Sunday, May 24, 2009

A Brewery I Like: Southern Tier


















So, a weekend or two ago, I wanted to write about the beer I was enjoying. Then, life got in the way and the post never happened. Looking back, I realized that I primarily drank beer made by one brewery that entire weekend. I've since decided to start a series called "A Brewery I Like" that highlights the best beers from a brewery I like. This post's brewery: Southern Tier.

Brewery: Southern Tier

Location: Lakewood, New York

Beers I've had: Hop Sun, Unearthly Imperial IPA, Hoppe Imperial Extra Pale Ale,
Tripel Belgian Style Triple Ale, Big Red Imperial Red Ale, Gemini Imperial Blended Ale, Oak Aged Unearthly Imperial India Pale Ale, Back Burner Imperial Barley Wine Style Ale, Über Sun Imperial Summer Wheat Ale, Cherry Saison Imperial Oak Aged Cherry Ale, Heavy Weizen Imperial Unfiltered Wheat Ale, Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Krampus Imperial Helles Lager, Jah*va Imperial Coffee Stout, Crème Brûlée Imperial Milk Stout, Oat Imperial Oatmeal Stout, Choklat Stout Imperial Chocolate Stout, Cuvée Series Two

Favorite Beer: This is really hard, because I love so many of ST's brews. However, I'd have to go with Choklat. I really got into imperial stouts this winter and this was among the best. Of course, no one should ever overlook any of the imperial IPA's, especially the oak age Unearthly.

Least Favorite Beer: I really did not care for the cherry saison. It might be that I don't really care for fruity beers or it's that ST usually just adds loads of hops to every beer as if they're all DIPA's. A saison and/or a cherry beer probably shouldn't be overloaded with big-time hops.

Beers yet to try: IPA, Phin & Matt's, Porter, Raspberry Wheat Beer, 422 Pale Wheat Ale, Harvest, Old Man Winter, Raspberry Porter, Iniquity Imperial Black Ale,
Cuvée Series One, Cuvée Series Three, Mokah (although, it's sitting in my stash)

Why I like this brewery: As a hop head, I appreciate Southern Tier's attempt to bombard every beer they do with mounds of hops. Sometimes it doesn't work, but mostly it comes through and intensifies anything with which they fill a 650 mL bottle. I've rarely had a beer from them I didn't like and even then those beers were interesting. Plus, they distribute in Misery. I can't imagine the beer scene here without the diversity and quality of beers this brewery produces.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

As a home brewer, the one thing I like Southern Tier for (besides their beer) is that each bottle includes the malt bill, hops they use, as well as the degrees plato - which makes most of their recipes easy to replicate on a much smaller level. Of course there will be slight differences (due to other factors like particular adjuncts, yeast selection, or the use of oak), the finished product will be similar to the original. Surprised you don't like the Cherry Saison, I found it to be quite refreshing and only found it to have a slight note of Cherry - to me, a very nice summer-style Saison.