Rogues Harbor Inn Blog

 Rogues' Harbor Brewing Craft Beer Flight, A Beer Rainbow We've always wanted to offer tasting flights at the Rogues' Harbor Inn. Recently, we've received many requests for tastes (instead of a pint or glass) of our own craft brews and of our generous selection of Finger Lakes' wine. So many requests that it inspired us to finally make that happen. FYI a flight is a small serving of a few or several beverages which have something in common, IE: beer, wine, bourbon, style, hoppiness, dryness, color, geography... Since we now have four of our own craft ales on draught, we felt four was just right for a flight. So we serve a 4 oz taste of our Cayuga Cream Ale, Route 34 Ale, East Shore Pale Ale and Brewer's Choice (which changes every few weeks). We serve in mini mugs, nothing unbecoming for a proper brew, set on a labeled place mat for clarity. It's important to know what you're tasting and judging. We decided to offer a Cayuga Lake wine flight as wel...

Tonight we will be releasing our first Brewer's Choice beer of 2012. Dubbed 1830 Porter(in honor of the year Rogues Harbor was built), this beer falls under a catagory known as Robust Porters. Many people aren't overly familiar with the porter style of beer, and even many craft beer afficianados aren't exactly sure about what exactly a  robust  porter is. In honor of the release of this beer we felt that perhaps a little education was in order. Porter was the dominant style of British beer for much of the 1700 and 1800's. It is believed to have been brewed in answer to a style known as "three threads". Three threads was a blend of three beers that were generally poured at the pubs. In the early part of the 18th century a creative British brewer designed a beer that matched the flavor of the popular Three Threads style of beer, thus alleviating the need for blending of styles. This beer quickly became popular with the working class, for whom the beer style wa...

The Rogues' Harbor Inn has celebrated 181 New Year's Eves and the tradition continues this year as always. It's awe inspiring to think how many folks have rung in the new year in this very spot. If these wall could talk, they would have many tales to tell. But, what happens at Rogues' stays at Rogues'- an excellent tradition to continue. The magical evening is just a day away and it's a celebration we look forward to every year. The Inn is all decked out for Christmas. Everyone is smiling and relaxed. The staff is all dressed up. Lots of folks have family visiting and the guests rooms are filled with friends and relatives from all over the globe. It's all warm and fuzzy, peace on earth, love and happiness. The chefs go all out with celebratory specials. This year we are having Chef Luke's seafood chowder, thick rich New England style with clams, crab and fresh fish. For an appetizer, he's making shrimp and Parmesan stuffed artichoke hearts. They are...

Several weeks ago we were in the brewery, working on our Scottish Winter ale. It was one of those brew sessions where a bunch of little thing conspired to make it a longer night than it needed to be. Then we looked outside to see the first snow of the season slowly coming down. Something seemed right about that and it lifted our spirits to continue brewing and get the beer in the fermenter. The brewhouse smelled of holiday spices by the time we were cleaning up and we were eagerly anticipating when the brew would be ready! So now you may be wondering what exactly is a winter or holiday ale? While there are no hard and fast rules about what makes up this type of beer, they are generally of an amber color or darker, higher in alcohol, and with some variety of spice. They are a beer meant to flush the face and warm the spirit on the cold winter nights. Brewing with spices is certainly nothing new. Before hops became a standard part of beer many varieties of spices were used for flavor...

We love cranberries. It's a fact. There is no better time of year than the holidays to fully indulge our craving for cranberries. The fall-winter dinner menu has a few cranberry inspired dishes. Our new Empire State Flat bread is glazed with an Empire apple & cranberry reduction then topped with melted NYS cheddar. The Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin is served over the apple cranberry reduction as well. This very evening our Seasonal Wonton Ravioli is duck breast with caramelized onion & fresh cranberry. It's to die for. Even our overnight guests in the Bed & Breakfast are enjoying the colorful native fruit with which we are so obsessed. We make a multi-grain French toast with a cranberry maple compote. The entire building smells like Christmas bread. Breakfast service ends at 10:30 am and I'm standing by promptly begging for leftovers. It's as beautiful as it is flavorful. The contrast of the bright red berries in the rich, dark maple compote reminds me of b...

We blog. We tweet. We facebook. It's big fun. However, when the on line writing began, I (that would be E, owner, operator, occasional writer) made a promise to self not to post anything negative, or any personal political or religious views. Writing is personal for me no matter the subject and sometimes this is not any easy promise to keep. Sarcastic thoughts creep in. I could have some fun with a Bourdainesque witty blog or espouse my views on the global economic plague, but no. No bitter rants here. The hardest to resist is writing about people. There's an abundance inappropriate material, yet I manage to keep my word. The very best and the very worst aspect of operating a restaurant, microbrewery and inn is the people. Staff and customers alike are 99.9% wonderful and .01% ...well you know, difficult. Our staff is a tight knit group of hard working team players that generally love one another, but occasionally feel like killing each other, kind of like an a...

The German Oktoberfest may have officially ended October 3rd, but at Rogues we're just gearing up for some Fest spirit of our own. Sometime this week we will begin pouring our next Brewers Choice beer, an Oktoberfest inspired ale! While a traditional German Oktoberfest beer is of the lager variety and spend a good deal of time lagering before being served we're making use of an ale yeast that was more comfortable fermenting in our current climate. We've used much the same malt and hops that you'll find in a German beer, and we think you're going to really like the result. So what exactly is Oktoberfest all about? The festival began as a wedding celebration for Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen(say that one three times fast.. Or try saying it even just once!). A few years later they moved the date from the middle of October to the beginning of September to have a chance at better weather for the festival. They also incorporated a cel...