There’s an upstate New York and they have rad beer – Pt. III – Southern Tier

After a dip in the Finger Lakes in Ithaca and some time recovering from welts that must have been caused by the weird kelp-like junk found in said lakes we made our way toward Southern Tier in Lakewood, NY. A brewery pushing ten years in business we quickly learned that Southern Tier is named for the road that takes you there, and driving along the Southern Tier Expressway only made me thirsty.

I hadn't had much Southern Tier beer prior, but I knew the logo well.

I was excited to visit Southern Tier out on the far edge of NY state, and though in Jamestown they’ll tell you my title is wrong (because they’re actually Western NY state) I was just stoked to arrive. I had spoken to Nathan on the phone earlier in the morning, and had found his number by searching the website until I found someone with Media in their title, and promptly calling up and making an idiot of myself. Once I finished stumbling through the explanation of why the hell someone was driving 17,000 miles to visit breweries (cuz I’m awesome) he agreed to meet that afternoon and show us around.

The brewery has an arts and crafts theme and the architecture and building accents are all appealingly designed.

Badass Achievement Unlocked - having your logo burned into the wooden entrance wall of your brewery.

Once you enter and have gotten over the shock of standing in front of a 6 foot tall Southern Tier logo (that’s the bathroom door on the left for reference) you notice that the placed is locked up like a WWII bunker. The secretary is your only way in, so you have to be charming and kind. I, of course, blurted out something along the lines of,” I’m here to see Nathan, and to look at, um, the beer stuff.” Mission Accomplished. Nathan came out and greeted us in the lobby and we chatted for a few minutes about the building, Southern Tier artwork, and coffee. Then we took a turn to the right and headed toward The Empty Pint, their on-site taproom.

Over the handles you can see the taproom and outdoor seating on-site at the brewery.

The indoor space probably has room for about 60 people comfortably, and maybe upwards of 150 in a reception type setting. There are tons of tap handles, each brandishing a different weapon to swing at your tastebuds.

We didn't try the Farmer's Tan but i had a wicked Driver's Tan

There are also a few choices in bottles from other breweries, and some snacks and a sandwich choice to nosh on. The taps are a bit overwhelming, but we forged ahead and tried a few of the offerings so I could give you folks a good honest opinion on what to drink. Not all of the beers I list here we tried at the brewery, since the taproom was technically closed, but I did have all of them within a day of visiting the place.

422 Pale Wheat Ale – I’ve started adding links to BA in these lists because I think getting a variety of opinion is a good thing. This beer lists as worthy on there, and I would agree – it has light hop notes though they’re not especially notable and a medium malt presence that didn’t do much for me at first. I must admit however, I enjoyed it much more in a bottle that evening outside in the heat. It strikes me as a gateway beer that might need the right setting to be truly enjoyed by a nerd, what it lacks in complexity it makes up for by being a quality beer you can hand anyone without worry.

Hop Sun Summer Wheat – This is the beer 422 wishes it was – solid grainy wheat on the tongue accompanied by great estery smells that help it go down without fading away. Only a little more hop than 422 but enough to bring out the citrus and even a mild honey note in the mix. A great summer beer that again I really enjoyed in the evening heat.

A few classics on tap and a few locals-only brews as well.

2xIPA – Ok, so this is a bit of a jump from the last pour but that didn’t affect my tasting thanks to a coffee in hand – at least I hope not. I really enjoyed 2x and it reminded me a bit of home with more fruit, particularly citrus, in the nose than the pine I had grown used to on the East Coast. Oddly enough though the malty sweetness overpowered the hop to my taste. Still a hell of a pour and something I would order regularly if I lived on the East Coast I was surprised that the hop wasn’t the dominant flavor considering how much the beer smelled of punchy hop oils.

