Keuka Brewing Co.

I was driving through the Finger Lakes, around Lake Keuka to be precise, when I saw several signs for Keuka Brewing Co.. This being a moderately significant wine-producing region, it only made sense to check things out. Only been open since September of 2008, started by some adventurous homebrewers, and always offering free beer "tomorrow".


This, and an extremely clean port-a-john outside, are the extent of the facilities. The tasting room inside is very functional, essentially a +30' bar.

White Cap Wheat - light and dry, no strong oester character, and the coriander/orange influence wasn't particularly evident. Can't say this was particularly representative of the style, but it didn't seem to offer much of anything else either.

Honey Blonde - the tasting menu suggests that the usual blonde they make was "developed for the wine drinkers," describing it as light, refreshing, and lower in alcohol. Hmm... not making the connection. The honey blonde doesn't offer much in the way of honey either, and actually I found this rather too foamy. Not sure what was going on here, but otherwise, it was as described - light - lightly malted, lightly hopped. Very light, yet, yet, there was some lingering mouthfeel to it.

KBC Pale Ale - medium bodied but full flavoured. Their description says that it is "lightly hopped", but I found plenty of hoppy character. True, not quite the saturated hops style, but still obvious, and verging on spicy. I found that spice not interesting, but still not a fan of this style of beer.


CCW from bottom left: "base" malt, dark crystal, light crystal, and chocolate malt. Very interesting, highly differentiated aromas.

Briglin Road Red - bittered with Williamette hops, and flavored with Celeia. A fuller, meatier style, herbal, with persistant bitterness and minerality. I thought the hops character here was a bit unbalanced, couldn't really get the malt. Apparently a very popular brew locally.

Bluff Point Brown - this had an invitingly savoury nose of soy and chocolate, and raw, smoky, vegetal chocolate on the palate, yet it was indeed smooth. The vegetality was a bit unbalanced, but perhaps some conditioning might help settle things out here.

Full Sail Stout Ale - my favorite of the lot, dry and smooth but quite light. A clear coffee cherry profile, smokey and spicy, good minerality and bitterness. The one I wouldn't have minded trying more of, and the one they ran out of while I was there.


See? Free Beer Tomorrow. Verdict? Yeah, ok. Better than homebrew, nothing yet that screamed out "must have." I did pick up a bottle of their Imperial IPA though. And if I lived locally, I would pretty happily support this outfit, chalk one up for the little guy and all that, but I didn't really see anything that was breaking any moulds.