By David Diehl by FLX Words
In a town where every house looks as if it should be on the cover of a holiday card, Skaneateles Brewing Company opened a year ago with a mission statement based around their community. Being a farm brewery, the majority of the beers that SBC has on draft are made with New York State ingredients. This sentiment was very important for Head Brewer Chris Fann and his team to bring to their home turf and the people that inhabit and visit it.
“Skaneateles Brewing has been so fortunate in our first year because of the support of the community,” says Fann. “It’s nice to give locals a taste of local beer.”
Fann considers the Willow Glen IPA to be the brewery’s flagship beer. Not only was it the first beer that they produced—but it is also the highest selling.
“The Willow Glen IPA is a hybrid beer that isn’t quite a West Coast IPA–our IPA is not overly bitter, it finishes a little sweet, but has a good hop content to back that up. It is 7.4% ABV, which is a little bigger than others of its style, but doesn’t drink that way,” Fann describes. “It’s also dry-hopped with Sorachi Ace, you don’t see a lot of that hop around, and it gives the beer these fun pineapple notes and a peppery spice on the backend. It’s very refreshing, and also very different.”
Currently, in their storybook town, the Willow Glen IPA and all of the Skaneateles Beer catalog is available to drink on draft at the tasting room, and can be purchased to-go in both crowlers and larger growlers. But after only one year, the crew has bigger plans as they aspire to be canning for distribution in the upcoming months.
4022 Mill Rd, Skaneateles, NY 13152. (315)975-1747. skanbrewery.com.
It was always a goal for David Diehl to return to the Finger Lakes and make an imprint on the beer culture of the region. A Hobart & William Smith Colleges graduate, Diehl spent over a decade in Brooklyn and is excited to be back and taking on Finger Lakes craft beer reviews and commentaries for EdibleFingerLakes.com. He has also been published in Inked Magazine, YRB Magazine, Nerve.com, and The Finger Lakes Times. You can follow his work at FLXWORDS.com.
