For the fourth straight year, WNY breweries were well represented on the medal podium at the TAP New York Craft Beer & Food Festival, with four breweries taking home a total of six medals. This comes after five local breweries combined to collect six medals last year.
Resurgence Brewing Company won Gold in the India Pale Ale category for their flagship Resurgence IPA, Big Ditch Brewing took home three medals (Silver/Brown Ales – Excavator, Silver/IPAs – Packet, Bronze/Strong IPA – Deep Cut DIPA), Pressure Drop Brewing grabbed a silver (Porter – Buckstar Porter), and Steelbound Brewing won bronze (Light Ales <6% – Better Red Ale).
Overall, Long Island’s Port Jeff Brewing was awarded the F.X. Matt Memorial Cup as the Best Brewery in New York State, as well as the Governor’s Cup for Best Beer in NYS for their Triple H Belgian Strong Ale. Newburgh Brewing won the Matthew Vassar Cup for the Best Brewery in the Hudson Valley,
Last year, Community Beer Works (Gold/IPA – Interrobang), Resurgence (Bronze/DIPA – Head in the Clouds), Thin Man Brewery (Silver/Porter – Black Frances, Silver/Barrel Aged Beer – Double Barrel Ookla Porter), New York Beer Project (Silver/English Style Stout – Aberdeen Tropical Stout) and Southern Tier Brewing Company (Silver/Barrel Aged Beer – Bourbon Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout) all took home awards.
Looking back even further, Community Beer Works won the Governor’s Cup for Best Beer in NYS for Whale Brown Ale in 2017 (The Whale also won gold, Big Ditch won gold for Deep Cut and bronze for Towpath, 12 Gates Brewing won gold for Cherry Vanilla Wheat and bronze for Water Mill Pils, 42 North grabbed bronze for Borderland IPA).
Big Ditch won the F.X. Matt Memorial Cup as the Best Brewery in NYS in 2016 (Big Ditch also won a silver in Strong IPA for Deep Cut and Southern Tier’s 3 Citrus Peel Out won Gold in Wheat Ale).
There are special things happening in Buffalo beer right now. All you have to do to join in on the fun is order a pint of something locally crafted yourself.
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.