All the brewery's and winery's of Memorial Day weekend in the Finger Lakes. Featuring @warhorsebrewing, @bigalicebrewingflx, @wagnerbrewing, @scalehousebrews, @luckyharebrewing, @weisvines, @toastwineryflx and so much more.
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You've been sitting here asking yourself for over a week, why hasn't Jason updated the Buffalo Brews podcast with a new episode? Where is episode 11? What happened to Memorial Day weekend? And here's the thick and thin of it, folks. The way my bank account is set up, here's the thing. There's a checking account and there's a savings account, but all my money is in the savings account, so I gotta switch it to my checking account, and it's gonna take three days, but I don't know if it's gonna go through, so no, that's a lie.
I take that all back, that's a lie. But here's the reality of it. So we have this footage.
We have all the recordings we do for the Memorial Day weekend episode. We start putting it together. We go into the editing process, and then typically what happens is I will iron everything out on Monday, and it'll be set to go at 8 a.m. on Tuesday mornings, and then we get into Tuesday morning to realize that the recording initially went up incorrectly, and then all hell broke loose.
So you take a day off on a Friday to go enjoy the Finger Lakes for the weekend with friends, and you find out that when you come back that you're gonna be working every night for hours at a time after work for overtime to make up for the day off that you took to go to the Finger Lakes. So what was, in my idea, a fun time to go and take a four-day weekend turned into me doing all sorts of overtime all through last week, and I think what's gonna have to happen going forward is there's going to be a cutoff point where if I run into a problem, we're just gonna have to say, you know what, we'll just have to bag that up and put that into an episode coming up for the following week because it just wasn't going to happen. So I am doing this opening.
We are doing a re-recording of some things, and we did some re-editing of the footage that we put together previously for episode 11, and this is going to be the new episode 11. The Buffalo Bruise Podcast, this time for real, starts right now. Welcome, everyone.
This is the Buffalo Bruise Podcast. I am Jason Ettinger, and you are the most patient listeners on planet Earth. So like I mentioned right before the opening, we had a little shakedown of things because life gets in the way and work gets in the way, and the next thing you know, we're having to step up to the plate, and our entire week is spent catching up on, God forbid we take a day off from work.
I have another day off coming up very shortly, so I'm hoping it's not going to be a repeat of that, but thank you as always for listening in. This week, I am trying something brand new. I'm actually recording this opening on my Zoom PodTrack P4 mobile system, so we're gonna see how this works out.
We've been playing around with it a little bit, and I think that I have the acoustics and the fine-tuning down just so. We've been using this for a few of the interviews that are going to be coming up starting next week, so we look forward to bringing those to you. Now, it wouldn't be an opening if I wasn't sipping on something delicioso, so this week, I'm sipping on a Woodford Reserve bourbon.
That comes out of Versailles, Kentucky, and it's another one of those sweeter mash bills with that 72% corn, 18% rye, and a 10% barley. What I liked about this on the initial taste, you get a lot of heat right up front with this. This is definitely a spicy, spicy bourbon, but you catch a small hint of what turns out to be coffee bean on the front end.
I quite enjoyed that. A nice toasty, woody flavor to that as well. Some of that heat comes off of the ginger and the winter spices that are included in that, and so I read on it after I do my initial taste to find out that there's a little bit of rum that is in this mix as well, but it's very minute.
It doesn't even make up 1% of the total makeup of this bourbon, so I enjoy this. I really enjoy going through this Buffalo Booze box one vial at a time, and it just seems like every time I get one, it seems to be either better than the rest or better than most, and this is one that I definitely enjoy. I am still hung up on the Bullet bourbon out of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.
That is one that I put in my hiking flask every time I go out, and then every time we complete a hike, we're always taking a hit out of the flask, or sometimes we haven't eaten any breakfast yet, and we're doing a sunrise hike, and there just happens to be some bourbon that's drank at the beginning, usually around 6, 7 a.m. Hey, what are you gonna do? We're gonna jump right into things here for this week because we're coming off of the Memorial Day weekend and the trip that I made out to the Finger Lakes with friends. There are a lot of wineries and breweries to mention because there was a lot that were taken in. Despite the rain that happened this weekend, it did not crush any spirits.
