The Beer of Buffalo

Posted at 11:19 am on Wednesday, December 3, 2008, in Travels, and tagged beer, buffalo.

Long-time readers of this blog know that when I travel, I try to drink locally. And long-time readers love to hear about it.

When I ventured east for Thanksgiving, it was the first time I set foot in my parents’ house in nearly six years (since mid-January 2003). I was still a graduate student at Berkeley at the time. Since then, I’ve had five jobs, gotten married, bought a house, and welcomed a little puppy into this world. And I also started a fantastic widely-read and heavily-referenced blog. That is what I hear at least.

This is what I drank while in Buffalo…

Genesee Cream Ale. Although the price-point of this beer is more in-tune with the watered-down American lagers we have come to hate, this surely beats them all into submission. The best way to describe it is as a light ale with a lager finish. That is my expert opinion. Genesee gets its name from the river, was founded in 1878, and is based in Rochester.

Labatt Blue. The finest of cheaper Canadian beer. You cannot attend a hockey game in Buffalo without drinking a 24-case of Blue beforehand. It’s not impossible, but it is frowned upon, and it is not recommended.

Flying Bison. There are not many breweries in the City of Buffalo anymore; that is what a half-century-long local recession will do for you. But Flying Bison is still in business, and they make great beer. My father and I stopped at a beer store to pick up this microbrew on our way home from the airport. I drank the Aviator Red (and plenty of it) and the Barnstormer Pale Ale, but missed out on the Buffalo Lager, which my family-members nabbed before I could. (Flying Bison sells a mix-pack that has all three, which is a neat and mostly under-used idea. In fact, I’ve never seen it before.)

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