Ithaca Beer Brewers Blog

Summer’s almost here!

May 21st, 2008

Ok, gang…. I suck as a blogger.

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!

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Wow, It’s March already?

March 7th, 2008

That must mean there’s some sort of a tournament with brackety-type things going on, right? I kid, I kid. For those of you not already following along at home, the “National IPA Championship” has been going on for the past couple of weeks.

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.

Bottles of TEN

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”.

Bill's Moustache

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.

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White Gold

January 27th, 2008

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!

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Happy New Beer Year!

December 26th, 2007

It’s been a great year folks! Thanks so much for your loyal support and interest in what we’re doing, clearly all of this would be impossible without your willingness to buy our products and we’re grateful for your patronage.

We’re wrapping up the year with brew #319(#1888 overall). That puts us exactly 20% above last year’s 266, about the same amount of growth that we’ve done every year since 1997, but this marks the first time that we’ve increased output over 1,000 barrels(31.1 US gallons) in a year. As we begin our 10th year, it’s likely not the last time!

We’ve got a TON of interesting stuff in the tanks right now, including the upcoming (planned for February release) Pils which is tasting just great. This year’s twist is that we’ve gone back to the Chief’s “roots” and borrowed German Lager Yeast from our friends at High Falls Brewing Company(Thanks Dave!). Their brewery is a truly unique place that is a relatively integral(if unsung) part of growing up in Upstate New York. We got the full behind-and-above-the-scenes tour and all I can say is WOW. Here is a photo of “Hobo” Mike wearing a beardnet while we toured the brewery.

Mike in a beard net!

Amongst other claims to fame, they have what was once the world’s largest kettle at 1,000 barrels- which they fill and boil 5-7 times per day(To put that in perspective, more or less the same amount of beer that earlier on in this post I was so proud to have brewed in a year….in ONE DAY!). I highly recommend a visit for anyone who finds themselves in the Flour City. Anyway, they gave us a pitch of their nice, clean Lager Yeast from one of their 400 gallon brinks and it took right off, even quicker than others that I’ve used in the past. One of the 400 gallon yeast brinks at High Falls:

It’s been since last winter that we’ve run a lager fermentation, and I just love having them in the cellar alongside the Ales to give perspective on how broad the world of beer is.

In just one row of fermenters we’ve got the Pils(very angular, zesty hoppy), Winterizer(Dark Belgian Holiday Ale, flavors of Orange and Clove), 2 batches of Flower Power(fruity, very stinky hoppy), ‘Zilla(good old ‘Zilla, caramel and citrus), and drumroll please…… a Golden Sour Ale (puckering and effervescent), our first attempt at an American Wild Ale (tons more info on this beer coming). In the barrel rack we’ve got a whole batch of Old Habit slumbering in the wood alongside of a couple more surprise revelations. A lot of very divergent beers, each to be loved in a unique way.

So, you know about the impending releases of White Gold, Pils and Old Habit. You know that we’re playing with different ways of fermenting beer, and you know that we’re having fun(maybe too much?). What you don’t know is what we are doing for our 10th anniversary. Well, did I mention good old ‘Zilla? In a lot of ways, CascaZilla has become our flagship. Apricot Wheat still sells a bit more, but Zilla is the one that we all bring home from the brewery year ’round and enjoy thoroughly. It’s the sort of beer that I really missed when we moved back here from the SF Bay Area, and really pushed to get into production way back when too few Northeast brewers were making assertively hoppy beers, not really the case anymore. It’s the first seasonal release that you all refused to let us retire, and forced into the permanent lineup. ‘Zilla is emblematic of what we’re trying to do here at IBC, make beers that are inspired by other great beers but have a unique twist(or two). So, without further ado, I am proud to announce that “10″ will be an Imperial American Extra Strong and Special Double Red Ale. The recipe is based on a doubling of that for CascaZilla plus some other fun stuff thrown in for good measure. We’re brewing it the first week of the new year, coinciding with the arrival of our first pallet of fresh 2007 crop US Hops (It will have really heavy-handed amounts of Amarillo, Chinook, Crystal and, of course, Cascade) and the exhaustion of the LAST BATCH of our Double IPA. It should debut as the next new Excelsior! beer right around Valentine’s Day. It will not be subtle.

Speaking of THE LAST BATCH of Double IPA, tomorrow’s cask-conditioned session at Pixel will be the LAST PIN of the LAST BATCH of it. Dryhopped excessively with Fresh NY hop flowers, it’ll be a great way to celebrate the new beer year. Did I mention it will be your LAST CHANCE to try this beer in this format? 7pm Thursdays.

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More News

December 19th, 2007

The really super big news (from an operational standpoint), is that we finally got a Malt Silo Last week. I’ve done the math, and by the end of the month we’ll have cut open around 10,000 50-55# sacks of malt this year alone. That is a lot of malt, in case you wondered. The silo is a stunning pastel yellow color, and 30-some feet high, and it holds over 50,000 pounds of malt. I can’t think of a structure in the Town of Ithaca that is taller! If I knew how to put a photo here for you, I would(perhaps I can get Alex to help out tomorrow) as it is truly a magnificent sight to behold. “But Chief, what does that mean for me?” Well firstly, it means that I’ll be able to pay more attention to other stuff between the hours of 6 and 7 Am(maybe blogging) and 11 Am and noon(maybe eating lunch), rather than humping 10,000 sacks of grain up into the mill. Secondly, it means that we’ll be able to do even more fun stuff inside of our building where we currently store all of our base malt.

Silo

“Like what kind of fun stuff, Chief?” Well, I’m glad that you asked! We’ve begun, in earnest(finally), a barrel-aging program. Last week saw us acquire some beautiful used Red Wine barrels from our friends at Lucas Vineyards(http://www.lucasvineyards.com/), and a new round of Rye Whiskey barrels (This time, Heaven Hill) for the impending release of the 2nd batch of Old Habit. With Bill J.’s handyman skills we were able to whip up some barrel racks out of basically nothing, and alongside our other barrels, we’ve now got what is a really nice display. Come on down for a tour!

Barrels

“Other barrels? What you talkin’bout, Chief?” Well, you read it here first. We confirmed attendance at the 5th annual Extreme Beer Fest (http://beeradvocate.com/fests/ebf) this week. It’s put on by the folks who run BeerAdvocate, and they do a great job showcasing the best in Beer. We’re honored to be amongst the roster of outstanding American brewers, and we are going to bring some “game”. I know that there are rumors going around about what may be laying in wait in the brewery, and I’m here to confirm at least one of them. It is true that we’ve been aging our Gorges Smoked Porter in a Tabasco Sauce Barrel(originally a Jim Beam Barrel, and then used to store chili paste for at least 2 years) for the last 2 months or so. Thank you, McIlhenny Company (http://www.tabasco.com/main.cfm)! We’ll be bringing that, some of the aforementioned Old Habit, and about 5 other top-secret surprises(our 10th Anniversary Beer, A jacked-up Double IPA, etc.). Don’t miss this event!

“But I live here in Ithaca, and I’m thirsty now!” Ok, come to Pixel tomorrow for a cask-conditioned Winterizer(appropriate this week, right?) with FRESH CLEMENTINE ZEST! Yummy. 7PM Thursday.