May 2009 Archives

The Rochester Jazz Festival will have plenty of Brooklyn beer available, according to the Brooklyn Brewery, a sponsor of the event.  Several venues will feature Brooklyn beer and it will also be available at beer trailers between East Ave. and Chestnut St. and East Ave. and Alexander St.

Some festival numbers:

800: Performers
150: Shows
9: Days of Performances

The Rochester Jazz Festival is from June 12 through June 20. Visit the official festival site here and view a pictorial PDF of the lineup here.

The Utica Observer-Dispatch has a look back at the fire at the FX Matt Brewery, where Saranac is made.  The article includes a sizable Q&A with CEO Nick Matt and a quite a few comments from the local fanclub.

http://www.uticaod.com/news/x1829912919/Fire-reported-at-FX-Matts-Brewery

It's tuesday, and in less than 48 hours Saranac Thursdays will officially kick off at the FX Matt Brewery in Utica, NY.

Gates open at 5pm and admission is $5, which also secures your first drink.  Weather.com is calling for a high of 74 degrees and thunderstorms- not exactly conducive to outside imbibing, but perhaps the outlook will improve.  The scheduled band is the local staple Showtime. 

When the courtyard closes at eight, take a walk down Varick St. for a variety of options to continue the evening.  Among those are Nail Creek, a great beer bar with good atmosphere and The Electric Company, featuring Mecca Bodega.

Saranac Thursdays raises money for the United Way.

The Drinks blog on Syracuse.com recently announced Southern Tier's new Imperial Cherry Saison, a seasonal offering.  Cherry flavored beers have never been a big hit with me, especially when the word "cherry" is part of the beer's name.  But, Southern Tier makes some great beer (just finished a sixpack of the IPA, top-notch) and I consider myself open to trying new things.  Perhaps it was the Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat that put me off the cherry flavor, but that's another story. 

The Imperial Cherry Saison is 10% abv, so you might want to sip.

An article from Oneonta's The Daily Star sent shivers down my spine.  The Cooperstown Brewing Co. may go out of business if the bottle bill goes through.

From the article:

If New York's new bottle law takes effect June 1 as planned, the Cooperstown Brewing Co. may go out of business. ``The law's a nightmare, and there's no way I can comply,'' said President Stan Hall, whose brewery is home to Old Slugger and other beers.

I have visited the Cooperstown Brewing Co. several times.  About a mile from Ommegang, it it makes the second half of a perfect beer-tasting road-trip.  The brewery has a family-operated feel to it that endears it to visitors who are greeted by the resident dog and cat.  The Old Slugger beer is a personal favorite of mine, and of many others.

Hopefully this is not the end of the road for a great small business.

This article from the Center for American Progress highlights breweries with eco-friendly practices.  A few highlights:

Brooklyn Brewery - 100% wind-powered
Wolaver's (Vermont) - Sources local ingredients
Belgium Brewing - Gives employees bicycles
Sierra Nevada - Produces biofuel

Interesting stuff... see the article for more details and more environmentally friendly business practices being used.

The New York Post published a guide to 100 places to go less than six hours from NYC.  Coming in at #79 is Lake Placid.  Among the things to do?  Getting a pint, of course.  I twittered this link yesterday, but felt it deserves a mention on ye olde blog.

Read the feature here.

Going to be in the Lake Placid area?  From the official site of the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery (makers of Ubu Ale):

2009 Barleywine Dinner at the Pub will be Wednesday June 3rd at 6:30pm.  Contact info@ubuale.com or come by the Pub for tickets.  Five vintages of Twice Bitten Barleywine (2004-2008) plus our first ever cask-conditioned beer will be on tap, paired with great food and accompanied by discussion of the beers with the LP brewing staff.

Lake Placid's Twice Bitten Barleywine was awarded 2nd best beer in the Hudson Valley at TAP NY this year.

From an article in the Charleston City Paper:

I found several shelves' worth of tasty Saranac Pale Ale in 32 oz. growlers on sale for $2.77 a pop at a local Piggly Wiggly last week. It was a killer bargain too sweet to pass up...

Read more here.

Every Thursday beginning May 28th, thousands of beer lovers will descend upon the brewery district in Utica, NY to enjoy the summer staple that is Saranac Thursdays.

Saranac Thursdays are one part beer, one part socializing and one part music.  And now the band lineup has been posted to the Saranac events page - be sure to check it out for full information on Saranac events including the Saranac concert series.

Saranac Thursdays Schedule:

May 28th
Showtime

June 4th
Crazy Fools

June 11th
Gridley Paige

June 18th
The Thang

June 25th
The Bomb

July 2nd
Fulton Chain Gang

July 9th
The Custom Taylor Band

July 16th
Chokeslam

July 23rd
T.B.A.

July 30th
The Morning After

August 6th
Wooden Spoon

August 13th
Dead Rose

August 20th
Under The Gun

August 27th
Dashboard Nixon

September 3rd
Lynch- A Pre-moe.down Throwdown

Good article in The Daily Gazette out of Schenectady on the possible impact of the bottle bill.  A quote from the article:

Nick Matt, president of F.X. Matt Brewery in Utica, which makes the Saranac line of beers and soft drinks, called the UPC code requirement "costly and terribly inefficient. If every state in the union required this, interstate commerce would grind to a halt."

