September 21, 2005
Hop Fest 2005: More Brews, More "Stuff", More Rain
The 2005 Madison County Hop Festival was held last Saturday, September 17 at the Madison County Historical Society's headquarters in Oneida, New York. Hop history lessons were provided via slideshow presentations and hands-on artifacts of a time when hops were a major cash crop in Madison County. Vendors of hop-related products were on hand, as was the Syracuse Irish Session, a group of musicians playing a wide variety of Irish music that perfectly fit the misty weather and historic scene. A beer tasting, featuring about two dozen breweries, was held to raise funds for the historical society.
The guests of honor!
More information, including photos, is below the "fold":
Ommegang always has great beer and great gear. I really enjoyed the Duvel this year; unfortunately for me it's even more expensive than Ommegang! 
Volunteers poured the beer and every last one of them was friendly and knowledgeable. Maybe someone can explain to me, though, why representatives from the actual brewery were not allowed to pour or even talk about their beers.
Chris and Tammy are there every year - usually they are at the Ommegang table but this year they were pouring something a little more mundane. They ran out of it early (they were only provided with a single case) and had a chance to sample some of the other brews as a result. They gave me some good advice about volunteering next year.
Middle Ages was well-represented, with Beast Bitter, Syracuse Pale Ale, Grail Ale, and ImPaled Ale, plus Swallow Wit and Duke of Winship on draft!
This is the information area - among the groups present were a beer can and brewerania collector's group, a wine- and beer-making supplies company, and the New Woodstock Historical Society.
The barn at Cottage Lawn has hop fines along the outside and hop presentations and artifacts on the inside.
The Syracuse Irish Session sounded great:
At almost 5 PM, it was time for the raffle prizes to be drawn and given away.
The Syracuse Newspapers covered the event as well.
For information about other events, check out the web site of the Madison County Historical Society.
Onondaga Beverage Adds New Building
Onondaga Beverage Corp. is adding a new 20,000 square-foot building to help improve its operations. OBC is a major distributor in CNY, handling many national beer and soft-drink accounts including Labatt's, Coors, Heineken (yuck), Corona, Saranac, and many more. The company has been around since 1959 and employs 140 people.
September 15, 2005
Japanese Brewing
Today I heard from Kathy S., an expatriate of Cazenovia (where I currently live). Kathy lives in Tokyo and mentioned that she had been on a recent tour of Suntory; she referred me to this great breakdown of Suntory's facility in The Blog From Another Dimension. Kathy also wrote:
It's all very high tech, but they do have some of their older equipment on display too. The kids all loved chewing on samples of the malt that is used and crinkled their noses appropriately at the "aroma" of the hop pellets which the lovely guide passed around in a clear plastic container. Although the northern island, Hokkaido, produces hops, Suntory uses hops grown and processed into pellets in Europe. Some of the Japanese men on our tour were grilling the guide about this, but I think Hokaido just can't produce enough hops for all the beer in Japan and Suntory was happy with the quality of their supply.
The Suntory Brewery tour was certainly fancier than the Utica Club tour I took back in 5th grade, when I couldn't taste the wares legally anyway, but it was fun to reminisce about the less automated local brewery while sampling Suntory's brews.
September 14, 2005
Tenth Annual Madison County Hop Fest - This Weekend!
To encourage interest and increase knowledge about hops, the Madison County Historical Society will host its 10th Annual Madison County Hop Fest Sept. 17, 2005 on the society’s grounds at 435 Main Street ("Cottage Lawn") in Oneida.
The event features live music from the Syracuse Irish Session, hop advocacy and education, and of course a tasting of beers from around the US and Belgium.
September 13, 2005
German Brews World's Strongest Beer
This is hardly local news, but a German brewer has concocted a 25-percent alcohol beer. I usually find 11% is near the top of what I can tolerate, and even then it's got to be a truly superb brew for me to want to drink it.