Ithaca Beer Company's Cascazilla

As some of you have grasped from either knowing me personally or my previous post, I spent this weekend in NY, away from the beach. We were there to witness the marriage of two of our good friends yesterday evening (beautiful wedding, by the way!) in the small town of Groton, NY. At this wedding, other attendees and I were happy to find an open bar. Now, I know what you are thinking, as any lover of craft beer would: Open bar= cheap beer. As would be expected, all of the typical light culprits were present, but I was surprised to find they were accompanied by an array of brews from the local craft brewery: Ithaca Beer Company. I had heard of their beers, and was delighted. I decided to go with just one for the evening:

Cascazilla, named for both the Cascadilla gorge in Ithaca as well as the intense usage of Cascade hops, is a a Red IPA. Admittedly the first of its kind that I have tried, I was a bit skeptical. I was not disappointed, however. I drank this bad boy straight from the bottle, and was immediately hit with the strong hop bitterness I love in any IPA. What came next, however, was something new. In the aftershock of the hoppiness came forward the taste of an Irish red ale. This, and perhaps the color (I would not know as I did not have the opportunity to pour this gem) is why it is a Red IPA, and because of my naivety of the beer type, this came as quite the pleasant surprise. Though odor and head quality could not be fully appreciated from the bottle, I still would recommend this to any lover of either beer genre.

Unfortunately, the one store I had time to stop into before returning home did not have any Cascazilla available. They did, however, have Ithaca Beer Company's Flower Power IPA, which I bought a 6-pack of and intend to try very shortly. I will of course let you, anonymous readers from the world wide web, know what I think. In the meantime, however, it is time for me to recover from the long ride home. So in closing, if you are in the Ithaca, NY area, hit up Ithaca Beer Company, I am confident their other brews will prove to be just as delicious. Feel free to tell me if you've had any others!

Cheers!