Guess who I'm hanging out with?

[the_bird]

The best beer of the weekend, bar none?

Utopia clone v.1

Second-best was whatever sour it was that Paulie poured on Friday night.

I liked the beer I brought along, but it'd nothing compared to those two. Paulie's IPAs could suck ass for all I know, but his monster beers are pretty effin' sweet.

 

[Yooper]

The best beer of the weekend, bar none?

Utopia clone v.1

Second-best was whatever sour it was that Paulie poured on Friday night.

I liked the beer I brought along, but it'd nothing compared to those two. Paulie's IPAs could suck ass for all I know, but his monster beers are pretty effin' sweet.

Yes, I'd agree. I LOVED the U1 and that lambic. Your homebrew was very good, and it really hit the spot.

What was the name of the place with the mediocre wines, the bad beer, and the two kids as servers in the most wonderful setting? I'd say that would be a place to avoid in the future.

 

[Mparsons327]

Yes, I'd agree. I LOVED the U1 and that lambic. Your homebrew was very good, and it really hit the spot.

What was the name of the place with the mediocre wines, the bad beer, and the two kids as servers in the most wonderful setting? I'd say that would be a place to avoid in the future.

Sounds like miles?

 

[the_bird]

Yeah, Miles Wine Cellars. Shan's exact quote was "If they were old enough to drink legally, I'll eat your hat."

 

[Yooper]

Yeah, Miles Wine Cellars. Shan's exact quote was "If they were old enough to drink legally, I'll eat your hat."

And the one that seemed to be about 15 looked Paulie in the eye and told him, "I'm not a beer expert. I'm a wine expert!"

The setting was fantastic.

The beer was astringent and not to style, while the wine was mediocre at best. $3 for two tiny (1 oz?) samples of bad beer. I just laughed, because you can pay $5 for a great pint in some places and that beer was just straight out bad.

 

[the_bird]

Annoying that they don't even MAKE it - it's contract brewed by some place in Rochester. Buddy of mine here at work was saying that some of the old Genny plants are doing a lot of contract brewing now, up around there. I'd wager it's not even their recipe; someone at Genny probably faxed them a price sheet with various beer styles and they selected "Pale Ale."

 

[Wus67]

Annoying that they don't even MAKE it - it's contract brewed by some place in Rochester. Buddy of mine here at work was saying that some of the old Genny plants are doing a lot of contract brewing now, up around there. I'd wager it's not even their recipe; someone at Genny probably faxed them a price sheet with various beer styles and they selected "Pale Ale."

They're called Custom Brewcrafters Co located in Rochester. And yeah, you pretty much pick your style off of a list. They probably do about 80 -90% of the house work for bars and pubs here in WNY. IMO they are not very good. I've had many of their styles and they almost all have the same malt profile and yeast strain. I've gotten to the point where I'm asking if CBC brews the house beer, and if they do I avoid it. Maybe I'm just a snob but I think i make better stuff with my cooler and buckets. And AFAIK, they are the "creative" minds behind Dundee's, another Rochester creation that has yet to wow me.

 

[the_bird]

I'm almost certain that's the name they mentioned (almost like they were proud - hey, we have this great company do all of our brewing for us!). I can tell you, 98% of the homebrew I've sampled (from all kinds of brewers, good and bad) is better. It's not doing Miles any good, either; talking to the owners of the B&B, Miles' reputation isn't particularly good in no small part because of the crappy beer.

 

[springer]

sure you come out to my neck of the woods and I don't know about it... Glad ya had a good time

 

[Yooper]

sure you come out to my neck of the woods and I don't know about it... Glad ya had a good time

I didn't know that was your area!

I hope there is a "next time" but with Bob coming along. It was so wonderful- romantic B&B, romantic dinners, starlit skies, and just the five of us.

 

[Zuljin]

Guess who I'm hanging out with?

Javier Bardem

 

[the_bird]

... "yank down my tunic and dangle my stash..."

This year's Stash Pic.

The case is filled with the Prejean semi-dry. We didn't actually go as crazy as we sometimes do. There's only one dessert wine that I recall. Heron Hill's unoaked chard; if you've never had a chard fermented in stainless steel, try it - it's like a whole new grape. Some nice Muscato wines this time around - seems to be a new thing, seems to be the region's hot new grape. Would have bought more at the distillery but we still have a decent stash at the house. We should be all set for a while.

 

[nyer]

There was one meadery we went to, and I forget the name. Everything I tried was phenolic, but I think their sweet stuff was ok from the other reviews. I wasn't a fan of anything at all, even though I tried to like it.

Probably Earl Estates.

 

[the_bird]

Right next to the "Redneck Wines" place we avoided?

All the meads were uber-sweet. On the good side, the fruit meads all tasted strongly of the underlying fruit, even some fairly delicate fruits like pear. Tasted like real fruit, fresh fruit, and a lot of it - just really sweet, and the straight meads were pretty bad. Stressed yeast, perhaps? Not enough nutrients?

We bought a bottle of the cherry mead specifically to eat at dessert with a cheesecake. Otherwise, I can't see myself ever drinking those meads, they were just too much.

