Our two local breweries – Roscoe NY Beer Company and Catskill Brewery in Livingston Manor – have been hard at work recently unveiling three new brands. Whitetail Pale Ale, Eye of the Newt, and Bourbon- Maple Imperial Stout are three new brews to tap this month while small batch supplies last.
Roscoe Beer brews a new batch Whitetail Pale Ale, released by The Roscoe NY Beer Company, is the fifth beer in the Trout Town line-up available now in bottles in stores. The new pale ale differentiates itself from other Trout Town beers with its ever so lightly toasted flavor and gentle hop finish, making it an easy, smooth everyday drinking beer.
A “sessionable” beer, Whitetail Pale Ale comes in at only 4.7 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). In beer vernacular, “session” is widely accepted to be any beer with 5 percent or less ABV. The term harkens back to the days of WWI-era England when workers – even those manufacturing weapons – drank alcohol on the job.
According to the American Craft Beer website, “workers were allotted two drinking periods (or “sessions”) of 4 hours each workday. This called for a lighter beer than your everyday stout or porter, allowing workers to drink more beer without getting too pissed, in the English sense.”
The law remained in effect until 1988 which could explain why many Session beers today are still British styles, like the IPA.
Trout Town craft beer brew master Josh Hughes calls the Whitetail Pale Ale “a true ‘everyone’s beer’ – perfect for all beer lovers.”
“I hope everyone who tastes this beer finds it evocative of a refreshing and relaxing day at their favorite place in the woods, by a lake, or just on their back porch,” says Hughes. Whitetail Pale Ale is available now for a limited time on draft and in 12 oz. six-packs in stores.
Eye of the Newt untapped
Eight miles east in Livingston Manor, Catskill Brewery finished labeling 1,000 bottles of their rare Flanders red-style ale, Eye of Newt, on Wednesday, December 7. This is the brewery’s first ever bottled beer and is available for sale in the tap room in limited quantities now.
Complex and indulgent, the Flanders red ale comes in at 6.5 percent ABV. Once aged in oak barrels for about eight months, the barrels were re-blended then repackaged and conditioned in bottles for another five months.
Eye of Newt is “refined and delicious,” says Greg Lofaro, Director of Operations of Catskill Brewery, “with an easy balance of fruit and malt character.” Eye of Newt is available on draught and in bottles in the Tap Room. For Eye of Newt official release party details, visit catskillbrewery.com.
Imperial Stout a big hit
Thanksgiving weekend saw the debut of a heftier brew with 8.9 percent ABV. Bourbon-Maple Imperial Stout, released November 25, represents collaboration among Catskill Distilling Company, which provided bourbon barrels, Catskill Mountain Sugar House, which provided maple syrup barrels, and Catskill Brewery.
“We call the Bourbon-Maple Imperial Stout Catskill (cubed) because Catskill is in the name of each collaborator,” said Lofaro.
Aged in bourbon barrels five months, the batch of Imperial Stout was divided into three parts and aged again in plain oak, bourbon and maple syrup barrels. Blending all three produced a well-balanced flavor in this beer.
Strong aroma of the bourbon and underlying sweetness of maple syrup balanced with roasted malts Lofaro describes as “a magical combination.”
The Imperial Stout was enjoyed so much at the release party that much of the small-batch run sold that one night in the tap room. The rest of the beer was split into kegs and shared with collaborators, select customers and is on tap at the Catskill Brewery while supply lasts. Catskill Brewery aims to re-release Bourbon-Maple Imperial Stout again next year.