I was able to get some hiking in as well, so let's jump right into it. The Finger Lakes, a destination about two hours due east of Buffalo, is a plethora of tourist enjoyment with more wineries and breweries than one can count. Now, when I first visited the Finger Lakes back about eight years ago, there were certainly more wineries than there were breweries and breweries really weren't a thing at the time.
As you know, the boom in New York State started around 2013, so most of the new breweries would come in later that year. Now, here we are in 2021 and you can literally drive around Cayuga Lake or Seneca Lake and hit one every 15 feet, it seems, and so much to offer out there, no matter what your taste is. So, an early morning drive, about an hour and 45 minutes.
Our first stop, one of my personal favorites, is on the Three Brothers Campus located on the northeast end of Seneca Lake. That is War Horse Brewing, and here is a segment from the flight tasting that we did there. I think we- Okay, War Horse Light is really the best.
I agree. Does everybody wanna try that one more time? It's fantastic. I feel like we need to get some of that.
It's light, it's crisp, you could just drink it all day, like when it's hot outside. Only 4.1, so you could really just drink it like a lot of them. I'm always very skeptical at a micro brewery or a small batch brewery where they do a light because it usually- Because it loses its flavor.
Yeah, it usually comes off as just a pale imitation of one of their regular beers. Yeah. This one's good though, this one- Oh yeah, Doug has this.
I think you hit all the notes. He does, yeah, we can just have- You hit all the notes that make this an outstanding, well-rounded beer. I think we all can, so we can all assume that one probably out of all three, no.
That one was the biggest disappointment for me. Well, no, the one I don't like the most was this one, the green tea. Well, I mean, I don't like the cherry limeade because I'm not a cherry limeade, but you guys love cherry limeade, so I mean- I thought it was good.
Yeah, I liked it. I thought it was good, yeah. This was good, but I like Ase, you know? And then I really wanna find out what is this taste? So I think we're gonna actually go in and look it up online.
50 miles from Mexico. Like, what is the sweet taste on here? When he comes back, we can ask him. Well, typically when they do a shandy, it's some sort of juice.
Like a lemon, you feel like? Or a lemonade. Like, that's what they make shandies. See, that's what I'm getting, is lemon.
Well, maybe it could be lemon, but to me it's like sweet, it's not fur or whatever. Like the Leinenkugel summer shandy that we drank. It's lemon.
You get, it's basically a, it's a- Are you looking it up? Yeah. It's an unsweetened lemonade, sort of, or not overly sweet lemonade mixed with the beer. Sam Adams' Porch Rocker is a similar type of a shandy style.
So the Churchill, the Churchill's good. You guys are so right, but I am too. So it's lemon zest with raspberry and blueberry with lime zest.
Okay. So you have a lemon and a lime and a raspberry and a blueberry. Interesting.
So we got us a little, little strike. So that's why you guys like taste the lemon, but I was like, I don't know, like I taste something else. But for you, you picked up lemon and I probably, I don't know, I picked up maybe more like blueberry.
Something was sweeter, like kind of sweeter, tarter, not like a lemon to me, do you know what I mean? So of the Churchill ones though, I think the s'mores- The s'mores with Churchill is better than the breakfast with Churchill. That's fun. And it's not, it's not overpowered.
I feel like the, this is so great because you just really taste graham cracker, right? You taste kind of like that dark maltiness of a stout, but you taste the yumminess of a graham cracker. And guess what? We're finally drinking a coffee stout that doesn't taste like the burnt bottom of them. Yes.
Right, yeah, the burnt, the burnt bottom Because that's why I was like, oh, I don't know. That was, that was the big trick. Non-stop coffee stout.
And I really don't taste any marshmallow on it. No. I taste more like a little bit of like cocoa nibs or whatever they tossed in there to have it be like the chocolate with it.
I think, it's funny because I think the marshmallow that you're getting from that is like more of the overall toasty taste. It's like, it trips you, yeah. Yeah, it's not marshmallow per se.
It's the fact that you toast the marshmallow and this is like a toasted aroma and a toasted flavor. Right. You can finish that.
Yeah, I can. I'm done with that. I can get down on that.
I might, I might've found the first coffee stout I really liked. The coffee is really pronounced in it. Yeah.
Yeah. Whereas this one, which is a nitro stout, which is more traditionally in the Guinness style. Yep.
Is more, you don't get that back end. I'm gonna taste that one after I tasted this one. Right off the bat, this one's a little more creamy, a little more sweet.
