Recently, Southern Tier entered into a partnership with Victory Brewing, a Pennsylvania brewery with a 20-year history. Together, the two Northeastern, mid-sized powerhouses have joined forces as Artisanal Brewing Ventures. This union marks an exciting time for brewing in WNY as it expands Southern Tier’s financial security, and also its capacity, making the two veterans of the craft beer market one of the country’s largest craft producing companies.

Nathan Arnone, Southern Tier’s brand manager, has been with the company for more than a decade. He’s been on board for all of the growth and innovation that the brewmasters at Southern Tier has produced, and he is excited about the opportunities this union will bring. “It came about when Sara and Phin DeMink, founders of Southern Tier Brewing Company] wanted to build this brand of like-minded breweries and so they’ve formed Artisanal Brewing Ventures, looking for other breweries that were about our size, and had similar values and determination. Victory was one of the first breweries that came to mind at the time. We’ve always admired their packaging and of course they have great beer. Another thing that made them a great fit is style—we have primarily ales at Southern Tier, but they’re on the other end of the spectrum. They do a lot of lagers, and they do them really well.”

“We’ve already been talking with Bill Covalesky [founder of Victory Brewing] about collaboration beers, and exchanging best practices, ideas, and the institutional knowledge that comes with two decades of brewing.”

“We’re also working on a shared distribution department. Expanding further into the Pittsburgh market is a big deal for us, and we’ve already set up a small office in North Carolina to push sales into the Southeastern states. We’re working toward establishing a small brewpub in Charlotte, which would mimic ours here in Lakewood.”

Teaming up with Victory is certainly big news for the region, and Western New York will soon be able to reap the benefits. Southern Tier’s fifth annual Public Day will be held in conjunction with American Craft Beer Week. On Sunday, May 15, Southern Tier will open their grounds from noon to 4pm, welcoming beer lovers to enjoy some of Southern Tier’s favorites, like Pumking, Choklat, Mokah, Hop Sun, Harvest, Grand Arbor; but also special beers that Southern Tier produces throughout the year. In addition to these selections, Victory Brewing will be bringing some beer of their own beer for attendees to sample. “We have no idea what they’re bringing,” Nathan admitted. “It will be a complete surprise—but a good one.”

In total, Southern Tier will offer 42 selections of their most popular beers, as well as their most funky. “We’ve been experimenting with sour beers, so we’ll have some of those available. One that we’re starting to brew on Monday is called Cherry Gose; it’s an imperial sour ale brewed with tart cherry juice from Singer Farm Naturals in Niagara County. It’s a crazy red color—absolutely gorgeous. We’ve got some test batches of a new IPA that we’re working on that hasn’t left the building yet. That’s really a really tasty beer brewed with a bunch of new hops.”

Southern Tier will also join the Buffalo Niagara Brewer’s Association in their Farm to Pint festival, which will be held at Hamburg Brewing Company on May 15 from noon to 8pm. They’ll be sending their Backburner—a barleywine brewed with maple syrup produced by a local sugar shack.

The future looks bright for Southern Tier as they head into the ABV era. This summer, beer lovers can expect several Southern Tier favorites to be available in cans. “We’ll have IPA and Tangier in 12-pack cans by the beginning of May, and in June, we’ll be releasing 2XIPA in 16-ounce cans. We’ll also be releasing a pilsner that we’ve been testing—it’s really great. I think it’s one of the best craft pilsners on the market.”

Is there anything in store for the fall? “We’re barrel-aging Pumking right now in rum barrels,” Nathan confessed (and the nation rejoiced).

The growth of Southern Tier and their commitment to quality has been a high water mark for brewing in Western New York. As the region’s brewers continue to move forward, creating innovative recipes and developing quality and consistency, it is fantastic for the area to have a giant’s shoulders to stand upon. A rising tide lifts all boats, and the fleet of Western New York’s brewers is certainly working diligently to meet the mark.

