dream of Long Island becoming the nation’s craft beer Mecca. “I see a future for Long Island where there is peaceful coexistence between hundreds of nanobreweries, all supplying the craft beer bars within twenty miles of the most diverse selection of quality beers available.” In such a dream future, Tony would be able to get any beer style he wants directly from a local brewer. He would be the curator of magnificent collection of locally brewed craft beer.

Despite the limitations of the three-tier distribution system, Tony has done pretty well in selecting a line-up for his 52 taps that balances locally brewed craft beer with the more respected beers available from regional and national craft brewers.

After polishing off the satisfyingly hoppy Red Ale from Greenport Harbor, I wanted something else that was local. “What do you think, Rich?” I asked. “Is Southampton still local?”  Rich just gave me a look. “You’re kidding, right?”

A tap just to the left of me promised Southampton Christmas Ale. Regardless of precisely where Southampton Christmas Ale is brewed, I turn a blind-eye and enjoy it each year at this time, during the holiday season.

Finding an excellent Bière de Garde isn’t easy. There are not many of them. Bière de Garde is a French-style, well northern French. The border in that part of the world has drifted back and forth over the centuries so northern France and southern Belgium share a lot of the same beer culture. Perhaps by some unspoken agreement France gets to claim Bière de Garde, Bière de Mars, Bière de Anything (?) as its own leaving the more ecclesiastical brews to the Trappists in Belgium -- France, as ever, retaining its status as a secular state.

Another of my favorite (the favorite?) beer styles, Saison, appears to be in dispute. Sometimes a Saison is French, sometimes it’s Belgian. So the struggle over borderlines continues, but the modern battlefield is shaped by malt and yeast rather than by barbed wire. And that’s the better way I should think.

Of course it would not be at all appropriate to serve a Bière de Garde in a shaker pint (which would be the equivalent of presenting a fillet mignon in the bottom of a galvanized steel bucket). Our affable bartender presented my Southampton Christmas Ale in an elegant stemmed tulip glass, the reddish beer shaped into an attitude of jubilation by the narrow glass, and topped with a beige-tinted layer of lacy foam. (N.B. On a recent trip out to the Southampton Publick House I ordered a glass of the Christmas Ale and they served it in a shaker pint, so even at the source you aren’t guaranteed proper service.)

Bière de Garde is a nice style for winter drinking. At 7.2% ABV it’s right at the threshold of perceptible alcohol flavor that imparts what we beer geeks call “a warming effect.” In addition to being warming, the beer has a pleasant spicy character that comes from the hops. The hop variety used in this beer is called Strisslespalt and it’s rarely used in anything but French and Belgian-style beers. However, the head brewer at our not-yet-open brewery, Yuri, designed an “English” Ale hopped exclusively with Strisslespalt just to see how it would turn out. Our English-French-Belgian fusion beer spiced with Strisslespalt is on tap at my house. So when I plunge my nose into the tulip glass brimming with Southampton Christmas Ale, I’m greeted by familiar aromas.

My drinking plan was to end with a glass of the Spider Bite Boris the Spider Imperial Russian Stout. Rich was kind enough to share a sip from his glass once it had warmed a little. Boris is a ten percenter, that is, its ABV is up in the double digits. It’s warming, but in a subtle (possibly) dangerous way.

The bartender, quiet rightly, served Boris in a small snifter glass (probably only 8 ounces).  The snifter, also on a stem, has a large bowl, but instead of flaring out at the top, it flares in.  The idea behind the design of the snifter (as the name might suggest) is to concentrate the aroma of the beer and direct those delectable vapors to the drinker’s nose. It’s a good glass to use for aromatic beers. But it’s also the style of glass we beer drinkers sip strong beers from. Most highly alcoholic beer-styles (Barleywines and Imperial Anythings) will (should) be served in a snifter.

While I was enjoying the smooth, chocolate mocha Boris from my diminutive snifter, I related to Rich my thoughts about the difference between a multi-tap bar and a craft beer bar. Just a couple of weeks ago, I’d visited the Long Island Ale House and I had written an account of that visit for the New York Cork Report. Multi-tap bars (usually sports bars) will typically have a selection of craft beer along with industrially produced beers and major-brand imports. This is a good thing in general, but I have a few concerns.

The multi-tap bar, since it isn’t a craft beer bar, doesn’t treat the craft beer any differently than the industrial beer. So when you order a beer in a multi-tap bar, you are likely to get your Russian Imperial Stout in a frosty shaker pint. We beer geeks might snicker at this faux pas, but think about the beer newbie who is craft-curious and just making their first baby steps into the world of real beer. Not only is the beer served incorrectly, the fact that the newbie drinker (used to industrial light lager) will try to knock back his pint of Imperial Stout. It doesn’t taste like it’s overly alcoholic, so he orders another. Then it’s halftime and he gets up and tries to walk.

