Steuben Brewing turns 10!

Pioneering FLX brewery has always focused on lager and local ingredients. It'll celebrate those things with a party Saturday.

Many breweries celebrate a milestone birthday with some ostentatious beer release. It might be something dark, wild, barrel-aged, or all of the above.

But that has never been Chad Zimar’s style. The owner/brewer at Steuben Brewing is using his brewery’s 10th anniversary as a showcase of what the Finger Lakes spot has always done exceedingly well — expressive, balanced lagers, typically crafted with New York state malts and hops. It’ll release Decade, an all-New York lager, to mark the occasion.

Through the use of local ingredients, Steuben’s beers directly reflect the Finger Lakes environment. The beers mirror the surroundings in which they were produced and will ultimately be enjoyed. On the 8-acre Steuben property overlooking Keuka Lake, the sky can seem endless and time feels like it has slowed down a bit.

To celebrate the landmark occasion, Steuben, 10286 Judson Road in Pulteney, Steuben County, is releasing Decade, an easy-drinking 4.8-percent American lager (of course, made with NYS ingredients), giving away 200 commemorative pint glasses to the first 200 attendees, hosting a day of live music, and welcoming Cousins Maine Lobster to cater the festivities.

Photo: The first 200 attendees will receive this Steuben Decade pint glass.

“I don’t know where the time went. You’ll know as a parent, all of a sudden when you’re committed to something so much, you’re all in. And then in the blink of an eye, it’s 10 years,” Zimar said. “There are certainly some days where it feels like it’s not flying by. But for the most part, it has flown by and we’re excited to celebrate a decade. We really look forward to the next decade. We feel incredibly lucky to have the customer support we’ve had.”

Zimar and his family have always been very willful and meticulous in everything they do. Revisiting the 2018 D&C profile I wrote about Steuben, I was really struck by how the vision and the mission remain the same all these years later.

"We are definitely calculated. We’re in this for the long run," Zimar told me in 2018. "We’re not trying to be huge. We could easily be 10 times the size and have a bunch of wholesale accounts and be hooked up with a distributor. We want people to taste the beer here, in this setting, so that we can control the atmosphere and their experience. It’s the glass you’re tasting it out of, how it’s poured, the temperature at which it’s poured."

The brewery will welcome long-time favorite and musical collaborator Aaron Lipp to the party Saturday. Zimar said Lipp “has been an integral part of what we do here, as far as our live music. He always pushes our brewery and also recommends us to other musicians. He’s been a huge part of our taproom success.”

Zimar is particularly excited about Decade, the brewery’s anniversary beer, which will be available both on draft and in cans (but only at the brewery). It features both locally grown Pilsner malt and Triumph hops, a newer varietal with lager-friendly characteristics. The hop imparts floral notes, a little bit of white pepper, and a unique pear character, Zimar said. It should work perfectly with the simple Pilsner base. How dreamy does that sound, especially at 4.9 percent alcohol?!

Even limiting themselves to New York-grown ingredients, Zimar said he is still afforded quite a bit of creativity. That’s due, in part, to the fact that the supply and quality of local ingredients has improved quite a bit since the state introduced the farm brewery license in 2012. That legislation incentivized farmers to grow crops necessary for brewing and streamlined the licensing process for brewers.

“This allows us to keep that small supply chain intact,” Zimar said. “From the farmers, to the malting houses, to the hop growers and processors, our ingredients are super fresh. They come directly from the malting houses and hop presses. They don’t sit in a warehouse. They don’t travel far. Those fresh ingredients are crucial to what we do.”

The brewery maintains relationships with farmers and suppliers, allowing it to showcase what makes the Finger Lakes region special. Zimar noted how Cascade hops from two different farms exhibit different characteristics. One crop is suited for lager, while the other is perfect for IPAs, he said.

“You don’t know that unless you’re in it and you’re speaking regularly with the hop farmers,” Zimar said. “It’s great to be part of every single link in that supply chain.”

Zimar has always stressed that Steuben won’t ever get too big, despite an increase in demand and profile. The brewery could easily expand production capability and start shipping beer across the region. Instead, it has always been focused on its taproom and a limited number of accounts across the state.

A 1,600-square-foot addition was added to the existing building, allowing the brewery to install a 15-barrel brewhouse system (while still keeping its original 7-barrel system in place). That project wrapped up in June and Zimar said they’ll soon utilize the new equipment. It’ll allow the brewery to employ some traditional decoction methods during production.

(Quick decoction primer from our friends at Jack’s Abby: It’s a step mash process where a portion of the mash is removed, boiled, and then reintroduced to the main mash. It was utilized in historic settings when the barley was of poorer quality and completing these decoction steps allowed brewers to “improve the efficiency, extract, and quality of the mash,” Jack’s Abby founder Sam Hendler wrote.

Many lager brewers contend the decoction process adds “a uniquely intense malty character in the finished beer,” according to Hendler. “From our experience, we have found no substitute for the malt intensity, increased attenuation, and perceived fullness of our decoction mash beers. Decoction effectively produces a beer that tastes ‘full’ but is inherently more drinkable than a beer brewed using caramel or melanoidin malts.”

I’ll have more about a Monroe County brewery, Faircraft Brauhaus, being the first in the region to have a decoction-specific brewing system and what that extra step is adding to those beers. I guess this wasn’t so quick. But it’s fascinating history and good knowledge nonetheless.)

Steuben’s new three vessel, direct flame system will afford it the opportunity to “add even more uniqueness to our beers,” Zimar said. “Our boil kettle now has the ability for us to use decoction. We’re looking forward to experimenting more with that and incorporating these traditional methods.” It’s wild and exciting to think about Steuben lagers becoming even better with new equipment and methods.

While utilizing the larger system, Zimar said the brewery will still maintain its exclusivity by giving people a reason to visit the Steuben taproom. Most beers don’t hit wholesale and aren’t available on store shelves. That’s by design. (Though I will say, Pittsford Wegmans has a nice variety of Steuben beers currently.)

Even with the new system and 30-barrel fermenters, Zimar said Steuben will max out 1,100 barrels produced per year. (A barrel is 31 gallons.)

“We look forward to the next 10,” Zimar said. “Every brew day feels the same since day one. We’re just wiser and we know more about brewing than we did. The excitement of a brew day is still here. The aromas, the sounds, the feeling of accomplishment, it’s all still here. The smell of the fresh malt, the mash when you mash in, the boiling wort, the hop additions, the smell of fermentation, ultimately the final product, that passion is still here.”

Geneseo’s Strange Design Public House turns three

Strange Design Public House, located in the historic Livingston County Poorhouse, is certainly one of the coolest and most unique locations in this region. The Geneseo brewery at 4570 Millennium Drive will celebrate its third anniversary Saturday with a huge shindig.

If you haven’t visited yet, this will be a perfect opportunity to check it out. It will feature three new beer releases and will kick off at 2 p.m with live music from Sweet Degenerates and then Monkey in a Bottle.

Tommy and Kristi Streamer originally opened Amber Lantern Brewing in Warsaw, Wyoming County.

Central to the Strange Design mission was maintaining the historic character of the property. They wanted “to bring new life to a space filled with history,” Tommy said in a release.

“It’s still so exciting to see people walk in our doors and look around for the first time. I think it exceeds expectations and provides something unique, yet still warm and inviting.  Hearing people exclaim, ‘Wow,” or “This is so cool” is really satisfying.” Kristi added.

To mark the occasion, Strange Design brewer Ben Bernard concocted three new beers — an Oktoberfest, a fresh hop IPA called the The Empire Hops Backs (with hops from Williamson’s Empire Hops), and the brewery’s first smoothie sour.

A final note: It’s pretty wild to think I’ve been working on this independent publication for over two years now. In that time, I’ve published 200 newsletters, highlighted some of my favorite people in the industry, curated two beers festivals (that featured 150 participants and 4,600 attendees), and continued to break all the biggest news in the region (closures, consolidations, openings, etc.).

The Cleveland Prost remains the preeminent source for regional beer news. If you own a brewery, bar, or beer-adjacent business, this is the best place to reach the nerds you wanna be in front of. So I remain open to sponsorships, advertisements, and sponsored content. Feel free to reach out to me at clevelandprost@gmail.com for more. And more than anything, thanks for all the support. None of this would be possible without the devoted (and thirsty) audience.