A look at some recent adventures including hiking and flight tastings done at Steel Bound Brewing (@steelboundevl) and Silver Lake Brewing Project (@silverlakebrewingproject).
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Coming up, we are on the other side of the Independence Day weekend celebrations. I hope you had a safe and fun holiday. Going to bring some of my adventures over the past few weeks to you in a very shoot from the hip episode.
The Buffalo Brews podcast starts right now. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Buffalo Brews podcast.
It is Tuesday, July the 6th, when you're listening to this. And I get a little different opening than I normally do, because as you can hear from the background noise, something's going on, no, it's not my air conditioner running, but what I am doing is I am clipping on the microphone and driving currently through the Cazadega foothills in Chautauqua County and been passing more police than I have ever counted down here in my entire life. But think about the area about Cazadega, Lilydale in there, and that's where I'm at currently and I'm on my way to Mayville, New York, and then from there on to Bemis Point.
So I hope everybody had a good and safe 4th of July weekend. As you can tell, there was no episode for last week, and it is because I was once again bit by the overtime bug that just leaves no time to do the fun things that I like to do in my life, such as bring this podcast to you. So as I told you last time, whenever there's a timetable that kind of gets kicked around, once we hit a certain threshold, we're just going to scrap the idea of doing an episode for that particular week and then move on.
And then that brings us here to July the 6th. So it is Tuesday. It is Bruise Day.
And you know what that means. I am Jason Edinger, your host, and thank you for joining me for another episode of the Buffalo Bruise podcast brought to you on all your favorite podcasting platforms, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts. And you can listen to us on any of those platforms.
Like I said, we get into the overtime hubbub. We don't we don't produce an episode for last week. And then it's one of those situations where they tell you you've got to work overtime.
And then last week they sit down and tell me that basically all of the overtime that I did, which was about 20 hours worth, was all for not because the system updates that they had done for the following week that were supposed to affect all of us basically didn't do what they were supposed to do. And there was no rolling it back. So all the work that I had done basically was for not including an entire day of production.
So spawns new ideas. And the next thing you know, we're throwing about three days worth of work into about six and a half hours. We'll throw it against the wall and see what sticks as of today on Tuesday when I go into work.
But in the meantime, while you're working, you can listen to this and my wonderful, melodious, sensuous. No, not sensuous. Get that out of your head right now.
So in this week's episode, we're going to shoot from the hip and talk to you about a lot of the adventures that I've been through over the past few weeks when I have had a hot minute to do something, including yesterday, which would have been Saturday. And then, oh, because I'm recording this on 4th of July. I don't think I mentioned that, but maybe I did.
Maybe I did. But I'm recording this on Sunday on the 4th of July as I'm heading down to visit family. And like I said, going down into Mayville and heading currently to Big Inlet Brewing.
I probably already said that, but I'm driving and trying not to drive distracted. So if I sound like I'm telling you the same three stories, I probably am shooting from the hip this week. So talking about a few of the adventures that I've been through the last several weeks, including yesterday, a trip down to Letchworth State Park and about 11 miles worth of hiking that we did down there was a great day for hiking.
Did the Gorge Trail all the way from the upper railroad bridge clear down to Lower Falls and back. That climb out of there is is definitely one to test the legs and test the hips, but came through with flying colors and then knocked out another five and a half, six miles on the Finger Lakes Trail in the Mount Morris area and then found some adventure up in the town of Perry and a little recording that I'll be adding into this when we visited Silver Lake Brewing Project there in Perry. A shout out to Josh and the crew there who were very receptive and we had a great conversation.
And it looks like we might be on the road to bringing you their history, which he told us a little bit about the building itself and makes me immediately want to jump into an interview to talk about their history and everything they have to offer. So you want to look that up there at Silver Lakes Brewing or Silver Lake Brewing. I'm sorry.
It's not plural. Silver Lake Brewing online. Give them a look.
Social media and on the web. So we're bouncing around on the different levels of audio as I'm inserting pieces and editing pieces out. This is the original opening that I had recorded had the episode been published last week.
