Seriously, folks.  One of the most exciting things EVER is about to happen.   Sometimes in our production brewery that’s cranking out at full-capacity, amidst all of the growing pains, I lose sight of why it is that we do what we do.   We do it for adventure, we do it for the unknown, we do it because there’s no feeling as satisfying as seeing somebody’s eyes light up when they taste something truly new to their experience, and knowing that it was US who “turned them on”.  Sometimes to make big flavors, we need to take big chances. Next Friday, we are going to jump off  of the proverbial cliff, but at least we’ll be in good company.

You’ve mostly all heard us brewers blather on about how great and camaraderific our business is.  It’s true, we’re loose-lipped and incestuous- but definitely not to a fault.  I feel very lucky that many of MY brewing “heros” have become my friends too, and some of them are going to grace the Ithaca Beer Company with their talents next Friday.   Roll call:

Brewery Ommegang, Phil Leinhart and co.  Ommegang is a truly singular operation.  WORLD CLASS belgian-style beers brewed in New York State  in the most bucolic of settings by great people.   Phil is one of the rare brewers who can fit into either a corporate(A-B) OR iconoclastic(BO) brewing role.  He took over the reins from my boy Randy Thiel(NGBC, whatup?) a couple of years ago, and they haven’t looked back since.  They’re only about 90 minutes from us, so I get to see them often and it’s always a treat.  Little-known-fact: Heather and I got married in Cooperstown and had an event at Ommegang just before our rehearsal dinner.

Captain Lawrence Brewing Company, Scott Vaccaro.  Scotty Cowboy opened up his place in Westchester County just about 4 years ago.  Since then he’s turned the beer wasteland that was his backyard into a mecca, and played a huge role in making NYC  one of only a handful of places that can be debated as the best beer destination.  His brewery is just up the Saw Mill Parkway from my brother’s house, and he started this collaboratradition last summer by inviting me to help brew NY3 for last year’s New York City Beer Week,  another great honor.  As Larry Horwitz so eloquently put it “Everything that f****** touches turns to gold.” Maybe some of that will rub off on us.

Flying Fish Brewing Company, Casey Hughes.  Casey’s been brewing professionally since he turned 18.  In his early thirties(but with a 50 year old liver) now, he’s actually legimately old school.   Those who know him are aware that he is able to board airplanes without photo ID.  We might need a jedi mind trick or 2…..

I’m going to mention Ithaca Beer, but only because we originally were going to have our friend Hutch Kugeman come down from Great Adirondack in Lake Placid.  Both of you who read the last blog entry know that  Hutchie started working here at the beginning of April(when the beautiful and talented Mike Smith left), and we’ve just been cranking ever since- 2,ooo bbls sold in the 2 months since he got here.  I think(hope) he’ll welcome a more casual, later starting day for a change.  Not to mention that he is cousins-in-law with the next guy:

Southampton, Phil Markowski.  Ask any serious professional or home brewer if they’ve read “Farmhouse Ales”, and they are likely to produce a dog-eared copy of this classic tome on old world brewing tradition.  Phil literally wrote the book on brewing the 2 seminal styles of rural Belgium and France, Saison and Biere de Garde.  He’s also a little bit of a recluse, so luring him up here is a coup for sure.

Valley Brewing, Steve Altimari.  Steve and I first met back  in the “old country” (in this case the SF Bay area) around the turn of the millennium.  I doubt he remembers me from then, but it turns out that he grew up right near here in upstate NY and his mother still lives in Romulus.  He popped into the brewery for a visit last summer, and I think that he and I are fairly simpatico in philosophy(although he is much more chill than me in practice).  He likes big flavors and doesn’t seem to be too much of a purist(see Markowski, Phil) about how to create them.  He’s a “brewer’s brewer” and it was a treat to have his wife Barri and their incredibly well-behaved kid here for an afternoon of show-and-tell.

We are honored to have these “Géants”  come and play with us.  I’ll try not to get underfoot too much, lest i get squashed.

National IPA Challenge! Some of you might remember that we made it to the Final Four a couple of years back, and then got unceremoniously bounced out of the 1st round last year by Big Sky IPA(which as a small consolation to me eventually made the Final Four). Last week we whooped up on the seminal Goose Island IPA to advance to the “Elite Eight” and we’re feeling pretty good about how our beer stacks up to the field,  so look out.  Here’s the bracket so you can follow along with how Flower Power is doing!

