Beer schedules. And schedules. And beer.

Hello again!  We thought we’d give you an update on some of our upcoming beers, as well as our tap room schedule and plans through the holiday season.  Without further adieu:

Beer Schedule.  Here is a rough schedule of beers we plan to release in the next few months and an approximate time frame.

Innovation Series: Nelson Kolsch (non-sour version) should be out on Tuesday 11/24; Balnamoon, a 7.6% ABV scotch ale brewed with orange peel, will be out on Black Friday 11/27; and Imperial Stout 1.0, which clocks in at 8.7% ABV, which should be out around December 3rd.

Vanilla Oatmeal Stout: our popular winter seasonal, brewed with roasted barley, a massive amount of oatmeal, and a subtle touch of Mexican vanilla, should be out right around December 1st, both at the tap room, and around area bars and restaurants.

Fresh Baked is a spiced brown ale with toasted oats, cinnamon and vanilla we made in collaboration with our friends at Wegmans, to celebrate the opening of their Pub on Transit Road.  The pub will open on 12/8, and we’ll also be tapping it on the brewery that day.  We’ll have a special tasting at The Pub on 12/11 if you want to meet the brewers and find out about the recipe!

Our brewers with the Wegmans team for Fresh Baked brew day

The Tower is our 11.9% ABV American Barleywine that we brew to commemorate the ball drop on New Year’s Eve at the Electric Tower (see details on our NYE plans below!)  A rich, toffee malt backbone melds with dank grapefruit rind and subtle alcohol notes to yield this complex, smooth sipper.  Available right before Christmas for those who want to give the gift of Barleywine this holiday season.  Barleywine! (Barleywine vine courtesy of CBW)

The Tower. (photo courtesy of Joe Cascio Photography)

Last Blacksmith Smoked Black IPA: last springs seasonal will be a late winter seasonal this year.  This beer balances bright orange hop flavor with smooth smoked malts.  Complex yet still drinkable.  This beer should be out right after January 1st.

Galaxy Red India Red Ale.  Apparently, a few of you have been waiting for this beer to be re-released?  We are due to get a large shipment of these rare New Zealand hops next year.  Praise Lord Lupulin!  Expect to see this beer back at the brewery, and around Buffalo bars and restaurants, around early February.

Galaxy Teaser.  Yeah.  We're mean.

Tap Room Schedule.  Here’s what we have planned.

For Thanksgiving week:

Tuesday 11/24: normal hours, 3pm – 10pm.  Innovation Series (non-sour) Nelson Kolsch will be available this day.

Wednesday 11/25: open noon to midnight!  Food service begins at 3pm.  Did you know our newest, freshest batch of Deep Cut double IPA is on?  Drink responsibly people.  Oh hey, did you also know beer goes great at the dinner table on turkey day?  Oh, and did you know we also happen to sell growlers of said beer for at home enjoyment?  True story!

To be consumed before, during, and after
Thanksgiving dinner.  Have a nice nap!

Thursday 11/26: we’ll be closed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of us are enjoying a post Turkey Trot Low Bridge from within the tap room…

Friday 11/27: open noon to midnight for Fall Black Friday.  Oh yeah, that’s what it’s called now.  The kitchen will be open from noon to midnight as well.  Innovation Series: Balnamoon Scotch Ale should be available this day as well.

Fall Black Friday!  Contain yourselves, people!

Saturday 11/28 and Sunday 11/29: Normal hours.  Noon to midnight and noon to 8pm respectively.  Saturday is Small Business Saturday – as a (small) way of showing our customer appreciation, we’ll be discounting all merchandise by 10% this day.  Get your holiday shopping done early folks!

For Christmas week: 

Tuesday 12/22: open noon to 10pm.  Food service begins at 3pm.  

Wednesday 12/23: open noon to midnight.  Food service begins at 3pm.  

Thursday 12/24 (Xmas Eve): open noon to 6pm.

Friday 12/25: Closed.  Keep the change, ya filthy animal!

Saturday 12/26 and Sunday 12/27: Normal hours.  Noon to midnight and noon to 8pm respectively.

