Bandwagon Brewpub

Bandwagon Brewpub

Along with our tour de Ithaca, we enjoyed beers and foods from the Bandwagon Brewpub which is located off The Commons in downtown Ithaca.  Here's what we have to say:

“Brewery Flight”

Common Ale

Krysten: *

Jason: ***

To me (Krysten) this beer didn’t have much of a fragrance, it had a funky taste and had a lingering aftertaste.  It did have some citrus notes but I didn’t find anything special about this beer.  Jason, however, really enjoyed this beer.

Strawberry Cream Ale

Krysten: **

Jason: **

           

Strawberry taste is really subtle as it should be.  I usually am not a fan of fruit beers that are overpowered by the fruit taste and I was hesitate trying this beer to begin with because I was weary of the strawberry in the beer, but it was actually pretty good.  For a cream ale it didn’t have the mouth-feel you would expect.  I would expect it to have a heavier mouth-feel but the beer was a tad too watery.  Still, quite delicious and not what I was expecting.

Pirate Eye PA

Krysten: ***

Jason: ***

Very smooth, easy to drink.  Not as hoppy as I would expect from an IPA.  Love the name!  Has a nice amber/golden color.  The aroma is pretty weak, some more finishing hops might boost the hop aroma.  It had a really nice balance between malt and hops which made it easy and nice to drink. This beer, like there others really has the taste of a small batch.

Belly River Oatmeal Stout

Krysten: ****

Jason: ***

Delicious!  Krysten’s favorite beer from the flight.  Super smooth, had great drinkability.  Unlike most stouts, I could spend a night just drinking this beer because it was well balanced, tasty but didn’t have that extreme heaviness that you would expect from a stout.  Beautiful dark brown color with a toffee colored head.  Nice malty aroma.  Little weak in the taste in the beginning, that could be amped up a little.  It starts off light and sweet and finishes smokey and dry.

Raspberry -Jalapeno Ale

Krysten: ***

Jason: **

Well balanced.  Not as much of a spicy kick as I would have liked.  Spice is there, but it’s really subtle but since I like spicy things, I would have like to see this flavor more evident in the beer.  Not too overpowered by the raspberry taste, and like the Strawberry Cream Ale, the fruit taste is very natural and well done.  Could be more carbonated to balance out the spice taste.  Very nice fruity and spicy aroma. Jason thinks they make it with the raspberry jalapeno jam (which was a part of our cheese platter) but the bartender said no.  I don’t believe her!

About the Bandwagon Brewpub:

We love this place!  We always make sure we come here when we’re visiting Ithaca.  Definitely worth the trip.  Food is always fantastic.  This time we enjoyed their cheese platter which went well with our brewery flight of beers.  We also enjoyed their cheeseburger which is one of the more standard options on their menu but was definitely delicious.  They have a great food menu that is really unique and interesting but can be a little pricey.  Really down-to-earth hippie/hipster scene with a laid back atmosphere and super friendly staff.  They only brew ten gallons at a time which allows them to experiment a lot. Last visit we had their very interesting Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout! They also recently expanded the brewpub to fit more seating in and improved their brewing systems so hopefully we’ll be seeing more great things from the Bandwagon.

Written by Krysten with some input from Jason.