But as I explained earlier, that did not happen. So this is the original opening from last week talking about our adventure down to Boyce Hill Park as well as Ellicottville and Steelbound Brewery. So speaking of whiskey, I'm actually starting off this podcast this week and more about the place where I picked this up in just a moment, that place being Steelbound Brewery and Distillery down in Ellicottville.
I went down there over this past weekend and was finally able to snag a bottle of their rye whiskey, which I have been meaning to get my hands on for a while. The problem being that every time I got down there, I either ran out of time or, you know, didn't feel like stopping because for whatever reason. So Saturday started off with 5.25 mile hike through the Boyce Hill State Forest and then we end up at Steelbound.
And like I said, I picked up this bottle of rye whiskey that they had. And it's a it's a very well-rounded rye whiskey. It's the first real rye whiskey I had was from Kask and Crew out in Rochester.
This is one that I recently just got on my radar. Actually, I shouldn't say recently. It's been on my radar for quite a while.
And I finally got a hold of it. And here I am pouring a little bit of it now. It's a five year barrel aged.
It's extremely smooth as rye whiskeys go. Got a little semi spice on it and a pretty amazing finish. So I'm I'm very satisfied with this.
As warm as it has been for the last few days, I took this completely straight, no ice because I was afraid like if the ice was going to hit it, it was just going to like melt instantly and water it down and evaporate it. And I didn't want that. So so we enjoyed that straight.
So like I said, on Saturday, I met up with a group and we did about five and a quarter miles through the Boyce Hill State Forest. So you go from Phillips Road there off of Route 242 just outside of Ellicottville. It's about five miles outside of Ellicottville and there's no parking lot there.
You just park along the side of the road. You'll hike up about about a mile and a half until you get to a lean to. So you'll cross over a creek bed and then there's a very sharp uphill until you get to the lean to.
The trail itself is off of the lean to probably about 100 to 200 yards. So we actually continued past the lean to to begin with and hiked up to the far parking lot up past the pond. So that would take us to the waypoint about two, 2.6 miles up.
So it was an up and back trail. And then we stopped at the lean to on the way back and bumped into a gentleman who was actually working on a amateur radio project there. So as we understood it, it was some sort of amateur radio holiday where they would basically try to make contacts with different people in different states, areas, even countries.
He says on certain days, on a nice clear night, he can get broadcasts on his amateur radio on a five watt system all the way from France. So I think, you know, not knowing much about amateur radio, I think that's quite an accomplishment. But he had quite the setup there.
He had an antenna that he had propped up into the tree and he had planned to stay there with his pack and with his food until he got his 10 contacts. And then he was going to hike up to another part of the forest up the way and then do the same thing there. So I guess it's almost like a mix of like we made the joke that it was kind of like a geocaching of sort, but at the same time, it was like trying to conquer a Pokemon gym on Pokemon Go.
It was like, you know, you want to be the first, you want to be able to hold that spot. And then he was telling us that Beaver Island State Park up on Grand Island, he was the first one to ever do it there. So, you know, we had we had a little fun talking to him and then finished up our hike.
And then we head down the hill to Steelbound for food because it was it was getting to be quite a warm day, but we were in the woods. So we were away from the sun and the humidity for the most part. We get down to Steelbound and it's everything that I expected it to be.
So we enjoyed some of the beer flights. I had a blueberry that they had. So this was one that they had brand new that wasn't even on their menu yet.
So we had the raspberry, we had coconut and we had the blueberry all in one brew. You know, a little heavy on the coconut. You get a little bit of the sourness of the raspberry, a little prominence on the blueberry, but it wasn't definitely wasn't bad at all.
Also had their Irish Red, which was for them, they call it the First Ward Irish Red, which is a very, it was a very sweet, malty, had a nice caramel finish to it. And it was a really good American red ale. And the stats on that were like a 5.6 ABV, which was right in line with most with most American reds that you would that you would come across.
One of their newer ones also was called Lost in the Stars, which was an American IPA. Some of the IPAs that I like to explore outside of the hoppier varieties are when they use pine as well. So this one was fruity, it was piney, 38 IBUs, which I was surprised by the flavor because it was really smooth, really mild and, you know, very inviting taste that they had there.