New Stainless!  Yesterday’s first order of business was to unload a flatbed truck laden with not one, not 2, but 3 brand new tanks.  A 100-barrel fermenter(that makes 5 total), 100-barrel brite beer tank(2 now), and a whirlpool vessel for our brewhouse(this will help us brew more times per day and cast out better wort to boot).  These were all custom made in Portland, OR for us and we had a bunch of laughs about how far we’ve come in the last few years.  The real challenge was getting them into the building and standing them up, but by about 630pm we had finished without any excitement to speak of.  That’s a good thing when you are moving 15 foot tall tanks that weigh 3000 lbs.

assessing the situation

Rigging gear. Manly!

Moving on to the real news at hand: we’re losing a couple of really important people here, Mike Smith and Jarrod York.  Mike’s been here for 3 years now and now that I’ve finally figured out how to get him to do most of my dirty work he goes and gets involved with a startup brewpub in his hometown of State College, PA.  Just kidding, it’s a wonderful opportunity for him and his budding family and we expect that he’ll kick a lot of ass with a project of his own.  Jarrod came to us through the American Brewer’s Guild apprenticeship at the end of 2008 and never left.  He’s also starting up his own thing in his hometown of  Mansfield, PA(affectionately known to us as “Hicktown).  Pennsylvania, you’re not lacking for good beer as it is…. WHY MUST YOU TAKE THEM FROM US?!?!?!?

But the good news other than the fact that we get to go bowling for their bon voyage party is this(and I’ve been holding it in):  WE HIRED HUTCH KUGEMAN to replace Mike!  For those who know Hutchie you know what a coup this is, for those that don’t BeerAdvocate mag got it right, he’s “..one of the best brewers you’ve never heard of.”  We’re really excited and also a bit relieved that he’ll be able to start during Mike’s last week here.

For those who have been clamoring for me to blog more, is this enough for you?  Hope so, cuz it’s all I got!

The Chief

When doors open at 11:00am on Thursday, Dec. 31st, our much-anticipated sour Excelsior! Le Bleu will be available.  Limit 1 case per customer. 

Posted via email from ithacabeer’s posterous

In honor of the launching of our new website, I’m reviving the Blog!

Today’s a huge day for us, our 11th anniversary! We’re having a shindig at the brewery to celebrate, pouring 09 White Gold(so perfectly fruity tangy right now),TEN(still really resinously hoppy after almost 2 years of confinement in the secret stash), Eleven(while it’s still legal-but more on in another post),  and a special sneak preview of Twelve(our upcoming Monastery-style Quadrupel Ale) and serving up some tasty snacks.

In other huge news, we’re having our first ever day of simul-bottling- with one 3-man crew doing about 150 cases of LeBleu and the other rocking out 1,000 case equivalents of CascaZilla.  “LeBleu” you say?  Yep, it’s finally ready to bottle.  It’s a blend of 8 different wine barrels of aged sour beers from 2007, 2008 and 2009 each spiked with 50 lbs of fresh, handcrushed local blueberries this past August.  It is a really unique beer, and each of the barrels brought it’s own element to the blend.  It’s very sour and dry, brilliantly red colored with a beautiful cap of pink foam and has that unmistakable blueberry aroma.  I sampled each barrel and the overall blend while transferring them to the bottling tank, and the sum of parts is really pretty special. For those curious about the name, it’s for our old friend(and 2nd IBC employee) Bret LeBleu.  He and his wife Catherine and daughter Audrey moved back to Ithaca this year, and it’s great to have them around…what with all of the brettanomyces and blueberries it just was a natural fit with the beer.  Next Friday, we’ll be bottling Twelve…the highest gravity beer we’ve brewed to date, and after a couple of weeks of conditioning, these 2 newest additions to the Excelsior! lineup will be available!

The boys got the new speakers all wired up for an all-new sonic experience of eclectic musical mixing(pretty sure I heard Blues Traveler on one stereo today and Southern Rock on another?), so we should be able to power right through this winter’s annual expansion-during-production-project.  Coming soon, a Whirlpool Vessel and another 100 Barrel Brite Beer Tank.  Lots more great plans are being laid for our growth over the next few years, with plenty more exciting announcements to come. Welcome back!