As a craft brewer and craft brewery owner, I’m connected to my beer. When I send a keg of beer out into the world, that beer is my representative. And I want to impress people. I want my beer to impress them. Putting my beer in a bar that is unable to present my beer the way I envision is a scary prospect. I don’t want my beer served in a frosty shaker pint because I know that it won’t taste the way I designed it to taste. Admittedly, this the the concern of the brewer. It’s not just a financial consideration, I know the work and time that went into making that glass of beer, and so I want to see that the beer gets to the drinker the way it was meant to be. Therefore, a proper craft beer bar with knowledgeable staff and an experienced cellarman will maximize the chance that my beer will be served appropriately and in the best condition.

Niagara Gets a Little Hoppier

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

There are some exciting new vines in Niagara County –– well, make that bines. Rich and Bree Woodbridge, a charming and passionate young couple well-equipped for Niagara with a sense of adventure and a lot of heart, took a leap of faith when they moved to Lockport from California (after working in economic development in India) in March of this year to revitalize Rich's family's sixth-generation farmhouse.

McCollum Orchards is a hundred-acre farm dating back to the 1820s, and while it's wonderful land for apples and other produce, the Woodbridges have something special in mind for the property.

"Hops take off like crazy here!" says Rich. "There's two hundred years of farming here; the soils aren't depleted. We want to be part of the community and we want to engage it."

As of now they've tried small amounts (about a quarter-acre total) of several varieties to see what grows best and have found success with Cascade, Centennial, Nugget, and Fuggles.Rich says his Golding hops have struggled but he may replace them with Chinook and Magnum hops.

Rich explains that before Prohibition, New York was the number-one hop-producing state in the country. But the combination of a fungus outbreak, growing market pressure due to the large number of suppliers, and finally Prohibition itself destroyed that industry. Now, only fifty acres of hops are in cultivation in the Northeast as a whole as opposed to 30,000 acres in the Pacific Northwest.

But renewed interest in hop production in the Northeast and especially in New York state is fueling excitement: the Woodbridges recently attended the Hop Growers Conference and Northeast Hop Alliance (NEHA) annual meeting in Troy, New York, and found the atmosphere motivating: 180 attendees, of whom half were potential growers and the rest were starting breweries, met to exchange ideas, samples, and strategies to grow New York and the region's hop industry once again.

Our state's location, in fact, presents some unique advantages.In addition to Niagara's well-drained and hop-friendly soils (see "A Hop Farmer Emerges on the Niagara Escarpment" on this site), Rich explains that while on the West Coast hop farming is all about consistency to appease large producers, the East Coast has the chance to make a name for itself with hops that show vintage variability in the form of fluctuating alpha levels and a wide palette of possible flavors. While large, macro-producers might not want that, small beer artisans, they believe, would appreciate this unique way to showcase a sense of place. "We could be number one in certain varities: Chinook, Cascade, Centennial," Rich believes.

They plan to open for business selling their hops in the summer of 2012. In the meantime, they've been documenting every step of their journey on an amazingly detailed and fun-to-read blog. I'll be keeping an eye on McCollum Orchards as they grow, so watch for updates.

Sports Bars: Long Island Ale House

By Donavan Hall, Long Island Beer Correspondent

A couple of weekends ago I got a text message from one of the guys in my soccer club. He and another coach had decided to head out to a bar for a couple of beers. "We're at Ugly Jacks," said the message. I texted back, "Grumpy Jacks, surely."

My phone had been off while I was in the movies so my soccer buddies blamed me for their lack of knowledge about where to go for a beer on a Friday night. "You guys need to get out more," I said. "Or at least get a copy of my beer guide."

Grumpy Jack's is a sports bar not far from the Port Jeff train station. I knew the place because my wife's family are football fans and when they visit on the holidays we seem to end up at Grumpy Jack's for an afternoon of football and beer. They have Blue Point Toasted and Long Ireland Celtic Ale, but the rest is BMC.

I didn't even have to ask. My soccer friends were nursing pints of Blue Moon -- the default brand for beer newbies who are trying to trade up but can't take the hops of American pales ales (let alone IPAs) or the roast and toast of the dark ales (like porters and stouts). "Why don't you drink Blue Point Toasted?" I asked. "Too bitter," they said. Really?

We stood around in Grumpy Jack's talking about our favorite sport, ignoring the fact that every screen in the place was beaming images of teams playing "American football."

I typically avoid sports bars unless I want to catch a game. Sports bars don't typically cater to the craft beer enthusiast. Even sports bars with 30+ taps seem to think 28 different brands of American Standard and Light Lager is the epitome of variety.

When I heard about the opening of the Long Island Ale House, a flicker of interest stirred inside me until I visited their website. "Oh, another multi-tap sports bar." I filed it away on the low-priority list.