The one that I moved to because I'm a big, a big, I guess a mark for New England IPAs is when they had that was called Sponge Bomb, which was, it was very juicy and it had just a little hint of pineapple on the flavor. You didn't pick it up on the aroma, but you could pick up a little bit on the flavor itself. And it was a it was definitely a different play on a New England IPA.
And that one was one that I would have definitely chose to, you know, grab a four pack or something to take home. But I already, like I said, I already had that rye whiskey, so I was good to go. Kaisertown, which was their German style pilsner, because I'm really taking a liking to most German style beers now, like a Kölsch, like a German style pilsner.
This was really light, really crisp, really clean. And getting to the point where I'm starting to coin this whole summer sipper thing. But it's one of those ones like this.
I could take it served ice rattling, you know, teeth rattling cold, and I could probably enjoy this all day and just and be just fine with it. And then the last one is one of their house varieties. It's a very popular one.
It's the Blue Balls Blueberry Wheat, really fresh, really clean and fruity as a wheat beer goes right in line with that five to six ABV content. That is one that, you know, if I was going out to especially what I was what I'm about to tell you that I had for lunch there, I would have drank a pint of this to go with my lunch and I would have been just fine with that. So looking at the menu, you know, and damn the people that have gotten me into this this kick is I've gotten into Monte Cristos lately and I could never really enjoy Monte Cristos years back because of having an autoimmune disorder and having sensitivity to food for so many years.
One of the foods that I was becoming more sensitive to was eggs. And, you know, one and one of my favorite breakfast for dinner selections that I had that I always enjoyed was like a moons over my hammy that was homemade. And it got to the point where I could, you know, I could eat it, but I couldn't really enjoy it as much because it was always going to cause fits with me post dinner.
But now that, you know, obviously I'm just celebrated my ninth year post surgery. I'm on no medication regimen. The hot and humid weather like we've had for the last few days still hates my guts literally.
Here we are in that day three of the heat and the humidity and my body right on target today has decided, yeah, you're you're pushing your limits right now, pal. So to the point where I couldn't even even think about any sort of an after dinner walk or anything, because I was just going to end up with a nine o'clock bedtime or something, you know, like an old man falling asleep because my body had just decided it was going to power down. But the Monte Cristo was fantastic.
If you go down to Steel Bound, I have that. Now, what makes that unique is they make their Monte Cristo on blueberry bread and then they give you a blueberry spread to go with it. So stack in the blueberries here, blueberry, blueberry, blueberry with that with that blue balls beer that they have.
Just flipping fantastic. And I honestly, if I went back there, I don't think I would get anything else except that Monte Cristo again, because it was that good, that unique. So really enjoyed the stop there at Steel Bound.
And then from there we head up to so the the rest of the group peeled off. Then that would have been Sabrina and I who were in the New York, Western New York hiking challenge together. We were knocking Knox Farm off of our list and we did about three, three and a half miles at Knox Farm.
And the end result there is as far as the challenge itself, we are done. You have to get in four categories. You have to get five hikes in each of the four categories.
In total, we have 22 out of the 34 complete. But we have the 20 that we need to complete the challenge. So as of Saturday, we are officially done with the summer challenge.
Silver Lake Brewing Project opened in 2017 and we're at 14 Borden Avenue in Perry, New York. So we're starting with the hippo. All right.
What you got? Hippocampus isn't uptight, a blonde stout. Sure. Why not? It's a little different.
It's actually OK, so drink it and then drink it again, because I felt like it was a little bitter the first step that I did and now the second step. So it's too slippery to get yourself. Yes, because I feel like you're going to taste it to be bitter when you first taste it.
Like a little. What is it I'm getting up front? That smokiness? Yeah. It's a mesquite.
Mesquite. Yeah. All right.
It's a mesquite smoked green. But do you taste like how bitter it is? A little bitter on the front. Right.
OK. But then take your next sip and then what do you taste now? Suddenly that bitter is because it's chocolate like. Now you get the chocolate.
Right. Cocoa nibs. Yep.
It's literally better on the second taste. Yeah. Yeah.
I like that. OK. I like that a lot.
So then what's our next one? The Buffet Jokes. The pina colada sour. Yeah.
So this is the one that has. Oh, this has the lactose in it. So I'll do a tiny taste of this one.
