Posts Tagged ‘Southern Tier’

After a rather crazed Labor Day weekend (wherein the Cha Cha Hut made its official commercial debut), we decided to journey to Oliver’s Discount Beverage in Albany to restock a quickly dwindling cellar. I once stated the selection here is much smaller than Half Time in Poughkeepsie, but what is there is truly amazing. I always find a ton of interesting new brews when dropping into Oliver’s So much so, I can’t remember the last time we made the trip to Half Time. Plus – the Oliver’s staff seem to be really excited to be selling something other than the endless stream of BMC we see going out the door.

Bombers
Southern Tier Imperial Pumking Ale
Southern Tier Imperial Mokah (chocolate & coffee stout)
Southern Tier Imperial Cherry Saison
Southern Tier Imperial Heavy Weizen
Dogfish Head Fort (brewed with pureed raspberries)
The Bruery Black Orchard
Brown’s Whiskey Barrel Aged Porter
He’Brew Rejewvenator Harvest Ale
Avery Fifteen Anniversary Ale
Avery Collaboration Not Litigation Ale
Red Hook DB Double Black Stout with Coffee

40 oz.
People’s Pint Tap & Die Malt Liquor

6 Pack
Wolaver’s Certified Organic Will Stevens’ Pumpkin Ale
Brown’s Oatmeal Stout
Sierra Nevada Kellerweis
Atwater Block Brewery Vanilla Java Porter
Boulder Beer Mojo IPA

I’m calling this the “Western Mass. Edition” due to a weekend OAB roadtrip to the I-91 corridor of Massachusetts. We decided we needed to get out of town for the weekend and decided to use the beer map in Yankee Brew News as our guide. There are many upcoming articles about the trip, but I decided to kick things off with a beerventory update that is now decidedly Massachusetts heavy.

As we were staying in the Northampton area, we THOUGHT we would do the beer run at Spirit Haus in Amherst on our way out. No such luck. We’ve see great reviews for this place, but the selection on a Sunday morning pretty much sucked. Perhaps we missed something other than the weak selection of bombers and 6/12 packs on the floor near the register. Perhaps it had been a heavy Saturday night – though to me most of the shelves looked stocked.

Thankfully, we had gone to Greenfield, MA on Saturday and looked around in Ryan and Casey Liquors. So after the Spirit Haus disappointment, we hit the highway, headed up to Greenfield and stocked up before heading back to OAB HQ. Looking forward to the coming weeks and drinking these. (Also looking forward to another beer run to Massachusetts.

Bombers
Berkshire Brewing Hefeweizen Ale
Berkshire Brewing Coffeehouse Porter
People’s Pint Pied pIPA
People’s Pint shWheat Ale
People’s Pint Natural Blonde
High & Mighty Two-Headed Beast Chocolate Stout
High & Mighty St. Hubbins Abbey
High & Mighty Purity Of Essence Lager
High & Mighty Beer of the Gods
Pretty Things Baby Tree Quad with Dried Plums
Pretty Things St. Botoisph’s Town Rustic Dark Ale
McNeill’s Ruby Ale
Southern Tier Mokah Stout
Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Amber Ale
Arcadia Ales Cocoa Loco
Arcadia Ales Cereal Killer
Southern Tier Jah-Va Imperial Coffee Stout
Ommegang Biere de Mars
Flying Dog Wild Dog Weizenbock

40 oz.
People’s Pint Tap & Die Malt Liquor

12 Pack
Opa Opa Sampler featuring Opa Opa Light, Red Rock Amber Ale and Opa Opa IPA

6 packs : cans
21st Amendment Brew Free! or Die IPA
21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon Wheat

6 packs : bottle
Saranac Summer Brew

I haven’t really done much of a restock lately to the cellar. We’ve been a bit too busy around OAB HQ drinking various foamybeers – our own line of brews. A recent trip to pick up more brewing supplies lead us to drop by Oliver’s discount Beverage in Albany. so, the latest beerventory…

Growlers
Cave Mountain Hefeweizen (bought at the brewery on $8 browler Sundays)

6 packs
Widmer Drop Top Amber Ale
Widmer Drifter Pale Ale
Saranac Summer Brew
Wolaver Ben Gleason’s White Ale
Sherwood forest Friar’s Belgian White ale
Boulder Brewing Hazed & Infused
Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

