Located at 79 North 11th Street in Williamsburg, the Brooklyn Brewery has been at the center of a cultural and gastronomical renaissance, taking place in Brooklyn over the last 20 years. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon, greeted by Steve Hindy, president and co-founder. The tasting room is simple, a large warehouse with concrete floors. We grabbed a beer and sat at picnic tables while Steve told us the story of how he, a foreign correspondent, and his neighbor Tom Potter, a banker at the time, came to start the brewery 25 years ago. To hear stories of Steve’s time in Beirut, and of his other experiences as a journalist, I am inspired. Enchanted by his sense of adventure and nostalgia, like falling in love.

The night continued with a short walk to the Shanty, home of New York Distilling Company. There, we were given a tour and a brief history of the distillery by Tom Potter, who happens to have co-founded the Brooklyn Brewery along with Steve Hindy! Tom left the brewery in 2004 to pursue other interests… like traveling the world with his wife and paddling America’s rivers in his kayak. During his travels, he noticed a number of small distilleries popping up all over the Northwest, reminding him of the way the brewing industry had been 25 years earlier. In 2011, he started the New York Distilling Company, along with his son, Bill, and Allen Katz, one of the nation’s leading experts on distilled spirits and cocktails. After the tour we had the chance to try some of the Shanty’s specialty cocktails… I tried the Up In Smoke (Mezcal, lime, Velvet Falernum, Parfait Amour, Doc’s Cider Reduction, Bittermen’s Mole Bitters, and Prosecco, up), which was SO GOOD! Definitely one of the most uniquely delicious cocktails I have ever had.

From there, we headed to The Brooklyn Kitchen, for a 5-course beer pairing dinner, by none other than Garrett Oliver. Yup, THE Garrett Oliver, head brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery and the man who, literally, wrote the book about pairing beer with food. The food was fantastic! We started with a Goat Cheese & Green Apple Omelette, paired with the Brooklyner Weisse, a Bavarian-Style wheat beer. Garrett, the whole time talking while he cooked, gave us some tips on cooking the perfect omelette. (By the way, you’ve been over-beating your eggs… simply fold them together with your other ingredients for a delicious, fluffy omelette!) The next course was an Indian-Spiced Crab Cake, paired with the East India Pale Ale, Brooklyn’s English-style IPA. Next, a Pasta Carbonara, with the Local 2, a Belgian-inspired Dark Abbey Ale with notes of dark fruit and a hint of spice. I was absolutely blown away by the next course, a Boneless Quail stuffed with Foie Gras and Black Truffle Mousse, paired with a Kriek from the Ghost Bottle Series – a beer that starts similar to the Local 2, then aged on cherries and bottle conditioned with a blend of Champagne yeast and Brett. Whoa. Dessert was a Vanilla Ice Cream Float made with Brooklyn Black Ops, another one from the Ghost Bottle series.

After dinner, we made a few more stops to see the sites of Brooklyn and make sure all the city’s tap lines were in proper working order (If ya know what I mean…). We met at the brewery bright and early the next morning, warmly greeted by an array of NY bagels and coffee. Carla Villa, coordinator of Brooklyn’s Beer School program, gave us a short history of brewing and the opportunity to sample some fresh wort from the morning’s batch. From there, we met Tom Price, brewer & lab manager, who took us on a brewery tour.

For me, it’s always interesting to visit new breweries and see the variations from place to place… but, once you’ve visited enough of them, the “this is how beer is made” spiel can become a little mundane. Luckily, the tour at Brooklyn Brewery included a stop in the “warm room”, where their “Big Bottles”, like their Belgian inspired Local 1, are stored for bottle conditioning. In general, Belgian yeast requires higher temperatures to condition efficiently — around 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The warm room holds the temperature constant throughout the conditioning period, which help to impart certain flavor attributes and mouthfeel, as well as helps to stabilize the beer; giving it a long shelf life.  We also got to check out the barrel aging room where they store some beers in whisky barrels before bottling. Brooklyn Black Ops is conditioned here, in Woodford Reserve bourbon barrels for four months before being released and consumed by very lucky people.

All in all, it was a fantastic experience… I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend and my sincerest thanks go out to everyone at the brewery for extending such hospitality to us all. If you find yourself in Brooklyn, definitely stop by the brewery and check it out… and get to The Shanty for some cocktails too!

The post Brooklyn Beer School first appeared on The Craft Beer Blog.

The tour begins with a history lesson as our guide points out a display case full of old bottles and cans representing the numerous products and brands produced at the brewery over the years. From the first 1888 Lager made by The West End Brewing Company, founded by F.X. Matt the same year, to the current line-up including Saranac Beer & Soft Drinks, Utica Club, and a number of other specialty products for smaller breweries. Recently ranked the 12th largest* brewery in the United States, and 6th* out of the top 50 US Craft Breweries, the Matt Brewing Company has a lot to be proud of.

As we enter the brew house, we are greeted by two enormous copper brew kettles stretching up from the floor below. Each holding more than 500 barrels of bubbling wort, they are nothing short of beautiful. I am intrigued by the huge mash filter. Having been on a number of brewery tours and never seen one, it was interesting to learn about this piece of brewing equipment. As we toured the brewery, through twisting stairwells and winding hallways, I was amazed at how much of the old brewing technology remains in use. Mid-century control panels filled with dials and switches, needles drawing graphs on paper discs to track temperature control… Amid the same modern machinery and hi-tech gadgets seen in many breweries today, these vintage elements of the past highlight just how long the Matt Brewing Company has been around.

One thing that I was somewhat surprised to see for a facility of this size and age, was just how many steps the brewery is taking to reduce the amount of natural resources used to make beer. In addition to recycling their grains, as many breweries do, by selling it to local farmers as cattle feed, the Matt Brewing Company has been recycling CO₂ for years. They actually recover the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation and reuse it to carbonate their line of Saranac soft drinks! Though, perhaps the most impressive eco-friendly improvement is the newly installed anaerobic digester system that collects all of the breweries waste and turns it into methane gas, which is then used as a source of power for the plant. This alone allows them to reduce their use of electricity by 30-40%.

Once we’ve seen it all, the brew house, the aging cellars, the bottling and canning lines, we head up to the 1888 Tavern where we have the opportunity to sample the line-up of Saranac beers and soft drinks. The crisp mouthfeel and citrus hop kick of the White IPA is a refreshing and welcome treat as I reflect on all I’ve learned throughout the extensive tour. We even had the good fortune of meeting Matt Brewing CEO, Nick Matt, who stopped by and enjoyed a few samples with us.

If you have the chance, I highly recommend touring the Saranac Brewery. Check their website for seasonal hours and tour details.

The post Visiting Saranac Brewery first appeared on The Craft Beer Blog.

Tours start at 5:15 pm and last about 1/2 hour, Cost is $15 per person and includes the haunted brewery tour, a free tasting card or pint of beer and a coupon for $5.00 off your food purchase at The Pint & Goblet Tavern (good thru 12/30/12). You can also get a Brat and pint of Oktoberfest for $7.00 (while they last!).

Also, The Pint & Goblet is celebrating their second anniversary this month and will be giving away FREE dessert with your food purchase on the night of the event! Admission price is not required for entry into Tasting Room or to purchase drinks.

Costumes are encouraged but not required… I will be there, but you’ll have to stop down to see what kind of costume I’ve picked out! So come down, grab some brew, take the tour… we’re gonna have so much fun it’s SCARY!

The post Custom BrewCrafters Haunted Brewery first appeared on The Craft Beer Blog.

What: 2012 Flour City Brewers Fest – Beer Festival & Tasting Event

When: September, 21, 2012 6-9pm (VIP ticket holders enjoy early admission at 5pm)

Where: Frontier Field, 1 Morrie Silver Way, Rochester, NY, 14608 (map)

Buy Tickets at: http://fcbrewfest.com/tickets.php

A long-standing part of the Rochester, NY beer community, Rohrbach Brewing Company has been hosting the annual Flour City Brewers Fest since 1995. I spoke with brewery owner, John Urlaub, about the growth of the festival and in the local craft beer community. With more than 20 years in business, Rohrbach Brewing is an O.G.^* in the Rochester beer scene. “The craft beer community has exploded in Rochester,” said Urlaub, “we’ve seen more growth in the past 2 years, than we did in the 18 years before that… The local community here really embraces and supports craft beer, and they love to talk about it!  It’s really cool.”

