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May 2nd, 2011
By
Kevin Burns
F.X. Matt Memorial Cup Best Craft Brewery in New York State
Barrier Brewing, Oceanside, NY
Gold Medal - Whiskey
Porter: Brown's Brewing Silver Medal - Flight Level 410: Cortland Beer Company Bronze Medal - Hefeweizen: C.H. Evans Brewing Company/Albany Pump Station
Matthew Vassar Brewers' Cup
Matthew Vassar Brewers' Cup Best Craft Brewery in the Hudson
Valley
Crossroads Brewing Company, Athens, NY Gold Medal - Ramstein Double Platinum Blonde: High Point Brewing Silver Medal - Whiskey Porter:
Brown's Brewing
Bronze Medal - Outrage IPA: Crossroads Brewing
John Calen Memorial Award
Outrage
IPA: Crossroads Brewing
*This is
the first year that the John Calen Memorial Award was given at TAP. The award is named after the event's co-founder
who passed away this year. John loved English-style ales, and this year's award was given to the festival's
best English-style pale ale. The award will honor an English-style beer each year but it will not always be
a pale ale.
*I spent some time at Crossroads Brewing company last month and walked out blown
away by what owners and head brewer Hutch Kugeman were doing. The beer was amazing and the restaurant is coming along nicely.
It seems like the TAP judges agreed with me as Crossroads took home two awards and another medal. The Outrage IPA is great,
tasting the hopped up cask version was even better.
*The Cortland Beer Company is off to a hot start. They
grabbed a medal for their Flight Level 410. As a graduate of SUNY Cortland, I loved drinking Red Dragon Ale, a very
enjoyable red ale.
*Brown's Whiskey Porter might be my favorite beer in New York state when it is brewed right.
It seemed to be just that this weekend as it took two medals.
*File this in my mistake folder. I didn't get
a chance to taste High Point's Ramstein Double Platinum Blonde and heard great things about it all weekend. It promptly
took home the gold medal for best beer in the Hudson Valley.
*Kelso's Bourbon Barrel Aged Recessionator Doppelbock
and Great South Bay's Marauder Bourbon Barrel Aged Scotch Ale seemed to be the class of the barrel aged beers.
*I got a chance to taste Captain Lawrence's Golden Delicious for the first time and was impressed. A very nice, very
interesting flavor profile.
*Heading into the festival I was anxious (scared?) to try Cave Mountain's Strokeface
400, a 400 IBU hopbomb. I was pleasantly surprised, but the name is quite appropriate. Strokeface indeed.
*As
a Reese's fanatic Bandwagon Brewpub's Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout immediatly caught my attention. Big on chocolate
malt, I got just a pinch of peanut butter. Interesting, and I would love to try it again in a setting other than a beer festival.
*Chatham's 8 Barrel IPA was a very, very good Imperial IPA.
*On the topic of very, very good beers
you can throw Empire's Wheat Wine in there too.
*I didn't get a chance to taste Lake Placid's
Twice Bitten Barleywine, John Harvard's Creamy McStout, or either of Defiant's special casks but heard all were outstanding.
*Black IPA's are the hot new style across the country and it was no different at TAP. John Harvard's,
Three Heads, Roosterfish, and Horseheads were all pouring their versions of the style.
*Speaking of Horseheads,
last years F.X. Matt Memorial Cup winners brought back their pepper beer Hot-Jala-Heim. Tasting like liquid nachos,
the beer offers a quick heat and then disappears. Mrs. Foaminghead's all-time favorite beer is not only one of New York's
most interesting beers, it is a very well made and enjoyable beer. Add a little Mexican food for an ideal pairing.
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