Zesty tropical fruited ‘hoppy’ pale ale stays sessionable as mild pine resin soaks up sharply dry pineapple, grapefruit and orange rind bittering and peachy mango tang, leaving phenol hop astringency to contrast its daintily spiced crystal sugaring.
CLOWN SHOES LUCHA CERVEZA
OK Mexican-styled pale lager brings lightly salted corn chipped spelt graining to the fore as lightly creamed Scotch malting soothes lemon-sugared herbal nips.
KEUKA BREWING COMPANY
HAMMONDSPORT, NEW YORK
Residing at an inconspicuous Industrial styled farmhouse with insulated white roof in the vineyard-lined Steuben County village of Hammondsport, KEUKA BREWING COMPANY opened in 2008. By 2010, Mark Musso took over the brew tanks and began drifting into barrel aging, mixed fermentation and offbeat traditional beer recipes. Many of his limited edition one-offs have become Musso’s most cherished offerings while longstanding faves such as Afterburner Habanero Ale and Ghost of Rita Gose prove both experimental and highly welcoming.
A benched front deck with picnic tables and firepit welcomes patrons to the agrarian hillside pub. The overhead doored, cement-floored tasting room features a ten-seat wood-lacquered bar with wainscoting-paneled aluminum siding, pendant lights and central octagon tiled draught station. Two narrow wood benched community tables with metal pipe fit crossbars and a few barreled tables front the bar. Brew tanks are stored in the rear.
Alongside Keuka’s house beers were Southern Tier vodkas and local wines on my early December ’23 noontime journey. I took home a few brews reviewed in Beer Index.
Dry light lager, Dock Beer, spread spritzy lemon fizz atop salty pretzeled doughy pilsner malts and spicy hop smidge.
Mild habanero peppering glides thru floral-daubed mango salting and tangy pineapple juicing of brisk Tropical Afterburner Light Ale, gaining lemony respite.
Waxy floral fruiting embraced dry Keuka Pale Ale, leaving lemony grapefruit bittering and light gin-tinged juniper botanicals upon its buttered biscuit base.
Powdered sugaring and wispy vanilla maple creaming saddled the cinnamon-nutmeg-allspice autumnal seasoning of Pumpkin Cream Ale, picking up a candied apple glaze.
Bittersweet blueberry caking gains doughy wheat sugared glaze and mildly brisk lemon zesting for lactic vanilla creamed wheat ale, Blueberry Cake Donut, a fruity pastry-like dessert.
Sharply spiced lemony grapefruit spritz picked up mild floral herbage and woody Chinook hop dryness for Polymorphic #27, the latest in a series of mixed hopped NEIPA’s.
Closer to a milkshake IPA, Polymorphic #28 retained vanilla-sugared marshmallow fluff and oated wheat creaming for its zestful lemony grapefruit, orange, tangelo and guava heist.
Ice pop-derived fruited sour, Sticky Drips – Bomb Pop, had its limey cherry and blue raspberry tartness receive dry bourbon wisps, sneaky green grape tannins and lemon-dropped orange snips.
Medium roast coffee bean entry gained milk-sugared vanilla creaming and dark chocolate bittering for Local Mocha Stout, a relaxing full-bodied digestif.
Decadent lactose-aided milk stout, Cookies And Cream, let its chocolate cookie richness rise above creamy vanilla sugaring for blissful luxuriant dessert.
Barrel aged in 4 Roses bourbon for eight months, Fat Stack Maple Pecan Porter stayed smooth as thick maple syruping coats pecan pie sweetness as well as dry vanilla tannins contrasting latent whiskeyed brown chocolate, cola nut, almond and caramel illusions.
KEUKA STRAWBERRIES & CREAM ALE
Sessionable lactose-sugared cream ale lets strawberry shortcake icing reach confectionery raspberry Creamsicle midst, leaving banana chip sweetness and candied Sweet-Tart watermelon tartness all over its lightly creamed oats malting. Just a tad thin at the fading fruited finish.