It is delicious. You can almost taste the lactose. Not much on the nose at all.
You can taste the lactose. Like you can taste the creaminess. That is good flavor though.
Yeah. It's delicious, isn't it? Yeah, that's really good. It's kind of light.
It's not sour. Like I thought it would be more pineapple or whatever. But it's not.
Not a huge bite. You can taste the coconut. Right.
But it's not like overpowering coconut because I feel like when you drink a pina colada, you taste mostly coconut. And this is like just a hint. But you can taste the creaminess that has lactose in it for sure.
Yeah. I'll keep this on my side of the table because you're probably going to be done with that. That's my set.
All right. Rye pale ale. So.
Rye pale ale. OK. That hippocampus is a 6.9 ABV, too.
Well, hippocampus, not hippocampus. Where did I get hippocampus from? This is amazing. That's the rye pale ale? Yes.
And the pine is the very first thing you taste. Oh, I'm going to like it. And I love that.
In an IPA, if it's piney, I love that. I'm starting to enjoy piney. This so far is the best one.
Whatever the one was that we had at Brightsmith last weekend when we hiked to Boise. I. That piney one, I enjoyed that IPA really. Oh, yeah.
Just wait. Good. Oh, yeah.
That's the. That's it. It's delicious, isn't it? Love the pine.
So it says orange and pine with dank, musty notes. Yeah, you get the citrus. And there's there's pepper spice with an earthy finish.
But it's that pine and probably mixed with the orange peel. A little earthy. I feel like I don't feel like I taste that.
I feel like I taste the pine. Very subtle. And you can taste a little bit of the orange peel in it.
Oh, yeah. The pine is right there. It's outstanding.
And you see, it's the pine that gives it the earthy finish, too. So subtle. So good.
Oh, yeah. I love this one. I love that.
OK, so here's Kissel Point, which is my hike we just figured out. So Kissel Point is a trail in Letchworth? It's a trail in Letchworth. OK.
We were literally just talking about it. I was trying to figure out where the trail was called. Is this the one where you and Lori hiked into the point where you might kill her? Yes.
Just wasn't the body? Yes. And then she said, I thought everything leaped around. And I go, I guess this is an up and back.
So we went to the end point. We went all the way to the end. But the end is literally like the cliff, right? Like, we look out and it is so beautiful.
So you just give her a sparta kick right off the edge. Oh, yeah. And they have a huge sign that says Trail End.
Because I don't know if people try to keep climbing down or whatever. I have no idea. It is beautiful, though.
Literally, you could just look out like this. Like, all the way. Nice.
It is awesome. Totally worth it. I will have to check that out sometime.
Sounds like a lot of fun. So, OK. So we have a Vienna lager, which I love the Viennas.
So we are thinking like in the rusty chain category. I feel like this almost tastes like a bar. I do.
We will see. I feel like it does to me. Like caramel? Yep.
And there is no explanation. But I feel like I taste that. Personally.
I don't know. That is a good Vienna to me. I don't taste vodka.
I do. I taste the caramel. Maybe it is leftover pine on my jar.
That is right on the level. It is leftover pine. Yeah, this is right up there with rusty chain from Flying Bison.
Yeah, that is OK. Rusty chain. Rusty chain in my produce jar.
What else would you use in order to put beer? In your house. Huh? In your house. In my barbecue.
Well, wouldn't you put produce in there? You would think. People who eat a lot of produce. I guess.
Although I do have a significant amount of green onions and zucchini in my produce jar. Air quotes. OK.
So. So this is the Shiso Hefe. Yep.
Shiso Hefe. Hefe. Alright.
So this just says it is a German style wheat beer with a refreshingly bright tartness, balanced yeast driven flavor and aroma of banana and clove. OK. Oh, that clove is on the nose.
Yeah? Yep. Oh yeah. Little bit of banana on the finish.
Yeah. I don't like banana. You'll like it.
It's not like, hey, here's a banana. Eat it. No, you'll like that.
That's a good Hefe. Oh, I don't see it's banana. So sad.
Oh, now I taste it. That's very sad. You can taste it later.
