From stepoutbuffalo.com
Going to a brewery is a great way to get to know beer a little better, but one new local brewery gives you the chance to step in, get your hands dirty, and actually make your own beer.
At the new Iron Cedar Brewing & Meadery on Genesee Road near the airport, owner and head brewer Nick Demarco opens up his process to any person or group who wants to brew a gallon or two of their own beer or mead. Nick says the cost for brewing a gallon is “a couple hundred bucks” which you could split any number of ways. Nick says this offer is inspired by how his business got started, making a special batch of beer as favours for his brother’s wedding in May 2022.
“We made 165, 5-ounce bottles that we decorated with their name and their wedding date,” he says. “I had such a positive response to the beer from a lot of different people, not even within the family, like people I had not even met before. That pushed me to open my business.”
There’s a lot more that makes Iron Cedar unique beyond the opportunity to brew your own beer. The brewery is also a meadery, and both sides of the operation use honey as part of the brewing process. While mead is traditionally honey-based, Nick uses honey to brew his beer because it helps to jumpstart the fermentation process. If you already have a preformed opinion on mead or beer brewing with honey, don’t bring it to Iron Cedar. The beer tastes like traditional beer, and the mead is triple-filtered, which makes the honey more of a background note as opposed to an upfront flavour.
“If you’ve had mead before, I can guarantee you mine is nothing like any of the other meads you’ve had,” Nick says. “And if you haven’t had mead and you’re very sceptical because you really don’t like sweet stuff, some of my meads are on the dry side.”
The brewery is also different in that it’s trying to appeal to travelers coming or going to the nearby Buffalo International Airport. For people who aren’t into the whole brewery thing, there’s a full bar and bottles of beer from massive breweries like Labatt. There’s also a scratch kitchen making classic Buffalo comfort food like wings, dips, soups salad, and hot sandwiches.
“We do a lot of work to elevate everything and try our best to kick it up a notch to make something different because that area is a bit of a food desert for sit-down restaurants,” Nick says. “There really isn’t much around other than McDonald’s or Pizza Hut.”
The appeal to travellers appears to be working. Nick says the brewery draws a lot of travellers who are getting into the area or preparing to take flights. While the lunchtime and dinner crowds include a lot of locals, crowds later in the evening are almost exclusively national or international travellers.
“Within the two months that we’ve been open, we’ve been seeing a lot of people from outside the area,” Nick says. “We’ve had a good chunk of people from the UK. We’ve had a gentleman from Australia come in. We’ve had people from all over the States and Canada.”
With so many different aspects to the business, Nick says Iron Cedar is still finding its footing. He’s hoping to increase brewing production to meet demand and increase staff to expand hours in order to accommodate late-night travelers. That being said, he invites people to come in, try out the various brews, have something to eat, rub elbows with some travelers, and provide feedback.
“We are still growing, and any kind of feedback that we can get, any kind of support we can get, is appreciated,” Nick says. “And you know, if there’s any kind of flavors of beer or mead that people are looking for out there, come talk to me. We’ll make it.”
Hours at the time of publishing (subject to change): Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m. – 11 p.m., Sunday and Monday CLOSED
https://stepoutbuffalo.com/how-a-wedding-favor-inspired-buffalos-newest-diy-brewery-meadery/
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