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| Beer Paradise Unlike a Muslim terrorist who envisions Paradise as a place where he will get to sample the favors of seventy two virgins after he blows himself up, a beer enthusiast can equate Paradise to a place where he can sample more than seventy two new, untried beers and remain living in order to seek out still more. For those of us in New Jersey, Beer Paradise can easily be defined as Central New York, specifically the Finger Lakes region, usually noted only for it’s wineries. For a beer lover who doesn’t want to waste money on airfare or drive thousands of miles up and down the east coast in search of new brews, Beer Paradise is only a couple of hours and a tank or two of gas away. (Depending on whether he’s driving a “Smart” car or a Ford Expedition). There are literally hundreds of breweries in this famous wine area. My wife expressed a desire to celebrate her 65th birthday by renting a lakeside bungalow on Seneca Lake, largest of the Finger Lakes. Thanks to the Internet and Air B&B, one was found at a reasonable price for the week we wanted. And so, on a Saturday morning we set out in her new Beetle convertible to begin a week of touring, wine tasting and brewery visiting. Our first stop in Oswego, NY, eliminated the need for an immediate second stop for lunch. The Farmhouse Brewery tasting room in downtown Owego (the brewery is actually several miles away) offered not only flights of their dozen or so available beers, but also free hot dogs and snacks to tide us over until we reached Watkins Glen at the foot of Seneca Lake and home of Roosterfish Brewery, where another flight or two was sampled. A trip to the local Walmart to stock up on provisions for the week ahead enabled me to procure my least expensive and favorite acquisition of the trip. After driving three hours in an open convertible, I needed a cap to deflect the rays of the sun, my Ballantine IPA cap having been forgotten in the coat closet when packing for the trip. A patriotic display of caps in the Walmart caught my eye, and being an ex- jarhead (are there really any EX-marines?), I fell in love with a cap that proclaimed “US Marine Corps Veteran” with the eagle, globe and anchor logo on the front, “Proudly Served” on the bill and “Semper Fidelis” on the adjustable strap at the rear. I say least expensive, because it only cost $5.99, but even that cost was defrayed. Later that evening, in the Scale House Brewery, while having a flight of Scale House brews with the hat proudly displayed on my head, a man came up to me, shook my hand and said “Thank you for your service. Can I buy you a pint?” This scenario was repeated a few days later at the Bandwagon Brewery. I never took advantage of the GI Bill, VA loans or VA hospitals, so finally I’m beginning to reap the benefits of my Marine Corps service. With free pints a possibility, the hat rarely comes off my head. With all the breweries nearby, I had planned on growler fills for my beer needs while in the cabin, but it’s a little tough to bob around in an inner tube on the lake with a pint glass, so I picked up a couple of twelve packs of cans at the Walmart, one of which was Pabst Blue Ribbon, which, in addition to accompanying the lawnmower, is a perfect “inner tube beer”. The other twelver was a sampler pack of four different Trouble Brewing Company beers from Rochester. My daughter, who was down from Buffalo for the weekend, looked them up and discovered that they are a product of the Genesee company, brewed as a house brand for Walmart, and that some misguided fool was suing Walmart for having marketed them as “craft” beer. What a jerk! The twelve pack cost something like $12.47.and all four tasted pretty good. A lawsuit because he was misled? Give me a break! If he didn’t like them he could have simply poured them out and redeemed the empty cans for sixty cents, or better yet, donated them full to an appreciative, homeless wino. One day we drove to Auburn for lunch at the Prison City Brewpub. Auburn is also home to Auburn Prison, site of the world’s first electrocution in 1889, and boasts Swabby’s Pub, current (no pun intended) home of the very electric chair in which that execution was carried out. After an excellent outdoor lunch at Prison City (I especially liked the Lockdown Brown Ale, served both on tap and cask conditioned), we walked around the corner to Swabby’s only to find out it doesn’t open until 4:00pm, so I wasn’t able to view the furniture in which William Kemmler drew his last breath this time around. But many more trips to Beer Paradise are planned, and a stop to look at Old Sparky will be on the agenda. The Finger Lakes Brewing company in Hammond- sport has a huge collection of growlers from other breweries. I wondered out loud to my wife if there were any from Jersey. I grabbed my pint, walked over to one of the walls where the growlers were displayed and was astonished that the first one I saw was from my “local”, The Gaslight, in South Orange. Small world. The Wagner Valley Brewery and Winery, probably the largest in the region, makes the best beer. I liked every one I tried, although I must admit I didn’t try the sours. If this nouveau style ever becomes the only style available, I’ll give up drinking beer forever. Beer Paradise even offers a venue for those who won’t drink anything but cask ale. Beerocracy, tasting room for the Seneca Lake Brewing Company in Rock Spring, on the western shore of Seneca, serves nothing BUT English style cask conditioned ales. The Cranley’s Old Ale was my favorite. The only drawback to the trip was made worse by the fact that we had planned for it to be the highlight, a “last night” dinner in Watkins Glen at Captain Bill’s Restaurant, a vastly overpriced and terribly staffed place at the foot of Seneca Lake. The food was just passable (or terrible, if the price is taken into consideration), the ambiance of swatting at gnats at the outdoor table where no ceiling fan or any other type of repellent was provided was horrendous, and the long wait for pint replenishment was intolerable. A drink order was taken when we sat down and twenty minutes later the drinks arrived and our order was taken. After about a half hour the entrees arrived, and my pint being empty and unnoticed for twenty minutes, I immediately ordered another. That one arrived ten minutes after we had taken our last forkful and 874 dead gnats later. I sent it back, even though by this time I was dying of thirst. Thankfully, the Roosterfish brewery is almost directly across the street. I hate to end this article on a sour note, so I’ll relate an as yet not mentioned VERY positive aspect of Beer Paradise. For those beer lovers like me who are married to wine tasting beer haters, many of the wineries offer taps of local brews for antsy husbands waiting for their wives to complete their tastings and practically ALL of the breweries have local wines available for wives who don’t want to sit idly by while their husbands sample flights. A trip to the Finger Lakes Beer Paradise should be on every hophead’s bucket list. Cheers! Dan |
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Beer My Way.........
Beernexus.com proudly presents....DAN HODGE, beer reviewer, historian and raconteur
by Dan Hodge
