Ithaca Ground Break (Citizen Review)

What: Ithaca Ground Break
Where: Pour House (Westmont, NJ)
When: July 17, 2010
What-Have-You:"Taps you in the nose and sits on your tongue.  And not altogether pleasantly.  Reminds me of: shrimp (seriously)."

Representation .50

Accessibility .5

Style Points .5

Personal Preference .25

Total Score 1.75 Flags

Reviewed by: Citizen Jack W.

Read what El Presidente had to say about Ithaca Ground Break in his coverage of a Philly Beer Week 2010 event in South Jersey [CLICK HERE].

Ithaca Ground Break (Citizen Review)

What: Ithaca Ground Break
Where: Pour House (Westmont, NJ)
When: July 17, 2010

Representation .6

Accessibility .7

Style Points .8

Personal Preference .7

Total Score 2.8 Flags

Reviewed by: Citizen Todd F.

Read what El Presidente had to say about Ithaca Ground Break in his coverage of a Philly Beer Week 2010 event in South Jersey [CLICK HERE].

Haddon Pub Fest @ PJ Whelihan's Part 2 (Philly Beer Week 2010)

Philly Beer Week 2010

The Presidential motorcade visited the Haddon Pub Fest to kick off Philly Beer Week 2010 (yeah, I know it's in South Jersey. It's also a craft brew festival within walking distance from where I sleep so that's how El Presidente rolls).

PJ's featured Victory and Ithaca at the Pub Fest to start kick off festivities. Here are my selections for review:

Victory St. Boisterous Hellerbock:

This brew has a fairly pale hop profile with a mild malty sweetness. It is extremely well-balanced and sessionable. It would be a really cool beer to find after slugging it out with some bigger brews. It could be a great closer, for certain, though it also functioned as a good lead-off beer to begin a long day of sampling. I guess I'm trying to say that if you have a St. Boisterous you're probably drinking something else as well.

Ithaca Ground-Break American-Style Saison:

Light to medium body with a dry finish. Hoppier than a traditional French-style saison (dat's how the U.S. of A. does thangs), Ground-Break is a cool cross between a pale ale and a farmhouse. Pretty stylish but not crazy. Is there a citrus thing going on too? Yeah, a little. Ground-Break is an interesting alternative to a saison if you like hoppy pales or pale wheats.

Beers at Treno Pizza Bar (Philly Beer Week 2010)

Stop Number Two on the Haddon Pub Fest was Treno Pizza Bar on Haddon Avenue.  Here are some of the beers we sampled there:

Great Lakes Brewing Company Burning River Pale Ale 6% abv:

Interesting note on the label: Burning River is named after the 1969 burning of the Cuyahoga River. Okay, now the beer: It's unbelievably smooth and drinkable. Not far behind Troegs or Stone, the hop profile is very accessible and smooth with no aftertaste. Perfect for walking around in 90 degree heat.

Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold Golden Lager 5.8% abv:

Crisp, dry lager with mild hoppy flavor. Not so much malty stuff going on here. Lager-ish lager with a touch of funk. It's even a little pilsnery if that's your style.

Great Lakes Eliot Ness Amber Lager:

Smooth and drinkable. A little bit sweeter and maltier than the Dortmunder style. Infinitely accessible to newbies but nice enough for beer geeks to appreciate. Eliot Ness has a little more substance than, say, Yuengling, but just as drinkable.

Another interesting note about Great Lakes Brewing Company: The beers had been originally brewed in accordance with the German Beer Purity Law of 1516. I believe all of these beers still are brewed that way, which is a cool old-school way of making beer!

Ithaca Apricot Wheat:
It seems very apricoty and fruity with the first whiff of the bottle and first taste.  Is it like Dogfish Head's Aprihop?  Not sure.  I would have to do a bottle-to-bottle comparison.  Plain looking bottle, but an okay flavored wheat beer. --The VP

Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55 5% abv:

Chilled-out ale with brown ale tendencies. Malty (kinda) with a mild hop profile. (The VP writes, "It's an ale.  Nothing special.  It's OK."