I’m psyched about the event we’re doing tomorrow, a 7-course dinner in the private dining room at the New York Wine and Culinary Center in Canandaigua, NY.  We’ll be featuring some killer beers(new ones, multiple vintages of old ones, etc.).  As usual, the staff there is “cooking up” a ridiculously tasty dinner to accompany our wares.  Dan(the owner) and I will be there, tickets are extremely limited(I can’t even get any!).  Contact them if you happen to be available or are looking to give the beergeek/foodie in your life a suprise gift!  www.nywcc.com

the chief

Specials at FIVE(5) of our best locals. Free commemorative pint glasses when you buy IBC and special Casks of beer at each of (in alphabetical order):

The Chapter House

Ithaca Ale House

Kilpatrick’s

(the bar formerly known as)Korova

Pixel Lounge

One of these bars will feature a preview of our next new beer, alpHalpHa, it is a NY beer brewed with a lot of local hops and local honey.

One will proudly pour draft Brute. This GABF silver medalist is not to be missed.

One will have cask-conditioned TEN. The Best Beer in New York State*

We will be raffling off a grand prize of Ten cases of beer per year for ten years!

As always, if you see me and mention the blog, I’m buying your first beer!

Shotgun start on the casks at 6PM.

*this depends largely on it’s hedonistic appeal.

“But, Chief, I don’t have a ticket!” While I can’t help you there, I can offer a consolation prize. The latest, and most different to date, Excelsior! beer hits the shelves on Friday, August 1st! It has been a slow train coming(9 months), and much anticipated(by us, at least), but it is finally ready for our enjoyment. It’s a doozy. It has a great, ripe aroma and super clean sourness balanced by a touch of honey sweetness and carried off with a nice prickly carbonation. For those of you who know gueuze-lambics, this will be a treat. For those who don’t, think of it as champagne-like. “Brute” is it’s name, and it took nine months to allow the “wild” yeast to do it’s thing and assert these sour flavors. Really, it was quite cool to watch: brettanomyces forms it’s own protective layer (called a pellicle) over the slowly fermenting beer. Lucky for you, I took some photos (not for the faint of heart):

Yep, the contents of that tank sat like that for 9 months! Some of those moldy bubbles were the size of tennis balls. In a nutshell, that slow acting yeast releases more(or at least more pungent) organic acids than it’s mainstream cousins. It’s certainly not for everyone, but those who understand will appreciate it. So if you couldn’t get any Isabelle Proximus or Cuvee de Castleton, don’t fret. We’ve got 250 cases waiting for you, and no limit on how many you may buy.

See you in Cooperstown!

Luckily, I don’t suck as a brewer! Last month we were awarded the F.X. Matt Cup as the best craft beer brewery in New York State. Sounds great right? It gets even better, “Flower Power” IPA was named as the second best beer in New York State, and “TEN” brought home the Gold Medal as the best beer in a tremendous field of Empire State brews! It is really a great honor, awarded and sponsored by the organizers of a terrific annual festival, TAP NY (http://www.tap-ny.com/). The list of past winners is great company to be in, and many of the beers there were really OUTSTANDING.

I had a great time, and *may* have gotten a bit carried away.

But anyway, here’s some summer news:

We are finally entering the Philadelphia market. We’ve taken it slowly in PA for about a year, the response has been awesome and we finally have production under enough control to support this great market (we think). In the next couple of weeks you’ll start to see Apricot Wheat, CascaZilla and 750 ml bottles of “TEN” and “White Gold” along with our variety 12-Packs at purveyors of better beer all around Philadelphia. Ask for it!

Boston area beer lovers will be seeing those same bottle-conditioned beers, and perhaps even sooner. We just shipped off a bunch. Again, the best thing you can do to be able to buy these product(and others like them) is go into your local and demand it.

I’ve been blocking out my summer schedule, beer dinners(specifics to follow), roadtrips, and some great festivals which include…

The American Craft Beer Fest. http://beeradvocate.com/acbf/ we’ll be pouring a great mix of our standards, and some specialties that I’m really proud of.
the Empire State Brewing and Music Festival. http://www.empirebrewfest.com/ Getting down again with the NY posse!

Belgium Comes to Cooperstown. http://www.ommegang.com/index.php?event_view_id=206&event_view=2008-08-01&mcat=3 This will bring the debut of the best sour beer you have ever had, “Brute”.