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BNBA: How are things at Pearl Street, The Pan-American Grill, and Riverworks?
Chris Herr: Things are great!  Even with the new additions to our Buffalo brewing family, Pearl Street and Pan Am saw stable numbers through last year, and we just opened our newest location at Buffalo Riverworks, which will be hosting a brew fest called Thawfest on April 8th– the first festival in the area to feature beer, wine, and spirits all produced right here in Buffalo!  We’re continuing to refine our processes and draft lists at Pearl and Pan Am, while building out the brewery at Riverworks- our most ambitious project yet, with us building a brewery inside of the grain silo’s painted like a giant 6-pack.  We’re hoping to be producing beer there by the end of the summer.”

BNBA: This is a new festival this year. Tell me what excites you about it.
Herr: I like the sound of this Brewers Invitational- it’s a great way to let our cities incredibly creative brewers come up with some specialty beers to bring to an event, and show case them to a small and enthusiastic crowd of local drinkers.  I have a feeling some of the beers that will be premiered at this event will end up on draft at some of the breweries in town.  Truly a chance for the craft consumer to bump elbows with the people that are making their new favorite beers.

BNBA: Can you please describe the beer that you be presenting at the Brewer’s Invitational?
Herr: We are bringing Street Brawler Oatmeal Stout on nitro from Pearl Street- this is our house made, year round offering of Oatmeal Stout, but for this event we carbonated and pour it with nitrogen which adds the classic “Guinness” style head and cascading pour.  The different gas adds a new dimension of flavor, letting the malt and oatmeal flavors come through more.

From Pan American Grill and Brewery we are bringing our house made Terminator IPA, with grapefruit.  By adding grapefruit zest, juice, and some natural flavoring, the character of the strong American hops are accented and balance with the grapefruit perfectly.  Not your standard fruit beer- this one is for the hop lovers!

The Buffalo Niagara Brewers Association thanks Chris for taking the time to speak with us.

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On April 2, the Buffalo Niagara Brewers Association (BNBA) will be holding their first Brewers Invitational at Pettibone’s Grill inside Coca-Cola Field. Area brewmasters have worked diligently through the winter to create some of the most unique and innovative beer Buffalo has experienced. 42 North’s Clay Keel recently took some time to speak about the event and give a quick State of the Brewing update.

BNBA:  How are things at 42 North?
Clay Keel: Excellent, were getting great feedback on the taproom and beer lineup.  We’re experimenting with new recipes in small batches constantly from a 15% Bier de Champagne to 3% Berliners and sending a very limited amount of beer out to distribution in Western New York now.  With just a few full time employees it is challenging but amazing fun.

BNBA:  This is a new festival this year. Tell me what excites you about it.
Keel: I love the idea of a brewers festival.  Keep it creative, local, and different. The concept allows us to stretch our creative muscle and throw some stuff out there that may not otherwise make it out of our taproom.  There is no better experience for a brewer then to put their creations out for tasting and see and discuss an educated drinker’s reaction in person.

BNBA:  Can you please describe the beer that you be presenting at the  Brewer’s
Invitational?
Keel: So we bottled about 100 bottles of our American Sour thus far.  It is a custom blend of cultures and wild yeast blended and grown from some select sources.  It has sold out as of now but I set aside a few cases just for this event, its super tart and funky with the right lacto and brett flavors dancing around.  The second beer is very unique and not something I’ve seen much anywhere.  It is a Bier de Champagne style which we made by creating a high gravity wort of pils malt and spices not unlike an Abbey Tripel but then pitched Champagne yeast for fermentation.  It is very big at over 15%, highly carbonated and has an overt aroma of white grape, pear, and dessert wine with a flavor of a big Tripel mixed and aged with white grape must.  It is very unique.

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While it is known that beer is nearly as old as civilization, the ever-growing craft-beer revolution taking place in America has been changing the palate of beer drinkers for only a few decades. Once Prohibition ended and beer-making became a more industrialized process, important characteristics of beer began to be minimized for the sake of commercial popularity. Unique imperfections that defined a brewer or a style were cast aside for sterilized, corn-sugared, over-filtered mediocrity.

