The fifth annual Buffalo Brewers Festival, which takes place on June 23 (4-7p) at Canalside, will feature over 20 local Buffalo & WNY breweries, making for a tap list of well over 50 beers in total. That is a lot of beer to navigate through, so I wanted to try and make things a little easier on everyone by highlighting four different breweries and each beer they are planning to bring (subject to change) each week leading up until the big dance.
So make sure you check back weekly before June 23 to see what breweries you cannot afford to miss and what must-drink beers you need to grab.
New York Beer Project
Watermelon Saison: A refreshing summer saison brewed with 110 pounds of fresh watermelon featuring aromas of watermelon and light citrus with light citrus and watermelon rind on the finish. Seems like a good beer to have in the middle of summer.
Righteous Dude DIPA: Bold dank hops, juicy orange and tropical fruit with notes of peach, mango and grapefruit. Hints of resin and pine come through towards finish. Why wouldn’t you want a big 8.8% DIPA down on the waterfront?
Walter’s Jelly Donut Raspberry Kolsch: A raspberry flavored German-style kolsch beer with a fuchsia color and mild raspberry aroma. You’re probably going to want to have a few of these.
Lockport Lager: A traditional Czech style pilsner boasting a bready malt character and light sweetness. Not many things beat a light and refreshing pilsner. Get this one on your list.
Woodcock Brothers Brewing
North 425 Pilsner: Traditional pils brewed with local ingredients. It is clean and crisp with a refreshing lightly hopped finish. A word of advice – you can never have too many good pilsners.
Honey Saison: This old-world style Saison is brewed with local wildflower honey and delivers a soft, touch of honey on the palate with a mild Saison finish. You’re gonna want to stay hydrated out there, so make sure to hit this one up – it sounds refreshing as hell.
Kumquat Berliner Weisse: A cloudy, light German style sour beer that is tart and sweet with kumquats. How delicious does this sound? Chances are you’ll see this beer on my can’t-miss list.
Ellicottville Brewing Company
Blueberry Wheat: Golden & crisp wheat ale with big and prominent blueberry aromas. Duh. If you’ve drank a local beer in your life, chances are you have had this WNY staple and know what it’s all about.
Ellicottville IPA: While not a session at 6%, it drinks like one with aromas of grapefruit and hops and flavors of citrus, grapefruit and ever-so-slight hop resin. This is just a good IPA.
Foggy Style Unfiltered IPA: Smooth & juicy with big tropical hop flavor, mosaic & simcoe hops. You had to know there would be some haze at the Brewers Fest, right? The line forms behind me.
Community Beer Works
Frank (American Pale Ale): A light body with a zesty, piney, and citrusy hop profile that is superbly drinkable. Is there anything that screams Buffalo more than drinking Frank at the Buffalo Brewers Festival at Canalside? That’s like Buffalo overload.
The Whale (American Brown Ale): Smooth yet complex with aromas and flavors of chocolate and coffee. See what I said about Frank just above? You can apply that to Whale as well.
That IPA: Simcoe, Mosaic, and Zythos hops give a profile of tropical fruits, peach, and other summer fruits. At only 4.9%, go ahead and pencil in a few on these.
Ein Bier Bitte (Another Beer, Please): A classic German hefe with notes of banana, berry and clove. Light, refreshing, and summery. Be sure to take a break and quench your thirst with one of these.
In addition to an all WNY brewery lineup, the Buffalo Brewers Fest will have a number of special features, including local food vendors and food trucks, local ciders, meads, and a Farm to Pint tent highlighting brews made with 100 percent local ingredients. The festival will also feature a special summer brew that each brewery will make their own version of – this year is saison.
Don’t drink and drive! Let Lyft do all of the driving for you, so all you need to focus on is having fun and celebrating all things Buffalo on the waterfront. New users can download the Lyft app and use the code ‘BNBA’ to receive special discounts off your first few rides.
Tickets can be purchased at BuffaloBrewersFestival.com and Ticketfly as well as at all 17 Consumer’s Beverages locations. For more information, please visit, https://www.facebook.com/events/992859620880355.
Brian Campbell is a co-founder/Brand Manager of the BNBA’s enthusiast arm, Buffalo Beer League, and writes the weekly Buffalo Beer Buzz column. If you have beer news that should be included in the Beer Buzz, Brian can be reached at buffalobeerleague@aol.com, on Twitter (@buffbeerleague), Instagram (@buffalobeerleague), Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague) and www.buffalobeerleague.com.