12 Pack
Smutty Nose Sampler featuring Shoals Pale Ale, Old Brown Dog, IPA and Robust Porter

Bombers
Long Trail Brewmasters Series Double IPA
Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Amber Ale
Arcadia Ales Cocoa Loco
Arcadia Ales Cereal Killer
Southern Tier Jah-Va Imperial Coffee Stout
Southern Tier Iniquity Black Ale
Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog Ale
Smuttynose Gravitation Belgian Quad
Ommegang Biere de Mars
He’Brew Jewbelation 12
Elysian Bifrost Winter Ale
Flying Dog Wild Dog Weizenbock

May 30th, 2009 was a beautiful blue sky day in the Catskill Mountains. A perfect day for outdoor craft beer drinking. Thankfully, the folks over at The Andes Hotel in Andes, NY chose to team up with Gasko & Meyer Distributors to present the 1st Andes Hotel American Craft Beer Festival. $20 admission got you a sampling mug and all you could sample from over 20 craft breweries. In addition, the Andes Hotel had a variety of beer friendly foods you could purchase to fortify you for the day.

Arriving at the fest, I found Ed O’Neill (the Andes Hotel owner) and got the hook-up for my sampling wrist band and mug plus a nice list/menu of the beers offered that day. Ed mentioned the Otter Creek offering – a Russian Imperial Stout on cask – had just been opened. Without hesitation, I decided to start the day with something VERY big. (Possibly not the wisest move…)

The Otter Creek Russian Imperial is a lovely creamy stout. Deep black color with a dark brown creamy head. Excellent coffee chocolate aroma that carries over into the tasting. Big body with a massive creaminess – not to mention a nice alcohol kick. A perfect start to the day – but I should have probably had food first…

I decided to head over to the Butternuts table next. I first ran into Butternuts Brewery with their Porkslap Pale Ale (with one of the best logo designs EVER and in cans!). Their “Nice Cans” tank top was quite the hit with the ladies (though a few of the male attendees might have qualified as well…) Keeping with kicking the day off with stouts – “It’s not just for breakfast anymore!” – I sampled the Butternuts Moo Thunder Stout. A nice milk stout somewhat sweet with a light body and very clean finish. Not a lot of creaminess, but definitely a fine American stout.

At this point, I decided it might be best to switch off the stouts for a bit and tried some of the Heineweisse – Butternuts’ Hefe. An excellent slightly spicy beer with a great color and a crisp body and yeasty aroma. Mrs. Ohabeer had already had the Heineweisse and had moved on to one of the unreleased brews Butternuts had brought: Harvest Ale. She told me I had to make this my next beer!

Good god! The Butternuts Harvest Ale is AMAZING! This is a big farmhouse ale made with pumpkin, squash, sweet potato, ginger, cinnamon, clove and allspice. It’s got a nice balance of sweet to sour (most farmhouse ales are a bit too sour for me) and a beautiful gold/amber color. Big frothy white head and a spicy aroma. The brewer (I forget his name) said he left this in open fermenters for a period to pick up wild yeasts from the Butternuts farm. The result is a medium body ale with a very complex flavor. The sweetness of the pumpkin and sweet potato open followed by the spices. Then it all closes out with a perfect amount of sourness. Add to this the fact it has quite a little kick and you’ve got the winner ale for the day.

Good news is Butternuts is considering bottling the Harvest Ale in 750ml with champagne corks. It would be the first bottles Butternuts has done. I certainly hope it happens as I want a few of these for the cellar.

After the kick of the Butternuts Harvest Ale, it seemed like a good idea to perhaps get some food. Over the course of the day, Mrs. Ohabeer and I ended up having two meals – such is the case with much free beer sampling. I started with the Wild Boar Chili. I mean – really – if you see Wild Boar Chili on a menu you simply MUST order WIld Boar Chili. The boar was nice and tender, but sadly a bit bland. I prefer a much spicer (and thicker) chili. This was a bit more like a Wild Boar Soup, but it went down well with a Geary’s Hampshire Special Ale. The Geary’s is a medium bodied malty ale with a nice sweetness and a touch of hops.