And there's not, and there's not that harsh back end. I definitely, neither of them are harsh. And that's the whole thing with nitro brews.
Yeah. They're supposed to be smooth. Yeah, I still like the s'mores one a lot.
Yeah. Like I said, they're both good. As stouts go? No.
As stouts go, I thought that they're, you know. It's good. Yeah.
I like it. All right, and then our two India pale ales here. This, Lieutenant Dan, good.
Lieutenant, Lieutenant Dan. Lieutenant Dan. Good.
I need more accents out of you this weekend. Why? We need to try a plethora. I can't get you in a room doing accents.
Well, I'll be drinking, so. Okay, hands down though, this. Well, the double Dan certainly has more flavor.
It packs a punch. This is my very favorite. This is so good.
That might be my favorite on the table. And like the smell is amazing to me. Like, I love the smell of citrus.
See, I'm not a fan of any of the IPA. Are we sure that's what this is? Yeah, it says right there. The can literally has like citrus.
But I'll tell you, for as much hops as they pack, then do it, it's a smooth drinking beer. For a double IPA, it's not heavy, it's not sweet. Right, it's not strangle your tongue with hops.
My other favorite hop is Cascade. Yeah. I feel like those are my two favorites that make really good IPAs.
Those are the ones that give it the more piney flavor. Citro is obviously citrusy. Yeah.
Yeah, hands down is my very favorite one. Like, it is so, so good. It's funny though, it was once you taste that, then you taste Lieutenant Dan, the regular, you're like, hmm.
You know what it tastes like? It just tastes like that one is like a lighter. Right, it's like, yes. It's like, whatever.
Oh, here, we just lightened it up. Right. Kind of thing.
Like, here's your light beer IPA. I don't know. Yeah, I enjoy that one.
Well, I don't like- The cherry limeade, but I know you don't like cherry. I don't like cherry, that's the problem. It's interesting, all the different flavor ciders they have.
I really, you know, I don't know. To me, my must have taken like a ton of cherry, like medicine growing up or something. Sure, cough medicine, sure.
Because I cannot handle cherry. That's why I can't eat applesauce either. Because you had a lot of it? Bubblegum.
Bubblegum amoxicillin. No, because they used to put it, the medicine in the applesauce to make you eat the applesauce. It's new to me.
Welcome to Heavy Dairy. Raspberry bombshell cider. Raspberry was good.
Of the ciders, I say that is hands down the best cider. That's good. Take a hit, pass it down.
That's it. Now, this strawberry tangerine is also pretty good. I am pretty surprised by that one, to be honest.
Yes, I am too. I just wouldn't think tangerine would- Right. I didn't think it would cross over well.
Well, I think because you have the strawberries in there. Yeah. So the strawberry changes the taste of the tangerine.
Right, I said it. It's not so like orange. Correct, it mellows it out just enough.
Whatever you want to call it, like. Green tea acai berry. There's something strange about it.
Like, I get the acai berry right up front. Well, green tea on its own is not a very strong taste. Now, the aroma.
Smells like stinky tea. What kind of tea is that? Oh, it's stinky tea. Quote of the day so far.
Don't you feel like it smells like stinky tea? Smells like stinky tea. You know, if I had a dime for every time I heard the term stinky tea in my life, I'd have a dime. You're welcome.
A nice shiny one you just got now. This place has great ambiance, that's for sure. It's fun in here.
The thing that's most impressive is where they found those 48-star US flags. For World War II authenticity, you got to have the 48-star flag. Because Alaska and Hawaii didn't get admitted to the Union until the 50s.
We have the space on top of the keg room. What are we going to put there? I don't know, let's find a truck. Hey, let's stick it up there.
That's fantastic, too. It's always a treat to go to the Three Brothers campus and especially visiting War Horse Brewery, especially since they did their redesign. It has a very World War II military bunker look to it.
And the Mexican light that they did, the 50 miles from Mexico, was a huge hit. Big hit with us, as well as the double IPA, the double Dan Citro, which I ended up walking out with a four-pack of myself because that's going to be a great beer for a hot summer day. I've been previously in touch with the folks at Three Brothers and they gave me the information for Erica, who is not only the COO, but the president of Three Brothers.
