Due in part to a busy schedule of family and travel and in no small measure to my own innate procrastination, I had fallen behind on this blog, for which I apologize. This month, while convalescing from knee surgery, I had some extra time so I decided to get caught up with an old fashioned double feature. We'll take a look first at a number of beers from around Central New York as we "buy local." Next we'll take a look at a sort of catch-all style known as "Strong Ales."
The area in and around New York City is generally referred to as "down state," while the rest of New York (the majority of the state land-wise) is referred to as "upstate." Now Upstate is then often broken down into Northern New York, The Southern Tier, Western New York and Central New York. Exactly where Central New York ends and Northern or Western New York or the Southern Tier begins is a bit blurry. So when we decided to concentrate on locally brewed beers, we had to narrow things down a bit. we decided to call "local" anyplace within the 315 area code. Now, the 315 area is indeed huge, so big that it is being split up into two different area codes. That being said, we found that there are plenty of breweries in the very heart of Central New York - the area in and around Syracuse, that we didn't need to go too far afield to come up with some very good beers brewed locally.
BUM'S LOST IPA
WOODLAND FARMS
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: India Pale Ale; BREWER: Woodland Farm Brewing, Marcy, NY; ABV: 6.5
COLOR: Unfiltered wheat
POUR: Decent Head
AROMA: Apricot, juicy
BODY: Between Medium and Full
TASTE: Big citrus taste with some bitterness
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Can't Get Enough!
COMMENTS: "Nice, drinkable beer; Woodland makes good beer; It's a real nice summer beer with that big citrus taste; Real bright taste; bit of apricot, some tropical fruit in there as well; Very tasty beer; East Coast style IPA with the haze and big citrus taste."
HAZE IN THE HOLLOW
HOPSHIRE FARMS BREWING
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: New England Style IPA; BREWERY: Hopshire Farm and Brewery, Freeville, NY; ABV: 5.4%; HOPS: Citra, Mosaic, Centennial, Galaxy
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "Juicy. That is the best description for the new style of beer called New England IPA. True to style this beer is brewed with no hops in the boil. Then a boatload of Citra, Mosaic, Centennial and Galaxy hops are used after the boil and for dry hopping. The result is a beer with intense aroma and flavors of citrus and tropical fruits. You don't have to wait in line fro this beer at Hopshire and you can have a couple glasses at the bar."
COLOR: Milky, creamy, hazy golden
POUR: Decent Head
AROMA: Big citrus, fruity aroma
BODY: Medium
TASTE: Tropical fruit, citrusy with notes of grapefruit, maybe papaya, and a touch of pineapple
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Can't Get Enough
COMMENTS: "I could drink this for breakfast; Tastes like a session; Juicy; Really nice beer; Ugly color - delicious taste; Definitely what I think of when you say New England Style - kind of bursting with tropical and citrus fruit flavors, very little bitterness, but a bit at the end; Real nice beer."
DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION
IBU BREWERY
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: American Double IPA; BREWER: IBU Brewing, Syracuse, NY; ABV: 7.4%
COLOR: Unfiltered copper
POUR: Big, lingering near Guinness class head
AROMA: Citrus
BODY: Pretty full-bodied
TASTE: Grapefruit, citrus and tropical fruit
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Can't Get Enough
COMMENTS: "Nice malt backbone to this one along with the big, fruity taste; Beautiful copper color; Tastes a little bigger than 7.4% - a bit of an alcohol taste there; A little sweetness on the end; I'd go to that brewery for a couple of growlers of this; Kind of a melding of East Coast and West Coast IPAs here, sort of best of both coasts."
LOCAL MOTION DIPA
LOCAL 315 BREWING CO.
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: Double IPA; BREWER: Local 315 Brewing Co., Warners, NY; ABV: 8.5%
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "Beer made here in the 315."
COLOR: Copper, a bit cloudy
POUR: Decent Head
AROMA: Somewhat bready
BODY: Full
TASTE: Big, balanced and complex, with bready maltiness and piney hop dominates with a touch of grapefruit in there as well
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Can't Get Enough
COMMENTS: "Tastes like a West Coast IPA to me; Another really good beer - a winner; Haven't had a bad beer all day - and the winner is... us!; Doesn't come across as being as big as it is at 8.5%; Kind of a retro IPA after all the New England IPAs out there; It's got that nice piney taste that I have always liked in IPAs."
