Ale | George de Piro | Brooklyn Brewery | Beer Festival

Thanks to great homegrown brews coming out of places like Brewery Ommegang, the empire state may be the next hot spot for beer tourism. That's right - beer tourism.
After winding through curvy country roads and gawking at the splendid hills and lonely ­Victorian homes, we turn into a driveway and pass through the center arch of a long, white, European-looking farmhouse. It's late November, and the trees that scale the hill behind the parking lot still cling to a bit of autumnal color. The air is cool, crisp. The sun beams. It's a good day to drink beer.

We arrive with a mission: to taste Belgian-style ales at Brewery Ommegang, the first farmstead brewery built in America in over a century and a beer geek's mecca. Located­ on a 140-acre former hop farm just outside of Cooperstown, New York (home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and where a popular T-shirt reads ­"Cooperstown: a Drinking Town with a Baseball Problem"), Ommegang has earned critical success and a cult following. Here, they create award-winning, flavorful, effervescent beers that employ Belgian brewing techniques and rely on European ingredients such as Czech hops and Belgian specialty malts.

My friend and I wait behind a group of about 20 people (mostly men), and as we lean against a wall and breathe in the slightly sweet aroma, about eight more people join us. When our turn comes, a knowledgeable host walks us through the process, giving us a history of this hop-growing region, explaining the difference between lagers and ales, extolling the benefits of the two wells on the property that are fed by underwater springs, detailing the process of bottle conditioning (which is similar to that used for Champagne and which gives the beer its bubble), and sharing some of the spices used (following the Belgian brewing tradition of adding flavorings such as coriander, orange peel, ginger, and star anise). The tour ends at a tasting room with a toasty fireplace, a sampling of foods to pair with the samples of ales (chocolates and cheeses and dark mustards to sample with bread), and an educated barkeep who explains the different brews and logical food pairings.

Ommegang (named after a Belgian festival that commemorates a returning king; it went on and on for several dawns) distributes its ales to 34 states (for states with alcohol­-content restrictions, the ales' 5.1 to 9.8 percent might take it out of contention). But it can't meet the demand for its product - Abbey Ale, Hennepin Saison Farmhouse Ale, Rare Vos Amber Ale, Ommegang White, and Three Philosophers Quadrupel Belgian Style Ale - necessitating a quadrupling of its facilities. When the brewery began production in 1997, they created about 2,800 barrels of ale. Last year, production stood at 6,500. In three years they hope to triple that figure to 20,000. "It's incredibly painful not to meet the demand that's out there," says Randy Thiel, Ommegang's brewmaster. "It kind of hurts the pride."

There is plenty to be proud of here. Ommegang represents the best of the craft-beer renaissance, a turn to handmade beers that benefited from the microbrewery explosion of the '90s, and a prime example of what's been dubbed "beer tourism," a growing segment of the traveling population that uses its mug as its travel planner.

That's why I'm here today. Beyond the diners sitting down to a nice meal in Manhattan and popping open a $16.50 bottle of Ommegang's Abbey Rare Vos, a light amber ale that uses a caramel malt and grains of paradise to achieve its flavor, there are people like me who want to come and see the place, taste the beers, and witness the production process. A beer tourist, if you will. Last year, Ommegang welcomed 15,000 such beer geeks.

Even by national standards, Ommegang is considered a sort of Holy Grail for beer pilgrims. Press clippings from newspapers all over the country and from magazines such as Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Wine Enthusiast, SmartMoney, Saveur, GQ, and the randy lad mag Stuff cover one of the entry walls. New York State likely will feature the brewery prominently in its recently passed legislation to create an Empire State Brewery Trail program, a tourism campaign that promotes the state's more than 60 breweries. With the New York winery trails as its model, the program will fund signs for brew spots on the trail, vacation itineraries, and a "brewery passport" booklet with discounts and information on attractions. And probably a few boxes of "I NY Beer" bumper stickers.

FOR ONE STATE,
New York offers a world of vastly different vistas and cultural experiences - the idyllic Finger Lakes; the historic Leatherstocking region of the Hudson Valley; the craggy, camp-friendly Adirondacks; the bustling Big Apple; and the posh Hamptons. And almost all of these areas host a brewery or two. Which is why it's difficult to predict which breweries will make the cut and be included on the Empire State Brewery Trail.

Difficult, yes, but not impossible. I called George de Piro, known as Professor Beer (see professorbeer.com) and the brewmaster for C.H. Evans Brewing Company's Albany Pump Station, and he helped me assemble a pint-size look at the best places to knock back a beer in this great state (plus one famous inn with an astounding beer list). Consider it a temporary road map.

-Brewery Ommegang (www.ommegang.com; 656 County Highway 33, Cooperstown; 800-544-1809): "Everything they do is interesting, and some of what they make is incredible," says de Piro. "It's local, and they have a beautiful brewery." The third weekend in July, the brewery hosts Belgium Comes to Cooperstown, a beer and food festival with 100-plus beers, camping, food vendors, and live music.