Ithaca CascaZilla

It's actually fine right out of the bottle and reminds me a little bit like Hop Devil from Victory. Pour it into a glass, thought, and the aromas and flavors open up a bit. Malt and hops combine nicely and there is even a teensy bit of vanilla-oaky mellowness to this brew. Tying to put it together with brews you may know, picture Founders Red's Rye plus Victory Yakima Twilight and a touch of Hop Devil.

Red Ales are hard to pin down. Many are boring, but done right, the palate rejoices. Some other nice Red Ales include Seamus Irish Red from Sly Fox (well-balanced and drinkable) and Oskar Blues' Gordon (off the hizzy and will beat you about the face and head if you're not paying attention). The Great White Buffalo of Red Ales was Humble Patience from Magic Hat great white buffalo... great white buffalo... but has since been discontinued, much to the chagrin of beer drinkers all over the east coast. Ithaca CascaZilla falls somewhere in between and has a malty zing that's countered by a hoppy zoing. Flavorful and original as it is, it's not off-putting or frightfully bitter. Stretching the bounds of Red Ale, CascaZilla is one monster of a brew. 7% abv, by the way. Not a monstrous alcohol content, but I wouldn't have too many if you happen to be out drinking in Tokyo. I'm just sayin'...

Red Ale lovers must have this beer. Hop Heads will dig it too. Heavier and maltier than its floral sibling, Flower Power, CascaZilla has a lot to offer beer lovers of every persuasion.

Representation: 1.0 / Accessibility: .97 / Style: .99 / Personal Preference: 1.0 / Total Score: 3.96 Flags

Click for hi-res image.

Ithaca Flower Power IPA

Ithaca Flower Power IPA:

I'm diggin' the groovy selection from Ithaca Beer Co. Flower Power is a righteous IPA with great floral hoppiness. Right out of the bottle, a bitterness hangs around for awhile, and the bubbles give the spice a little lift. Poured into a pint glass, though, will open Flower Power up and smooth it over. Just a hint of maltiness can be detected when drunk from the glass, which suits me just fine.

The floral bite is fairly bitter but not overpowering. Nicely balanced with a light body and golden color, Flower Power is not too much. It's pretty just right, in fact. Even the alcohol content is pretty just right at 7.5% abv. It reminds me a bit of Green Flash West Coast IPA, except Flower Power is not quite as grapefruity. with a nice bold-mellow mixture, this is definitely an outside brew as much (if not more than) an inside brew. Tailgate, barbecue, or wait -- camping trip! As the weather gets warmer (finally, in April 2010) the FermentNation will be trying beers that are released in accordance with the seasons. And since I usually hang out in places that serve good beer and select breweries I already trust, look for lots of good recommendations of stuff to drink outside.

So picture this: You're drinking Ithaca Flower Power with a belly full of bbq and beef jerky. You're hanging out, getting tired. You may be a little sunburned. But the cooler is still full of ice cold Flower Power. You're sitting around the fire, staring at the stars, at peace with the world and, like, in total wonder at your surroundings, man. What are you drinking?

Ithaca Flower Power IPA:

Representation: .98

Accessibility: .98

Style: .975

Personal Preference: .98

Total Score: 3.915 Flags

Opening the Ferment National Archives

From the Ferment National Archivist:

We take pride in the beer pictures we take at The Ferment Nation, and in an effort to spread some love and spread some notoriety, we are opening up the Ferment National image archive. We will soon be providing what we think are high quality images of great craft beers for general use by the public. Once you download the file, erase the background, crop it, whatever you want, but if you post it on your beer blog, give The Ferment Nation some credit. Something like this: (picture credit: FermentNation.com). Let us know what you think!

To start us off will be Ithaca Brewing Company's Cascazilla.

Ithaca Flower Power IPA (Citizen Review)

Ithaca Flower Power IPA:

"Definitely flowery, you can smell the hops immediately, and powerfully out of the bottle neck. You know how some beers taste and smell hoppy right out of the gate, but then the smell and taste disperses after a swig or two? This does not happen with this beer. I've had this on tap at Jose Pistola's in Philadelphia, too, and I am definitely a fan. Easy to drink, hoppy, nice."

Representation: .80

Accessibility: .90

Style Points: .85

Personal Preference: .90

Total Score: 3.45 Flags

--Reviewed by the VP (Vice President and Webmaster-at-Arms)