My brother and I took a few bottles of my recently brewed brown porter over to the nearby Flying Bison Brewery in Buffalo. It was a chance to get that beer tasted by someone knowledgeable and get my brother into a brewery shortly after his 21st birthday.
Owner Tim Herzog was there and kind enough to try my beer and give us a tour. He apparently like it, but felt that is was more of a southern english brown ale than a brown porter. It does seem to be missing some of that porter aromatic - fruitiness, so next time I will try brewing it with Nottingham dry yeast instead of US-05. I was aware of the difference between the 2 yeasts, but my intention was to make sure my first brewing of the beer didn't have too many esters. Anyway, this will be a good test to see the difference between the 2 yeasts.
After Tim took the time to taste and comment on my beer he started off our tour of the brewery - with some Flying Bison beers in hand. The brewery is open until 7 on Fridays and 10ish ounce beers are only $1.50. I started out with a "Rusty Chain" - described as a Vienna lager recipe brewed with an ale yeast and all continental hops. I rate it the best drinking beer I have had in quite awhile, and I may have to pick up a growler of it sometime soon. I also tried the Inferno Pod Ale, brewed for Pizza Plant in Williamsville. It was definitely bitter, full of hop flavor and aroma, and not too sweet or worty. I think it would go great with a pizza for sure.
The brewery tour was excellent, even though the brewery is in an old building and is not purpose built. It's the kind of brewery you would end up with if you started you own. It was a welcoming place for me as a homebrewer, and I even managed to get a few of my questions answered for some tips on brewing Skye Pilot Scotch Ale!
