Saratoga Beer Week opening event inside the OSB storeroom in 2013. The brewery is gone and the building is slated for demolition.
This week is Beer Week in Saratoga Springs. You can be forgiven for not noticing, because it’s down to two days, Friday and Saturday, February 21 and 22. And Friday is actually devoted to a cider tasting—that’s not beer! (The event has a new sponsor, Town Square America, and tickets are available here.)
Not happening are most of the satellite events which have made past Saratoga Beer Weeks a destination for lovers of craft brews. Olde Saratoga Brewery, a linchpin in early days, closed two years ago under tragic circumstances. Henry Street Taproom, which hosted elaborate Beer Week tastings including the Sour Hour we wrote about in 2015, is sitting this one out. Few restaurants are serving dinners themed around specialty beers, the notable exception being Pint Size which is offering a Rochester-style Garbage Plate along with a western New York tap takeover on Wednesday night, February 19.
How did this wonderful celebration of collegiality and creativity go off the rails? Lew Bryson, a Philadelphia-based spirits columnist who used to live in this area, answers it in two words: White Claw. Why go to the trouble of roasting barley, pitching yeast and waiting for your product to ferment when you can get a buzz by drinking fizzy water? Our Facebook friends, who are presumably people of intelligence and good taste, are saying terrible things like “nerdy and boring at the same time” and “I was thinking I might be done with beer.”
My friend Tony took this picture of the 5-hour line for Pliny the Younger at Russian River’s taproom last week. He didn’t stick around.
This may be a backlash against behavior like people happily driving across New England to Tree House Brewery in Massachusetts with no expectation there will be any beer left when they arrive, or going to Russian River in California where they released Pliny the Younger for takeout for the first time this year, resulting in a five-hour wait for a single bottle. But it has also produced wonderful strong, hazy IPAs that require a short drive and no waiting at our favorite beer store, EBI, as well as counterparts in Albany.
If you don’t like it, don’t drink it. Pretty simple. And if you want to make the most of this year’s stripped down event, Saratoga Arms is offering a two-night package that includes a beer breakfast on Saturday hosted by a Certified Cicerone and various “beer gifts” in the room. Best of all, they’re right across the street from the Saratoga Springs City Center where the events take place, so you can park your car until you and the street are safe on Sunday morning.