The first brewers fest was held at Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua, NY and hosted only a dozen or so breweries.  Since then, the festivities have been moved to Frontier Field in downtown Rochester, and the list of participating breweries has more than tripled in size. Urlaub adds, “Today, people are coming to the Brewers Fest hoping to find their new favorite… Back then, we were just trying to get people to try a flavorful beer!”

This years brewers fest will feature deeper tents than in past years to ensure everybody has a great time — rain or shine (Looking at the 10 day forecast, there’s a 30% chance you’ll appreciate that!), and the band will be moved down to the field to create a more intimate atmosphere. Participating breweries include:

Proceeds from the Brewers Fest will benefit Holiday Outreach, a local not-for-profit organization that works to assist less fortunate families during the holiday season and throughout the year.  Why Holiday Outreach?  John says he wanted to keep the focus on the local community.  Over the years, events like the Flour City Brewers Fest, along with other fund raising efforts, have helped raise nearly $150,000 for the small, grassroots organization run entirely by volunteers.  Such significant fund raising efforts have allowed Holiday Outreach to help many families in need from the city of Rochester, as well as other parts of Western New York.

So what’s next? When I asked John what we could expect from Rohrbach’s in the future, he told me that they’re working on new packaging to make their beer more available to consumers.  For years, the only way to enjoy Rohrbach’s tasty line-up of craft brews has been to find it on draft or grab a growler to-go… Soon, you’ll be able to find Rohrbach beer in 22oz. bottles and eventually in ultra-convenient 6-packs.  They’ll be a welcome sight at summer barbecues to come!

Getting In

Tickets to the 2012 Flour City Brewers Fest are $40 at the gate ($35 advance) or $10 for designated drivers and non-beer samplers. Parking will be available for $5 (cash only!) in the adjacent Kodak lot (map).  Street parking is FREE where available but be sure to check for NO PARKING/NO STANDING signs. (A note about drinking responsibly: Overnight parking is allowed in the Kodak lot as well as in the State Street Garage in High Falls. There will be taxi service available and the Rochester Plaza hotel will run a shuttle bus to and from the event. Contact the Rochester Plaza for details.)

A limited number of VIP tickets are also available for $75 (purchase online at: http://fcbrewfest.com/tickets.php).  VIP ticket holders can look forward to a number of benefits including:

• Early admission — Gain access to the field at 5pm (an hour before general admission)
• FREE parking in the Frontier Field and nearby Kodak Lots
• Access to the covered VIP area (opens at 6PM) where you can mix & mingle with friends
• Catered food from 6 – 8pm in the VIP Area
• Samples of exclusive beers not available to anyone else at Brew Fest!

What to Try

One of the best things about going to beer festivals is trying new beers.  Remember that booming Rochester craft beer scene?  Well you’ll get to experience it first hand at Flour City Brewers Fest.  Along with Rohrbach’s lineup of locally brewed beer, make sure you stop by and sample offerings from the other Rochester craft breweries in attendance. Custom Brewcrafters, ROC Brewing Co, Three Heads Brewing, Naked Dove, and Rogers Beer are all local favorites.  And don’t forget your Grandpa’s beer of choice: Genny Cream Ale! Genesee Brewery has been brewing beer in Rochester since 1878, and is one of the largest and oldest continually operating breweries in the United States. Today, they employ more than 500 employees here in Rochester. And here’s a fun fact… for those of you that remember Genny as the beer you had to drink warm behind the tool shed because you stole it from your dad’s stash in the garage, Genesee Cream Ale actually won the GOLD medal at the World Beer Cup in both 2002 and 2004 for best American Lager/Ale or Cream Ale. So if it’s been a while since you’ve had a taste of this American classic, take this opportunity to sample it side by side with some of your other craft favorites.  You might find that’s not quite the beer you remember it to be!

In between beer tastings, be sure to stop by the Rochester A-List and Rochester Young Professionals tent in the outfield to try a Rohrbachs Vanilla Porter Cupcake created by Dollop, Rochester’s premier gourmet cupcakery and winner of the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars.  While you’re there you can also register for your chance to win some great beer related prizes!