ROME BALTIC PORTER
COPPER CITY BREWING
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: Baltic Porter; BREWER: Copper City Brewing Co., Rome, NY; ABV; 8.0%
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "Robust, Full-bodied and smooth with a sweet, malty, roasted flavor."
COLOR: Near pitch black
POUR: Big, full, rich, tan head
AROMA: Sweet chocolate
BODY: Full
TASTE:A nice melding of chocolate and vanilla with coffee. Big mocha flavor
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Can't Get Enough!
COMMENTS: "Delicious!; Somewhat more carbonated that most Baltics; Not too sweet, not burnt, just right (says Goldilocks); Great fall woodstove beer - pre-turkey; What nice, smooth sipper; It has that kick back, feet up, warm fire, shadows flickering, cold outside but warm in vibe; Yeah, a little chocolate, a little coffee, a touch of alcohol but it doesn't overpower at all."
THE ELEVEN
CRITZ FARMS
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: American IPA; BREWER: Critz Farms Brewing and Cider Co., Cazenovia, NY; ABV: 6.5%; IBUs: 85; SRM: 7.5; MALT: Locally grown malted barley (grown at Critz Farms); HOPS: West Coast hop varieties
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: A citrusy, piney India Pale Ale with the complexxity of eleven constituent parts and the singular deliciousness of local, homegrown ingredients."
COLOR: Unfiltered wheat
POUR: Decent Head
AROMA: Pine
BODY: Between Medium and Full
TASTE: Citrus, pine, floral and a bit of caramel and toffee
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Can't Get Enough
COMMENTS: "Nice bitterness; Tastes bigger than 6,5%; Floral on the end; Crisp and refreshing; Good beer; Tastes almost a little 'old school'; I like the size of the can; It's a nice, no-nonsense IPA, the style I keep returning to again and again."
WEDDING BLISS IPA
GRINDSTONE BREWING
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: India Pale Ale; BREWER: Grindstone Brewing, Pulaski, NY; ABV: 7.0%; HOPS: Cascade
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "A beer brewed to keep the magic alive long after the honeymoon."
COLOR: Unfiltered wheat
POUR: Decent Head
AROMA: Grassy, earthy, hay
BODY: Between Medium and Full
TASTE: Balanced with a rich bready, malty opening followed by a nice citrus finish
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Can't Get Enough
COMMENTS: "Very pleasant after-taste; Smooth, hoppy, but real easy to drink; Citrusy bite; Another great job by Grindstone; Congrats to the newlyweds!; Nicely balanced, gives it a kind of old-school West Coast IPA taste; I really like it."
STRONG ALES
"Strong Ales" is one of those sort of catch-all terms used to describe a beer that falls somewhere between a Pale Ale (or even a fairly light IPA) and a Barleywine. Scotch Ales, Old Ales, bigger IPAs, Imperial Stouts, and even some Barleywines can fall into this broad category. Generally the Alcohol content is above 7%, but IBUs can range from 20 to 90 or more. As a result, our samples this month included an IPA, a Double IPA, a couple of Scotch Ales, an Imperial Brown Ale, a Belgian Strong Ale, a Belgian Quad and an American Strong Ale.
SLY FOX 113
SLY FOX BEER
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "This complex, aromatic beer is brewed with a n abundance of the finest hops from the Pacific Northwest and England. Every sip will remind you of just why you fell in love with craft beer in the first place."
COLOR: Copper
POUR: Between Decent and Guinness Class
AROMA: Malty, bready aroma
BODY: a bit beyond Medium
TASTE: Nicely bitter with solid doses of malt, nut and toffee.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Can't Get Enough!
COMMENTS: "Classic West Coast taste in my opinion, Spicy; So-o-o good!; Beautiful - perfect color - and tastes as good as it looks; Nice lingering after-taste; I like that it has a solid bitterness to it, it seems like so many IPAs are moving away from that, yet it is one of the qualities that first attracted me to the style."
LIMITED EDITION WILCO TANGO FOXTROT
LAGUINITAS BREWING
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "Rich, smooth, dangerous, and chocolatey. It's a big ol' Imperial Brown Ale to help you with your slippery slide on into the heat of the night."