Traditionally, though, brewing wasn’t always such a sanitary process. Despite a brewer’s best efforts, something unintended often crept into a batch of beer. Impure yeast strains, imperfect sealing—any number of things could affect the end result of a beer. Sometimes (especially in the case of sour beers) the brewer would have actually introduced some of the things that cause imperfections. In Belgium, some breweries would pump wort to attic rooms containing cooling troughs (called coolships), open the louvered windows, and let the wind carry in myriad ambient spores of all kinds to settle in. Allowing the wort contact with the open air inoculates it with various wild yeasts and bacteria which leads to complex, effervescent beers, with distinct flavors that might resemble white wine in some ways, but were often more intense.

As the food industry became dependent upon pasteurization, so too did the brewing industry, and Congressional standards based on these sterilization standards all but killed sour beers in 20^th-century America. Using commodified ingredients and cultivated yeast, brewers began to produce beers that grew ever closer to the middle—consistently average in order to ensure marketability.

As brewers entered the 21^st century, there was a growing interest in more flavorful and intricate beers; both from consumers, and from the brewers themselves. This led more experienced brewmasters to try their hand at European influenced beers, which includes the traditional mixed-fermentation styles of the Belgians. Brewers began to introduce some of the less predictable yeasts, most notably, Brettanomyces, and the beers were also fermented with bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. The resulting brews are left unfiltered and produce scents reminiscent of an old farmhouse. The flavors are often a bit salty and puckering, which is how they fall into the very general description of “sour.”

While Buffalo’s beer explosion has just recently begun, brewers are already maturing to keep pace with more established beer cities like Fort Collins and West Coast breweries, such as Russian River. 42 North Brewing, located just south of Buffalo in East Aurora, is among the local breweries that are leading the march toward more adventurous styles.

“We had a brewer who used to work with Wyeast [Laboratories, Inc.],” explains 42 North’s chief brewing officer, Clay Keel. “He helped to create these yeast strains that can only be described as ‘wild.’” Along with Clay, Ukraine-native Naz Drebot, and son of East Aurora Alex Sowyrda are working to develop a line of beers that utilizes these yeast strains and other ingredients to produce unique and interesting flavors that are not commonly found in Buffalo beers.

In just the few months that 42 North has been open, their beers have caused quite a stir in the local market. They recently released bottles of their first sour beer, American Sour Ale. The cloudy golden beer is bottle conditioned, so the yeast is still hard at work while the bottles rest on the shelves. They are already fermenting another batch, along with a farmhouse style using saison yeast and darker malts, and a third using champagne yeast and spices.

“To be completely honest with you, we’re in the experimental stage. We’re by no means experts in this,” Keel says. “We know what we want to play with and we have enough information to do it safely. If people like them, we can start using more barrels and sour-only fermenters. There is a lot of potential.”

Keel and his crew have certainly begun to carve a niche for themselves in the market. As the tastes of Buffalo beer enthusiasts mature, the demand for these sour beers increases, and there is a well-established movement toward local sustainability, so craft beer drinkers will be seeking local beer that will suit their particular tastes. It says a lot about the city itself that Buffalo is joining the ranks of other locations that have long-established craft beer cultures in such a rapid fashion. 42 North, along with other breweries like Southern Tier, Community Beer Works, Resurgence Brewing, Rusty Nickel, and Woodcock Brothers, are experimenting with sour beers and barrel-aged beers, demonstrating an incredible acumen at such a relatively young ‘age.’ Several of these fantastic brewers will have samples of their sour beer at The Brewer’s Invitational hosted by the Buffalo Niagara Brewers Association at Pettibone’s Grill on April 2. Tickets and information can be found at buffaloniagarabrewersassociation.org.

42 NORTH BREWING COMPANY
25 Pine St, East Aurora
 42northbrewing.com
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