>by Paul Marko

Hefeweissen. The anti-IPA in almost every way is often called Weissbier (“white beer”) even though the more appropriate is from the original Weizenbier “wheat beer.” It’s a beer style with Bavarian origins in which a significant proportion of malted barley is replaced with malted wheat. It’s one of the lowest IBU beers made, so it has almost no bitterness at all—hence the anti-IPA intro! Highly carbonated and unfiltered, “Hefe” (meaning “yeast”in German) noted by it’s estery, phenolic character, with quality versions having strong notes of banana and clove. Barker Brewing, one of WNY’s newest breweries, hits all the above notes cleanly with their Golden Hill Wheat. A recent stop into their utilitarian tasting room and pub (in Barker, NY, duh!) revealed Golden Hill to be the best of their 4 offerings that day and one worthy of the trip up (I’ve heard from others that their barbecue is of high quality too). The inviting deck off the back would be a great location to quaff this refreshing wheat beer on a sunny day—unfortunately for this reviewer it was 42° and raining during my visit—so a return trip in nicer weather is a definite. Golden Hill harkens back memories of the original Penn Wheat from Pittsburgh, PA—if anyone remembers that beer before the original brewery’s demise in 2009. Wheat beers are fantastically versatile when it comes to food pairings and match well with everything from salads to Mexican dishes to anything you char on the grill. Is summer here yet?

>by Chris Groves Certified Cicerone ®

This Friday June 5th at Consumer’s we’re doing something with Southern Tier Brewing Company that I consider to be a pipe dream come true. It happens every day at breweries and brewpubs across the state...but not beer stores. Beer packaged that morning, as fresh as fresh can be, will be on a truck and in our stores for sale within hours. What’s the beer? One of Southern Tier’s newest creations; Right-O-Way IPA. It’s an easy drinking, hop forward, perfectly crafted session ale. This beer is done right by striking a balance between light biscuity malts, bright zesty hops and a clean finish...it’s not hop tea. So what’s the big deal you ask? The currently popular state of flavorful beer is flooded by India Pale Ales and you don’t always have access to the absolute freshest product; one of the most important things for IPA. The clock starts ticking as soon as the beer leaves the brewery. We thought it would be a cool idea to bring the freshest beer available from Southern Tier to our stores and have you experience what day fresh beer is like. We’ll be setting up three individual sampling stations at our 1825 Como Park Blvd (Lancaster), 3025 Sheridan Dr (at Niagara Falls Blvd) and 8580 Transit Rd. (Amherst) locations from 3pm to 7pm this Friday, June 5th. In addition, we will have day-fresh Right-O-Way IPA on tap at all 14 of our growler filling locations including cases of day-fresh bottles if you prefer!