WHAT THE BREWER ALSO SAYS: (Thought I'd include this interesting little mashup of famous film speeches by Henry Fonda as Tom Joad a la John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath, Jimmy Stewart as Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Humphrey Bogart as Rick in Casablanca from the Laguinitas website. A bit of an indulgence here, I admit, but Steinbeck is one of my all-time favorite authors whose writings more of less helped inform my world view. In many ways he is the American Charles Dickens in that his work shone a light on the plight of the powerless, the poor and the desire for those with both money and power to keep poor in their place. Combine that with three great American films and I thought the mashup was worth reprinting here.): "I'll be all around in the dark. I'll be ever'where, wherever you can look. Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise, and livin' in the houses they build, I'll be there, too. Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here. You just have to see them again. You think we're licked. They all think we're licked. Well, we're not licked. And we're going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause, even if this room gets filled with lies like these; and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will l isten, I'm no good at being noble, but t doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday we'll understand that. Now, now - Here's looking at you, kid."
COLOR: Amber
POUR: Decent Head
AROMA: Not a strong aroma, a little malt
BODY: Between Medium and Full
TASTE: Malty with undertones of caramel and chocolate
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Between "I Could Drink This" and "Can't Get Enough"
COMMENTS: "Sugar Daddy sweet taste; A sweety; A little bitter on the end after the sweetness; I get a little bit of molasses in there; Strong caramel, I feel like I taste more caramel than chocolate; Nice warming breadiness here; I do like this, I get a little brown sugar here as well; A nice winter warmer beer."
BOURBON BARREL-AGED ARROGANT BASTARD
STONE BREWING
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: Classified (let's just call it an American Strong Ale); BREWER: Stone Brewing, Escondido, CA; ABV: 8.1%; IBUs: Classified; HOPS: Classified
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "...Are you Worthy of quaffing a beverage of this intensity, irreverence and quality craftsmanship? Not likely, but for those who 'get it,' I know my time in this bourbon barrel has not been wasted. Cheers to you, enlightened imbiber. On second thought, cheers to me!" For the rest of this, go to their web site. It's worth the trip because it's quite a trip.
COLOR: Garnet
POUR: Guinness Class head
AROMA: Bourbon, alcohol
BODY: Near Full
TASTE: Oaky, alcohol with hints of caramel
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Near "Can't Get Enough!"
COMMENTS: "Very distinct taste of bourbon; Vanilla beans; Reminds me a bit of a Baltic Porter; Whiskey drinkin' guy's beer; Love the bottle; I get that sort of dark fruit, plum taste in there; It's a little bit smokey, a little piney hop in there; Pretty big alcohol taste though; I like this okay, but must admit that I prefer regular Arrogant Bastard - still ranks as one of my favorite beers."
KILT TILTER
MIDDLE AGES BREWING COMPANY
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: Scotch Ale; BREWER: Middle Ages Brewing Company, Syracuse, NY; ABV: 9.0%
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "A Scottish "90/-" ale. Brewed only once a year, this ale is rich and full with a dryness that is beautifully balanced with a classic malt sweetness."
COLOR: Ruby/brown
POUR: Big tan head, lots of lacing
AROMA: Banana ester
BODY: Near full
TASTE: Banana, ester-y, cloves
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:Between "I Could Drink This" and "Can't Get Enough!"
COMMENTS: "Classic Scottish Ale; Really, I consider it the best Scottish Ale I've ever had; Smooth; A lot of that British Isles taste going on in there, which I guess, makes sense; Fills the mouth; Some hints of maybe raisins in there, big on the malt, bread, definite clove; The alcohol doesn't bite you on the ass like some of the bigger beers, somewhat sneaky; Little bit of hops there at the end; A nice smooth finish."
BIG BROADCAST DIPA
WAR HORSE BREWING COMPANY
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: Double India Pale Ale; BREWER: War Horse Brewing Company, Seneca Lake, NY; ABV: 9.1%; IBUs: 100; MALT: 2-row, Munich, CaraPils; HOPS: Mosaic, Centennial, Chinook.
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "'Here is your country. cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children.' TR. We have as much love for the land as ol' Teddy; this is why we spend so much time finding the perfect raw materials to use in our beers. The Big Broadcast drinks smooth (maybe a little too smooth). Enjoy this beer in a glass or from the can, indoors or out, just enjoy."
