BURDETT, NEW YORK
Founded in 2015 and a half-mile South of Two Goats Brewing, Burdette’s GRIST IRON BREWING COMPANY is perched above Seneca Lake on a 150-acre farm. A wide range of beer styles boasting a rich American heritage favors lagers, IPA’s and sours.
Occupying a spacious ruddy browned, vaulted-ceilinged barnhouse, the cement-floored, rustic wood-topped pub features a rounded service station with twelve taps plus aluminum-seated wood lacquer-topped four and six seat tables and silver-kettled brew tanks (behind the bar). A separate overhead-doored dining space and outdoor porch provide further seating and an on-site beer-themed lodge promotes overnight stays.
Sandwiches, pizza and barbecue crowded the food menu as I downed a few brews on a brisk Friday afternoon, late November ’23.
Easygoing Campfire Lite Lager stayed brisk as Seltzer-fizzed lemon peel bittering, salty lime dryness and Saaz-hopped herbage upstaged mineral grained pilsner malting.
Part of Grist Iron’s Sour Series, tart raspberry seeding seeped into sour lemon acidity and herbal woodruff syruping for Sour Raspberry Wheat.
Upfront Meyer lemon sweetness picked up salty lime-peeled yellow grapefruit bittering and slight mandarin orange tang for Life’s Lemons, an eccentric citric-splashed NEIPA.
Creamy dark chocolate syruping trickled thru the wood-burnt Blackstrap molasses bittering, mild hazelnut coffee roast and dry cocoa remnant of Maxximus Brown Ale, picking up subtle walnut-cola conflux and figgy black cherry nuance.
Dark-roast coffee bittering, coarsened nut char, dark chocolate creaming and crisp tobacco roast anchored Banshee Breakfast Oatmeal Stout, an oats-flaked full body with a dry espresso finish.
Modestly creamed dark chocolate bittering and mild peanut buttering nestled the dark-roast hop char, dry cocoa chalkiness and chicory coffee caress of Mom’s Favorite Chocolate PB Stout, leaving maple molasses-induced toffee fudginess on the rich mocha flurry.
I also consumed a few canned Grist Iron brews afterwards in January ’24.
Classic aluminum clear pilsner-malted bantam, Campfire Lite Lager, retained mild raw grained minerality, dry maize astringency, lemon-dried Saaz hop herbage, slight green peppering and sour cabbage musk suiting pleasantly pedestrian slightly salted fizzy fodder.
Semi-sharp lemony grapefruit and orange spicing plus lingered herbal hop astringency rose above the dry pale malting of polite moderate-bodied Ol’ Buddy Ol’ Pale Ale.
Dry golden West Coast-styled IPA, Lake Life, coalesced mild lemon-peeled grapefruit bittering with sweet orange peel zesting and peachy mango tanginess, staying easygoing as floral-daubed earthen hop herbage and light pining settle above doughy French breading.
Lemony yellow grapefruit tanginess gained subtle New Zealand-hopped guava souring and kolsch-like champagne wining for Juicy Way, a less oat-creamed, fizzier New England IPA.