Thursday December 31st. New Year’s Eve!

This is the information many of you have been waiting for.  The ball drops off of the Electric Tower, which is right in front of our brewery.  This is the second largest NYE celebration in the country, making our little brewery one of the best places in the U.S. to celebrate New Year’s Eve.  Here’s what we have planned:

First, we will not be taking reservations on this day, but we will have some special things coming your way.  If you’re interested in joining us for New Year’s Eve, get here early to stake your claim at the bar, at an upstairs table, or in front of the fireplace.  

We’ll be open at noon with our normal menu until 3pm.  A 3pm, we’ll have a special menu offered until 10pm.  The menu is still to be announced, but should include some more upscale food options/entrees and some fun food as well.  Stay tuned on the specifics of this menu which will be announced in December.  

Then, beginning at 10pm, we are offering a package of two drink tickets, a buffet of various appetizers, and a limited edition New Year’s Eve tasting glass that you can use for a ceremonious toast of The Tower barleywine at midnight.  We’ll be open until 2am that night as well.  Price is $25 in advance, $35 at the door.  Link to pre-register/pay is here. 

If you decide to come after 10pm and not participate in the package, that’s ok, but we won’t be serving food.  We hope you join us either way.

Should be a busy holiday season, with lots of great beer.  Celebrate it, Buffalo!  Cheers!

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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!

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Summer updates

It has obviously been quite busy month for us!  Reaction to the opening of our tap room has been tremendous, and we thank all of you that have stopped by for a beer.  We have several updates for you concerning how things have been going and upcoming news:

1) Beer.  We opened our tap room with plans to have 8 to 12 beers on tap at all times.  Due to overwhelming demand, we have found that occasionally the number may drop a little bit lower.  We are constantly rotating our selection of beers and adding on beers from other local breweries.  We’re also adding brewers to help us make more.  We hired Kim and Brett about a month ago; they are currently in training and picking things up pretty quickly.  We’re also looking to hire another full time brewer and will probably hire a few more assistants before the end of the summer.  The brewers will be working around the clock to brew as much as possible over the coming weeks and months, with a mix of existing favorites, new seasonals and limited releases.  Please remember - it takes time to make good beer!

New brewers!

2) Cans.  We teased a picture of Corey with Rudy, CBW’s head brewer, making a beer together in our brewery, about a month ago.  That was the beginning of a collaboration we had been discussing for several months with the Buffalo Bisons.  They had an idea to create a collaborative mixed pack between several different breweries in the same pack, which hadn’t happened almost anywhere else in the country to our knowledge.  The mixed pack would be released at the ballpark and also at Consumer’s Beverages, and would be filled with summery, light beers.  After some discussion, it was decided that the participating breweries would be us, Resurgence, and CBW, with the beers featured as Low Bridge (our hoppy golden ale), Summer Saison by Resurgence, and a one off IPA by CBW called, of course, “An IPA”.  CBW needed a place to brew the 20 barrel batch of beer, so of course, we volunteered to help.   Rudy created the recipe and we helped CBW scale it up and brew it at our brewery.  The mixed three pack will be out this week.  And it looks awesome.

BOOM

3) Tours.  With all the commotion of opening the tap room, we put brewery tours on hold for a little while, but we’re working on starting them up again.

In the meantime, there are some ground rules for groups showing up that are visiting our brewery as part of a large group:

- We welcome groups to come visit our brewery and tap room.  However, if your group is larger than 12 people, please call 854-5050 no less than 72 hours before your arrival as we need to staff properly to accommodate large groups.  We reserve the right to deny entry to unscheduled groups if we don’t have sufficient space or staff to comfortably accommodate the group.

- After a long day of visiting breweries and trying many beers, it’s likely that some of the members of your party might be a little buzzed up.  Which is okay.  However, our policy, in accordance with the State Liquor Authority, is to deny alcohol service to visibly intoxicated patrons.  So, if any of the members of your party is visibly intoxicated, please, do not try to bring them into our facility.    If your party attempts to bring an intoxicated guest in, we reserve the right to disallow the entire party in.

