MaltBlog

Brew at the Zoo - June 2

The annual Brew at the Zoo benefit fundraiser - featuring breweries, food, music, and a silent auction - will be held from 5:30-8:30 PM this Saturday, June 2, at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse. See the article for more details.

SYRACUSE'S EMPIRE BREWING TO RETURN AROUND JUNE 5

Empire Brewing Company, a great brewpub in a fantastic setting on Walton Street in Syracuse's Armory Square, is set to reopen with most of its original menu and beer recipes intact. The tentative opening date - pending the state's official approval of their liquor license - is set for June 5. The new brewer is Tim Butler, formerly the head brewer at the excellent Middle Ages Brewing Company in Syracuse.

Here's the full story from Syracuse.com and Post-Standard beer writer Don Cazentre.

In search of local brews across Germany

Today's New York Times has a great travel column about travleing through Germany to find the best examples of local beer styles.

More on Empire Brewing

Here's a video news story about the possible re-opening of Empire Brewing Company in Armory Square in Syracuse. Buzz buzz!

The Balvenie Ten-Year-Old

In 1996, I had the pleasure of accompanying my wife and her paternal grandmother on a trip to Scotland. None of us has a drop of Scottish blood, but we had between us a love of dramatic scenery, a tolerance for organ meat, experience living in the sometimes dreich upstate New York climate, and - for me at least - a growing appreciation of malt Scotch whisky.

As we explored sites such as the Wallace Monument, Scone (say it with me now: SKOON) Castle and St. Andrews, I made sure to stop by liquor stores and search for unusual bottles. There were many to be found, but my experience in understanding whiskies was just beginning.

We passed through Aberdeen after St. Andrews, and then headed to the Speyside region - the emotional and commercial heart of Scotch whisky country. The two single malt whiskies most well-known to Americans must be Glenfiddich and The Glenlivet, and we visited both distilleries.

Glenfiddich is still a family-owned operation, and we got the full tour of their facilities from a clever older woman with a twinkle in her eye. She even introduced us to the distillery's cat, Archie (say it with me now: ARKY). After the Glenfiddich tour - which also consisted of a short film, a tour of the warehouse, a glimpse of the bottling operation, and a tasting, of course - the guide offered me the chance to see another distillery nearby.

Little did I know that the Grant family, which owns Glenfiddich, also owns The Balvenie. The latter distillery is a very short walk from the Glenfiddich visitor center - so walk the two of us did. She took me first past the stills; The Balvenie got its original stills from another distillery, but they have their own coppersmith to maintain and build the stills.

We walked through the building and in a short while came to a grain silo that had a fair amount of barley at the bottom. It was open to the inside of a long, low room with a concrete foundation, and spread out across the floor of that room was much more barley. The Balvenie is one of the few distilleries that conducts its own floor maltings on its premises. As I stood, slack-jawed, and breathed in the earthy smell of malting barley, I was offered a transformational opportunity: to be able to turn the barley myself.

I suppose this is really just a mundane detail of the whisky production process. I suppose that all of the laborers who had to stand in steamy, smelly rooms turning barley before much of the process was mechanized would say I was a fool (or worse) for romanticizing the act of turning barley with a shovel. But for me - as a young man taking a casual tour of some distilleries during the early moments of the single malt resurgence - for me, it was the moment when I went from interested in whiskies to having them be a part of who I am.

I took the guide up on her offer, and grasped the shovel with its wide, flat blade. I pushed it into the barley, which poured around the spade like coarse sand and made a rushing noise. As I lifted the shovel, I drew my right arm back with the effort... then I thrust that arm forward as I turned the handle, throwing the grain in a gentle spray back onto the floor.

In that simple act, The Balvenie became forever connected to me. Since then, I have waited for the whiskey that was made from that malting to become available. On Saturday, I found a bottle of The Balvenie Founder's Reserve 10 Year Old whisky, which was bottled in 2006. There is no way for me to know whether it is made from the very grains I tossed, but in my mind it is.

I am looking forward to the special occasion on which I will open that bottle and share the drink and its story together at last. Though my wife's grandmother has since passed away, I will certainly raise a glass to her then in remembrance of the trip and in solidarity with my wife's enduring love for her.

Belgium Comes to Cooperstown 2007

I just posted about the 2007 Empire State Brewing and Music Festival. Being held on the exact same day (Friday, July 20) is the 2007 edition of the Belgium Comes to Cooperstown event. They have changed their format from previous years and tickets are available by advance sale only. They had 1,400 paid attendees last year, over half of whom showed up on the day of the event. So this year they are limiting the crowd to 800 people. Camping on-site is still available.

The Friday event is actually sold out, but tasting tickets are still available (at $60, see the site for details) for the event on Saturday July 21.

Ommegang has a lot of great people and it brews terrific beer in a gorgeous setting. It's worth the trip from almost anywhere, but Central New Yorker beer lovers have no good excuse not to visit the place!

2007 Empire State Brewing and Music Festival Dates Set

The 2007 edition of the Empire State Brewing and Music Festival will be held beginning on July 20 in Syracuse's Clinton Square. The brewing festival attracts dozens of breweries and will be held on Friday July 20 from 5-10 PM. The music portion features blues great Buddy Guy as well as many other regional and national acts, and takes place that Saturday and Sunday.

This is a huge event and a great time to see Syracuse in all its summer glory.

Rochester's High Falls Brewing plans expansion

High Falls Brewing company of Rochester has a contract to manufacture wine coolers for Seagrams; as a result of that and other deals, they are expanding and hiring dozens of workers. Good luck, High Falls!

Debate over alcohol in Major League Baseball

In the news lately is the story of St. Louis Cardinals' pitcher Josh Hancock, who died while driving drunk (BAC 0.15%) and hitting a vehicle that had stopped to help a disabled auto.

Sportswriters, pundits, and fans are weighing in on the issue of drinking among athletes. Hancock's team was for a long time owned by Anheuser-Busch and players were served complimentary alcohol in the clubhouse (the stadium is called Busch stadium, too). In Milwaukee, the baseball team is called the Brewers, and they play in Miller Park, named for Miller Beer, of course.

Baseball and beer go together like hippies and granola. Is it wrong for employers to serve unlimited quantities of alcohol to players? I think it is. But to use this tragedy as a springboard to ban alcohol consumption and sale seems misguided.

Empire Brewing Company To Return to Syracuse

I have heard through various online and offline networks that Syracuse's brewpub institution, Empire Brewing Company, is getting set to reopen in June 2007! I don't have much more information than that, and I don't like to post unsubstantiated rumors. So if anyone has any information at all, please post it here using the Comments link, or post a link of your own to the relevant details.

Welcome back, Empire, I cannot wait to know (and taste) the truth.