It’s a really exciting time at IBC right now. We’ve begun our ninth year of brewing at 606 Elmira Rd., a milestone that MANY very good small breweries have fallen way short of. We sold more than 5,000 barrels(155,500 gallons) of beer in 2006, and we’re continuing to grow at a pretty good clip.  We’ve got you, our customers, to thank for that. There are a lot of great beers out there today, and you have a better assortment of them in front of you than ever before. Believe us that we are flattered every time that you choose to spend some of your hard-earned $$ on our products. Thank you.
The success of our everyday lineup has allowed us to begin to establish some additional brands. Apricot Wheat is as good as ever and our #1 seller, Cascazilla Red has been widely recognized by Beer Advocates as one of the finest examples of Red Ale in the world. Nut Brown was recently praised in the New York Times by well-known food and beverage critics, our Pale Ale continues to be a great example of the style and our Double IPA remains the only year-round example of a beer brewed exclusively with hops grown right here in the Empire State. Our holiday variety-pack, which featured 4 very robust beers, sold out quickly this season and we will be releasing a summer variety 12-pack in April. It will contain Apricot Wheat, Flower Power IPA, Partly Sunny (our take on a spiced wheat ale) and our first ever bottled lager- Ithaca Pils.Â
This is where it starts to get fun to be a brewer. We finally have enough fermentation space, and fast enough packaging equipment to branch off into some different styles of beer. For a long time, we have been pretty limited by the fact that we’ve needed to get product finished, packaged and sold as fast as possible just to keep up with demand. This has kept us more or less brewing a family of fairly closely-related ales(same malt supplier and yeast). Don’t get me wrong, brewing ANYTHING is the greatest job imaginable, I love each of these beers and they have all been really well-received, but a slight change of pace and a chance to show off our chops is more than welcome.  Now we have just a little bit more capacity than needed for our regular lineup, so we’ve gotten the go-ahead to try out some new brews this year.  The purpose of this blog will be to keep you informed about them by providing technical and anecdotal information about them “from behind the scenes”.
In addition to the Pils, we will be introducing several other products in 12 oz. bottles this year. First up will be a retooled version of our Amber Ale, which has been on hiatus since 2004. This new version is bigger and smoother with hints of mocha from a Belgian “coffee malt”, and a greater hop aroma than in the past. Look for it in the next few weeks. Having the Pils yeast on hand will allow us to resurrect our Vienna-style lager, O’Fest, for late summer release. It was a big hit in draft-only format last year. I am also pleased to inform you that we have made arrangements with Pedersen Farms (the supplier of 100% of our Double IPA hops) to acquire “wet” hops (that is to say directly from the field and unprocessed) this September for a Harvest Ale. I am confident that this beer will showcase the quality of NYS grown hops like never before. This beer may or may not be bottled, the style is certainly best suited to be drunk young and our draft accounts are sure to be clamoring for it. Finally, you can expect to see our holiday pack in wider distribution this fall and winter. We were barely able to supply our New York State retailers with it this year, but we plan to make more of them and it will include old favorites like Winterizer, Smoked Porter and Stout.
Probably the most exciting development for me though, is the launching of our lineup of utterly unique beers, the “Excelsior!” series. These beers are meant as truly artistic expressions and will both defy and meld existing styles of beers from the world over. They will be hand-packaged in 750ml bottles only, in limited numbered runs and bottle conditioned to allow for cellaring. These beers draw their inspiration from historic traditions, from our peers in the modern brewing community, from the fabulous cuisine of today, and from you the discerning drinker (beergeek, if you will). We are literally sparing no expense in sourcing the raw materials for these beers, they will be incredibly labor and process-intensive and we are thrilled to be able to finally offer a product such as this. Without giving too much away, I can say that the first two are slated for release in late March, and will be best described as “Belgian-Inspired American Ales”. They will be followed in May by a HUGE Rye Beer and a caffeinated suprise. Ask for them at your purveyor of better beers.
Cheers for now,
The Chief
Next up:Â The Pils
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