4) July 4th is this Saturday, and we’ll be closed that day to provide a much needed day of rest for our staff.  We’ll be open until midnight on July 3rd, so be sure to stop in a grab a growler for Independence Day festivities.

5) Menu Specials.  Chef Mike will be whipping up a bunch of cool food specials in the next few weeks.  Last week we featured a Chorizo Burger, Red Pepper and Smoked Sausage Mac n Cheese, and BBQ Chicken flatbreads.  We’ll have more specials coming this week – and maybe even some special beers to pair with the food…?

Last week's special: BBQ Chicken Flatbread
with chipotle cream cheese and fresh jalapeno

6) Sundays and Lunches.  We get these questions all the time, and we’re working on that too.  We’re adding staff to be able to open on Sundays and expect we can open on Sunday sometime later this summer.  Lunches will take a little longer.  We’ll be sure to let you know.

As always, follow us on social media for the latest updates: facebook.com/bigditchbrewing, twitter.com/bigditchbrewing.  Have a great summer!

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Our tap room is open! And other pertinent information.

As many of our long time followers know, when we were in the process of opening our brewery to brew beers for distribution around Western New York, we were very open and candid about our process and what we were up to.  We wanted to hit the ground running and therefore we shared lots of information about the brewery and the beers we’d be making.

However, we held back a lot of information about our tap room, mainly because we wanted you to have that “wow!” moment when you first saw it.

Well – here it is.

Yesterday, after several weeks of private, soft opening parties, we opened our doors to the public for the first time, fairly quietly, knowing full well that Buffalo is a small-big town where no secret goes untold for very long.  It was a great night.  Everyone seemed to have a great time and have lots of great things to say about the space, the beers and the food.   We want to take the time to tell you about it in our own words and pictures here.

The space

In a word, it is beautiful.  We have two main areas open to the public in right now.  First the main tap room area:

Highlights are a) the overhead doors which open into awnings (still a bit cold to use these now – let’s hope things warm up soon!) b) the “Strength Pride Ambition” mural on the wall facing Huron Street – these words have come to represent our company values c) the Erie Canal map table, which took months to design and build.

Secondly the upstairs bar area:

Featuring a smaller bar with the same beers we have downstairs, some more table seating, as well as a gaming area (currently includes darts; will soon include a shuffleboard table), and finally a lounge area complete with fireplace.  The leather sofas here are amazing.  With all the hours we’ve been working and how comfortable these sofas are, frankly it’s hard to sit in them and not take a nap!

The exterior you've seen before, but maybe without the Big Ditch Brewing Co. sign atop the building.  Oh, and did you know it lights up at night?

Not yet open is an area we call the “beer hall”.  This area will soon be filled with German-style biergarten furniture.  This space will be best for bringing large groups of friends and tossing back a few beers.  Hey, speaking of beers:

The beers

You may have heard us say that our tap room will include 8-12 beers on tap.  We are starting with 10, and we may have two more beers on in the next 1-2 weeks.  Offerings at the moment include our signatures:

• Low Bridge Hoppy Golden Ale

• Excavator Rye Brown Ale

• Hayburner American IPA

Our past and present seasonals:

• Last Blacksmith Smoked Black IPA (spring)

• Vanilla Oatmeal Stout (winter)

• Cinnamon Apple Amber Ale (fall)

And formally introducing our initial set of limited releases, which will be nearly exclusively designated for our tap room:

• Galaxy Red.  Galaxy Red is a super juicy India Red Ale loaded with late kettle and dry hop additions of tropical Galaxy hops. The result is a malty-sweet beer with pineapple, mango and papaya flavors. Yum!  ABV: 7.0% IBU: 75

• Golden Shovel.  Inspired by the more secular Belgian breweries, this Belgian-inspired golden strong ale has a fantastic aroma of white grape, tangerine, clove and fresh-cracked peppercorn. Golden Shovel is the first Belgian-style beer brewed in our commercial brewery, commemorating the opening of our tap room.  ABV: 7.6% IBU: 19

• Lock Porter.  This dark beer features a mild roast and prominent smoke character with a lightly earthy and hoppy finish. Smooth, warming and complex, Lock Porter is a true sipping beer.  ABV: 7.7% IBU: 46

We also plan to keep one of our taps filled with rotating selections of beers from other local breweries, because we don’t just celebrate our beers, we celebrate all of Buffalo’s beers.  Currently on tap is High and Rye, a dry rye stout.  This beer was a collaboration Corey did with the brewers at Old First Ward Brewing Company.

