There is a place to visit where one must make sure not to spill his or her free samples of alcohol while maneuvering around the kegs and cases of beer that litter the floor. It’s not heaven … it’s the Middle Ages Brewing Company.

Those who are tired of overspending at bars and convenience stores can find a new place to fill their beer mugs in Syracuse. Liz Fossett, a senior natural resource management major in State University of New York of Environmental Science and Forestry, comes in at least once a week to buy Middle Ages brews.

‘I love coming in here,’ Fossett said. ‘I think it’s a lot cheaper than going to the P&C.’

Located on Wilkinson Street, the main hallway looks like a castle, complete with a full suit of armor. As soon as customers walk into the tasting room, they are greeted by Marc Rubenstein, who owns the brewery with his wife Mary. He immediately offers them a free sample of one of the 12 beers the bar keeps on tap. People who wish to take a tour of the brewery can take their samples with them while Rubenstein explains the process of making handcrafted British-style ales.

The giant mash tun and brew kettle are first to pop out to tourists. The wooden mash tun is approximately 10 feet in diameter and holds enough malt to fill 30 barrels of beer. Rubenstein takes people up the stairs to reach the brew kettle, which resembles a tower on a castle. The equipment is supposed to look like an old-style British farmhouse on the outside, but the owner said the insides are sterile.

‘It’s just for decoration,’ Rubenstein said. ‘Everything is stainless steel inside.’

Next on the tour, Rubenstein shows customers the malts. The pale malt makes up the majority of the beer, but mixing in other malts adds darkness and flavor. The carapils malt is used in Dinosaur Barbecue’s house beer, Apehanger, while the roasted barley is used in stout beers like Guinness. Rubenstein said guests who taste the chocolate malt rarely think it tastes like chocolate, but when he uses enough of it, he can brew a beer with a chocolate taste like The Duke of Winship.

Rubenstein explained that the mash tun extracts sugar from the malts, then passes it into the brew kettle. The liquid form of the sugar, called wort, is then heated and spun in a whirlpool in the kettle to separate the liquid from the solid. Rubenstein said he adds yeast to the beer in the kettle and it passes into the fermenting room so the sugar can be converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The fermentation room is under construction, which is why Rubenstein hasn’t given a tour in six months and will probably not give another one until December. Despite not being able to show the fermentation, the owner described the process with an obvious passion.

‘The yeast eats the sugar from the beer,’ Rubenstein said. ‘And it loves the sugar, just absolutely loves it.’

The tour continues to the bottling and labeling section of the brewery. The bottles are placed on a conveyor belt, where they pass through a machine that rinses them. Then they travel to the most expensive piece of equipment in the brewery.

The double air evacuated bottler costs $100,000 and is essential to keeping beer fresh. Double air evacuated means the filler purges the bottle with carbon dioxide to take out the oxygen, then sucks the carbon dioxide out. This process is intended to lower the amount of oxygen in the beer so it will last longer.

‘Air is the worst enemy to beer,’ Rubenstein said. ‘If it gets aerated, you wind up getting a tinny taste or a cardboard-y taste.’

Rubenstein said Middle Ages beers usually have a shelf life of about six months, but larger, more state of the art breweries can make beers that last much longer. While the oxygen is being taken from the beer, the cap is sealed and the bottle moves on to the labeling machine, a 60-year-old piece of equipment.

When the tour is complete, customers return to the tasting room and gift shop where they can buy some of the beer they just learned how to brew. Even though Rubenstein is not giving tours, the tasting room is open from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. every Monday through Friday and 11:30 a.m. through 5 p.m. on Saturdays.

Middle Ages sells growlers of its brews in the tasting room. Customers can pay $3.50 to buy the 64 ounce jugs and can fill them for around $7.00. Rubenstein said the brewery will also fill growlers from other breweries if people do not want to buy one from Middle Ages.

Bob Pallo usually makes the nearly half-hour drive from Marietta, NY to fill four growlers every two weeks. He purchased two jugs of Black Heart Stout, one of Druid Fluid and another of The Duke of Winship.

‘The beers are original and powerful,’ Pallo said. ‘More powerful than anything you can buy at the grocery store.’

Rubenstein said the busiest times for the brewery are after 4 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays when the crowd can be as large as 50 people.

Fossett said the tasting room is similar to a bar because people are drinking together, but it is different because the room is well-lit and there is a social atmosphere. People buy chips, share with each other and tell jokes and stories.

The atmosphere is also different from Chuck’s or Maggie’s because the demographic ranges from 21 to 75 years old. Fossett has even seen her professors in Middle Ages and enjoyed drinking a beer and conversing with them outside of the classroom.

‘It’s fun because you get to talk to them and it’s not so serious,’ Fossett said. ‘It’s more laid back and you can talk about the beers you like and other breweries you like.’

If You Drink:

What: Middle Ages Brewing Company tasting room

When: Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Where: 120 Wilkinson Street, Syracuse

Published on October 3, 2006 at 12:00 pm