Read the full article here.  A lot of perspective from Saranac, Olde Saragota Brewery and more.

BeerNews.org
Ithaca's next Excelsior! an Old Habit
And it's aged in rye whiskey barrels for eight months.

A Blog About Beer
2009 Vermont Brewers Festival Lineup Announced
A solid list with a few special guests from New York State.

The Foaming Head
Olde Saratoga's IPA Release
Great town, great beer style. Maybe I just found something to do next weekend...

Syracuse.com Drinks Blog
Real Ale Fest on tap this weekend in Syracuse
Always did prefer real over fake.

An interesting letter to the editor in The Journal News suggesting that the cost to produce separate UPCs for New York may deter craft brewers from distributing in the state:

...There are plenty of other deprived states that will gladly take New York's share of these limited beers. Yuengling Brewery has already announced to its distributors that it is pulling out of the state as of June 1 if this is not overturned...

Read the full opinion here.

I had missed the Yuengling story so I went searching for a second source, and found it in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article that includes the following quote from Dick Yuengling in a letter to NY Governor Paterson:

This law "will add up to much higher prices and less choice for all NY state beer consumers... While these may be unintended consequences, they will be consequences nonetheless and, ultimately, the effects will be far reaching throughout the state, including the possibility of major job losses throughout the industry in NY State. We view the provisions in this legislation as anti-competitive and anti-consumer, and it is the residents in the state of NY that will ultimately suffer from this."

Just ran across an article from the Observer-Dispatch on the FX Matt brewery being recognized (you may be more familiar with their Saranac brand).  The highlights:

• #7 in sales by volume among the top 50 craft breweries
• #15 in sales by volume amongst all US breweries

The article notes that in 2007 the brewery was ranked sixth.  But anyone familiar with the brewery will remember the fire last summer that disrupted the canning operation.

A nice reminder of its significance to Upstate New York.

I was perusing the Chelsea Brewing Co. blog when I ran across this post asking for help in finding a stolen antique hop token.  Apparently, a drunk guy on their brewery tour left with it after being kicked out.

Having enjoyed their beer at TAP-NY, I just want to do my small part in disseminating this notice.

The information is a little slim... a guy in NYC with lots of tats.... and a hop token.  Check out the blog post for a sample picture of a hop token and the full story.

Good luck.

Thanks to @rtgirard for the forward...

Action Alert email from the AHA ...

May 4, 2009

Dear New York Beer Activist,

At the request of the New York State Brewers Association, we are alerting you to an issue which could dramatically affect your access to the craft beers made by small breweries all across the country.

As you have likely learned, the state of New York recently enacted a requirement that bottled products sold in your state must bear a New York-specific UPC code for bottle deposit and redemption purposes. This requirement will have severe negative impacts on many businesses, including and particularly, small breweries. The cost to produce a state-specific label with a unique UPC and the inventory and shipping challenges that presents, will mean many small breweries will be forced to pull their beers out of the New York market because the cost of doing business in the state will be simply too high. And just think of the precedent this potentially sets for other states should they enact similar requirements...small brewer out-of-state sales could be decimated coast to coast.

Several brewing companies have already weighed in on this issue with the Governor, explaining they would have no choice but to discontinue distribution of their beers. This is bad for the state of New York, bad for small brewers everywhere, and perhaps worst of all for New York residents who are craft beer drinkers. Access to the wide range of beer you currently enjoy will be severely limited in the future should this requirement remain on the books.

Please take a few minutes and call or email your State Senator and Assemblyman. Let them know that you feel the New York-specific UPC is a bad idea for business and a bad idea for Empire State residents who drink craft beer and vote. Ask them to support a repeal of the New York-specific UPC requirement as contained in the recently passed Bottle Bill.

To identify your state elected officials by zip code and for contact information:

Assembly -  http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/ 

Senate -  http://www.senate.state.ny.us/sdlo ... h?OpenForm 

Thanks for standing up for consumer choice and America's small brewers.

Charlie Papazian
President
Brewers Association

Gary Glass
Director
American Homebrewers Association

Perhaps not the most sage of observations, but May sure did sneak up on me.  Before May, life is like a slow, cold drip until April ends and then the spigot opens wide.

There's something about May:

• It's already hit 90 degrees-  bring on the wheat beer.
• The new beer tax is in effect!  Hurrah.
• Saranac Thursdays begin on the 28th. Seems soon?
• My overhopped California Common may have mellowed enough to be drinkable...
• End of faculty obligation (hey, it matters to me).
• National Homebrew Day occurs May 7th.   
• Big Brew - already happened Saturday.  Maybe next year.

Beer America TV
Video feature: Brooklyn Local 2
Picked this one off of the @BeerAmericaTV Twitter feed. An up-close and personal look at what makes the Local 2 the Local 2.  Not a blog, you say?  That's just how I operate.

The Foaming Head
Review: Blue Point's Hoptical Illusion
The Foaming Head reviews a lot of New York brews and this is the latest one.  How did it rate? If you visit, look up and click on "reviews" for more.

Oh... A Beer
What Ales You?
A review of each beer in the Saranac12-pack.

New York Portraits
A beer garden in Brooklyn
This caught my eye and now I want to go there.

This is all for this week... Piles of projects to grade.  So it goes.