One that I’m looking forward to trying… Brooklyn Brewery will be there with their Brewmaster’s Reserve “Fiat Lux” (“Let There Be Light”), a Belgian witbier inspired ale with lime peel & coriander. Check out this video by Transient Pictures for a more detailed look at what goes into this seasonal release, draft only brew. Cheers!

The post 2012 Flour City Brewer’s Fest first appeared on The Craft Beer Blog.

We pick Cascade and Heirloom varieties.  You can hear the pride in his voice as Jim Wrobel recounts the long history his family has with this land.  Hop strains that have grown at this site since the 1860’s.  I feel lucky to be here, less than 20 miles from the Brewery, these hops won’t have to travel far before they become part of Saranac’s Wet Hop IPA.

On the horizon, the sun rests heavy on rolling hills as we gather in front of the century old hop kiln, standing tall and wide like a shepherd over his flock.  We smile and raise our glasses to the bounty of this years harvest and the beer that it will make.

The post Saranac Hop Harvest 2012 first appeared on The Craft Beer Blog.

The Sherwood Inn sits on the northern shore of Skaneateles Lake, an emblem of vintage class and elegance. It’s a gorgeous building; beautifully simplistic. It stands with subtle dignity, a testament to the days of nickel beers and horse-drawn carriages. To me, it represents a lifestyle we lost somewhere along the way: one without constant and immediate technological distractions that rip us away from each other while pretending to connect us. The Sherwood Inn is a building that reminds me of the good old days that we easily forget about and then wish that we could somehow get back.

The lighting is soft and low inside the Inn. The bar in the tavern is old and comforting. It’s dark and there’s a low murmur with the sounds of clinking glass and bottles. It’s one of those bars you walk into and you can feel the stories emanate from the scratches and scuffs in the gloss of the wood. It feels as though you’ve stepped back into the past and it feels completely natural to be there. Outside, the sun is slipping out of the sky toward the horizon and people are beginning to sit down for dinner. There is a small table with various NY cheeses: sharp, smoked, creamy, it’s all beautiful. I see servers walk past me with balsamic onion and goat cheese tartlets and another with bacon wrapped dates. There is a large table with cold bottles and cans of Saranac Blueberry Blonde, Summer, and Pale Ale that people are helping themselves to.

I’m introduced to Chuck as I sip on a can of Saranac Blueberry Blonde. He manages The Sherwood. His demeanor is calm and cool but I can see that he’s watching everything going on around us: the way the beers are being poured, the way the servers are trickling out the doors with plates of tomato cucumber salad and warm stretch bread with clock-like precision. This is his show. Their first beer dinner, and he’s proud of it. “I think we’re doing alright,” he says as his eyes pan over the crowd as they begin the first course of Kölsch and salad, “we were expecting fifty or sixty people to show. There are over two hundred people here tonight.”

Each table sits anywhere from four to eight people and is covered in a blue and white checkered table cloth. Next to each plate of food and sample (or can) of beer are small candles in glass holders. The flames dance slowly in the cool breeze of summer.

As I ask Chuck a few quick questions, Fred Matt, the President of The Matt Brewing Company, stands in front of the crowd and begins to tell stories about being in the beer business. He tells one about how his father had to go into the hospital when he was sixty-nine. The newspapers reported that he had died. “Well,” his father said upon hearing the news he had apparently passed, “German lore says if you are ever said to have died but didn’t, you’ll live another thirty years.” When he finally did pass, he was ninety years old.

“We’ve done Antinori wine diners,” Chuck says quietly as Fred Matt answers some questions from the crowd.  “Those do well. But we’re really trying to place an emphasis on New York.” I counted forty-eight wines from NY currently on their impressive (and award winning) wine list. “We’ve got seven New York State beers on tap inside. People are looking for more local flavor.” Chuck is proud to inform me that, other than Empire Brewing on Armory Square in Syracuse, The Sherwood is the only place where you can drink Skinny Atlas Lite, a Kölsch-style brew that, as Empire says, has “the flavor of a light German pilsner crossed with the crisp cleanness in an American Ale”.