All of our beers are $5 or $6.  We also serve a Flight of Five (get it?) 5 oz beers for $10.

Flight of Five

The food

Ru's Pierogis

Flatbread pizzas

The Breuben

When we first started working on the plans for our tap room, we knew we wanted to have high quality food, but the original thought was that the purpose of the food was mainly to keep people in their seats to enjoy the beer for longer.  After months of menu and recipe design, we are proud to say that the quality of our food rivals the quality of our beer.  Our GM, Jon, spent many months assembling a menu of items that would both pair well with beer and in many cases use beer in the preparation.  Our chef Mike perfected these items over the last few months.  Here is the menu:

Highlights:

• Hayburner wings.  Our wing sauce is prepared using our Hayburner IPA to yield a tangy and almost citrusy chicken wing.

• Hand cut fries with a selection of six different dips, including orange chipotle ketchup, roasted red pepper balsamic ketchup, smoked tomato and shallot ketchup, malt vinegar aioli, roasted garlic mayo, and gribiche.

• Breuben.  Our take on a classic Reuben with corned beef brined in Excavator Rye Brown Ale

• Mac and Cheese.  Prepared in Low Bridge cheese sauce with carmelized onions and smoked bacon.

• Local.  We attempted to use as many locally produced items on the menu as possible.  Our pierogis come from Ru’s.  The bratwurst and sausage come from T-Meadow.  Coffee served in the tap room is exclusively from Public Espresso.  For dessert, we feature a flight of ice cream from Lake Effect.  We are very proud to use our tap room to feature some of the best of what Buffalo has to offer when it comes to artisanal food.

Celebrate.

The logo

We had the folks at Block Club (yet another local partnership) help us tweak our logo to make it a bit sleeker and easier to use with merchandise.  We like what they came up with, don’t you?

The staff

We couldn’t be happier with our staff.  It is still so strange to me that this idea that started in a lab almost four and a half years ago has grown to a company of over 60 employees.  The staff we’ve hired have fully embraced our energy and excitement over craft beer and the idea of making Buffalo better.  They are able to speak confidently about our beer menu – so much so, they might wind up being our biggest customers!

At the top of the tap room staff is Jon, who put this whole thing together from when it was a gravel pit to what it is now over the last 9 months.  Stand and feel your worth, Jon.  Kudos.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION!

First, in case you didn't have our address:

55 East Huron Street (corner of Huron and Ellicott Street)
Buffalo, NY 14203

Second, our hours:

Tuesday, Wednesday 3pm – 10pm

Thursday, Friday 3pm – midnight

Saturday noon – midnight

We may open on Sundays in the near future, but not yet.  We don't take reservations yet, but if you're concerned about long waits, please call ahead to confirm.

We also have brewery tours on hold while we figure out staffing, tour routes and times.  We’ll announce a tour schedule soon.

If you have a large group coming (>10 people) please call ahead.  We don’t take reservations right now and can make some suggestions regarding visit times to reduce your wait and give your group some space.  Our office phone # is 854-5050.

Yes, we still sell growlers and kegs.  Call ahead for keg availability, we don’t necessarily hold everything in stock at all times; this is particularly true for limited releases and guest taps, which we won’t sell in kegs, as well as seasonal kegs, which may be fairly limited.

Parking!  Currently, we advise that those that can't find street parking should use the Mohawk Ramp at the corner of Mohawk and Ellicott street.  It’s about a block from the brewery, mostly empty after 5pm, only $2 on weekday nights and free on Friday nights and Saturday.  We may work on additional parking solutions in the future.

That’s it!  We hope to see you soon.  Thanks in advance for all your support Buffalo.  Cheers!

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