On Sunday, I met with my business partners to take care of some issues concerning the operation of our brewery. During the meeting Mike mentioned that he'd been down to the Long Island Ale House. "They don't have anything on tap that I hadn't had before," he said. "The food's okay though."

Monday evening my plan was to visit C'est Cheese in Port Jeff for a third time in a month. This time I was going to get some photos and write them up proper for the New York Cork Report and my beer guide. (They promised that some of Mike Philbrick's Port Jeff Brew would be on tap by the time I returned -- a promise I expect them to keep.) But, then I remembered that C'est Cheese is closed on Mondays. I'd already roused the troops (wife and offspring) and they were ready to go out.

"There's the Long Island Ale House," I suggested. When my son confirmed that the Ale House served wings (what sports bar doesn't?) he started chanting "Ale House, Ale House!"

When we arrived at the address I immediately recognized the location. I'd been there before when it was Global Sports Cafe (owned by a Turkish family and supporters of Galatasaray, or maybe it was Besiktas) --- before the place had its Long Island Ale House make over. "This is where I used to come with Franz to watch the Arsenal matches," I said to Alice. Arsenal is Franz's passion. We had this international exchange going. He'd watch MetroStars matches with me and I'd watch Arsenal matches with him. It was an excellent excuse to drink beer.

The interior of the Long Island Ale House still had that new look and feel to it. "I can smell the fake leather," said Alice. It was nice and neat and clean. And mostly empty.

All the screens were tuned to ESPN in anticipation of the big Monday night game between the New York Giants and the New Orleans Saints. "Go Saints!" screamed Alice when she saw the screen. Everyone in the whole place turned to see what the excitement was. She and her whole family are Saints fans. Her uncle has had a set of four season tickets to the Saints games since the franchise began in 1967 when the team played at Tulane University's stadium. In fact, Alice's brother and his wife were in New Orleans that night in the Superdome waiting for kick-off. "I wish we could stay and watch the game," said Alice. I shrugged. "It's a school night," I said. "Beside we already know the Saints are going to kill the Giants." Alice nodded, resigned.

Our friendly server brought the beer list. I scanned the list for anything Belgian that Alice might like and was amused by the creative spelling of Gulden Draak, "Golden Dreak," it read. The server wanted to be helpful and tried to guide us through the palate of such esoteric offerings as Stella Artois, Palm, and Arrogant Bastard. Without transforming into a Beer Dick (well maybe just a small one), I assured the server that we were familiar with every beer on the list.

We ordered. Since I almost always order local, I went with the Great South Bay Sleigh Ryed, since I hadn't tasted that one yet. And Alice went with the Blue Point Double Blonde. The GSB Sleigh Ryed was disappointing as a starter. I was hoping for something drier and hoppier, but what I got was spiced and sweet. "It's a chick beer," I said to Alice as I offered her a sip. "Eww!" she said making a face. "I like mine better," she said. "At least yours tastes like beer," I said. "Light, quaffable."

"I want wings!" announced my son.

The food was merely okay. Decent pub fare for filling the gnawing void if you happen to be there for the game, but it's not the sort of cooking you'd go out of your way for.

"I see the intent," said Alice after reading through the menu. "They're are working the local angle. Local beers, local ingredients; but points off for execution." About a quarter of the beers were from local brewers, the big three: Blue Point, Long Ireland, and GSB. Some of the ingredients listed on the menu were from local farms (spinach, for example). But it seemed more like a gesture, rather than an operating principle.

My son was fascinated by the pre-game show on ESPN, mostly involving images of a Syracuse basketball coach. "I used to watch the Arsenal with Franz in that back room," I said getting into a nostalgic mood. "It's funny they only have the one channel. All these TVs and one channel. Is this the only game on?" Alice asked if there was any soccer on TV at the moment. "The only match I know about is Sophia versus Ludogorets in the Bulgarian league, but I doubt that's on TV here."

About halfway through the meal, our sever returned, this time with a Blue Point Rastfa Rye for me and a "Golden Dreak" for Alice. The Gulden Draak was even in the appropriate glass. My Rasta Rye was in a Bud-labeled shaker pint -- you can't have everything, I suppose.

When it was all over and we were headed back to the car, Alice asked, "Well? What did you think?"

"Not enough of the local stuff," I said. "I understand the pressures that these places face. If you're running a sports bar, you gotta cater to the sports bar tastes, or lack thereof. Craft beer bars, on the other hand, don't tend to have that many TVs. It's a different crowd."

Then Alice asked the all important question. "Would you want the Long Island Ale House carrying your beer on tap?"

"Speaking as a businessman or a craft beer lover?"

"Just answer the question," said Alice.

"I'll plead the fifth then."

Southampton Publick House Double White

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

Long Island brewery Southampton Publick House has arrived in western New York and I can't think of a nicer way to ring in the holidays than with this consistently impressive brewery's lineup of interesting and varied styles.