While Chuck attends to the organized chaos, I start on the appetizer. I’m given a sample of Saranac’s Session IPA and a plate of Leigh and Steigerwalds smoked bratwurst, fingerling potato salad, cabbage braised in the beer, and a house made spicy mustard. The cool thing about Saranac’s Session IPA is that, for me, it is not pretentious. It doesn’t claim to be anything other than what it is: an accessible example of a misused but popular style. Some at my table were less than enthused that the beer was labeled an IPA (Begin rant: just because it’s an IPA doesn’t mean it has to strip the enamel off your teeth with bitterness. Not every IPA has to be Pliny the Elder or Hedonism. I think we should get back to basics and remember that a “strong hop characteristic” doesn’t automatically mean “consumable battery acid”. End rant.).

Before dinner is served, Chuck introduces me to Dan Hudson, the Executive Chef. I meet him at the outside grill, where the smoke billowing from the sizzling ribs seems too good to not be considered a form of inhalant abuse. When I ask him about the logistics of cooking for so many people and pairing it with beer, he says practice makes perfect. “We’ve had a lot of practice with the wine dinners. This time, instead of worrying what food to pair the beer with, we basically chose the beer first and then just made food that people like to eat.” When I sit back down, I’m greeted with what Dan promised.

First, the spice rubbed baby back rips with Tennessee whiskey BBQ sauce, then a summer cole slaw, Jalapeno corn bread and my new favorite side dish, Utica Greens. But none of it is put in front of me. The ribs are piled high on a plate and the sides are in two large bowls. This course is family-style: pick it up, put it on, pass it around. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. As I drink my Rye IPA, I look around the table I’m sitting at. The sun is hidden behind the horizon and the night air is calm. The candles begin to glow against the dusk. Everyone at my table is smiling at each other and passing dishes around and laughing and I get the strange feeling that maybe we haven’t lost the good old days that The Sherwood Inn represents after all. Maybe nostalgia isn’t a longing for a past that we can’t get back but a desire for something that’s right in front of us that we can’t see anymore.

As my table professes their undying love for the ribs Dan and his crew had prepared, Fred Matt comes to our table. He’s a tall man with quiet but focused eyes. His voice is calm yet assertive. He’s been told someone wanted to ask him a question or two. Someone at my table asked Fred if there was anything that Saranac has done that he wished could have gone better or wish they would have done first.

“Shandy,” Fred says after nodding his head, “Our Shandy is shipping out 25,000 cases. Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy? Four million plus. We could have done that better. I think we did a really good job with that beer. We just did a shit job of getting it out.” I’m taken back at his honesty. He’s not spewing public relations speak or dodging the question. “Cider, too. We could have done cider.”

The sky is slowly darkening to evening and the lights around the fountain and pointed back toward the Inn begin to soak the crowd in blue and orange hues. The light from the candles bounces and flutters quickly on the tablecloths. Our server puts a towering piece of S’more cake in front of me and a sample of Lake Placid UBU Ale. Before I can rub the gram cracker cake, chocolate ganache, and marshmallow frosting all over my face in ecstasy, I ask Fred what he sees for the future of New York beer and where it’s headed.

“Well, there’s a problem: New York doesn’t like New York.”

I ask him what he means as I sip my UBU.

“No one supports each other. If we combined the beer and the farming movement in NY, then it would trickle down from the business to the people. There could be a 3-5% reduction or hold on certain taxes just for working with local farmers. We just need to be allowed to help each other out.” I’m about to ask him about the Farm Brewery Law that recently passed but he’s whisked away to answer more questions from eager craft beer drinkers.

As the darkness falls over the lake and the tables began to empty, the air fills with an acoustic performance by Tommy Connors. Free pint glasses are placed on a large table, available to take home or fill up (which I did with that gorgeous concoction, UBU). I thanked Chuck and Dan for one of the best beer pairings I’ve ever been to.

“August 15^th”, Chuck says as he shakes my hand, “we’re having Empire Brewing here. Five-piece blues band called The Super Delinquents are playing. It’s gonna be great.”

The post Sherwood Inn: Saranac Summer Beer-B-Que first appeared on The Craft Beer Blog.