COLOR: Dirty blond
POUR: Between Decent and Guinness class
AROMA: Dank
BODY: Near Full
TASTE: Grapefruit, bitter, pine, resin, fruit
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Near "Can't Get Enough"
COMMENTS: "Sneaky - misleading, tastes less alcohol-y than it is; You think you're swimming with the dolphins until you realize you're in with the great whites; Citrusy hop; Some tropical fruit going on in there; A little orange, touch of lemon; Mostly I get grapefruit; What about pineapple? I get a bit of that too; A bit of spice to it, like pepper; I like it."
OMMEGANG 20TH ANNIVERSARY
BREWERY OMMEGANG
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: Belgian Strong Ale; BREWER: Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, NY; ABV: 11.50%
COLOR: opaque walnut
POUR: Decent Head
AROMA: Dark fruit, blackberry
BODY: Near full
TASTE: Dark fruit, hints of blackberry, plum, currents, raisins, bit of chocolate, oak, vanilla
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Can't Get Enough!
COMMENTS: "Ommegang hit a home run with this one; Sweet and smooth;Full-bodied; I don't get the strong alcohol taste you would expect from a beer this big; The taste follows the aroma; Plum or current overtones; I really like it; Nice middle of the winter or after dinner beer; Fluted-glass beer; Snowing-like-a-son-of-a-bitch beer; Mouth-filling; I don't want to wait another 20 years for the next one."
WOLAVER WEE HEAVY ALE - BOURBON BARREL AGED - WOLAVER'S ORGANIC ALES
( UNDER THE AUSPICES OF:OTTER CREEK BREWING)
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: Wee Heavy Scotch Ale; BREWER: Otter Creek Brewing, Middlebury, CT; ABV: 12%; IBUs - NOTE: Wolaver's Organic Ales has retired production.COLOR: Walnut
POUR: Very little head, with some lacing
AROMA: Molassas
BODY: Full
TASTE: Brown sugar, molasses, sweet, raisins
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Near "Can't Get Enough!"
COMMENTS: "Sweet, maybe not as smooth as Ommegang's; Somewhat reminds me of Dogfish Head's Raison d'etre; A nice beer, I like it; Very sweet; Another good warming beer with that pleasant molasses or brown sugar taste."
VICTORY V-12
VICTORY BREWING
THE BEER FACTS: STYLE: Belgian-style Quad; BREWER: Victory Brewing Company, Downington, PA; ABV: 12.0%; MALT: Pilsner, Dark Caramel Malt, Dextrose; HOPS: East Kent Goldings, Styrian Goldings
WHAT THE BREWER SAYS: "Taste true liquid luxury in this decadent and nuanced Belgian-style quad. Pear and apricot aromas blend with caramel, fruit and spice flavors in the full-bodied amber ale."
COLOR: Cloudy orange
POUR: A little less than Decent Head
AROMA: Yeast, alcohol, fruit
BODY: Between Medium and Full
TASTE: Sweet, with hints of pear, butterscotch, apricots
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: Between "I Could Drink This" and "Can't Get Enough!"
COMMENTS: "Absolute definition of 'complex'; They should sell this beer with a helmet and a cup; Victory doesn't disappoint; A big beer; Almost like honey (reduced liquid honey); Reminds me of mead; Like a wine - sip it, repeat."
THE RESULTS
By the very nature of this category of beer, we knew we would be in for a very tasty review session, and indeed we were. None fell below that range from "I Could Drink This" to "Can't Get Enough!" So it was another of those "there are no losers here" kind of evenings. Nonetheless, below is a rough ranking of these Strong Ales - in our collective humble opinions.
1. Ommegang 20th Anniversary Ale
2. Sly Fox 113 IPA
3. War Horse Big Broadcast Double IPA
4. Wolaver Wee Heavy Ale
5. Stone's Arrogant Bastard Bourbon Barrel Aged Ale
6. Middle Ages Kilt Tilter
7. Victory V-12
8. Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot
Want a quick glance at all the beers we've reviewed and our zero to four star rating? Get it at BOTB Tested Beers.
Sláinte,
The BOTB Guys
