![]() sNear the end (or start, depending on how you look at it) of the New York State Route 33 in downtown Buffalo sits an old Verizon fleet maintenance facility. In this repurposed building lies Big Ditch Brewery which opened in 2014. Big Ditch traces it’s roots back to Matt Kahn and Corey Catalano who used food grade buckets to home-brew in their garage. While they continued to learn their craft over 2 years they met Wes Frobel who previously had owned a brewery himself. Together the trio were able to find a development company and the location for Big Ditch was converted to the tap room/restaurant that it is today. The name Big Ditch comes from that Erie Canal. This canal is one that connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. This canal opened up a way for ships to get through Buffalo and helped make Buffalo a major city/port in starting in the the 1830s. The theme of hard manual labor runs throughout the brewery and there are many pictures of construction of the canal on the walls. They also are focused on being local, for example, their brewing equipment was all made in the Niagara Region. When walking in the building there is a merch/bottle shop as part of the entrance. The tap room/restaurant is an open area with TV screens and a large bar, the outside walls are all floor to ceiling windows to add to the open look/feel. Big Ditch also has 3 different spaces for events. There is a second level in the tap room area that is a loft. This is more of a rec room feel with couches, chairs, shuffleboard, darts and a large TV. On the main floor is the area they call the Beer Hall. It has garage doors that can open, a bar for that room and, their own bathrooms. This room also has A/V abilities with a projector. Finally there is a 3rd room. I actually did not see this room when I visited. The Canal Room is a smaller room akin to a board room with a large tv, conference phones and, wifi. It’s advertised to be good for meetings, showers and, corporate dinners/lunches. Much like I mentioned in my write up on Thin Man, food is not the focus on my blogs but seeing as this is essentially a brew pub, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the food here is amazing. The entire menu is modern spins on foods that have been associated with pubs or snacks that beer drinkers traditionally consume. In fact, the baked pretzels are some of the best I’ve ever had. Besides the food, the beer is also top notch. They are clearly dedicated to their craft. I tried 9 beers and there was not one I disliked, even with some styles that aren’t really my favorite. I think that is reflected in my 2 picks for Big Ditch. Blonde Peach: This is a Belgian style blonde ale. Generally speaking, blonde ales are not my favorite but what Big Ditch did here is use yeast that gave this beer a hint of spice to it, blend that with the New York State peaches (continuing that theme of being local) that give it a sweet taste. Honestly, it’s almost like drinking a peach pie. Refreshing too, it would be easy to drink a few of these. Hayburner: Hayburner is one of Big Ditch’s year-round offerings. It’s a cloudy American IPA. So it's probably no surprise that I picked it. It’s got a fairly strong citrus flavour which balances out the hops, in fact, the citrus is a bit stronger. Normally this would actually be a negative thing for me but they’ve seemed to strike a really good balance.
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