KEUKA STICKY DRIPS: FRUITED PASTRY SOUR
Lactose-sugared fruited pastry features tangy tangerine and marshmallow-fluffed vanilla, picking up lightly acidic lemon peel bittering to contrast lemon meringue piquancy, tart pineapple riffs and bosc pear nips in fizzy setting.
KEUKA STICKY DRIPS: BLUEBERRY LEMON CRUNCH COAT
Arid fruited sour lets bitter blueberry adjunct slip into lightly acidic salted lemon spritz and phenol spiced neutrality over evaporative Graham Cracker-honeyed white wheat base.
KEUKA STICKY DRIPS: GRAPE PIE SOUR
Uniquely designed grape-forward ‘pastry’ sour ale fuses bubbly Concord grape soda sweetness to tart green grape esters, musty Muscat wine musk and dry honey mead sinew, picking up latent cinnamon, cranberry and cider illusions.
KEUKA GHOST OF RITA GOSE
Italian lemon ice effervescence of traditional tart kettle-soured gose gains briny lime-juiced guava insistence, salted Margarita sashay and minty stint above lactic white wheat base. Moderate citrus acidity lingers.
STEUBEN BREWING COMPANY
HAMMONDSPORT, NEW YORK
Overlooking beautiful Keuka Lake in a tan aluminum farmhouse with large back deck and picnic-tabled lawn, STEUBEN BREWING COMPANY is one of at least three Hammondsport brewpubs. Opened in 2014, Steuben seems to specialize in Bavarian pilsners and American IPA’s.
The main pub features a plank wood serving station, a few three-seated round tables, a green-walled blackboard beer listing, pendant lights and snazzy blue-stained concrete floor. Brewtanks are to the left behind the serving station and a TV, to-go refrigerator and shelved glassware fill out the space. Several local wines and ciders were available.
We grab a few seats at the cement-floored right side windowed room where several community tables crowd up on a cloudy Sunday afternoon, early December ’23.
Enjoyed all four German-styled pilsners upon entry. A zesty lemon spritz, pretzel-salted barley roast and musky herbal nip guided Cascade-hopped light body, The N.Y. Pils. Fizzy lemon sprayed the other yellow-cleared Bavarian, Premier Pilsner.
Softer, dryer, spicier Pederson Pilsner, retained doughy biscuit buttering. Dry lagered N.Y. Curtis Cyclocross snagged orange pekoe tea musk and wispy floral tangerine snips.
As for the IPA’s, tangy ‘clementine and peach’ brightened pine-salted Hopyard IPA, as did orange-peeled grapefruit zesting.
Sunshiny orange-peeled lemon rind bittering and salted green grape esters prodded the piney lupulin oiling of Harmonyville IPA, leaving floral daubs on its citric-spiced finish.
Tropical fruited New England IPA, Trail Town, plied peachy orange tanginess and lemony pineapple-grapefruit zesting to light evergreen pining.
Nutty dark chocolatey Hometown English Brown relegated its maple-glazed chestnut and walnut roast.
Dazzling bourbon-barreled Imperial Stout dangled bourbon vanilla pleasantries alongside fudgy brown chocolate richness, picking up sweet vanilla spicing, almond marzipan sugaring and chewy toffee nip.
WEBE BREWING COMPANY
GENEVA, NEW YORK
The 14th Ontario County brewery to open since the Craft Beer Revolution started ’round 1998, WeBe BREWING COMPANY initially tapped its draughts on March 31, 2018, in the Seneca Lake town of Geneva. Entrepreneurial brewing enthusiasts, Colleen and Daniel Lieberg, have crafted a wide array of stylistically balanced suds in small batches for WeBe.
At an off-white concrete and brick warehouse with two overhead doors, large grassy backyard and windowed brew tanks, WeBe decorates its wood-metal tabled interior with a cool paint-chipped epoxy floor and Edison lights hanging from the rustic ceiling. There are three TV’s at front, back and center.