Creme Brulee Stout – This brew we had from a bottle so comparisons to the tap beers are off. This is one of the beers I knew Southern Tier for, and I wasn’t disappointed. Strong chocolate stout overtones were quickly overtaken by that familiar mix of burnt sugar and cream I love so well. I was surprised how on the head they hit this one, and even without the bottle my immediate first thought would be creme brulee. Probably a bottle best to be shared between several people (at least that’s how we did it) I do understand why it comes in a 6-10 oz. glass most places – much more than that and it starts to become extremely heavy.

When you found the brewery you get a beer named after you - rules are rules.

Choklat – A pure black liquid poured into another tiny glass this brew filled the room with the aroma of melting baker’s chocolate. A complete lack of head and intense syrupy pour give way to a smell that is equally intense up close. Very little hint of the 11% ABV makes its way past the intense cocoa flavor and mild bitter finish. A really enjoyable sipper that lives up to its name in every way.

As we finished our tastes and looked through the glass windows that made up the wall of the taproom toward the 200 barrel fermenters beyond our host beckoned us into the brewery. We started by slapping on a pair of safety glasses each and making our way through the offices to the brewery entryway. First on the agenda was the large bottling line, running when we arrived but slowing to a halt by the time I snapped a few photos.

How many bottles a minute? Like, you know, a fuckin lot.

The summer beers were being packaged for shipping sooner rather than later, and a crew of about five worked the line at max efficiency. The majority of breweries regularly experience bottlenecks in production, whether not enough fermenters, too slow a bottling line, or too few interns to sacrifice to Ninkasi. I noticed that there didn’t seem to be any bottlenecks here, but was quickly corrected when I learned that more fermenters were on their way soon. Luckily because of my computer crashing I’ve taken long enough to write this that you can see the new fermenters here (a bit down with the comparison photos)! We also checked out the filling station of the bottling line, which is behind glass doors on this particular unit.

Welcome to the bottling zoo - hands and legs inside the cart at all times.

We then turned our attention to the brewhouse itself, which consisted of a sweet platform and a number of vessels designed to keep the wort flowing almost non-stop.

More brewery pron you say - Bam!

Short and stout, just the way I like my vessels, Aww Yeah.

A healthy staff of brewers keeps your favorite beer flowing out of these bad boys regularly enough that you should be sending them thank you cards at Christmas. Just across the room were rows of fermenters and a few operations folks making sure everything was being shifted between tanks at max efficiency. Sanitizer and beer were both flowing in opposite directions to different tanks and the whole operation was surprisingly smooth.

The row of fermenters you can see from the taproom, they're basically the strippers on stage of the operation.

Caution tape and electronic controls - these are a few of my favorite things.

That concluded our time at Southern Tier, and as we made our way back out to the entrance we passed the employee chalkboard. I couldn’t help but grab a photo since I too appreciate a solid South Park joke.

Does every brewery have a chalkboard? I report, you decide, no one cares.

As is tradition – Cheers!

There’s an upstate New York, and they have rad beer – Pt. II – Ithaca Beer

After leaving Cooperstown and zoning out for 150 miles of country roads we pulled into an unassuming parking lot in Ithaca, NY. A modest building built into a small strip mall had an easy-to-miss sign out front reading Ithaca Beer.

Tastings - that's all I needed to hear.

I thought it was about time I got in the spirit of the Finger Lakes, and so I did. Ithaca Beer maintains a small but diverse inventory of homebrew equipment and ingredients alongside a sizable brewing operation behind the scenes. The tasting room offers a number of Ithaca beers (8 on the day we visited) that include both year-round offerings and a few seasonal choices to wet your whistle. If that wasn’t enough, the tasting room is full of friendly folks working to answer questions and fill growlers in spare moments.

They've got a few medals on their shelf, but in fairness one is from the 1984 Olympics when the beer was juicing.

The tasting room also has a couple still life dioramas that are begging to be photographed.

The tasting we went through was from lightest to darkest, as many breweries are wont to do. The summer line-up was on tap and it looked something like this:

Partly Sunny – A nearly 5% witbier that was on tap as the summer seasonal. I have to admit this was probably my favorite beer on the chalkboard, though it’s almost entirely because of the weather. We had spent two hours in the car in 90 degree heat, and as our first beer this was so damn refreshing I had to smile. Light, straw-colored, dry, and a bit tart this hit the spot and would be a great lawnmower beer.