So we'll be in touch to talk about another trip that I can make out there to hopefully sit down and talk with Erica, not only about their history, but what is new and exciting and what's coming up for the folks there. So next we rolled back around the lake into the town of Geneva and we stopped in at a new brewery, less than a month old there, named Big Alice Brewing. Now, for people who don't know what that is, Big Alice Brewing started in January of 2013.
They ran off a 10-gallon pilot system out of a location in Queens. And then since then, they had opened up a tap room and a new location in 2019 in Brooklyn. And then on May 1st of 2021, they opened a location in the Finger Lakes.
That got my attention through Kelly Guilfoyle, who I might as well refer to as one of the first friends of the podcast because she gives me all sorts of great information and suggestions every time we get a chance to talk and text for a couple of minutes. Kelly was one of the ones who had her face on this project. I was instantly drawn to it because I'm trying to really get into more of the Brooklyn brewing scene as well.
As we know, Other Hand is moving into the One Seneca building in Buffalo. So this was an opportunity to see what they had available down there. I talked with Kelly prior to the visit at Big Alice and she said that she highly recommended the Raspberry Honey Wit as well as the Barrel Aged Smoked Porter, both of which we talk about in this recorded segment that we did during our stop at Big Alice Brewing.
Oh, this is delicious. Doug, you're gonna love this. Oh yeah.
The Raspberry Honey Wit, very nice. So good. Yeah, I know, it smells good.
I'm really starting to like Wit. I feel like it has like a sweet, but a sour, but a tart, like, I don't know. It's like a good perfect mix of yumminess.
Oh yeah. Ooh, I like that. All right, what are we gonna start with? So this is the reserved flight, that's the classic flight.
Okay, so. So let's start with the classics. Taking it from the top with the New York State Pills.
So, is that this thing? Yeah, so New York State Pills. So 100% New York State malt hops. Your highlights, great ingredients available at home state.
Unfiltered, in pale straw, in color. I feel like you're gonna really enjoy that one. With aromas of honey and graham cracker on the nose.
Okay. It's very light. That's light.
Refreshing. Notes of graham cracker, minerals, and New York to our company, a soft, dry finish. Yeah, it's good.
That's good. See, I knew you would like that one. Okay, what else do we have? Lemongrass, Kulsh.
Oh. That's a silver medal winner in 2017 at the State Beer Competition. You can smell it.
I love a good Kulsh. I love being a good Kulsh. Doug, you are just gonna thoroughly enjoy that one.
All right. Yeah. Not too crazy at all.
Look at you. You're like serious face looking at it. A lot of the flavors are very subtle.
I should take a picture of us drinking all these things. Oh yeah. I feel like I have like this collage of.
All right, we also have one. I feel like it's gotta be this one. Mr. GQ over here.
I know. I'm glossified as I go. Yes.
Yes. Contemplating the meaning of life through beer. Okay.
Or next one, you look up to the left like your balloon just went. Honey wet. So the honey wet.
Doug, you're gonna be a huge fan of that one too. It's like I taste a Doug beer and I know what he's gonna love. Cause not that it's not that I don't, I just know.
I do like a good Belgium. Oh, that's why. It's kind of like, I couldn't figure out what it was that I tasted.
It has orange peel and coriander. That's a classical way. When in a true Belgian wit, there's no hops.
The bitterness comes from coriander. Oh. That's why I'm starting to like it.
Cause now they're becoming more prominent. Okay. IPA.
Like resurgence of that Loganberry wit that they don't. See, I like that, but it's so sweet. But the Loganberry.
It's good. So now you're talking about your West Coast. You got the Chinook hops, Centennial hops, and Cascade, which are my favorite.
Cascade are the ones that taste like you're eating a pine forest. Okay. All right.
It's definitely the best one I've had. I like it. They're gonna take, gonna take me getting used to them.
See, West Coast, you're gonna hate it. So, I was just saying, you can see the degree that I have in life. It coats the tongue.
Positively revolting. I love this. It's fine.
Y'all want one? It's all right. No, it's okay. It's all right.
I'm not saying that. All right, what do we have on the other one, Doug? You're in charge now. Well, now.
We're starting with Blasket Red. Yeah. Yeah, okay.
Thought I was gonna spell it Blasket. So, I'm gonna say this is a, So, this is what's brewed here. A New York State Irish Red Ale, brewed in collaboration with our buddies at the Blasket Pub in Manhattan, New York City.
