Beer Week!!!!! (and beyond)

Sorry for the long delay since our last blog update; as you might expect, this summer has been a busy one!  However, with Buffalo Beer Week just around the corner, we have so many events lined up that we just had to take a break from the action to keep you informed.  So, without further ado, here is a quick list of where we’ll be over the next several weeks, with some informational tidbits sprinkled in as well:

September 24th, 6pm: Brewers Shuffleboard Tournament at the brewery.  This is a fun get together for all of the Buffalo-area brewers to just hang and relax, have a few beers, and play some shuffleboard.  The matchups are:

Game 1: 4 Mile vs. Old First Ward

Game 2: Community Beer Works vs. Resurgence

Game 3: Big Ditch vs. Pan-American/Pearl Street

Game 4: Rusty Nickel vs. Woodcock

The trophy! (object may be smaller in real life)

The Game 1 winner will play the Game 2 winner, etc., until we have a final champion.  Did we mention there’s a trophy too?  However, the best part for you, the reader, is that we’ll have beers on from all these breweries at our tap room, plus beers from Hamburg, Gordon Biersch, and Ellicottville.  Most beers still to be announced; however, we can announce the CBW beer here, which is the return of Bringer of Nuclear Fire, the imperial milk stout with anchos and chipotles we made with CBW (along with our good friend Alex Placito) as part of the Risk Legacy adventure we played out a few years ago.  This beer is delicious and we’ll have a limited amount (one sixtel!) of it.  You need to come to this event if only just to check this beer out.

Bringer

September 25th, 530pm: Launch of WNY Craft Beer Magazine Fall issue at the brewery.  Featuring you-know-who on the cover!  The article, as well as the entire issue, is well written, as is all of their stuff.  We can’t thank these guys enough for featuring us.  Check out the preview video here.

September 26th, 5pm: Ballpark Brew Bash!  One of the best beer festivals (if not the very best) in the area.  We’ll have Hayburner and Blonde Peach (our summer seasonal – this is the batch we made with fresh NY peaches!) at our regular tent; a keg of Combine, which is our American Pale Ale brewed entirely with WNY ingredients (malt from NY Craft Malt and Centennial hops from Niagara Malt) for the “Farm-to-Pint” area, and last but certainly not least, we’ll have a cask of double dry-hopped Hayburner with passion fruit in the VIP area!

Fresh Blonde Peach (pic courtesy of Andrea D.)

You can buy tickets for the brew bash at our tap room and you’ll get a $5 gift card back from us!  Get them while there are still some left!

September 27th, 12pm: Darien Lakes Harvest Festival.  Tasting Hayburner and Cinnamon Apple Amber Ale.

Also – you did know our tap room is now open on Sundays didn’t you?  From noon to 8pm.  We’re now serving a few beer mixers for folks getting to our place early, including beermosas with Blonde Peach and Citraburner, as well as a Hayburner Bloody, our own craft IPA with vodka and house made Bloody Mary mix, shaken and garnished with pickles.  Stop by, try one, and root for your Bills, Buffalo!

Makes me want to shout!

September 28th, 6pm: Our Inaugural Beer Dinner at the brewery!  The tap room will be closed to the public on this day except for those that attend this event.  This is a five course dinner with each course paired with one of our beers.  The menu is as follows:

Appetizer: Pumpkin Polenta with Crispy Shallots and Sage; paired with Cinnamon Apple Amber Ale

Salad: Baby Arugula, Shaved Fennel, Candied Walnuts, Warm Goat Cheese, Sweet Cherry Vinaigrette; paired with Hayburner American IPA

Seafood: Prosciutto Wrapped Cod Loin served atop Brussels Sprout and Kale Slaw with Roasted Lemon; paired with Low Bridge Hoppy Golden Ale

Game: Pheasant Thigh Roulade - Pheasant Thigh Stuffed with Dried Fruits, Poached, Seared, and Sliced; paired with Fall Black, our new hybrid German-style schwarzbier and California Common

Dessert: Flourless Chocolate Torte with Excavator Chocolate Cherries, Caramel and Smoked Sea Salt; paired with Excavator Rye Brown Ale

You read that right: new beer debuted here!  Fall Black is made with German and American malts and hops. It features a subtle roast character, smooth bready malts, and slightly spicy hops.  Please join us for good fun, good food, and good beer!  Tickets are $45, you can book a reservation here.  Space is limited, make your reservations ASAP!  You will not be disappointed.

September 29th, 4pm: Consumer’s tasting at their Como Park store in Lancaster.

September 30th, 6pm: Buffalo Brewpub tasting.

October 1st, 5pm: MacGregors' tasting.

October 2nd, 7pm: Santora’s (Transit) tasting with other local breweries as part of a UB Alumni event.

October 3rd, 12pm: Oktoberfest @ Riverworks, sampling various beers.  Expect Fall Black at this event.

October 4th, 5pm: Griffin Gastropub takeover.  This should be a good one, our last tasting at Griffin Niagara Falls was memorable with six different beers on tap.

October 5th, 7pm: Flights and Bites, a charity event benefiting Eric Wood’s charity, the Eric Wood Foundation, will be hosted at the brewery.  The night will include flights of our beer, food, games, music, and a chance to meet Mr. Wood and a few of his teammates!  $2 from every flight purchased during the event, and on every Sunday during the season, will be donated by us to his charity. Details on the event are here.

In fact, if you stop by the tap room and purchase a flight during the game on Sunday 9/27, we’ll enter you into a raffle to win two free tickets to the event!  The winner will be picked right after the game.  We hope to see you there!

October 6th, 3pm-10pm: Dining Out For Life at the tap room.  Join us, along with many other local restaurants, in a meal that benefits the fight against HIV/AIDS.  Details here.

October 12th, 5pm: Slow Roll Buffalo.  This is our second Slow Roll of the year.   The first was insane-amazing; this promises to be even better with a bigger crowd.  What’s Slow Roll Buffalo you ask?  Get all the details here and get info on attending a Slow Roll here.

Slow Roll July

October 18th: Big Ditch 1st anniversary party.  This will celebrate one year since we officially opened the brewery for beer sales in the market.  Still a little early and we don’t have all the details yet, but expect us to release the first commercial batch of our new Double IPA on this day!  Stay tuned!

With all of these events, there’s just no excuse to not have Big Ditch beer in your life sometime in the next month.  We’re looking forward to sharing a beer with you.  Cheers!