Later in the day – as shown on the right above – when the sampling had gotten WAY out of control – we went back in for a Bratwurst as we were looking for some starch to soak up the alcohol. Good snappiness to the brat – though again a bit bland for my taste. Nice tasty brat bun and great kraut. The potato salad also helped in the alcohol soaking. I had the Butternut Outrage with the brat. A medium bodied IPA with a big cascade taste. Worked nicely with the sausage.

With a bit of food consumed, it was back to the sampling. We had noticed Ommegang was in the Summer Shack by the bar and wondered if perhaps they had brought any off menu beers. In particular, we were looking to sample Biere de Mars. The OAB HQ are big fans of Ommegang (it is actually required by law if living in the Catskills) but the $16 for a bottle of Biere de Mars kept us from picking it up without a tasting. Thankfully, Ommegang came with several bottles for tasting. For those who are also wondering if it is worth it, the answer is definitely yes. This is a lovely deep brown Belgain ale. Tons of sweet malty goodness with a massive backend kick. It’s a big beer and one well worth the price of admission.

While all the beers were great, there was one other major standout for the day: Southern Tier Iniquity Black IPA. It’s sort of the bastard offspring of a medium stout/dark ale crossed with a hop bomb. Jet black color with a solid malty front than ends with a massive hop punch. Such a great beer and an excellent twist on the usual hop bomb. A perfect summer drink when you want both a stoutish ale and a ton of citrusy hops.

Mrs. Ohabeer had two fascinating bathroom experiences during the fest. First, she had to endure complaints about the lack of Bud Lite at a craft beer fest. That almost caused her to storm the men’s room and use it instead. Her second encounter featured the group discussing what a great place a beer fest is to meet guys. “It’s like 5 to 1 here!” “Ummm, yes,” thought Mrs. Ohabeer ” there are a lot of guys here. though perhaps not many who realize if you’re going to drink big craft beers – you have to exercise…” By the way – who the hell wears shoes like this to an outdoor beer fest in the Catskills when you’re drinking and walking in a field?

All in all an absolutely remarkable day. Perfect weather, a great band (The Roundhouse Rockers), nice crowd, good food and excellent beer. I ended up skipping any beer I was familiar with in order to give myself the ability to drink a bit more of the unfamiliar and not end up comatose.

Here are quick takes on the rest of my samplings:

Rogue American Ale: a malty caramel amber. Deep amber color with big body and heavy caramel sugar taste.

Allagash White Ale: citrusy spicy nice cloudy wit with a solid yeasty edge.

Captain Lawrence Frescheater Pale Ale: Fresh hopped pale. Nice gold color. Great citrusy hops flavor. Excellent flowery aroma.

Anchor Liberty Ale: Clear medium body pale ale. Nice hoppiness very mellow flavor. Crisp and clean.

Victory Prima Pils: Not bad on the hoppiness but really not a pilsner fan. A bit too light for me. Especially this late in the fest given I had been drinking big bold beers for about two hours.

Stoudts Scarlet lady. Hmmm not sure. English bitter with a malt nose. Again, might have been more impressive earlier in the day.

Otter Creek Oktoberfest: Not bad but again a bit too late in the day. A little sweet with a decent malt to hop balance.

Complete list of beers at the 2009 fest:

Anchor Brewing (San Francisco, CA)
- Steam
- Porter
- Liberty Ale

Allagash Brewing (Portland, ME)
- White Ale

Abita Brewing Co. (Abita Springs, LA)
- Turbo Dog
- Purple Haze

Butternuts Brewing (Garrattsville, NY)
- Snapperhead IPA
- Moo Thunder Stout
- Heinnieweisse
- Porkslap Pale Ale
- Harvest Ale
- Outrage

Captain Lawrence Brewing (Pleasantville, NY)
- Freschester Pale Ale

Flying Dog Brewing (Frederick, MD)
- Doggie Style Ale

Geary’s Brewing (Portland, ME)
- Hampshire Ale

Ommegang Brewing (Cooperstown, NY)
- Hennipin
- Rare Vos
- Witte
- Biere de Mars

Otter Creek Brewing (Middlebury, VT)
- Oktoberfest
= Russian Imperial Stout (cask)

Rogue Brewing (Newport, OR)
- American Ale

Southern Tier Brewing (Lakewood, NY)
- Iniquity Black IPA

Stoudts Brewing (Adamstown, PA)
- Scarlet Lady

Victory Brewing (Downington, PA)
- Prima Pils

For the most part, Mrs. Ohabeer and I tend to stick around OAB HQ choosing in the spring/summer/fall to drink on our deck or in the winter by the fireplace. Every so often – however – we get the itch to get out of the house, try a new place and perhaps meet some new people. The opportunity to have good craft beers at a pub in our area of New York State is fairly thin. So we were extremely happy to have ventured to The Andes Hotel last winter. After reviewing it in a Random Beers in Various Bars, I received a note from the owner – Ed O’Neill – about an event he’s got coming up on May 30th.