Double White pours a glowing sunrise-haze gold color and shows a brief one-finger head and beautiful bubbles. A clean, crisp nose with only a subtle whiff of cardamom and lemon and just a little bit of clementine give way as it opens to bready wheat character and citrusy Belgian yeast esters.

The mouthfeel is excellent --smooth, bready, just a touch sweet, and perfectly carbonated. Balance all around, especially in the alcohol department (as a "double" it's 6.6%, spot on for the level of complexity and perfectly integrated) makes this a great food match. 

I've been on a crazy Chinese cooking kick lately and the pairing with pork fried rice or homemade steamed dumplings is fantastic. It's also, like many Southampton beers, a dynamite cheese pairing. This incredibly refreshing white is like a frigid-but sunny winter day: brisk and bracing and just the right thing to beat the blues of dwindling daylight hours. 

Producer: Southampton Publick House
Style: Belgian witbier
ABV: 6.6%
Sample size: 12 oz. bottle
Stemware: V-pint glass
Price: $10/six pack

(3.5 out of 5 | Very Good, Recommended to Outstanding and Delicious, Highly Recommended)

C'est Cheese! Port Jefferson's New Beer Destination

By Donavan Hall, Long Island Beer Correspondent

A few months back, Alice and I were looking for someplace to go after taking in a movie at the Staller Center. “I wish there was some nice quiet place we could go, have a cheese plate, drink some beer, and relax,” she said.

“Let’s try Port Jeff,” I suggested. “It’s been awhile. And you’ve never been to Portside Grill.” Of course, I knew Portside Grill was never going to work on a Friday night. While they would certainly have craft beer on tap, they would be in short supply of quiet. Despite my doubts, I remained hopeful. They could be having a dead night.

We parked, shoved a few quarters into the parking meter, and headed up to the main street. “What’s that?” asked Alice pointing.

There, just a few doors down, past The Pie, was a new place: C’est Cheese (631-403-4944, 216B Main Street, Port Jefferson, NY 11777). “Looks like a cheese shop,” I said purposefully not commenting about the punny name.

“You want to try it out?” asked Alice.

“You think they have beer?” I asked. “Most cheese shops only have wine.”

“Only one way to find out,” she said.

When we saw Chimay on tap, we knew we had come home. And then we saw Dave standing behind the cheese counter. “Dave!”

“Donavan!”

Dave Conway-Lama is a fellow beer geek and homebrewer who I met at a Long Island Beer and Malt Enthusiast meeting a couple of years ago. The beer scene on Long Island being quite social meant that my path has crossed Dave’s many a time. Most recently, he had visited my brewery to see how slightly larger batches of beer are made.

That night was the first of many visits to C’est Cheese.

The Chimay Cinq Cent (white label) was great, but of the 8 taps the only local brew was the Brooklyner Weisse (which despite the suggestive name is, in fact, a hefeweizen). I said, “You guys have to get Port Jeff Brewing Company beer on tap in here.”

“We’re working on it,” said Dave. “We’d like to get the Porter.”

“Well, when you get it, I’ll put you guys in the guide.”

They made good on their promise, so I’m making good on mine. Which brings us to...

Last Thursday. Alice’s goal is to try every single one of the sandwiches at C’est Cheese. Our first sandwich was the Rueben. Hot, juicy, lots of flavor, a generous portion of cheese (as you’d expect). Last Thursday, we had the Roast Beef sandwich.

The Port Jeff Porter was indeed on tap. “I’ll have a glass of the Porter,” I said. You get these nice little round glasses at C’est Cheese. It’s different, a nice touch, and a definitely improvement over the (nearly) ubiquitous shaker pint. (No self-respecting beer bar should ever serve their beer in shaker pints. The worst is the “frosty” shaker pint.)

I left Alice in charge of the food selection -- salads and sandwhiches. And I focused on what might be a good cheese pairing to go with my Port Jeff Brewing Company Porter. Smoked Gouda seemed like cheating. No, I was in the mood for a blue cheese. I asked Dave about the Stilton in the back corner of the case. “I’m thinking an English cheese to go with my English-style beer,” I said.

“This Stilton is nice,” said Dave. He was pointing at a significant wedge of speckled, steel-blue cheese labeled “Colston Bassett.” Dave shaved off a slice and handed me a taste across the bar. “It from an artisan producer in England called Neil’s Yard Dairy.”

The Stilton was mild, but full-flavored -- a perfect partner for my Porter. “Bring it on!” I said.

My son picked out a Cantal, Cantalet Dore, a semi-firm cheese that reminded me of a cross between Swiss and (the French idea of) Cheddar. As it turned out the Cantal (served with grapes) was an excellent accompaniment to Sixpoint Bengali Tiger. I had to order a glass of that too just to see if my pairing instincts were right. And I’m not afraid of two fisting it when I’m working.

