Trying Some Beers at Flour City Brew Fest

by Drew Kaplan · Published August 25, 2014 · Updated August 24, 2014

Hundreds attended the Flour City Brew Fest on Friday, with dozens of breweries sharing their brews

On Friday, I attended the Flour City Brew Fest, which was held in Rochester, NY at Rochester’s Public Market. Hosted by Rohrbach Brewing Company, the festival featured dozens of breweries in New York, primarily other Rochester-area breweries, as well as other New York state breweries, and even a few breweries from out-of-state. While participants were treated to various beers, bands played on a centrally-located stage for all to hear.

Attendees lined-up for beers, while breweries featured their brews alongside each other

Upon entry, every participant received a small glass for their drinking enjoyment to fill up at the different stations of the dozens of breweries present. Most breweries featured two or three beers, while some even had four (I also noticed at least one that only had one beer on-tap). Although I was only able to attend for the first half of the festival (I had to leave for a prior engagement), I was still able to taste a couple dozen beers in that time.

While you can see below for a listing of all of the beers I tasted, I wanted to share the beers that were noteworthy to me. As you can see from the list of the beers I tasted, I was mostly going after the IPAs, although I did try some others. My favorite two IPAs were Ithaca Beer Company‘s Flower Power, as well as Shmaltz Brewing Company‘s He’Brew Hop Manna IPA.

Holding up Rohrbach Citra Double IPA in the taster glass participants received

My favorite beer of the event was Naked Dove Brewing Company‘s Hop Cone-A-Copia Double IPA – it had a great hoppiness to it, yet it also had such a wonderful softness to its edges, which is incredible for a double IPA! Another good double IPA I enjoyed was Rohrbach Brewing Company’s Citra Double IPA, which was also soft around the edges.

Naked Dove represented with four brews, including my favorite beer of the event, their double IPA

There were two non-IPAs that I really enjoyed above all: Labatt Brewing Company‘s Bourbon Barrel Ale, which had a pleasant smoothness and enjoyable bourbony-ness to it, as well as the C.H. Evans Brewing Company‘s Czech Yourself Pils, which is no ordinary pilsner. The Czech Yourself Pils is like an epic pilsner – almost like how pilsners really should be (but nobody knew it before) – with twice the amount of malt and a lot more hops tossed in! This is not a light-bodied pilsner as you know them….

Overall, I had a nice time and it was great to get to ask questions of the brewers and to try quite a variety of beers, especially from New York, which – as someone living in California – I have had none of them before, so it was a great way to try many beers which I have not previously drunk. It was an excellent way to go into the weekend and a highlight of my trip out here!

What I had: