There are a lot of really good, strong breweries in the United States, but not a lot of them make the crossover to excellence the type of brewery where you can't wait until it releases a new beer.
The Southern Tier Brewing Company of Lakewood, N.Y., has moved into that "excellent" category, releasing fantastic beer after fantastic beer, and with more on the way.
"I really try to achieve balance in all of my beers," said owner/brewer Phineus "Phin" DeMink. "We really strive to do that. It still has to have drinkability."
Drinkability is not a problem with Southern Tier's beers, and the brewery's two newest labels to hit stores locally Pumking and Oat are perfect examples of that.
The Pumking is an absolutely amazing beer. It's like drinking a liquid pumpkin pie. After a recent tasting at Julio's Liquors in Westborough, the store quickly sold out of all its Pumking. If you see it in a store, buy it, because it won't be released again until next year.
"It went so fast, we were shocked," said DeMink. "It was a brand-new beer that sold very quickly."
Even more impressive is the Oat, an imperial oatmeal stout. As part of the brewery's Black Water Series, this 12.5 percent alcohol by volume brew is a standout.
"It does quite well," said DeMink. "It's a little more narrowed down to stout drinkers."
Southern Tier has three tiers (pun intended) of beers. The standard set is available in six-packs and includes the India pale ale, Phin & Matt's Extraordinary Ale, the porter and the raspberry wheat.
They are all nice beers worth trying, but it is when Southern Tier moves up to the next 11, the 22-ounce beers, where it hits its stride.
The best is the Unearthly, an imperial IPA. It comes in at 11 percent ABV, but unlike a lot of imperial IPAs with that much alcohol, Unearthly does not overwhelm a drinker with the hop bitterness.
"That became popular overnight," said DeMink. "I think a lot of people fell in love with that. You can still have the high hop character, but you have to have the barley, the malt, (the) backbone to balance it out."
Another 22-ounce beer is the Hoppe, an imperial extra pale ale. DeMink said this is one of his favorite beers. The Jahva Stout, a high alcohol coffee stout, is also a top-of-the-line beer.
Most of the 22-ounce beers started off as one-offs if they caught on, they made it as a full-time beer; if not, they were dropped. The only one to not catch on was the Big Red, which was an Imperial Red Ale.
The Oat is part of the Black Water Series, which will include the upcoming raspberry porter.
"It goes very well together," he said. "The raspberry is very, very subtle, and it's kind of got a chocolatey creaminess."
Also as part of the Black Water Series will be a chocolate stout to be released later this year or early next year. DeMink said it is brewed with bittersweet chocolate, and weighs in at 12.5 percent ABV.
Southern Tier also releases several seasonal beers. For the summer, the Hop Sun, an American wheat ale, was my pick as the best of the summer releases this year. Also released during the summer was the Heavy Weizen, an imperial wheat ale, which DeMink described as being similar to a German hefeweizen, except stronger.
Another summer release is the Uber Sun, which is an imperial, or double, version of the Hop Sun.
In the spring, the Backburner Barley Wine will hit the stores.
For the colder months, the yearly seasonal is Old Man Winter, an old ale. Old ales are meant to be aged to mellow out all of the flavors before drinking.
This year, Southern Tier will also release Gemini.
"It's a brand-new beer," said DeMink, "that is 50 percent filtered Unearthly and 50 percent unfiltered Hoppe. It's going to be in a wax dipped bottle so if you want to put them away to age, you can."
Southern Tier brews about 10,000 barrels of beer a year. A barrel equals 31 gallons. It also distributes to 12 states.
Southern Tier beers are available at Warehouse Wine & Spirits in Framingham, Julio's Liquors in Westborough, Cask & Keg in Waltham, both Gordon's Liquors in Waltham, Marlborough Square Liquors in Marlborough, Marty's Liquors in Newton and Liquor World in Medway, Milford and Franklin.
Norman Miller is a Daily News staff writer. For questions, comments, suggestions or recommendations, e-mail nmiller@cnc.com or call 508-626-3823.