That’s part of the fun of going out and having a hundred different cheeses to choose from and a decent tap selection -- finding a cheese you like and then looking for the ideal beer pairing. The smart shop owner will provide a palate for the taster to ply their art. And the smart shop owner will staff their establishment with intelligent folks who can field any question.

My son asked Dave, “What does aging do a cheese?”

Dave: “How long do you have?”

The short answer is that aging dries out the cheese and concentrates the flavors. Ages cheeses are typically measured in months, but there are some like Gouda that are profitably aged for years. In fact, we ordered a wedge of 5 year Gouda to take home with us.

I’ve got three or four books on cheese (one volume devoted to just the varieties indigenous to France). For me, they are reference books. I consult them after a run to my local cheese shop. The stories I read about the cheese and its history help enhance my enjoyment of the cheese. Of course, I’ve not taken my study of the cheese to the same level as I have the study of beer, but I should. Just chatting with Dave about cheese impressed on me that there is as much to say about cheese as about beer -- so many varieties, so many flavors. And with the artisan food moment and relocalization of food production we’re seeing a dramatic growth in local artisan cheese production, with several producers here on Long Island.

Craft beer and cheese are no strangers. Every craft beer bar I’ve ever been to offers a cheese plate, typically the cheeses are artisan cheeses selected and purposefully paired with a specific beer. So it makes sense that a good cheese shop will offer equally good beer. The fact that C’est Cheese has eight taps pouring (mostly) craft beer gives me hope for the future good relations of cheese and beer.

Your Ultimate Guide to Pairing Beer and Cheese

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor and Aaron Estes, Cheese Editor

Some say the best match for cheese is wine. We say those people are probably the ones who thought Buttercup should’ve stuck with Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride.

Beer and cheese is where it’s at, folks and with the holidays approaching, you may want to treat your guests and family to this killer combination. But pairing is always a challenge, and you may be asking yourselves, “But doesn’t all beer go with all cheese? Aren’t they both delicious and snackable? Why should I care about specific pairings?”

As your friendly Cork Report beer and cheese editors, we are here to demonstrate the awesome power of a fantastic beer and cheese match with a list of must-try ideas. Julia’s well versed in the classic beer and cheese matchups, but with Aaron’s off-the-hook cheese expertise are are also able to suggest more adventurous matches too. Of course, we list New York examples of all beers and mostly New York cheeses, though we did include a few out-of-state cheeses for educational purposes and diversity’s sake.

For starters, a little pairing 101. Much like with any craft beverage and food pairing, there are a few guidelines to learn and then break as you see fit. The key principle, balance, is a cinch here: beer has plenty of acidity thanks to those glorious hops and that refreshing carbonation; in addition it may have a little sweetness, a lot, or almost none depending on the malt bill, alcohol content, and additives if any (such as fruit or chocolate). These qualities balance it beautifully with the rich and creamy taste of cheese; fine-tuning the pairing just means considering the next two factors -- texture and flavor profile.

Texture and mouthfeel are all about the feel and body of your beer and cheese. The sharp bitter roast of a stout or the fierce pucker of many Belgian-style sours and Bretted beers will cut right through an incredibly buttery, creamy cheese, while a diacetyl-heavy or oaked beer might be too much.

Finally, specific flavors can be the difference between a good and a great pairing. While hops impart citrusy, piney, or even resiny notes, malt produces flavors like chocolate, peanut butter, and licorice. Extras like roast, oak aging, fruit, and additives like juniper and spices are often some of the most potent characteristics of a beer.

Yeast imparts a flavor that can range from bubblegum-fruity to musky, funky, and sour, and it makes for some of the most amazing beer and cheese combos. If you’re stuck in a rut with beer or cheese it’s time to experiment with some of the crazier flavors out there. Check out our ideas, then try some of your own!

Beer Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)

This beloved style combines hop bitterness and citrusy fruit with moderate to substantial alcohol and subtle malt. We love Ithaca Beer Company's Flower Power, Sixpoint Bengali, and Captain Lawrence IPA. IPAs are known to love an aged cheddar cheese like Montgomery Cheddar to coat the palate and cut that bitterness. Aaron, a hop hound, recently had Bengali Tiger with a funky English cheddar (Keen’s Cheddar to be exact) and declares it a brilliant pairing.

Beer Style: Chocolate Stout

Rich and roasty and no slouch in the alcohol department, chocolate stouts and cheese make a great dessert. We like Brooklyn Brewery's Chocolate Stout and Southern Tier Choklat. Julia loves a smoky chocolate stout with an equally smoked gouda or a light manchego, a nutty Spanish cheese. Aaron occasionally likes a triple cream with a chocolaty stout. “Doesn't always work, but very nice indeed” when it does, he says.

During the Holidays last year, Aaron paired Mt. Tam (A triple cream from Cowgirl Creamery in California) with an Imperial Stout from Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewery. The pairing was just fantastic. Chocolate and cream all rolled into one.