-C.H. Evans Brewing Company at the Albany Pump Station (www.evansale.com; 19 Quackenbush Square, Albany; 518-447-9000): Okay, de Piro makes the beer here, but there's more than just his award-­winning ale, which was twice awarded the Great American Beer Festival gold medal for the best brown ale in the United States. There's also the building itself: 45-foot-high ceilings, original ironwork forged by hand on-site, and massive cranes hanging around.

-Wagner Vineyards (www.wagnervineyards.com; 9322 Route 414, Lodi; 607-582-6450): Located on Seneca Lake and in the heart of the famous Finger Lakes wine region, this winery does an impressive side business in beer. In fact, its Sled Dog Doppelbock garnered a silver medal at the 2005 Great American Beer Festival. A large deck wraps around the winery and offers spectacular views of the rows of grapevines that lead down to the lake.

-Southampton Publick House (www.publick.com; 40 Bowden Square, Southampton; 631-283-2800): "They win a ton of awards, and their beers are always interesting," says de Piro, who notes the brewmaster enjoys experimentation and has even made a beer brewed with edible flowers. "Even in winter, it's beautiful out there." Which is why supermodels and celebs spend a lot of time at this posh Long Island playground.

-Brooklyn Brewery (www.brooklynbrewery.com; 79 North 11th Street, Brooklyn; 718-486-7422): One hundred years ago, Brooklyn was home to around 48 breweries.­ That legacy continues in this brewery. "Their business model is brilliant. They started out as a contract brewery," say de Piro. "And they helped revitalize the neighborhood." Many credit Brooklyn Brewery with helping to make Williamsburg the hip,
cool place it is today.

-The Country Inn (www.krumville.com; 1380 County Road 2, Krumville; 845-657-8956): With a way-out-of-the-way location, an unassuming building, a decent jukebox, 12 beers on tap, and about 500 different bottled beers to choose from, this hideaway is often referred to as "beer camp." "You go in thinking there would be a lot of [ordinary beer], but everybody in there is drinking something interesting," says de Piro. "If you get lost going there, as I did, just stop at somebody's driveway, as I did, and say, 'Hey, where's the Country Inn?' "

Will all of these spots make the Empire State Brewery Trail list? They had better. If not, Governor Pataki and company have some explaining to do.

FOR THE RECORD,
wine recently surpassed beer as America's alcoholic drink of choice, and sales of the country's big beer brands (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Coors) have been flat for years. The one brewing bright spot and growing segment of the market has been the craft brewery: The United States boasts 800 microbreweries, brewpubs, and regional specialty breweries; in 1976, there were only a few. Craft brewers account for less than nine percent of the beer market, but this segment has grown every year for the last 35 years, according to the Brewers Association.

"For people who know beer, America is probably the best beer country in the world right now because of the variety of people brewing and the amount of styles being brewed well," says Mike Saxton, founder and president of beertrips.com, a travel company that organizes outings for small groups. "We're not the big, yellow brewers we've always been." Saxton cites New York's breweries in particular as stereotype busters and predicts the day will come when his beer travels will include many of them on the itinerary. "Someday there will be a New York State beer bus, or something like that, and we'll follow the tourist route and stay in cool little towns," he says.

Saxton says he sees more women on his tours than in the past and that his clients range from a 23-year-old software designer to a 77-year-old retiree, a church organist, and a space shuttle engineer - exactly the kind of people we saw at Ommegang. Not a lot of college kids and no "pounders." Many bring lists of beers they want to taste, many brew at home, and all approach beer like a connoisseur approaches wine. He even gets a few beer snobs - "the people who have three minutes of dialogue before the first sip and enjoy asking brewmasters questions that they know the answers to."

Beer snobs sound a lot like wine snobs - grasping for the perfect adjective to describe the flavor, seeking to find the right meal for the right brew, making a quest out of finding new and interesting varietals that reflect the season and a person's mood. Many of them were flocking to the area even before legislation passed in the New York State Assembly to officially create the Empire State Beer Trail. "We've got our own little Napa Valley here," Angelica Kofin told the New York Times in July. Kofin was a spokeswoman for Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol, who sponsored the bill. (Lentol, as it happens, drinks very rarely.)

In addition to the legislation, there has been other help for places like Ommegang along the way, sea changes in the culture. The artisanal food movement is the biggest supporter; it has bolstered craft brews by making people aware of how homogenized the offerings were at the local supermarket and inspiring a little experimentation. "It's a question of identity," says Ken Turow, a dean at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and cocreator of the Ale & Lager Educational Society, a student society at the school that invites craft brewers, beer writers, importers, and beer experts to the school. "You want to be seen sporting a ball cap that says 'Woodstock Brewing' because you're identifying with your region."

Which may explain why I left with ­several four-packs of Ommegang’s Three Philosophers (a strong dark ale and my favorite of those we sampled), a bar of intense dark chocolate, and one Ommegang hoodie sweatshirt.
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