When: Saturday May 30th : 2pm – 6pm
What: American Craft Beer Fest
Where: Andes Hotel
(110 Main St., Andes, NY : 845 – 676-3980)
Admission: $20 for unlimited beer tastings

They are having an American Craft Beer Fest in their “Summer Shack”. (The “Summer Shack” is a great pole barn bar with plenty of picnic tables.) The $20 admission will get you unlimited tastings of the participating breweries. Plus there will be beer friendly food (not included in the admission) and music by The Roundhouse Rockers. It’s a rain or shine event and certainly where you’ll find the Ohabeer HQ on May 30th.

Ed says some of the breweries will have reps there so you can beer geek out and there might be a few rarities/surprises. Here’s the list of participating breweries: Ommegang, Allagash, Geary’s, Anchor, Stoudts, Victory, Abita, Otter Creek, Butternuts, Southern Tier, Harpoon, Captain Lawrence and Flying Dog.

It’s going to be a great time! If you happen to come by, ask around for Mr. Ohabeer and say hi.

Brewery: Southern Tier
Location: Lakewood, NY
Style: Imperial Chocolate Stout

Few things go together better than bitter Belgian chocolate and a big imperial stout. I have yet to encounter a “made with chocolate” stout that I have not found at least somewhat enjoyable. The Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout – however – elevates the chocolate stout to another level.

This may very well be the best chocolate stout I have tasted. It pours midnight black with a light brown foamy head. The head fell rather quickly, but that really did not matter. What followed the head falling was an intense scent of bittersweet chocolate. The taste begins with a very pronounced bitter chocolate (to be expected from the scent) but finished with a hint of coffee. Big roasty malt tones abound as well. It’s a chewy stout with a massive taste and lots of creaminess. Like drinking an 11% ABV dark Belgian chocolate bar in a glass.

The only sad point in the experience is this is one of Southern Tier’s Winter Seasonals and I only bought one bottle. A stock up is certainly in order when this returns next year.

Brewery: Southern Tier
Location: Lakewood, NY
Style: Pale Ale

In my continuing quest to embrace the hops, I picked up a six of Southern Tier Phin & Matt’s Extraordinary Ale. It’s a decision I’m glad I made but that Mrs. Ohabeer wasn’t keen about (she is NOT a hop fan).

This pours a beautiful clear gold color with a bright white head. While the head falls pretty quickly, the beer itself has a nice amount of carbonation. The aroma is a blend of big flowery hops and sweet malt. As is often the case with a well made brew, the taste matches the aroma. Perfect balance of sweet malt with a big hop punch. It is a bit on the dry side, but that does not reduce the drinkability. A fairly low alcohol – 5.6% ABV – keeps this in the “have a couple” category.

Smooth and refreshing with a perfect sweet to bitter balance, I see this beer easily showing up on the deck this summer while grilling.

A recent trip to NYC for taxes prep and some serious craft beer crinking (more on that later) offered the opportunity to stop by Half Time in Poughkeepsie (the Ohabeer craft temple) to re-stock the cellar. We decided to focus on bombers and large bottles with a couple of growlers for this trip. Just an experiment to see if we prefer splitting a large bottle or having multiple six packs.

Growlers
Troeg’s Nugget Nectar
Lagunitas Harry Eyeball
Cave Mountain Nut Brown Ale
Cave Mountain Spiced Winter Ale
Cave Mountain Java Cream Ale

12oz bottles
Left Hand Milk Stout
Goose Island Oatmeal Stout
Southern Tier Phin + Matt’s Extraordinary Ale
Ithaca CascaZilla Red Ale
Dogfish Head Midas Touch

Large Bottles
Brooklyn Black Ops
Two Brothers Red Eye Coffee Porter
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
Dogfish Head Red + White
Harpoon Catamount Maple Wheat (session 26)
Shmaltz Coney Island Albino Python White Lager with Spices
Shmaltz Coney Island Human Blockhead Lager
Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout

Looking forward to all of these – or I would not have bought them – but the Brooklyn Black Ops, Dogfish Head Midas Touch and Dogfish Head Red + White are especially anticipated. Hope them live up to their reputations.