Beer Style: Winter Seasonal

Try Saranac Big Moose Ale, Flying Bison Blizzard Bock, or Captain Lawrence Nor'Easter. As Aaron points out, this style depends heavily on the spice level: anything heavy on orange peel or coriander, and he would say a blue cheese works best. You definitely need a cheese that has some bite to it. Anything mild or delicate will fade into the background. For maltier and less spicy styles, Julia likes a bacon smoked gouda or other heartier smoked cheese to go with meats.

Beer Style: Saison or Belgian Pale

This style has exploded in New York recently; we love Ommegang BPA, Three Heads Ontario Coast, Southampton Saison, and Ommegang Hennepin. Aaron loves Hennepin with most cheeses, as it’s versatile enough to stand up to just about anything. Julia's favorites are funky French styles like Port Salut or Chaume (Warning: open this cheese and you will not be socially acceptable for the rest of the evening. Open it alone or with a long-term partner only.)

Beer Style: Sour Beers

Pucker up: sours are absolutely amazing with a wide variety of cheeses. Ithaca Beer Company is the New York sour master, with classics Brute and Le Bleu; we also love Southampton Cuvee des Fleurs. Both Aaron and Julia love goat cheese with this style: they tried a fresh Catapano goat with Cuvee des Fleurs at last year's Wines/Beers of the Year and were in love.

Beer Style: Hefeweizen

Try Brooklyner Weisse, Butternuts Heinnieweisse, or Southern Tier Heavy Weizen for a New York take on this classic Old World style. A sexy beer in and of itself, this is a dream pairing for many cheeses. Julia loves Hefe with just about any cheese but especially loves it with goat cheese on toast points to accompany a light salad; a camembert or other delicate creamy cheese is also excellent.

Aaron likes a young cheddar; a mellow example is Mecox Bay Cheddar from Long Island. The cheddar from Mecox has a nice and easy finish that really highlights the yeasty qualities of this style. He also recommends Three Corner Field Farm sheep’s milk cheese.  A fresh button of “Brebis Blanche” and a cool wheat beer go hand-in-hand any day of the week.

Cellar Brews: Beer for Winemaking

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

I'd venture to say many of you are winemakers. I'd venture to say many others are home winemakers. And a fair number of you have undoubtedly spent some time in a cellar. So you're all too familiar with the necessity of beer during the winemaking process: to celebrate at the end of a long night of crushing; to sip while filtering (this may just be an intern thing); to enjoy in the lab while figuring out the next day's picking schedule; or just to cleanse the palate after hours of bench trials.

Beer's vivacious carbonation, pointed hop character, and sweet malt body just hit the spot on a wine-fatigued palate, and whether you're doing punchdowns in your kitchen or on a forty-thousand-liter tank, it makes a hard day's work all the more worthwhile. I thought I'd celebrate the end of the 2011 harvest with a survey of the best beers to chug while foot stomping, tote lugging, and cap punching.

Southern Tier Harvest Ale: a hop lover's harvest ale that cuts through palate fatigue like a knife

Perfect for: an end to a day of tasting barrel samples for bench trials

Butternuts Moo Thunder: a comfort-food milk stout that's as easy-drinking as chocolate milk and sticks to your ribs

Perfect for: waiting for grapes to come in in sub-40 weather

Ithaca Flower Power: a classic IPA for cool-climate winemakers with a taste for acidity

Perfect for: pressing must in your kitchen with a cheesecloth, a funnel, and a cut-up milk jug

Flying Bison Blizzard Bock: a chewy and sweet German-style winter seasonal 

Perfect for: refreshment after shoveling grapes into a crusher under the stars

Horseheads Chemung Canal Towpath Ale: an insanely drinkable cream ale

Perfect for: a post-punchdown refresher to be consumed at sunset in the vineyard

Southampton Abbot 12: a sensational Belgian quadrupel

Perfect for: an end-of-the-night treat to ease the pain of sore muscles and a wiped-out brain

Here's to a wild and wacky vintage, and New York beer's noble role in it. 

Southern Tier 2XIPA

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

When beer enthusiasts rate a beer, they often talk about balance. Technical correctness. Drinkability. Good integration of flavors. Nothing out of place or over-the top.

When hopheads rate a beer, they want one thing. Dank, sticky, resiny, more-bitter-than-a-tongue-scraper hops. Lupulin junkies don't necessarily want a "balanced" or "sessionable" brew. When the Brits learned that they could use hops as a preservative when shipping beer to the troops in India, the India Pale Ale was born. When the San Diegoans learned that they could take that idea and crank up the hop bill and alcohol past any semblance of politeness, the modern West Coast IPA gave birth to an entire beer subculture of drinkers focused on one thing.

For all my appreciation of the many wonderful beer styles out there, I'm one of these freaks -- and when I reach for an IPA, I want the hops to sing to me. When I reach for a double IPA, I want them to wack me over the head with a club and drag me back to their cave. Southern Tier Double IPA is just such a beer.

