Fort Orange Brewing

Had a great time here! The bartender Rhiannon made us feel right at home. We tried almost all the beers and they were all super quality! Make sure to get the Galaxy hops and the DIPA. Cool venue, it’s one big open room, with the brewery visible in the back. Kid friendly, pet friendly, seemed like all the locals were in and out. Tv was on to a baseball game, which was nice. The flagship Fort Orange IPA was a little underwhelming. Check out the ‘Beer It Forward’ Initiative. Will definitely stop here again on my way through the area.

Opening night. I have a bit of brewing experience, but mostly I've worked on judging for brewing competitions in clubs. Mind you commercial beer doesn't always mean it meets BJCP guidelines, which is often my baseline. I wanted to take time to write this, because I think a one star warrants an explanation. That being said, work needs to be done, but that also means Fort Orange has room to grow. The first beer I had was one of the IPAs. Modern brewers love this style because all malt flaws can be hidden in dry hop. The thing about scaling is that less hops are needed proportionately in the boil to reach a certain bitterness. This beer was bitter without redemption or balance. My first shot at improving would be to up the caramel malt content and increase the dry hop with less IBU. My girlfriend had the bold red. Again, it was over hopped in the boil I think making it too bitter for the style and very close to the IPA. Distinctive malt aroma and color were the only give away for the style difference. The golden ale was sour and I'm worried it was from possible infection. We couldn't finish it. The stout was one of the only beers that piqued my interest but that's because the chocolate coffee flavors finally covered up what I think was an underlying issue in each beer. Every beer has the bandaid/spicy swimming pool flavor which is almost ubiquitous for chlorophenol. This means either untreated chloramine from their water source or bleach based sanitation. I've seen it before in NY. Broken Bow is constantly serving beer with this flaw. But at the end of the day, all this is fixable, if you want it to be fixed. I hope things will get better and these issues (which I'm happy to discuss) addressed, but given the stock of home brewing experience among the owners, I think it's going to take expert advice from someone who has experience on the larger scale to turn things around. At the end of the day, I can only use my knowledge from beer judging to suggest what the flaws are and where they could come from. It will take work to find a good solution. I look forward to changing my review to 5 stars someday.

Edit: Okay! So they figured it out! Much better. Beer is now mashed at the correct temp fixing the DMSO issue. Nothing mind blowing, but on the right track. Some styles are done very well.

It was a nice set up, I went for a benefit, my only downfall is the beer, I'm strictly a Coors Light girl! However, I was fine without a drink.

The atmosphere, beer, and people here are excellent. It is a wide open space with 10 beers on tap, all made in house. Bright colors and nice lighting love up the place while you can sit at the bar or at picnic tables throughout the space. Bring your own food, or most times there's a good truck outside. Also, bring the kids.

Came on a whim here and glad I did. To get the downsides out of the way first, I came on a trivia night so the place was packed, service was a bit slow, and seating was at a premium.
Other than that though, I'm glad I came. Every beer I had was great and despite the bustle the bartenders were still welcoming. Would love to come back at a quieter time to reevaluate.