Apricot Wheat – For all my praise of Partly Sunny, I thought Apricot Wheat fell short of the mark. A bit too sweet overall and overwhelmingly apricot flavored this beer is simply not up my alley. While I enjoy fruit beer, I prefer it to be the underlying flavor to the beer, and here it takes over the show.

Rough Draft – This wheat ale poured a hazy yellow and had a mild citrus nose that dissipates quickly, at least on a taster glass sized serving. There’s a bit of banana in the nose as well, though it also goes too soon. I enjoyed the small serving, but in a larger serving I don’t know that I would go for more than a pint.

Rough Draft in its native state

Pale Ale – Proof that Ithaca has been around a while, their Pale Ale is called simply Pale. A strong fruity aroma emanates from the amber brew and this is the first brew with a hop presence. A solid pale that strikes me as an East Coast version of Sierra Nevada’s classic green bottled offering.

Flower Power – My second favorite of Ithaca’s taps this pours a dark straw color with a ton of haze and strong hop aromas from a few feet away. Surprisingly balanced for how strong the aroma is, the beer finishes dry on the palate after a powerful starting line blast of hop flavor and background malt. A great summer beer again, and extremely tasty.

Flower Power is a damn fine East Coast IPA, and has a sweet handle to boot.

Cascazilla – A dark red ale with a direct Cascade punch (thus the name) the brew has metallic tints and an almost harsh hop presence. Not as balanced as Flower Power, though I think that the intention with this beer is a hop bomb in the truest sense. Smooth and tasty, but I don’t think I would be able to finish a full pint of this hoppy monster.

Smoked Porter – No link on this one as the only listed porter on BA was named differently, though it might just have been a name change. We had this last and it was tremendously smoky and smooth, and a nice change in pace from the previous brews. We also had a chance to try a soured version of the beer that I preferred to the smoked version slightly. It tasted more like a beer made with acidulated malt, and had a mild tartness I enjoyed.

After our tasting we went on a tour through the brewery’s back hallways and equipment, checking out where the magic happens. As we made our way back through the break room and into the brewery we passed a pile of casks for Ithaca’s special events.

We heard about upcoming Ithaca brews, including a repeat of a sour beer that should be hitting the market soon if it hasn’t already. We passed a pallet of acidulated malt waiting to make its way into the tun and bring you another round of tasty sour beer in 750 ml bottles.

Damn their beer is Hot Hot Hot!

Oh, and there's a damn cute pilot system for cranking out small batches too!

After the brewhouse we wound around past the mill room and saw the packaging and bottling line. A bottling system that puts out a good portion of Ithaca’s nearly 10,000 barrels per year was sitting silent while a brewer moved beer and sanitizer around the fermenters.

A brew schedule leaning against the insulated fermenters

And yet more fermentation - brite tanks with flat bottoms lined up for, you know, brite beer.

After a few questions we made our way back out to the front room. On the way I spotted an oddity and snapped a shot – not entirely sure but it might be the cork and cage setup.

Or it's a bottle torturer

Back in the tasting room we wandered the selection for a bit and chatted with the locals grabbing beer. It was nice to see a solid mix of tourists from out of town grabbing some local beer and folks from just around the corner sneaking in for a quick growler fill for the weekend.

I felt at home in Ithaca I think because of its similarity to the Bay Area. Both are known for wine but have incredible beer culture, both are intrinsically gorgeous (or Gorges for locals), and both are full of outdoorsy folks that like to go on long hikes and wash down the dust with a great craft beer.

And finally, before we headed out we took a glance at the expansion plans  hanging on the wall – a plan for impressive growth.

A new facility, brewery, and more - I'll be back 🙂

If you live in the area head out to Ithaca Beer and have a few tastes before you decide on a growler or bottle to leave with – after all the beer is Finger Lakin’ Good.

Cheers!