I grab a spot at the 20-seat, lacquered bark-topped bar to draw some liquids from the dozen draught handles (skipping all three fine ciders) while my wife chomps on spinach artichoke pizza during my December ’23 Finger Lakes adventure.
First up, a German-styled light pilsner. Fizzy lemon sugaring reached honeyed pilsner malts for Bills’ner, leaving herbal whims in the distance.
Vanilla-creamed banana sweetness and light clove spicing welcomed The Golden Peel Hefeweizen, lathering its honeyed wheat base.
Orange-peeled coriander spicing and banana chip sweetness coddled witbier, At My Wit’s End, posting dry rum sentiments at the durable citric-plantain finish.
‘Silky smooth’ S.O.S. Scotch Ale gathered dewy peat moss for milked coffee, dark cocoa and caramelized toffee riffs.
Tart mango juicing joined stylish sea-salted coriander spicing for Man-Gogh, a variant gose with wavered guava-gooseberry souring.
Tropical NEIPA, Yard Games, plied navel orange, lemon verbena and tangerine marmalade to buttery saffron spicing and lightly salted oated wheat.
Juicy double dry-hopped NEIPA, Serenity Now! merged tangy pineapple sweetness and melon-cantaloupe snips with lemon-limed gooseberry souring, gaining dry wood tones to contrast mild oated wheat creaming.
Sour double dry-hopped NEIPA, Sour Squeeze Play, conditioned with blood orange and tangerine puree, received moderate lemon salted acidity contrasted by its delicate oats-flaked creaming.
Decadent lactic milk stout, Grammy’s Candies, draped caramelized brown chocolate syrup atop oats-flaked sugaring. Lovely Buche de Noel, chocolate chip cookie, creme brulee, Graham Cracker and cappuccino illusions add to the luscious sweet-toothed glory.
BREWERY ARDENNES
GENEVA, NEW YORK
Inhabiting a refurbished stone-and-slate dairy barn turned into a turret-roofed manor in the rural western Seneca Lake town of Geneva, BREWERY ARDENNES TAPROOM & KITCHEN is a pristine Belgian-inspired brewhouse entrepreneurial owners Derek & Stacey Erdinger created after attending nearby Cornell University. A former sheep farm, Ardennes now recalls a serene Euro-styled high-end winery. Tapping for the public began May ’21.
At the grand side entrance on the left side are the varied windowed brewtanks. On the opposing side, a brown-couched lounge area leads to the exquisite main pub. A U-shaped bar with black granite sandstone top stages two tap stations with six draught handles each plus a separate three tap station. Across the bar, tidy wood tables and chairs gather atop the rust concrete floor.
A small kitchen serves upscale gourmet dishes paired with certain house beers. Upcoming Events include Monday Burger & Pint night and Sunday Brunch at the Barn.
My wife and I grab seats at the bar ’round noon on a Friday early December ’23 to try four elegant Belgian-styled farmhouse ales, taking home a few more reviewed in Beer Index.
Expressive Belgian-styled Blonde Ale backed its white-peppered orange salting, saison-like barnyard musk, mild Chardonnay buttering, sweet clove snip and cellared herbal fungi with crusty baked breading.
Stylish orange-peeled coriander spicing lingered softly for Belgian-styled Wheat, letting lemon-candied banana breading counter its salty peppercorn notion and musty cellared mossing over a wispy white wheat base.
Tidy Belgian-styled Session IPA slid dry yellow grapefruit and orange rind bittering onto white peppered herbage above buttery caramel malting.
Tropical fruited Belgian Hazy IPA may’ve lacked the haze, but this clear yellowed medium body let lightly embittered orange rind, grapefruit pith and pineapple tanginess gain grassy hopped pine resin and peppery herbal restraint atop honeyed pale malts.
ARDENNES GRAND CRU BELGIAN STOUT
Creamy maple molasses-smoked dark roast chocolate entry picks up rum-sugared coffee serenade and sweet candied dried fruiting for ‘bold’ Belgian stout.