No, it's OK. Yeah, I do like the aroma on that. Yeah, I like that.
I like Hefe. OK. Yep.
Oh, yeah. I feel like when we went to War Horse, I really enjoyed that one as a pilsner. So you never know.
This is good. That one is. Yeah.
Extremely light. I don't know. I don't know if Czech Pilsner is a different type of taste, but it's so light.
Oh, yeah. It's only a 4.5. Almost like you're not drinking beer. That's another, you know, hashtag summer sipper.
For sure. That's not much. That's not much there.
I mean, you can enjoy. That's like a seltzer. You can enjoy food and go nuts on that stuff.
Oh, Midnight Creep is an imperial stout. Yeah, we were talking about this one in the car earlier. Right, yeah.
Toffee, boozy, dark caramel on the nose, roasty malt and chocolate with bouncing bitterness, stone fruit, dark cherry, and alcohol, warm in the finish. Before I taste that, put that on your nose. Oh, it smells so good.
It smells like a chocolate covered cherry. So something's wrong with me because I don't, for some reason I can't smell it at all. I think my sinus overreacted.
It smells amazing, actually. I can't smell it at all. I feel like I would burn that as a candle in my house.
Oh, now I get it. Now I get it. Okay.
Now I get a little bit of that. Like a chocolate covered cherry. Yeah, chocolate and cherry.
I really had to huff on that, though. I think my nose is all messed up. I can feel it.
Okay. That's delicioso. What do you think? Muy delicioso.
They're good. Oh, yeah. That's heavy, though.
Yeah, you can drink a lot of this. That's an 11-2. Oh, no wonder.
No, you don't. You'll be walking out of here looking for something to eat. That's good, though.
It tastes like a dessert. Yeah. Doesn't it? You know how you would have an amazing meal and they bring out that dessert line? This would be like bringing out a dessert beer.
It says on the board they serve this only in an 8-ounce. Yeah, because otherwise you're going to fall on your butt. Oh, yeah.
Just kick you right in the teeth. And unfortunately, I would just keep drinking it. I just keep drinking it.
It's good. It's good, though. The more that you sip it, the more that cherry taste you get.
And I'm not a big cherry fan, but that's good. No, but mix with that chocolate. Right.
That's good. Does it say if that's Birol Cascador? No, it does not. I wonder why they have those.
It just says toffee is in there, dark caramel, roasty malt, chocolate, stone fruit, dark cherry. Okay. Look at that.
We hit that one hard. Yeah, because I took two huge gulps of it. It's really good.
Okay, and this is the IPA, which I'm pretty excited about. We like our IPAs. We like our IPAs, our double IPAs, our five PAs, which are full IPAs that we just made up the word for.
Well, this Rye Pale is my very favorite, so let's see if the IPA can top it. Well, I'm smelling classic IPA. Yeah? It doesn't have any description.
It just says IPA number 19. It's just an American IPA. Here it is.
Straight up American IPA right there. Drink it weak. Oh, it's perfect.
Wow. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
That is the, I need a beer after work. There it is. Yep.
Yep. This is so good. It is not too bitter.
It's light. It's refreshing. And you have like that, I mean, you can definitely tell it's an IPA, right? People who don't like IPAs are not going to like this beer.
You can definitely taste that it's an IPA. Oh yeah, it's an IPA. There's the bitterness.
There's the high, like, you know. You know, I feel like you either like IPAs or you don't. It doesn't say what the IBUs are.
No, there's nothing up there. It might have been on the sheet, but I don't remember seeing an IBU on the sheet. I'm curious now, because I feel like it's not as high as a regular one would be.
Maybe in the 40s. I would agree. So it's not really like, you know, bite you.
Yeah. This is good. It's really delicious.
This is good. Yeah. Alright, now let's go back to, real quick, because I'm curious.
Let's go back to the rye tails. Oh, and that is still delicious. To me, yeah.
That might be a favorite on the table, although... No, IPA won this number, too. This rye. That IPA is amazing.
It's very classic American. I do like this, though. I know, right? I like this a lot.
It's so surprising, because I really thought, like, rye tail. Like, am I really going to like a rye beer? I like a rye whiskey. Do I want a rye beer? Rye beer.
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