{"id":1891,"date":"2009-11-01T20:51:03","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T00:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.2beerguys.com\/blog\/?p=1891"},"modified":"2009-11-01T21:17:17","modified_gmt":"2009-11-02T01:17:17","slug":"saranac-beer-dinner-part2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/01\/saranac-beer-dinner-part2\/","title":{"rendered":"Saranac Beer Dinner for Bloggers – Part 2 (Ultimate Tour)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

FX Matt Brewing Company and the Ultimate Brewery Tour<\/strong><\/p>\n

As one of the countries oldest breweries, the oldest in New York State, FX Matt Brewing Company has been brewing for over the past 120 years.<\/p>\n

Their philosophy has always been to brew beers that are both distinctive and drinkable, with the goal of enjoying one, two or maybe more over the course of an evening. Their attention to detail and uncompromising commitment to quality represent the signature trademark of their four generation family business.<\/p>\n

Made naturally, with only the best ingredients, Saranac beers are crafted at the historic brewery in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains.<\/p>\n

Quick Recap from part 1:<\/strong> FX Matt Brewing Company, producers of Saranac<\/strong> and Utica Club<\/strong> brands, hosted a beer dinner for bloggers at their brewery in New York. The beer dinner was a meeting of the minds, along with a release party for the 12 beers of Winter<\/strong> Variety Pack. The variety pack contains 6 different beer styles – some new, some old, some old on steroids (haha jk.) [Click here<\/a> if you missed part 1.]<\/p>\n

Blogger’s Beer Dinner<\/strong> (part 2 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Ultimate Tour)<\/p>\n

The group separated into two different tours, headed by Nick and Fred Matt. We initially stayed behind and waited for the second tour run by Fred Matt. This is where the fun started.<\/p>\n

The first part of the tour took place in the main historic building. Amazing woodworking and a labyrinth of connected rooms. Down a hallway that contained oil paintings of the Matt Family. Then into a couple of different rooms that were once passage ways used to transport alcohol during prohibition.<\/p>\n

I believe the grounds of the brewery cover 2-3 miles above and below the ground – with over 7 different floors. I was surprised to learn that this wasn’t a typical brewery – operating since 1888. It seemed very mysterious and the perfect place for a haunted Halloween tour.<\/p>\n

After going on a crazy elevator ride (walked in straight and the door opened on the left – rather than straight across or from the door that we entered in). We rounded some corners and came upon a 500 barrel copper brew kettle. It’s hard to describe the size of the kettle. I believe that it would take about 10-15 people holding hands to reach around the kettle.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong> 500 barrels is a large batch of beer. Just thinking about it – a normal keg that we purchase in the store is considered to be a half barrel. Most small brew pubs operate a 7-15 barrel brewing system.<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, when brewing 500 barrels of beer, you need to have ENORMOUS Fermenters – which they did.<\/p>\n

During the tour, we visited the yeast storage room (ale and lager) – it was pretty cool.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 We toured the bottling and canning facilities, along with checking out part of the area that was effected by the fire one year ago.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s quite amazing that the brewery is back up to full production.\u00c2\u00a0 The fire was a difficult hurdle – but only a hurdle.\u00c2\u00a0 The fire was used as an opportunity – a chance to re-organize the flow of production [A new storage warehouse is already in operation and the canning line is already running. As we toured, FX Matt Brewing Company was in the process of moving (and upgrading) their bottling line to a new area].<\/p>\n

Overall, the tour was a amazing.\u00c2\u00a0 I loved the fact that it was very maze like – it is hard to imagine that we only saw a small portion of the brewery.<\/p>\n

Our gracious tour hosts provided a glimpse into the FX Matt brewing history, while indirectly expressed their passion for brewing and devotion to improving their community.\u00c2\u00a0 –\u00c2\u00a0 Thank you again for the tour — Sean.<\/p>\n

Here are some pictures of the Brewery and the Tour:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Sean<\/td>\n\"Sign<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sean outside the tour entrance.<\/td>\nWhich way do we go?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Boilermaker<\/td>\n\"Saranac<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Finish line for the Boilermaker Road Race<\/td>\nSaranac Gift Shop<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Saranac<\/td>\n\"FX<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Beers on tap at Saranac – Fall 2009<\/td>\nFX Matt – Hallway of History<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Fred<\/td>\n\"Barrel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fred explaining the history of Utica Club brew<\/td>\nChecking to see I can jump into the barrel yet<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"500<\/td>\n\"Saranac's<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
500 Barrel Brew Kettle<\/td>\nSaranac’s Top Notch Marketing Team<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Quality<\/td>\n\"Beer's<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quality control in action<\/td>\nBeer’s almost ready!!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Welcome<\/td>\n\"Stacks<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Welcome to our warehouse<\/td>\nStacks and Stacks of cans – waiting to be filled<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\"End<\/p>\n

**************************<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for a part 3 – Beer Dinner and break down of the 12 Beers of Winter variety pack.<\/p>\n

Other related posts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saranac hosts Beer Dinners for Bloggers (part 1)<\/a>
\nFire at Matt Brewing Company \u00e2\u20ac\u201c May 2008.<\/a>
\nA year later after the fire at Matt Brewing Company<\/a>
\nTop 50 breweries in 2008 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Ranked 7th.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FX Matt Brewing Company and the Ultimate Brewery Tour As one of the countries oldest breweries, the oldest in New York State, FX Matt Brewing Company has been brewing for over the past 120 years. Their philosophy has always been to brew beers that are both distinctive and drinkable, with the goal of enjoying one, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,7,28,221,88,396],"tags":[844,827],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/saranac_brewery.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1891"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1936,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891\/revisions\/1936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2beerguys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}