This hophead's dream, made by the masters of the hoppy and high-gravity at Southern Tier Brewing Company, is gold and glowing with lovely lacing and beautiful stratification. There's a tidal wave of floral, grapefruity, piney hops on the nose and a note of sweetness that hints at its 8.2% ABV but complements rather than overwhelms the citrusy acidity.

The mouthfeel packs a wallop: enormous hop character, big, robust malts to put some muscle behind the spikes, and a crazy-good finish that makes me wonder what a hop resin bubble bath might feel like. (For the curious: they do make shampoo with hop resin. It's lovely.)

This was a Beer of the Year last year, and when I saw the faces of a few of my fellow NYCR writers as they sipped this hop bomb, I could tell I wasn't alone in my appreciation of a downright lusty hop experience. Will a few of these knock you off your feet like a wrecking ball? Yes. Will you love it? That depends on you. But the hopheads out there know exactly what I'm talking about, and friends, this beer was made for us.

Producer: Southern Tier Brewing Company
ABV: 8.2%
Sample Size: 12 oz. bottle
Stemware: Pint glass
Price: $12/sixpack

 

(4 out of 5 | Outstanding and Delicious, Highly Recommended)

 

(*Ratings Guide)

Three Heads Brewing Bromigo

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

Three Heads Brewing is on a roll lately with new releases, and Bromigo, their very first fall seasonal offering, is an interesting foray into flavorings: it's a smoked maple amber brewed with maple syrup.

The nose is wonderfully complex for a fall seasonal -- sweet and smokey, with full and thick maple notes backed up by toffee and vanilla and a firm roast. There's no aggressive alcohol to speak of, just the rich scents of a woodsy fall flannel-wearing, maple-syrup-tapping party. 

Bready malts and roast dominate the palate. It's not a thick beer, for the lushness of the nose; instead it's more roast and smoke and an exceptionally dry finish that lasts long but could almost use a little more body.

It's a nice change, though, from the sweetness of many fall styles, and it's certainly a sessionable version of a "smoked maple" brew at a well-incorporated 7% ABV.

I admire the deft subtlety of the rather in-your-face ingredients used, but I found myself wanting just a little bit more of a malt bill; that said, this would shine with a steak or venison on the grill.

Is it hunting season yet?

Producer: Three Heads Brewing (via Custom Brewcrafters) 
ABV: 7% 
Sample Size: 16 oz. bottle 
Stemware: 16 oz. V-glass 
Price: $6.99 

(3 out of 5, Very good/Recommended)

(*Ratings Guide)

 

Naked Dove Oktoberfest is Shoe-Slappin' good

By Mark Tichenor, Rochester Beer Correspondent

It’s still a bit confusing to everybody, even the Germans. Oktoberfest is named for October, but takes place in mid-September. And craft breweries usually have their Oktoberfest-style beers ready by the beginning of August.

Canandaigua New York’s Naked Dove Brewing Company is blithely tardy, waiting until the end of beer-tent season to release their Oktoberfest. It’s a crafty move for a beer that deserves to be enjoyed apart from the pack.

Oktoberfest beers are as subtle as a kick in the Lederhosen: heavy, strong lagers with negligible hop character and a sweet punch that goes to-to-toe with smoky food. It’s the ultimate party beer, brewed for the ultimate party, and with its Oktoberfest, Naked Dove catches the essence of Oompah.

One glance reveals that Naked Dove Oktoberfest is reverently traditional. The deep gold color is a departure from the copper-hued Märzen-influenced examples most breweries make, closely resembling the beer you’d actually be served at the Munich Oktoberfest.

Aroma from the Munich and Cara malt, reminiscent of freshly-baked rye bread, hovers over the glass. The first sip blankets the tongue with its weighty, chewy body, rounding out into a mild cereal sweetness that departs from the heavily caramelized finish of most Oktoberfest beers.

That somewhat thin finish is the only quibble with this beer.

This Oktoberfest is a chunky, authentic Festbier that engages all senses and begs for repeated hoisting, preferably in substantial quantities,  with the car keys in another county. Naked Dove may be late to the party, but it’s certainly worth keeping the tent up a while longer.

Producer: Naked Dove Brewing Company
Sampled: at the brewery
Style: Oktoberfest Lager
Stemware: Yeah, right. Big chunky tankard with a handle, or Mass glass
ABV: 6.5%
Price: $10 growler fills plus $4 for a new growler

 

(4.5 out of 5 | Outstanding and Delicious, Highly Recommended to Extraordinary, Can't Recommend it More)

(*Ratings Guide)

Jeff O'Neil to Join Peekskill Brewing Company

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

Award-winning brewer Jeff "Chief" O'Neil (pictured right) has announced that he is ending his nine-year tenure at Ithaca Beer Company to join The Peekskill Brewery as brewmaster, effective November 1.

