CAZENOVIA — On Oct. 2, the Friends of Lorenzo (FOL) and Meier’s Creek Brewing Co. will co-sponsor a Dark Aisle Beer Tasting from 4 to 6 p.m. in the garden at Lorenzo State Historic Site.
The 21 and older event will feature tastings of Meier’s Creek Dark Aisle Porter, a limited fall beer named after the historic grove of evergreen trees surrounding Lorenzo’s formal and vegetable gardens.
In addition to the beer tasting, the event will include wine, live acoustic music from Cazenovian J. Dyer, appetizers from the Lincklaen House, and raffles.
“Lorenzo is very fortunate to have the support of many local Cazenovia businesses,” said Lorenzo Site Manager Michael Roets in a Sept. 15 press release. “When Meier’s Creek opened last summer, they expressed a strong interest in supporting us as well, and we couldn’t be happier that they came up with this idea of creating a beer inspired by one of our most prominent historic landscape features.”
According to FOL, the “Dark Aisle” is a significant feature of Lorenzo’s grounds, as it provides a windbreak to the south and west for the garden and contains walking paths for visitor enjoyment.
The historical plantings are documented with stone monuments specifying the types of trees, the planting years, and the planters. Over the past few years, the area has been a focus of restoration efforts.
Ivan Dedek, Brewmaster/Food Scientist at Meier’s Creek, described the Dark Aisle-inspired beer as a traditional English Porter.
“It’s easy drinking starting with aromatics of chocolate and light roast, a medium sweetness to the body, light chocolate notes and a light bitterness in the finish,” he said in the press release.
According to Dedek, FOL left all of the beer development decisions up to Meier’s Creek.
“This one was pretty easy,” he said. “The word ‘dark’ narrowed us down to a limited amount of darker styles. An English style porter is quite approachable for most people out there. They have heard of the style and it is a little easier drinking than some of more robust porters and stouts or darker Belgian or German styles . . . We created the recipe last year and have done some minor tweaking to it, but from our initial concept there has been only minor changes.”
Dedek added that Dark Aisle should be available throughout the winter.
The tasting event will be held rain or shine.
Tickets, which are $25 for members and $30 dollars for non-members, can be purchased in advance on the FOL website.
All proceeds from the event will be used to support the continued care and maintenance of Lorenzo and its grounds.
FOL is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Lorenzo State Historic Site.
Located at 17 Rippleton Rd, Lorenzo is the 1807 Federal style home of Holland Land Company agent and Cazenovia founder John Lincklaen. The Lincklaen/Ledyard family continually occupied Lorenzo until the property and its contents were conveyed to New York State in 1968. The site is operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, which oversees 180 state parks and 35 historic sites that are visited by 60 million people annually.
To learn more about FOL, visit friendsoflorenzo.org, or follow the organization on Facebook and Instagram.