When Mrs. Ohabeer and I venture our of the Ohabeer HQ and end up in a bar, it is most likely I am ordering beer. Living in upstate NY does not often afford one the opportunity for the fine art of mixology – I haven’t had a decent margarita since leaving NYC – so that the beer gods for the in roads made by craft beers even at local bars. Invariably, I’ll bring along the handy iPod Touch to see if there is WiFi in the bar (thus allowing for twittering while drinking) and to make notes on the beers drank. As I am attempting to be social while out drinking, I do not take any sort of detailled tasting note, but just something quick and simple.

So, here is the first installment of Random Beers in Various Bars wherein I clean out the notes I have on recent nights out.

Fox & Firkin Pub (Colonie, NY)
112 Wolf Road, Colonie, New York 12205 (518) 453-2369
When heading to the Colonie/Albany area for shopping, we used to hit the Old Chicago for some lunch and a great selection of craft beer. Sadly, they went out of business in January 2009. Luckily, this chain pub is located right across the street. It’s the usual ersatz English pub filtered through a marketer’s vision, but that do have an excellent beer menu. With lunch I had a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (on tap. lovely hoppy pale ale) and Rogue Dead Guy Ale (in a bottle. nice cloudy copper color. Smooth ale with what tastes like a hint of honey). They also carried the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, but as I had more shopping to do, I took a pass.

Andes Hotel (Andes, NY)
110 Main St., Andes, NY 13731 (845) 676-4408
You just have to love a bar with snowmobile parking. We ventured here one Saturday drawn by their local cable ads claiming the most craft beers in the area. Given the area we live in, that could have meant three. Luckily, it was around 30 with several on tap. Started with the Southern Tier Unearthly Imperial IPA on tap served in a goblet. Very hoppy rich gold ale with a thick head. 11% ABV limited me to one of these. Followed with a pint of Southampton Porter on tap. A thinnish head on a nice deep chocolate colored brew. Good balance of maltiness to chocoloate sweetness with a slight coffee back end. Finished the night with a Snapperhead IPA on tap. This might have been a mistake after the Southern Tier IPA. There is a bit of hoppiness, but mostly I am getting nothing. Could have fried the tastebuds? Might have to try this another time. Though the more I drank, the better it got. Also available at Andes Hotel: Weyerbach, Abita, Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Brooklyn, Yuengling, Ommegang, Magic Hat, Leinenkugel and more. They even have a few imported Belgians.

Baba Louie’s Pizza (Hudson, NY)
517 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 12534 518.751.2155
Had lunch here. Very nice artisanal pizzas. Excellent toppings. Had a couple of C.H. Evans Kick-Ass Brown Ales. Solid simple brown ale.

Spotty Dog Books & Ale (Hudson, NY)
440 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 12534 .T 518 671 6006
This was an amazing find. They were having a beer tasting that evening, but we could not stay that late. It is a bookstore with a bar. Nice selection of crafts on tap. The real story is it is located in what was the original C.H. Evans brewery space and so their core beers are from C.H. Evans. I went with a Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre (on tap) as I had not had it in a while. Such a great brew. I love the fact you can taste the raisins without it being too cloy. Mrs. Ohabeer had a Chatham Porter (also on tap). Nice rich color and a decent porter taste.

Brewery: Southern Tier
Location: Lakewood, NY
Style: Imperial Helles Lager

As it is Christmas eve, I thought I’d do one more review. This one is a bit relevant. krampus
is the anti-Claus doling out punishment to all the naughty children during the holiday season.

It is also the name of a seasonal Imperial Helles Lager from New York brewers Southern Tier.

I am basically not a huge fan of the seasonal winter ales. Either they end up being a bit too “potpourri in a glass” or – like this – a “dare you to drink it” style beer. I’m sure there are many folks who dig this brew. I am not one of them. Way too hoppy for my tastes. Left a somewhat gnarley after taste. I kind of felt like it was my punishment for buying based on bottle art. Truly great artwork, but not planning on going here again.