Recommendations for Best Ithaca Brewery Beers to Try

With no suggestions yet, here's a suggestion that might help.

Find the brewery page on this site.
Sort the list of their beers by "rAvg."
Start as close to the top as you can find and work your way down the list.

 

Sixteen, their new sour Luminous if you can get any, a new beer called Cran Bretty, cascazilla, flower power, green trail, any of their belgians from the box of belgians =) That's should get you started.

 

Flower Power is my favorite, but I also like Ground Break so I'd say to check that one out as well.

 

Ithaca has a new brewer and Flower power is now different....it is not a bad beer but it is not the same as with the previous brewer.....(i prefer the previous brewers version better)

 

Ditto on Ground Break. It's an excellent saison; a go to for me.

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/651/?sort=avgD&view=beers
This site can be more helpful than any group of people offering advice if you know how to utilize it.

 

Sorry, but this is the kind of post that makes me a little nuts. This is a community, not a search engine. Yes, the rankings and ratings are helpful, but they're no substitute for conversation.

 

Completely agree. If someone's looking for recommendations, they'd like opinions. If someone brings up a topic that's been discussed repeatedly in recent weeks, by all means, point them in the direction of that discussion (see: the Pacific thread's twice weekly asks about where to find Pliny as an example). That's what they came looking for, so help them out.

To the OP: I'm a big fan of Flower Power, though I'd also look into the aforementioned change in brewer -- hadn't heard about that myself, so can't attest to how much it's changed from my own experience (out in CA I can only trade for it anyway). But any time I've had, I've loved it.

 

It is a community and a search engine, both.

I personally have found that search is the most effective and informative way to discover things in that it gives the broadest number of "opinions" with raw data mixed in.

Also, the OP has been a member for about a week and may not know the full intricacies of the site just yet.

 

Maria, what are your impressions of CranBretty? Is it a draft only product?

Cheers!

Jack

 

Ask if they're ever going to produce Brute again.

 

Jack on the day of the release for the sour lUminous ( which was a world class sour IMO) they had 5 , that's 5 other new beers on tap. One of them was Cran Bretty. It's a wild ale fermented with brett and cranberries. It's astringent and light and a bit puckering. Tap only. I had two glasses at the tap room that day. They also had a proter that I tasted form @GreesyFizeek 's flight. It was called Blauser and was definitely lovely.

They have had recently something called Belgian Gold which I did not try an another beer called Zuul and Imperial stout. I hear they both are lovely but I cannot say. In true Ithaca fashion they also had a gose made with kaffir lime leaves and goji berries called gozerian. They have one coming out called cruiser a berliner weisse. They are getting down over there to brew beer. I cannot promise all these same offerings on tap but you can't say they are not brewing.

If you ask me they are doing really well. Cheers!

 

How new is this brewer? Are you talking about the change a few years ago? The beer tastes pretty much the same to me as it always has.

 

If you're in the Finger Lakes, try to hit up Naked Dove Brewing in Canandaigua if you have the time. Its a tiny little brewery but their beers are excellent; their porter is up there with Ed Fitz. Rooster Fish brewing in Watkins Glen is also worth a try.

 

Welcome to the Finger Lakes!
In addition to the Ithaca Beer Co. there are other of small breweries around...
here's a map for your convenience
http://fingerlakesbeertrail.com/content/
I've had some brews from Bacchus that I've enjoyed.
There's the Bandwagon Brew pub right downtown Ithaca. It's been a couple years since I've been, but enjoyed the atmosphere and brews.
if you're into wine here's a map for that as well...
http://www.fingerlakeswinecountry.com/FingerLakesWineTrails.aspx

Hopefully the sun will shine this weekend for you!
Enjoy the area and make sure to check out some falls. Treman, Buttermilk, Taughannock, Ithaca are all wonderfull falls to see.

 

as far actually answering your question of which beers to try I'd suggest starting with the ones only offered at the brewery as you can pick up six packs of all their other beers in town, or if you stop at the Finger Lakes Beverage Center you can get singles.
I'm a big fan of Cascazilla and Ground Break is a pretty good one too.

 

Many beer enthusiasts in Rochester have noticed the change in Flower Power as well. What led to the change is unknown - Chief leaving (former brewer), change in recipe, change in hops over time...Regardless of the reason, it is no longer IMHO the amazing beer it used to be. And this has nothing to do with my palate - since many others have noticed the same change. Everytime I used to visit Ithaca, I would stop and get a fresh growler. The smell was amazing - I could just sit there and smell that beer all day. And it tasted great too. Now, the smell has faded and the taste is muted as well. As a friend said at the Luminous release, if you had never had Flower Power before, you'd probably think this was a solid IPA. But if you knew its past glory, you could not help but be disappointed.

 

How long ago are we talking? I haven't had a good FP in over a year but that might be because I've only had it from bottles. Fresh FP on tap was amazing, but again last time I had it that way was over a year ago.