*This article was originally published in 2017. It has since been updated to include menu changes.
By PAUL GOTHAM
To those not initiated, the name might furl a brow. Once familiar with the taste, the moniker can’t be forgotten.
Just a nine-minute walk (or two blocks east of the public transit line) from Key Bank Center, Big Ditch Brewing Company, with its full line of award-winning craft brews and a menu for the pairing, offers the perfect destination for NCAA Tournament fans this week.
Born from the partnership of Corey Catalano and Matt Kahn, a pair of former scientists and beer lovers working in a biotech lab, Big Ditch Brewing Company found its name in Buffalo’s history. Once referred to as “Clinton’s Big Ditch” referring to former New York governor Dewitt, the Erie Canal opened in 1825. What was predicted to be a failure eventually connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean and triggered the birth of the Queen City. Big Ditch Brewing continues that spirit of hard work and ingenuity.
“We worked in a pilot lab that was in charge of taking custom formulations and scaling them up,” Kahn said. “I had a job where I did nothing but clean tanks for two years. I was suspending inside of tanks and inspecting them and swabbing them. You can’t put drugs in a dirty tank. Corey worked in a cleaning room for five years.
“This was second nature to us. I’m a chemical engineer. It wasn’t too far of a reach from anything we’ve done in our entire career. That’s one of the reason why we did it. We weren’t going outside of things we didn’t already know how to do.”
Catalano and Kahn started serving from their tap room during the fall of 2014.
“We used to sell beer out of the office with a four-tap cooler,” Kahn explained. “We’d serve free samples and then growler fills. People would come just to sample the beers and get growlers. Before we knew it, we had buses of people coming to see us just to get a free beer from us when they found out there was food there, which no other brewers are doing, it was a hit.”
Big Ditch Brewing Company opened its doors the following year.
On the Menu
As far as food and beer goes, Big Ditch Brewing Company carries four strong signature beers: Low Bridge, the Golden Ale, (“low bridge, everybody down!”) makes for an easy drinking beer with a slight kick. While enjoying this, pair it with the Garlic Parmesan wings, which accentuate the lemon notes in Low Bridge.
The signature IPA, Hayburner, is juicy and even pleasing at times to the non-IPA drinker. The award winning flagship beer put Big Ditch Brewing Company on the map and can be found at most Buffalo bars where you see a shovel tap.
“I like the name Hayburner because it’s edgy,” Kahn said noting that Catalano came up with the name. “It’s got to be edgy. It’s IPA. It’s not for everyone. The name helped with the brand as well. It’s catchy. People around here will call it ‘Burner.'”
While Hayburner, named for the mules which used to pull barges, can be enjoyed under any circumstance, alone or with food, it goes well with the cheddar bacon burger for a nice filling meal.
A new addition to the signatures at Big Ditch Brewing Company, 100% NY, is a Pale Ale made strictly with Upstate New York ingredients. Earthy and hoppy, it makes for another easy drinking beer and pairs well with the crispy shrimp starter.
Last, but definitely not least is the Excavator Rye Brown Ale. It’s full-bodied, packed with chocolate malts and has a nice spicy finish due to the rye. It goes well with the Breuben (a traditional Reuben served with the corned beef brined in Excavator Rye Brown Ale), which might be the strongest food menu item, and boasts one of the biggest and best reputations in the city as far as sandwiches are concerned. For this one, you’re welcome.
MENU AND ONLINE ORDERING
New Flavors
The Business Jargon IPA. This beer is best described as “best in class” with the hop combination of Citra, Zamba, and NYS Excelsior hops. You’ll catch flavors of passion fruit, orange and lemon peel, with a light herbal finish. The Helles Lager. This classic, crisp, German style lager is balanced with light bready malt flavor and floral hop flavor.
For those who like beers that don’t taste like beer. Newly on tap are the Risqué Rosé Sour Fruit Beer and Berry Vision Sour Fruit Beer.
The Location
The Genesee/Ellicott Street district of downtown Buffalo has quickly become one of the many neighborhoods in the city that has experienced a renaissance. Eddie Brady’s Tavern, located at 97 Genesee Street has been the mainstay of the area, but over the past four years it has become a major restaurant hub. Tappo (located directly across the street from Big Ditch Brewing Company) was the first of several restaurants to move into the area back in 2013. Several others quickly followed including Deep South Taco, Marble & Rye and Toutant. If you find yourself waiting amongst a large crowd for a table at Big Ditch Brewing Company, many of these neighboring restaurants have been known to have a Big Ditch Brewing Company beer or two on tap.
The Difference Between Good, Great and World Class
“It’s subtleties,” Kahn said. “The difference between good, great and world class is just very subtle things. It’s sweet to bitter ratio. You don’t want something that’s too bitter. You don’t want something that’s too sweet, but you need a little bit of both. It’s how it gets packaged, any oxygen it picks up along the way. It’s all little ratio. To get all those ratios and everything perfect throughout he course of one batch is hard.
“Sometimes you can’t control things. Beer is a living thing. It’s yeast in there. That’s alive. The grains and the hops. They come out of the ground from farmers. You can’t control variability with some of those things. To get all those things perfect so it looks and smells and tastes perfect and feels right on your tongue takes a lot of things going right.”
So You Want To Be A Brewer
“If you’re not good at cleaning, you’re not going to be a good brewer,” Kahn noted. “A lot of guys say ‘I love beer. I want to be a brewer.’ I’ll ask ‘How clean is your bathroom? If it’s a mess, you probably won’t be a good brewer.’ You need to be good at cleaning if you want to make good beer.
“If you don’t keep it clean, then you get bacteria growing. You just want yeast in the beer. You don’t want anything else living in it.”
Buying Warm Beer Off the Shelf
“It depends upon how long it’s been warm, and what kind of beer it is. Ten days after testing the taste starts to drop off. After ten days you got to refrigerate it. Higher temperatures will ruin craft beer. That whole storing beer warm thing came out of pasteurized macro-lagers. You can leave them in the back of your truck all summer and it still tastes the same because it didn’t really have a taste to begin with.”
We’re Going to Rock Down To…
Looking for a post-game spot to celebrate…or drown your sorrows. Electric Avenue is located two blocks from Big Ditch Brewing Company.
Contributing to the article: Abbey and Cece Gotham.
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