E-Malt.com News article: USA, NY: Adirondack Pub & Brewery and Olde Saratoga Brewing Co. to release collaborative beer

New York’s craft beer industry took a step forward with the first collaboration between Olde Saratoga Brewing Co. and Adirondack Pub & Brewery, poststar.com reported on January, 25.

Brewers from both businesses got together at Adirondack Pub & Brewery to create a new beer that, when blended with an aged beer created by Olde Saratoga Brewing Co., is expected to become greater than the sum of its parts.

“The fun part is getting all these people together in one room doing what they love to do,” said John Carr, owner of Adirondack Pub & Brewery. “Learning about brewing from a textbook is very difficult, so these collaborative brews are also an opportunity for our staff — our brewers and Olde Saratoga’s brewers — to kind of learn to produce better beer in New York state.”

The new beer, tentatively called Brewers Reserve, is scheduled to debut at Saratoga Beer Week, February 19-23, in Saratoga Springs.

The Adirondack Pub & Brewery contribution is a sour cherry porter, which will be blended with an imperial stout created more than a year ago by Olde Saratoga Brewing Co. The latter beer has been aging in bourbon barrels.

“It will be a really intense beer,” said Max Oswald, Olde Saratoga’s Northeast regional sales manager.

He said some of the beer, once finished and blended, will be further cask-conditioned to give it multiple “interpretations.”

The creation of new beers through blending is an old tradition, Carr said.

“These are techniques that have existed in breweries for hundreds of years,” he said.

Only 30 to 35 half-kegs will be available.

The beer will be available at Adirondack Pub & Brewery, at Olde Saratoga Brewing Co.’s tasting room in Saratoga Springs, and on tap at area beverage centers, including Minogue’s, Carr said.

Although this collaboration was the first between the Lake George and Saratoga Springs breweries, Carr said he has collaborated with other breweries in the past. Last winter, for instance, Crossroads Brewing Co. of Athens, south of Albany, came to Lake George to help make a smoked bourbon barrel beer, Carr said.

Paul McErlean, master brewer at Olde Saratoga Brewing Co., said collaborative events can spark innovation within the region’s craft brew industry.

“I think anytime you get sort of a cross-pollination of ideas from different creative people, really interesting and fun things can happen,” he said. “So, we’re going to make some great beer, and I hope people will enjoy it.”

Carr said Adirondack Pub & Brewery is set to grow again in 2013. Specifically, a 100-barrel fermenter and at least one 60-barrel “bright tank” will be added in April.

The vessels will allow the brewery to double its output.

“We’ll keep expanding to match the support we have.”



30 January, 2013