Pour Travelin' in NY: COVID-19 diaries - Part III

By Pour Travelers standards, Sunday proved to be a pretty leisurely day. We had just three breweries planned for the entire day; this coming from a trio who is able to leap up to ten breweries in a single bound. All kidding aside, it was actually nice to spend a little more time at less places. I'll be the first to admit that I'm usually drawn to quantity over quality. I'm always quick to try and squeeze in as many brewery visits as possible on any given day. But the whole COVID-19 thing had forced us to slow down our pace, kick back, and just enjoy ourselves. Since pretty much all of the breweries we planned to visit on this trip were operating under limited hours, we had to make the best use of our time. So rather than swing by a brewery, have one beer, cross it off the list and move to the next one, we opted to breathe a little bit. 

In hindsight, I'm glad we decided to slow down, because the first stop of the day allowed us to finally cross a much overdue brewery from our bucket list: Ithaca Beer Company. Picture it. The year is 2010. Long before Pizza Boy Brewing Company, we spent a lot of time frequenting the original Al's of Hampden in Enola, PA. One of my absolute favorite things about the place was the abundance of fresh - and when I say fresh, I mean you could almost smell it when you walked in - Flower Power IPA. Somehow by the grace of God, Al would have the freshest Flower Power on tap at all times. I'd  enjoyed the beer since first getting into IPAs a few years prior to discovering Al's, but it was there that my love afair with this beer truly revealed itself. To this day, I still name-check it as a favorite East Coast-style IPA and - believe me - that says a lot coming from this jaded beer drinker. Like the majority of craft beer enthusiasts, IPAs are at the top of my totem pole, and Flower Power has long since secured a notch amid the uppermost heirarchy of my favorite hoppy beers. But don't just take my word for it. Flower Power has been named one of the “25 Most Important American Craft Beers Ever Brewed” by Food & Wine magazine. 

So yeah, you could say I was excited to finally visit the mothership and drink some fresh Flower Power from the source. Prior to our visit, I decided to reach out to the general "contact us" email and introduce myself. Sometimes, the luxury of being employed at a brewery works in my favor; not that I'm trying to obtain any kind of special treatment. I just like to meet people from breweries I admire and, if possible, geek out with them. Turns out the actual owner of the company (although she introduced herself as the wife of the owner, Dan Mitchell), Mari, responded to my email and was happy to meet us to chat and show us around the brewery. I was giddy. 

Waiting to enter Ithaca Beer Co.

The brewery is situated on a lovely farm just on the outskirts of Ithaca between two state parks. Founded in 1998, the brewery remains an independent, family-run business. Ithaca's 50bbl brewhouse produces roughly 20,000 barrels of beer each year, and a smaller 5bbl pilot system allows Ithaca to experiment with small-batch trials and experimental, brewery-only beers. In addition to beer, the on-site taproom restaurant offers farm-fresh produce and a seasonally rotating menu. There's also a fantastic beer garden that creates the atmosphere of sitting among trellises of hop bines, which is where we spent the majority of our time during our visit. 

Even though we arrived about ten minutes prior to opening time, there were about a dozen or so folks waiting to get in. Once they officially opened for business, we took a quick stroll down a little nature path to the beer garden area, where they had a kiosk set up for ordering beer. Having done my homework prior to our arrival, I wanted to make sure that Flower Power was indeed available (it's their flagship year-round beer, so duh!). So you can guess which beer I kicked off our visit with, right? Yes indeed, Flower Power. I was also surprised to see a variation of Flower Power with Citra hops, which Brewslut promptly ordered. While we waited for our beers, I inquired about Mari at the greeter's stand, and in a few moments she appeared and we sat down at one of the beer garden's spacious communal tables. 

The short trail to the beer garden area.

After chatting with Mari for a good half an hour - about everything from the history of the brewery to some hardships both of our breweries have faced during COVID-19, she offered to take us on a stroll through the brewery. Before heading behind the curtin, I grabbed a pour of a 60-shilling Scottish ale called More or Less 60/-. This quaffable ale weighs in at under 3% ABV but boasts a well-rounded flavor profile consisting of caramel candy, raisin, and molasses. You just don't see too many Scottish-style beers on tap these days, so it's nice to change gears every once in a while and go outside the box. Brewslut opted for a pour of a beer called Früt, a Berliner Weisse brewed with cranberry and grape. It was quite tasty, and Brewslut agreed. Anyone who knows her is well aware of her infatuation with this tart German wheat beer style we discovered by accident many moons ago at Philadelphia's now defunct Nodding Head Brewery. RIP.

Enjoying the beer garden at Ithaca Beer Co.

For someone who works at a brewery every day, I still get excited to go behind the scenes and check out other breweries I admire. Of course, it was extra special this time, because not only have I been working remotely from home since mid-March, it was nice to have one of the owners guide us through the brewery. After the private tour, Mari was kind enough to send us home with a mixed case of beers... including a 4-pack of craft ginger beer that I can't wait to use in a mule! It was above and beyond what I'd anticipated. I brought along a few Splinter beers to share with her, and just ended up giving her all of them. All in all, it was a wonderful visit and it felt good to finally cross this one off the bucket list.  

Our view of the beer garden from our little table in the shade.