 

[nyer]

I wish I knew you guys were in my neck of the woods, the wife and I stopped at 2 new wineries on Rt 14 and then at roosterfish brewing in Watkins over the weekend. We probably passed each other. I live on the West side of Cayuga and have land next door to Bully Hill Winery (wanna buy it?). While you were at Finger Lakes Distillery did you stop at Two Goats Brewing? They have the best view of Seneca Lake and the owner is the nicest guy you will ever meet. He's a homebrewer who was brave enough to build a brewery. My wife has been in the wine industry here for a long time and we spend too much time going to wineries, we could have suggested the best ones to check out. There are some smaller places here that aren't popular with the bus tours that make incredible dry wines. The winemaker is usually pousing for you and it's fun to talk to them. You missed the drunkfest, I mean wine festival in Watkins Saturday and Sunday. Thats a good time if you don't mind standing in line with 3,000 drunks waiting for a sample.

 

[the_bird]

How much land? I don't think I could stand living next to BH, but the_Wife and I have talked about the possibility of eventually buying a few acres. Would probably want to be a little further away from her mom, though!

We *deliberately* avoided the Drunkfest. ****, Paulie didn't even want to drive through Watkins Glen!

We'll have to do another, larger get-together at some point. And, I haven't made it to Two Goats yet, we were supposed to go there with a couple of the young winemakers last year but it didn't quite work out. The beer good there?

 

[nyer]

Right next to the "Redneck Wines" place we avoided?

All the meads were uber-sweet. On the good side, the fruit meads all tasted strongly of the underlying fruit, even some fairly delicate fruits like pear. Tasted like real fruit, fresh fruit, and a lot of it - just really sweet, and the straight meads were pretty bad. Stressed yeast, perhaps? Not enough nutrients?

We bought a bottle of the cherry mead specifically to eat at dessert with a cheesecake. Otherwise, I can't see myself ever drinking those meads, they were just too much.

You made a smart move avoiding the redneck place. If you like Mead, check out Montezuma Winery at the North end of Cayuga Lake. They started as beekeepers and supply the mead for the Renaissance Festival in Sterling. They have mostly sweet wines and fruit wines and then mead, melomels and vodka distilled from honey and a corn whiskey. I love the vodka and corn whiskey.

 

[nyer]

How much land? I don't think I could stand living next to BH, but the_Wife and I have talked about the possibility of eventually buying a few acres. Would probably want to be a little further away from her mom, though!

We *deliberately* avoided the Drunkfest. ****, Paulie didn't even want to drive through Watkins Glen!

We'll have to do another, larger get-together at some point. And, I haven't made it to Two Goats yet, we were supposed to go there with a couple of the young winemakers last year but it didn't quite work out. The beer good there?

I love the beer at Two Goats, he has a nice cream ale, pale ale, IPA and the best oatmeal stout. He has other stuff too. He's a real nice guy and the building is a real old barn he took down somewhere and rebuilt it overlooking the lake. He just hired a "real" brewer from Marketstreet?? in Corning.

Our land isn't right next door to Bully Hill, it's about 1/2 mile South on the same side. We have a great lake view, deer and turkey everywhere, even a bear once in awhile. It's a touch over 6 acres on a hillside with tons of row planted pine trees and a small gully with a stream and little water fall. There is a dirt/stone driveway that leads to a level building area near the top of the hill. It was a former vineyard. We planned to build there and lost interest since we are trying to move to Florida next year. It is for sale if you are really interested I can send you the MLS number.

 

[the_bird]

Probably not at this point. We were thinking (somewhat serious, somewhat half-hearted) about using some of the $$ we got from selling our old house and putting it into Finger Lakes land, but we really would need to be further away from the MIL. Sounds like your land is a couple miles (at most) from her, she bought a place a year or so back up a little further north, a couple miles north of Dr. Frank's. But, we'd have to be elsewhere, probably nearer to Seneca, more for my wife's sanity than my own.

We're also finding that we are probably going to be putting a little bit more of those savings on the new house than we were anticipating, so it's best to keep it in savings for now (and I'm not looking to take on any more debt).

I'm curious, though, just to wonder what kind of $$/acre that vineyard-grade farmland is going for out there. So, I'd love to see the listing, even if I'm not (today, at least) a serious buyer.

 

[nyer]

Probably not at this point. We were thinking (somewhat serious, somewhat half-hearted) about using some of the $$ we got from selling our old house and putting it into Finger Lakes land, but we really would need to be further away from the MIL. Sounds like your land is a couple miles (at most) from her, she bought a place a year or so back up a little further north, a couple miles north of Dr. Frank's. But, we'd have to be elsewhere, probably nearer to Seneca, more for my wife's sanity than my own.

We're also finding that we are probably going to be putting a little bit more of those savings on the new house than we were anticipating, so it's best to keep it in savings for now (and I'm not looking to take on any more debt).

I'm curious, though, just to wonder what kind of $$/acre that vineyard-grade farmland is going for out there. So, I'd love to see the listing, even if I'm not (today, at least) a serious buyer.

MLS R175571, it should show in the Town of Urbana. Land around here was cheap 10 years ago, now anything that has good soil for grapes on a slope near a lake is big bucks. Our friend sold a 180 acre farm on Cayuga Lake a few years ago for 1.1 million. It slopes toward the lake and has the right soil so a local winery bought it and started planting.

 

[the_bird]

Yeah, I was reading a book on wineries in the area, and they were talking about land going for ~$5k/acre back around 2004 (twice that if the sellers knew you were starting a winery). Still seems cheap compared to any other winegrowing region. Wish I had the cash to spend (and wish you were at least on the other side of the lake!)