Today was a relatively lazy day. I ended up going to Isaac Newton’s last night (and had some pretty good brews, but didn’t review them) with Chris. Neither of us could really sleep and I woke up in the morning with the puppy licking my face. I didn’t do all that much today and sat on the couch for most of the day watching football. So not like me. I’m going to bed decently early tonight so that I’ll be well rested for work. Onto today’s brew.
Style: American Amber/Red Ale
Trivia: According to wikipedia, “The city of Ithaca, named for the Greek island of Ithaca, sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York, US. It is best known for being home to Cornell University, an Ivy League school with 21,325 students (most of whom study on Cornell’s Ithaca campus). Ithaca College is located just south of the city in the town of Ithaca, adding to Ithaca’s ‘college town’ focus and atmosphere. Nearby is Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3). These three colleges influence Ithaca’s seasonal population. The city of Ithaca is the center of the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area (which also contains the separate municipalities of the town of Ithaca, the village of Cayuga Heights, the village of Lansing and other towns and villages in Tompkins County). The city is the county seat of Tompkins County. In 2000, the city’s population was 29,287, and the metropolitan area had a population of 100,135. 2004 estimates puts the city population at 29,952, an increase of 2.3%. Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca is the North American seat of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.”
Random: I think the next Ithaca brew that I want to try is the Nut Brown Ale. I also want to try their Ground Break Saison. I can’t wait until it’s saison weather…I’m so sick of the snow.
This brew poured with a two finger tan-colored, fluffy egg white head. The head took awhile to dissipate and left some lacing on the glass. The body of the brew was a cloudy reddish-brown with some visible carbonation on it. The nose had a bit of citrus and then some caramel malt on the background. I also got some mild hops to the nose. The taste is interesting. I’m really not getting a lot of hops to it. The breadiness and malt really came out in this brew, with definite caramel and bread notes. The bitterness came out at the end. There was still significant carbonation on the brew, although it was a little thinner than I would like. The finish lingers with a bit of bitterness that isn’t exactly pleasant. I’m not a big fan of the brew, but in all fairness, it did say best by December, so it could be that the brew was a little past its prime. I would try it again only to see if there was any difference in the taste and if the bottle I had was just old. Other than that, I wouldn’t seek it out.
Untappd Rating: 3.0/5.0