Brewed with Irish Pale Malt and Lightly Roasted Specialty Malts from New York State. Pours a dark, amber red and a creamy white head. Aromas of sweet toffee caramel, toasted bread and raisins.
Medium body and finishes dry with subtle roast and notes of dried fruit caramel. All right. And this one's made here because it has the F-O-R.
We can go this way now. Very nice Irish Red. I like that.
I like that. That is a very good beer. That beats out a lot of reds I've had.
Reds are tricky. It's pretty good. If you over hop them, they come out nasty.
I like that raisin in there. Yeah, it's nice. Is that what that is? Raisin.
I was like, is it flan? Yeah, that's nice. So, next we have Moving Forward, which is a rice saison, dry hopped with Nelson and Idaho sediment. That's my type of hop.
Perfect for warmer weather, brewed with a generous amount of flaked rice, fermented with our house saison strain, cultivated from figs in Astoria, Queens. I love figs. Rice saison.
The aroma is interesting. It's kind of, it's kind of got like an IPA vibe to it. Oh, okay.
All right. I'm getting that grape fruitiness. You ever had the blood orange saison from Resurgence? The what? The blood orange saison from Resurgence? Yes, that's very good.
I think, yeah. Different flavor profiles. Oh, this is delicious.
I figured she would like it. This is awesome. With the same general idea.
I love this one. Right? Yeah. Yeah, that's good.
So now, the next one is the Sleep Now in the Fire, which we all tasted before, but. This is one of Kelly Guilfoyle's recommendations. Oh yeah, this is the really smokiness.
Smoked porter. Flavors of chocolate milk, coffee, and oak. Don't go too crazy with this one.
I definitely get all that. Because there's no clamp to it. I myself am not a fan of smoked beverages.
Me, yes. Beverages, no. I think it's good.
Yeah, it's good. But it's not bad. Okay, what's our last one? Last, A Fistful of Rubies.
I'd take that, I think. A sour ale. This is the sour one? Yeah.
100% New York State mixed fermentation sour ale aged in red wine barrels with Montmorency cherries from Hudson's Bay. Oh boy. You can keep these to talk about them.
Oh, can we? Yeah, this is just a paper page. Oh, good. I measure the initial taste by his face.
That's good, that's sour. Wow, it's back in. I should have been taking a picture of that.
I should have been taking a picture of all my work. Boy, yeah, that's sour on the back end. Boy, that's good though.
It is good. Oh, this is amazing. I love that sourness.
It's really, really sour, yeah. That hangs with you too. It does, yeah.
Yeah, I love that. It's like sucking on a lime. Yeah.
You know how you have that taste on your tongue that just stays? Got to step down from a warhead. Right? This is one of my favorite ones. I have to say, what we tasted, the Blasket Red is one of my favorite.
The Honey Wind was also very nice. Yeah. I go with the raspberry, then the IPA, then this one and that one.
That's my top four right there. Those ones are you guys. Yeah, the raspberry is really good.
I don't mind that smoked porter. No, it's okay. I don't know if I could drink a whole pint of it.
No, I don't think so. You know what that would be dynamite, is like cooking like a corned beef or something in there. Oh yeah.
I'll bet you that would be... Phenomenal? Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
Yeah, that Honey Wind is... Honey Wind is good. That's slamming. That's very good.
This one was? Yeah, that's good. The Lemongrass Kohlsch is nice. The Pills.
Really light. The Kohlsch is light. The Pills is an easy drink to drink all day here.
I think out of these three lighter ones, I like the Lemongrass one the best. Yeah, I like that. The Honey Wind? Yeah, I do.
The Honey Wind is good. And the Kohlsch is only because I tried to swallow and talk at the same time. Yeah, don't talk.
It's a skill that I don't have in a brewery. Oh my gosh. So definitely enjoyed the visit to Big Alice Brewing there in the Finger Lakes.
You can find them at bigalicebrewing.com or on social media at Big Alice Brewing FLX, meaning the Finger Lakes. And definitely go check them out if you have a chance to get out there. I know I'll be back for sure the next time I go out.
Had some interaction with their social media team down in Brooklyn. And there was a picture that they posted of us during our visit as well. So thanks so much to Big Alice Brewing for hosting us.
The next recording that I'm inserting, a little backstory, it's chopped up. A lot of content is taken out and here's why. So after we left Big Alice Brewing,
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