Ithaca Beer Co.

Ithaca Brewing Co.

This weekend we spent a day in Ithaca, seeing what Ithaca has to offer for beer.  We have gone to Ithaca on a beer adventure before so we decided to write about the new beers that the brewery is offering in their taproom and give a general review of the brewery.  Enjoy!

Rough Draft:

Krysten: **

Jason: *

An almost apple-sour taste and aroma.  Very light, easy to drink.  No hop character.  Apples are very apparent in the fragrance.  Almost reminds me of a Berliner with the light taste and carbonation and hint of sourness, but not as sour as a Berliner.  Was actually more sweet than sour.  Krysten enjoyed this beer because it had definite drinkability and had some sour notes which she really enjoys.

Excelsior 13

Krysten: ***

Jason: **

We would describe this beer as a Wheat IPA, which got us thinking… what a cool and interesting style of beer that would be.  It had a beautiful hoppy, floral aroma which almost reminded me of the aroma of Flower Power.  Medium to somewhat thick mouth-feel.  Golden-hazy color with a nice bubbly head.  Citrus and floral notes combined with a classic wheat taste.  Finishes super bitter, a little too bitter at the end.  Bitterness lingers for a long time afterwards.

Dark Humor

Krysten: **

Jason: *

Sour bacon.  We missed trying this beer at J Ryan’s FirkinFest this year and thought we wouldn’t be able to try it ever again so we were pleasantly surprised to see it offered at the brewery.  The only words I can think of to describe this beer is sour bacon.  The brewery describes it as an earthly funkalicious beer, which also sounds about right.  It’s unlike anything we’ve ever tried before.  It has a dark brown color with a large head to begin with and from the looks of it, I would expect it to taste like a brown ale.  However, it starts off pretty sour, has a funky weird tasting middle and finishes smokey.  Unusual.  It’s hard to describe, it’s definitely worth trying, I think it’s a hit or miss whether or not you like it.

About the Brewery:

Ithaca Beer Co. is kind of exactly what you would expect from a brewery located in Ithaca.  Laid back, casual, hippie atmosphere but with a definite sophistication and knowledge of brewing and beer.  I was expecting their good looking taproom girls to be just there for show, but after asking them questions about the beer and brewery, we were surprised to see that they knew what they were talking about and were quite friendly and intelligent.  We’re happy to see that Ithaca Brewing is taking risks by creating new and intriguing beers which is one of the reasons why we’ll keep coming back, even if some of the beers taste like sour bacon.  I do have to say though, I wish that the branding of the brewery was done a little better in the taproom.  The brewery is set in what looks like an old Walgreen's and the inside is somewhat transformed into a cool taproom, but they need to (1) change the carpet, it’s a weird color, (2) really brand up the inside and make it an “experience,” and (3) change up the outside so it doesn’t look so modular.  But all-in-all, love Ithaca Brewing Co. and definitely will be back.

Written by mostly Krysten with some input from Jason.