As Ithaca's brewmaster, O'Neil brought the Finger Lakes brewery national recognition with awards at the Great American Beer Festival and other  major events; thanks to his fierce skills and flair for innovation, honed at the Siebel Institute of Technology, such Ithaca offerings as Flower Power IPA and the Excelsior! Line (most notably Brute, a 2010 NYCR Beers of the Year finalist) have become sought-after gems throughout the northeast and beyond.

His Flower Power IPA is widely held to be one of the finest of the style east of the Mississipi and is beloved by hopheads everywhere.

As Ithaca Beer Company expands, O'Neil welcomes the exciting challenge of a tiny brewpub setting. “I’m moving away from a bigger production model for this awesome opportunity to get really creative and have an intimate connection with those drinking the beer," said O'Neil in a statement in a Peekskill Brewery press release. "This is a smaller project but it’s still accessible because of the close proximity to New York City. I’m thrilled for the chance to work with the Berardis and Chef Sean Corcoran, and everyone should expect amazing things to come from Peekskill from here on out. As my idol Steve Martin once said, ‘Let’s get small.’”

O'Neil encourages his supporters and fans to come visit the Hudson Valley brewpub, which focuses on small-batch brews paired with seasonal, locally sourced American pub cuisine. Stay tuned for a more detailed report on O'Neil and the future of Peekskill in the coming weeks, but for now, the NYCR wishes O'Neil all the best on his new adventure.

Horseheads Brewing Company Brings the Heat

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

Little Horseheads Brewing, located an hour from Ithaca in beautiful Horseheads, New York, might be the state's hottest brewery -- literally.

I made a visit for the first time last week after drooling for months over tales from my festival-going beer friends about an enigmatic “chili pepper beer” that was so balanced, so smooth, and yet so spicy it could please both session drinkers and spice fiends like myself. A sample at the charming brewery showed off Horseheads's brewing prowess, especially since it was just one of several oustanding beers on tap.

The brewery’s low-key and comfortable tasting room, complete with homebrewing supplies, was packed with a respectable Sunday crowd of growler-filling locals. The list of area bars and restaurants selling Horseheads products clearly demonstrates the brewery’s considerable following in the region.

As I tasted through a flight of balanced, high-quality brews, I was particularly impressed with brewer and owner Ed Samchisen’s even-handedness with styles that are too often polarizing for their extreme flavors. The pumpkin ale was slightly sweet and chewy with a cinnamon twang and orange peel notes -- pleasantly complex rather than a one-trick pony. Black Horse Ale, the brewery’s black IPA, was another surprise; with its smooth, sessionable hop character and delicate malts -- I never would have guessed it to be a double IPA.

Then I got to “Hot-Jala-Heim,” the chili pepper beer, and my socks were rocked. It’s brewed with a blend of chili peppers including jalapenos and anaheims -- hence the name -- explained our friendly server, Jeremy.

What amazed me was the slow burn of spice from nose all the way to the long, long finish; not once does the spice character become overwhelming. The clean, garden-fresh pepper character lingers for minutes with just enough kick to keep it refreshing through and through.

Lest you chalk my adoration up to my spice-addict tendencies, it’s worth noting my friend’s observation: “I’m not a huge spice fan, and I love this.” I brought home a growler.

I can’t imagine a better brewery for the beautiful camping heaven that is the Southern Tier; these beers are perfect for sipping with friends over a bonfire or after a hike. Expect to hear more from Horseheads. In this picturesque little nook in the middle of the state, they’re making some pretty hot stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpFdAFOFCoI

Views from a Southern Finger Lakes Beer Adventure

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

Over the weekend I headed to the southern Finger Lakes area to visit friends; as always, the trip was essentially a beer pilgrimage. Though I came seeking the enigmatic Ithaca Beer Company Brute (it was back on the tasting room shelves for a short time only; stay tuned for a formal review), I also got a chance to visit with brewer Jeff O'Neil and check out the beginnings of Ithaca's expansion to a larger facility. Naturally, I also stocked up on Flower Power, and my friend's sister, a breastfeeding mom, appreciated Ithaca's scrumptious root beer.

Tales of the excellence of Horseheads Brewing had reached my ears after this spring's Tap NY festival, so I had to make a stop at the tasting room. I was exceedingly impressed. Look for a piece on the Horseheads brews I tasted later this week, but for now, suffice it to say I've met my chili-pepper-beer match.

A sample of Towpath ale at Horseheads Brewing Company

 

Jeremy Gulich fills growlers on a busy Sunday at Horseheads

 

A beautiful day in Ithaca

 

The Ithaca tasting room bar

 

Ithaca brewmaster Jeff O'Neil explains the expansion plan, fresh pint of Flower Power in hand

 

Plans for Ithaca's new brewery on the walls of the current tasting room

 

Ithaca's sexy new bottling line

 

The Holy Grail