Our 2nd Annual Ithaca Beer Fest will be on Saturday, Sept 6th. website soon!

These along with a few other unconfirmeds(hey, we have to sleep it off sometime) should keep us pretty busy!

If you are a local, we’ll be pouring a really nice batch  of cask-conditioned Flower Power tomorrow night at Pixel. See you at 7!

We’ve had a tough draw, but have somehow managed to become a Cinderella story in reaching the Final Four, defeating such giant and seminal IPA brewers like Dogfish Head(in your face, Selders!), Anderson Valley (Take that, NorCal!) and Boulder Beer(where’s your mojo, Marvin?).  Anyway, it’s very exciting and especially gratifying that the judging has been done by other professional brewers.  We must be doing something right!  This weekend brings us a tough foe in Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale, winner of the 2007 Alpha King challenge.  Wish us luck.

In other news, this past week brought the long-anticipated release of TEN, our Anniversary Ale.  It’s an exploded version of CascaZilla.

The beer has A LOT going on.  Incredibly aromatic, oily and viscous, slightly woody from the judicious use of some  Bamberg smoked malt, with a sweet and juicy flavor, like cherries.  It’s the biggest and hoppiest (read: most expensive) beer we’ve ever brewed and judging by the reception it has been enjoying in our tasting room and at a couple of cask-nights- it’s a winner.  Come on down and treat yourself .

Facial Hair was also largely eliminated at the brewery this week(for those who haven’t noticed, we brewers can tend to let our grooming go during the long winter).  Bill J. took the opportunity to sport what I like to call a “Trooper”.

It’s amazing what a moustache can do for a man’s self-esteem.

We’re brewing this year’s first batch of Partly Sunny today!  That must mean that spring is upon us.  Don’t forget to reset your clocks tomorrow night…unless you’re one of those nuts who live in Arizona or Hawaii.

This coming week will see the release of Old Habit, 2008.   I’ll be writing about that next. ]]> http://www.ithacabeer.com/beerblog/?feed=rss2&p=30 4 http://www.ithacabeer.com/beerblog/?p=29 http://www.ithacabeer.com/beerblog/?p=29#comments Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:55:23 +0000 chief http://www.ithacabeer.com/beerblog/?p=29 Loyal readers,

Has it really been a month? Oops, sorry. Anyway, we released the new batch of White Gold last week and it is drinking just great. We dialed up the carbonation a lot (to almost Duvel-type levels) and it feels very alive in the mouth. Bright and grassy dryhop flavor and aroma and a semi-tangy wheat character(about 30%) fills your mouth, and the complex blend of Belgian(Westmalle Abbey), English(Our private strain) and Wild Yeasts throws bunches of fruity esters and spicy phenols into the mix. I like to think that it’s at an intersection where Farmhouse beers, Strong Goldens, Tripels and Witbiers all share some common ground. We’re really proud of it.

Wild Yeast, you say? Yeah, you read it here first… the 1st batch of WG has certainly developed an unintentional wild final fermentation character. Now that it is a year old, the existing stock (a few 1/6 bbls and virtually NO bottles remain in stores) is throwing huge pineapple and tart notes that it just didn’t have for the first 9 months or so. The usual suspect in such cases are wild yeast such as Brettanomyces. Ordinarily, we brewers would think of this as a flaw in a product, but the idea behind the Excelsior! series is “to boldly go, etc…..” and it just happens that we think that this change in the aging product is quite complementary to the base beer. Given the age of the beer is now a year (we ordinarily consider our main product line to expire 3 months after packaging)it has really hit it’s stride in the past couple of months. I advise anyone who still has bottles of this first batch to wait to drink them for as long as you can, and store them at room temperature if you are interested in allowing this tertiary fermentation to continue, the assumption is that they’ll continue on until there’s no sugars at all remaining and those flavor byproducts intensify while CO2 volumes increase. Because it has become such a totally unique beer we cultured some of the first batch and blended the “Wild Yeast” into this new batch at bottling, hoping to help insure that this product ages as gracefully as it’s predecessor. Come on down to the brewery or ask for it at your local bottleshop!

So while I’m on the subject, this week will be a great treat at Pixel….A pin of the new White Gold alongside one of the few remaining 5 gallon kegs of the first batch and we’ll compare and contrast the two vintages. Thursday at 7pm!