Actually, we're not done just quite yet. After parting ways with Mari, we decided to grab a small table in a shady spot of the beer garden and enjoy one final round of beers. Keeping things light, I chose Lakeside Lager, a refreshing pilsner with a balanced blend of lightly toasted grain, biscuit, light citrusy hops and a touch of wildflowers. It reminded me that a well-crafted pilsner is never a bad decision. Brewslut opted for another Berliner Weisse, this time Raspberry Soiree (which I would guess is a clever nod to the Prince song, "Raspberry Beret"). We took our time with these two beers and just enjoyed the surroundings. And with that, our much overdue visit to Ithaca had come to an end. However, our day was just getting started. 

Pleeps gets lost in Ithaca's wilderness.

Turns out the area has a few other breweries. I suppose that makes sense. I mean, it IS a pretty big college area. Next on the agenda was Hopshire Farm, a small family-owned farm brewery situated about 10 miles northeast of Ithaca in the village of Freeville (population 523), built on preserving New York's agriculture industry. Craftbeer.com named it "one of 8 farm breweries in the U.S. you must visit." As I mentioned in Part 1 of this blog series, NY state was America's primary hop producer throughout the 19th century. Hops were grown on small family farms in tiny plots. Hopshire is one such farm brewery that hopes to help usher in a revival of NY's hop-growing history and connect customers with ingredients. Not only does Hopshire brew with NY-grown hops, they also use as many local ingredients as possible - everything from cherries and raspberries to honey and maple syrup.

Inside the Shire... Hopshire Farms, that is!

We moseyed on in and opted for a table inside, as it was pretty hot outside again. However, Hopshire does have a spacious beer garden out back. Since Pleeps prefers air conditioning, we decided to stay indoors. Things got off to a good start with my first beer, a blonde coffee stout called Beautiful Buzz. Brewed in collaboration with Oregon's Portland Brewing and Copper Horse Coffee, this beer is lighter than a traditional stout but boasts big, roasty notes thanks to dark roast coffee as well as amber and Maris Otter malts. It doesn't surprise me that this beer was a collab with an Oregon-based brewery, because blonde coffee stouts were all the rage when we visited Portland and the surrounding area back in 2016. It's a style that I simply can't get enough of, and I'll typically order one every time I encounter one on tap. 

Pleeps says, "No Hobbits were harmed during our visit!"

Brewslut opted for Haze in the Hollow, a juicy New England IPA. True to style, this beer is brewed with no hops in the boil, but rather with copious amounts of Citra, Mosaic, Centennial and Galaxy added after the boil and during dry-hopping. This one was quite citrusy with notes of orange and grapefruit. 

Since our beers were solid, we decided to share a pour of a third beer, an IPA called NearVarna. Starting with a malt backbone of pale and caramel malts, this hopped-up IPA features a variety of hops added at five different times during the boil. They also add hops directly to the serving tank, which Hopshire describes as the "laced with hops” process. This was more of traditional IPA with a sweet malt backbone and modest hop bite. I initially thought the name was odd, but when we left the brewery we noticed a road sign for the town of Varna, which was only a few miles away. Then the lightbulb lit up. Ahh, yes to yes! 

After a nice visit to yet another cool little farm brewery, it was back to Ithaca for our final stop of the day. Established in 2016, Liquid State was started by two beer-loving friends looking to throw their hat into the upstate NY beer ring. Focused on creating fresh beers in small batches on a 20-hectoliter system, Liquid State seems to have a penchant for IPAs and sours, although we were greeted by a vast selection of beer when we arrived. 

You're now entering a state of liquid.

Liquid Crush, a hazy, juicy IPA, caught my eye after scanning for an IPA on the beer board. Rife with stone fruit, citrus and tropical notes, I enjoyed this one enough to purchase a 4-pack of cans following our visit. I must also say that I really dig their can artwork, which feature colorful, abstract, mosaic-like illustrations using only two or three dominant colors. You can peruse them at their web site.

I followed up with a black lager called Stache. Light bodied but full-flavored notes of chocolate and a hint of coffee, it was yet another enjoyable Schwarzbier I got to sample during our trip. It's refreshing to see more and more breweries embracing lagers these days. I also really wanted to try a beer called Hula Hoops and Bubbles, so we decided to share a pour as our last beer. This fruited sour is bursting with zesty lime and juicy watermelon notes with a tangy, floral kiss of rose hips. 

I also need to give a quick shout-out to the food at Liquid State, who decided to team up with "chicken slingin' masters" - their words, not mine - of Silo, who provides an on-site food truck that boasts some bangin' fried chicken. Brewslut and I both loved our green coconut curry fried chicken served over purple coconut sticky rice with house-made Asian pickled slaw. It was finger-lickin' good, y'all! After dinner, we grabbed some beer to-go, including the aforementioned Liquid Crush as well as a sour called Fruit Adventure, a tropical sour ale brewed with a mango and pineapple. 

Pleeps loving life at Liquid State.

Since we got back to the hotel earlier than usual, we decided to crack open several beers we'd picked up on the trip thus far. I somehow forgot to grab the bottle of Blackberry Tizzy I'd brought along as something to share, but must have left it in the fridge. So I busted that out, followed by a pounder can of Lime Life from Breaker. Man, that beer just crushes! We followed that up with a can of Liquid Crush, a hazy IPA we'd just tried earlier at Liquid State and enjoyed quite a bit. We capped off the evening by splitting a pounder can of Ommegang's BBA Three Philosophers with Cherries, which we enjoyed much more than the Coffee Blueberry variant we'd had the previous night. The combination of bourbon tang, sweet vanilla, and sweet-tart cherries was delightful, and capped off yet another fine Pour Travelers jaunt.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our exploration of some of south central New York's finest breweries. Thanks for reading! Be safe everyone, and we'll see you again on another installment of The Pour Travelers. Until next time...

Mask on!