Lake Placid Craft Brewing - Leaping Cow Ale

Leaping Cow is a brand new beer from Lake Placid, and we're excited to bring it to our members. It's best described as a classic English-style ESB, but with a solid dose of American Mosaic hops to give it a very welcome twist. Leaping Cow presents a reddish-amber color with copper highlights and nice clarity. We really dug the aroma on this: it's fruity and floral, with a mango-like tropical fruit character along with notes of pine, lemon, grass, and even a bit of cedar. Mosaic is a very new hop varietal (bred from Simcoe) that's known for being incredibly complex – and it sure delivers here. The flavor offers a satisfying malt profile that delivers a touch of caramelized sweetness with a toasty edge. Plenty of hop bitterness steps forward to more than balance, while pleasant fruity notes abound. Try Leaping Cow paired with a glazed chicken breast sandwich topped with pineapple, or chicken taquitos with mango salsa. Cheers!

Founder Chris Ericson’s love of brewing had begun, like that of so many other microbrewery owners, with a homebrewing kit. After stints working for Federal Jack’s in Kennebunk, ME (birthplace of the famous Shipyard brewery) and The Shed Restaurant & Brewery in Stowe, VT, he was ready to strike out on his own. In 1996, Chris, along with a college buddy, bought a pub in Lake Placid known as P.J. O’Neill’s, installed a 7 barrel brewing system, and renamed it the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery (LPP&B).

It wasn’t long before LPP&B’s fresh microbrews had grown so popular that other local restaurant and pub owners began ordering kegs for their own establishments. Chris and his team ramped up production to full tilt, and they were selling every drop they brewed (often before it was actually brewed). To keep up with the ever-increasing demand, in November 2001 Chris purchased the 13,000 square foot brewhouse of the defunct AAA Brewery in Plattsburgh, NY, and named the new brewery the Lake Placid Craft Brewing Company. This much larger facility quadrupled their brewing capacity and gave them a bottling line, allowing the company to expand beyond draft-only sales and increase their exposure and distribution. In recent years, a partnership with Utica, NY’s Matt Brewing Company has allowed supply and distribution to increase even further.

Awarded the title “Best Brewery in New York State” by the TAP New York Beer Festival in 2005 & 2007, they’ve also been recognized as the “Best Brewery in the Hudson Valley” three times, in 2003, 2005, and 2007. For more info on their excellent brewpub and beer, call (518) 523-3813 or visit www.ubuale.com.