Posts Tagged“ithaca beer company”

Ithaca Beer Company “Ground Break” American-Style Saison

Ithaca Beer Company is one of my go-to brewers when I’m upstate (anywhere north of Westchester for us Long Islanders). They have a solid lineup, yet the brown ale and “Flower Power” IPA are always my favorites. This saison pours a dark yellow to orange color with champagne-like froth. There’s more haze and sediment than I would have expected from an American Saison, although its European counterparts are well known for it. Whatever particles aren’t stuck to the bottom of the bottle slide happily into the bath of ale (it’s ok, yeast is packed with vitamin B and B12). The…

Continue Reading

The “Beers of the Year Finalists” That Didn’t Win… That We Loved

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor The best and worst aspect of our “Beers of the Year” program is the difficulty of choosing a favorite; while we agreed on Krysztoff, and Mark Tichenor has plenty more to tell you about that particular Baltic porter (look for his post next week), several beers caught the crew’s attention in a big way. I highly encourage NYCR readers to try all of the finalists if they haven’t already. The first time I had Ithaca Beer Company’s Brute I found it truly staggering. I had just begun exploring sour beers and this one was a…

Continue Reading

Jeff O’Neil to Join Peekskill Brewing Company

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor Award-winning brewer Jeff "Chief" O'Neil (pictured right) has announced that he is ending his nine-year tenure at Ithaca Beer Company to join The Peekskill Brewery as brewmaster, effective November 1. As Ithaca's brewmaster, O'Neil brought the Finger Lakes brewery national recognition with awards at the Great American Beer Festival and other  major events; thanks to his fierce skills and flair for innovation, honed at the Siebel Institute of Technology, such Ithaca offerings as Flower Power IPA and the Excelsior! Line (most notably Brute, a 2010 NYCR Beers of the Year finalist) have become sought-after gems…

Continue Reading

Ithaca Excelsior! Series TEN

By Kevin Burns, Beer Columnist Ithaca TEN is an "imperial American Extra Special Double Red Ale" that was created to celebrate the Ithaca Beer Company's 10th anniversary.  The beer was released in March of 2008 as part of the Excelsior! series and is described by the brewery as an "exploded version of CascaZilla".  In 2008 at TAP-NY, Ithaca TEN was awarded the gold medal of the F.X. Matt Memorial Cup as the best beer in New York State.    The bottle is labeled Batch# E!011. TEN poured a light brown color with a small, pen-width, tan head. The nose had quite a bit of rich malt, with a…

Continue Reading