Plying his craft, beer columnist shares best selections from 2017
Will Cleveland
We've never had it better locally. Rochester-area breweries continue to open and continue to get better. And we continue to be spoiled with the breweries who distribute here and those who just started sending beer to the upstate market.
Walk into any grocery store, corner store, or bottle shop and you'll find incredible, world-class beers on the shelves. Beers from the likes of Bells, Great Lakes, North Coast, Founders, and New Belgium, to name a few, are always available.
I hope we see Fat Head's and Deschutes in the next year.
I drank plenty of exceptional beers this year. Choosing the best of 2017 was insanely difficult, but it also presented a great opportunity to reflect on how lucky I am to have this experience. What I enjoyed most, and what the craft beer experience is all about, was sharing it with great friends.
Here are my favorite beers of 2017:
The emerging Connecticut brewery features a wide-ranging and always solid portfolio. Two Roads expanded their reach to the upstate market in February. The wonderfully full-bodied Espressway Cold Brew Coffee Stout, which features a perfect coffee treatment, was the one I most often reached for.
More:How Genesee, the state's oldest brewery, became the most modern
Firestone Walker Leo Vs Ursus: Fortem
Firestone Walker is one of those breweries that is easy to overlook. The California craft brewery (under the same ownership umbrella as Cooperstown's Brewery Ommegang) is always available and never disappoints. Firestone Walker launched a new rotating hoppy beer series recently. They've all been lovely, but Fortem was my favorite. (I can't wait for the re-return of the black rye IPA.)
Big Ditch Lock IPA series: Packet and Fip
Buffalo continues to outpace Rochester beer in quality, quantity, and variety. Rochester has some solid breweries, but the overall quality of Buffalo beer is better. Buffalo has destination breweries, the kind of places that attract visitors. Buffalo has places like New York Beer Project, 42 North, Hamburg, Thin Man, Resurgence, and some others. Rochester beer continues to get better, but I don't think we have destination craft breweries, outside of the Genesee Brew House. Big Ditch is a destination brewery. Big Ditch's Lock IPA series represents the best hoppy beers I had in western New York this year. Both Packet and Fip were outstanding and I'm really excited for the future of this series.
More:Is there a craft beer bubble in Rochester? Not with our 'insatiable thirst'
We're starting to see more and more beers from this emerging Buffalo brewery, and I am impressed with how the quality continues to improve with each successive beer. Juicemaster, a pungent mango and passion fruit sour, was my favorite beer from Thin Man this year. The hoppy and dark beers are also a treat. And with an expansion in the near future, we should start seeing more Thin Man beers in Rochester.
Trophy Brewing is based in Raleigh, N.C. Chris Powers, one of the brewery co-founders, is from Henrietta. Like many of the breweries on this list, Trophy produces a wide range of fantastic beers. But I found myself most enamored with Trophy's Yard of the Month cream ale, which is most definitely an homage to the Genesee classic. Trophy's version is incredibly true-to-style and just a perfect lawnmower beer.
Webster's only brewery has continued to get better and better over the past three years. Tainted Haze, Knucklehead's New England-style IPA, has gotten better with each successive batch and now stands as one of the best local IPAs in this market. But I think Knucklehead really excels with dark beers. The recent coconut porter was my favorite and I sincerely hope it is made again.
Collective Arts' Stranger Than Fiction
This brewery from Hamilton, Ontario, was one of the many that expanded its reach to Rochester in 2017. I highlighted Collective Arts' upstate launch earlier this year. CAB produces a wide range of fantastic beers. Along with Bell's, Anchor, Founders, Smuttynose, Naked Dove, and Great Lakes, we have a ton of fantastic porters available in our market. Stranger Than Fiction, which features the creamiest body in the bunch, is among the best.
More:St. Paul Street brewery Fifth Frame pours first beers
Other Half Double Dry Hopped Mylar Bags DIPA
The Brooklyn-based brewery hosted two can-release events in upstate New York in the past few months. The first was in Syracuse. The second followed in Buffalo. (Could Rochester be next? Sources tell me it's a real possibility.) Other Half continued its IPA ways in 2017. Double Dry Hopped (the newest buzzword) Mylar Bags became one of my favorite releases from OH. And we were lucky enough to see it semi-local when it was released at the Syracuse can drop.
Beers from the Hudson Valley
The best beer in New York state (outside of Auburn's Prison City Pub and Brewery) is coming from the Hudson Valley. Suarez Family, Sloop, Hudson Valley, Equilibrium, District 96, Plan Bee, Industrial Arts, and more stand out as some of the best breweries in the state. Suarez, coming from the school of Hill Farmstead-style brewing, is the best brewery in the state. Hudson Valley Brewing is re-writing style guidelines with its take on sour IPAs. Equilibrium is producing quality beers across the board. Plan Bee is making the funkiest wild ales in the state. And I was lucky enough to drink multiple beers from each of these breweries this year. I hope 2018 is filled with more.
I've said for years that no one brews the malty, dark, and German better than Canandaigua's Naked Dove. The brewery's first Pilsner in a few years demonstrated that mastery. It was perfect.
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Anyone who follows me on social media knows that I am in love with this Toronto brewery. I visited Bellwoods at least 10 times this year (including earlier this month). I love Bellwoods because the brewery produces true-to-style, well-balanced beers. And when chances are taken (such as mixed fermentation sours or Brett-spiked imperial porters or barrel-aging), the beers are still incredibly nuanced, sometimes delicate and always tasty. I couldn't possibly single out a beer I enjoyed more than others, because I enjoyed so many of them. I've made some great friends there, especially Gord and Ashley. Bellwoods is on my travel itinerary, again, in the near future. .
I made it a goal to explore Ontario (Canada) craft beer more in 2017. Toronto and Hamilton both feature fantastic breweries. But I was most blown away by Half Hours on Earth, a super small brewery in Seaforth, Ontario, that focuses on farmhouse-style ales and other wild creations. The beers I've tried from Half Hours were nuanced and unassuming. Nothing ever overpowers. I most loved Lullaby, a barrel-aged black farmhouse ale brewed with rye and chocolate malts. Half Hours is one of the breweries that I'm determined to visit in 2018.
The brewers at Roc are slightly unhinged. Really, it's part of their charm. So Nick, Ashley, and Josh produced a Hefeweizen with green tea and rye. It doesn't sound like it should work. It does.
I love Genny. Reisky & Spies, a bourbon barrel-aged old ale, was the first beer to be canned inside the Genesee Brew House. It was also one of the best beers I tasted this year. The toffee-forward base blends beautifully with the oak and vanilla notes from the barrel. It's another beer I hope Genny produces again.
I love Auburn's Prison City. Like my beloved Bellwoods, Prison City nails every style. During its recent third anniversary party, Prison City had 22 beers (20 draft lines and two casks). It was amazing to see how this little brewery has evolved while continuing to push forward. Wham Whams, especially the barrel-aged version, stood as the highlight for me. It's a hugely rich imperial stout with cocoa nibs and coconut. But like everything Ben Maeso produces, there is balance.
I hope your year was fruitful, filled with great people and great beer. I'm excited for 2018. I hope you are, too.