Lovejoy’s Buffalo Olde Brewery has released their first two ever canned beers, flagship offerings, Lovejoy Lager and Iron Island IPA.

Lovejoy is a light, clean and crisp Helles Lager brewed with pilsner malt from Niagara Malt, as well as all New York hops, and Iron Island is a West Coast IPA with bold hop aromas and flavors of pine, citrus, and tropical fruit with an assertive, yet balanced, bitterness. It’s brewed with Centennial, Citra and Mosaic hops for that classic West Coast feel.

Buffalo Olde’s head brewer Tom Dargen says that when it came to choosing what beers to first release in cans, Iron Island and Lovejoy Lager were no brainers, because these two beers were his favorite to both brew and drink. He adds that West Coast IPAs never went out of style and that lagers are all the rage right now.

“It’s not so much that I am old school, I’m just old, and my two favorite styles to both brew and drink are Helles Lager and West Coast IPA, therefore Lovejoy Lager and Iron Island IPA were naturals,” Dargen says. “Fortunately, the ‘year of lager’ that has been predicted in craft beer for the last decade seems to finally be happening and West Coast IPA never really went out of style, though hazy has taken over much of the market.”

Dargen says that canning was always in the offing for Buffalo Olde, but they waited until now (the brewery has been open for about a year) because they wanted to keep things in-house by purchasing their own canning line in an effort to keep the beer as fresh as can be.

“Canning was in the plans from the start, it just took us a while to decide what approach to take and we opted for purchasing a small canning machine rather than using mobile canning, which allows us to do smaller runs to keep the beer fresh,” he says.

You can grab 16oz. 4-pack cans of Iron Island IPA ($14) and Lovejoy Lager ($12) the next time you are at the brewery. Both cans are available now. Dargen adds that the brewery is working on getting both beers out to retail soon.

Moving forward, the question is – what’s coming next in cans for Buffalo Olde? Dargen says that they have a few things in mind.

“Going forward, we plan to package Cloudy McCloudface, which is our popular hazy IPA,” Dargen explains. “It has that signature fruitiness, but it does not taste like a Capri Sun the way many of the new super juicy beers do. We will also can our Non-Agency Amber Ale, more beer for grown folks, as well as our hefeweizen, which I called You’re Not the Boss of Me.”

For more information, visit https://www.thebuffalooldebrewery.com.

Brian Campbell is co-founder and Brand Manager of the 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 brian@buffalobeerleague.com, on Twitter (@buffbeerleague), Instagram (@buffalobeerleague), and Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague).