Award-winning Beer Comes from Around Here

Unique Lake Placid ales and lagers provide an Adirondack-oriented taste-and is made right here in Plattsburgh

Story and photos by Sam Hollingsworth

Distinctive bubbly-brews that exemplify natural Adirondack taste are closer than most people think. "It really is a one-of-a-kind taste that I have never experienced before," said Ryan Devery, a frequent customer of Lake Placid Brewing Company.

Originating its taste in Lake Placid, New York, Lake Placid Brewing Company has been attracting customers since 1996, and has been steadily growing since. A two-story drinking and dining establishment, Lake Placid Pub and Brewery was developed by owner/brew master Christopher Ericson. Ericson then extended the Lake Placid tradition to the North Country, bringing it into the city of Plattsburgh.

In an effort to expand and produce more beer annually, Lake Placid Pub & Brewery created Lake Placid Craft Brewing Company, located just 50 miles north of Lake Placid. Both establishments are owned by Ericson. While the brew pub serves as a dining and drinking establishment, the Craft Brewing Company serves as a microbrewery. A microbrewery is a small brewery that produces less than 15,000 barrels of beer a year and usually focuses on exotic or high-quality beer.

Microbrewery's beers are mainly consumed elsewhere, which would explain why Craft Brewing Company produces more than twice as much as the brew pub. In relation to the brew pub, Craft Brewing produced roughly 3,500 barrels of beer in 2005 while the brew pub produced 1,500. Both entities are treated as a whole in relation to total sales, awards, and the beer they create and distribute.They are also looked at separately for specific details like individual distribution and employees.

"It's just a calm, relaxing place"

Lake Placid Craft Brewing Company, which is located at 1472 Military Turnpike, runs a 15-barrel brewing system that takes about 14 days from the start of the brewing process until the manufacturers can actually put the ales and lagers into bottles or kegs. The wooden building is so small that without its signature Lake Placid Brewery sign posted over the main entrance, one might end up driving past it. The signature logo is a red wooden chair in the foreground, with cold blue mountains in the background, symbolizing the Adirondacks, where the beer is produced and mostly sold.

Entering the building, three large vats grab your attention at the right, leading up to the gift shop that is stocked generously with hats, stickers, pint glasses, t-shirts and of course, beer. The microbrewery opens up into different divisions on the ground floor, including a loading dock and storage space for pallets, kegs, and a forklift. A staircase leads up to a tasting room, occupied by a four-tap bar with tables and chairs, along with a North Country selection of magazines and books. "It's just a calm, relaxing place," former brewery tourist Bob Chase, a 22-year-old student said.

Between both the brew pub and Craft Brewing, about 5,000 barrels of total beer was brewed in 2005, ranking at 86 out of 1,400 brewers in the nation. An impressive number in itself, the more intriguing figures are those that illustrate the brewery's improvements from being ranked 132 nationally in 2002.

The unique blends of the brew pub beer are also award-winning productions, breaking records in 2005 and increasing in popularity. An annual craft brewing beer festival, TAP New York, held at the base lodge of Hunter Mountain in the Catskill Mountains, hosts over 100 beers from at least 30 breweries from across the state. The two awards, or “cups” as they are called, decided at the TAP festival are the Matthew Vassar Cup and the F.X. Matt Memorial Cup. The Matthew Vassar Cup is named after historical Hudson Valley brewer Matthew Vassar and is awarded to the best brewer in Hudson Valley. The F.X. Matt Memorial Cup is rewarded to the best brewer in the state and commemorates the founder of F.X. Matt Brewing, Francis Xavier. Xavier brought his art of brewing from Germany to Utica, New York where the company was made famous for brewing beer like Saranac and is now the sixteenth-ranked brewer in the country.

In 2005, Lake Placid Brewing Company won both of these cups, an unprecedented feat, taking on breweries from New York City, Cooperstown and Long Island to name a few. Also a winner of the Matthew Vassar cup in 2003, in addition to 2005, this was a sure sign that Lake Placid Brewing Company was doing something right with its brews.

Craft Brewing Brewery Manager Josh Spanburgh explained how these awards mean a lot to the company, but they also enjoy winning people's-choice awards because they are credible, regular beer-drinkers—consumers. "We have won our fair share of those as well," Spanburgh noted.

"These tasting's and tours are very important to the company… They are in no way ending for good"

Spanburgh also intends on continuing to contend with other regional breweries and move up the national rankings even more. "We are welcoming a new web site, hopefully by the turn of the new year, that will allow customers to interact more with the company," Spanburgh said. "We also continue to produce our traditional beer with the unique formulas created by our owner/brew master [Christopher Ericson]. We've steadily climbed the ladder of national breweries and we plan on continuing to do so.:"

Like a lot of microbreweries across the country, Craft Brewing has allowed tasting's and tours through the building, but as Spanburgh explained, they lost their intentional purpose and became more of a festivity.

"These tasting's and tours are very important to the company. They just got out of control and began losing their main objective, which was to show the place where good beer is produced and allow newcomers to try it. They are in no way ending for good. We just need to get proper approval on certain things before we can start them back up," Spanburgh said. The idea of the tasting's and tours came from Spanburgh's own personal experience at the F.X. Matt Brewery in Utica, New York, when he was a college student.

Lake Placid Pub and Brewery harbors 40 to 50 employees, some of whom are seasonal (like any restaurant), but is run by four managers along with the two brew-staff employees that ensure they are producing quality beer time and time again. Craft Brewing Company, on the other hand, employs only five people but complete their tasks as if they had 15 employees. In addition to brewery manager Spanburgh, head-brewer Jay Brown and assistant brewer John Pederrson work full-time, producing the award-winning beverage that keeps Craft Brewing busy year-round.

Have you tried any of the Lake Placid brews?

Lake Placid Brewery's Ales and Lagers:

Ales produced by Lake Placid Pub and Brewery and Lake Placid Craft Brewing include the flagship Ubu Ale along with 46'er I.P.A., Moose Island Ale, and Barkeater Amber Ale.

Named after owner/brew master Ericson's dog, UBU has become a well-known ale in the Adirondacks and boasts an alcohol content of 7% alcohol by volume (ABV).

46'er I.P.A. is 6% ABV and is named after the Adirondack's 46 peaks.

Moose Island Ale was once a seasonal brew, but became a permanent fixture with its less-bitter taste than the previous mentioned lagers and 4.2% APV.

Barkeater Amber Ale is 5% ABV and is considered a medium bodied beer.

Seasonal selections include Bruce's Brown Bag Ale, Three Putt Porter, Big Bear Bock, High Peaks Hefeweizen, Monsoon Pilsner, 'Ecto'berfest, and Dr. Fogg's Stout.