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Getting Crafty With Wyndridge Farm Brewing

Getting Crafty With Wyndridge Farm Brewing

Farmhouse breweries are not a new idea. For hundreds of years beer has been brewed on farms throughout the world. These farmhouse breweries are responsible for many amazing styles of beer we love today, and the methods created in barns on farms large and small are mimicked still today. While brewing has come pretty far since those days, the idea of farmhouse breweries is still one that brings up ideas of quality, freshness, and amazing beers.

Few breweries today can call themselves a true farmhouse brewery, but Wyndridge Farm Brewing in Dallastown, PA is one of them. Located in South Central PA, Wyndridge Farm Brewery is home to their lineup of craft ciders and beers. The rustic wood of the brewery stands in stark contrast to the high-tech brewhouse that lives there, reinforcing the idea of traditional farmhouse brewing brought into the modern age.
The Brewery
Wyndridge Farm Brewing opened their doors to the public in 2014, and in that short amount of time they have grown to include a 30 barrel, four vessel automated brewhouse that’s capable of producing 12,000 barrels of beer per year. Not one to be left to kegging beer alone, they also have a bottling line capable of filling 3,000 bottles per hour!

All the brewing equipment in the world won’t do you any good unless you have a team of talented people working on it and behind the scenes to get everything going smoothly. At Wyndridge Farm Brewery this is done by a family of beer and cider experts, even if some of them aren’t related.

On the ownership side you have the Groff family consisting of Steve, Julie, and Taylor, followed by head brewer Stephen Foster and head cider maker Scott Topel. Pete Koelsch rounds out the motley crew with his engineering skills to keep everything working as expected. Together they make some of the best beer and cider to come out of the area, and are all extremely glad to finally be sharing it with us in Pittsburgh.
Crafty Beers
When it comes down to it a brewery is generally judged by the quality of their beer. Thankfully, Wyndridge has a solid lineup of beers to go along with their great story and prepossessing location.

10 Point Ale – This golden ale is an easy drinking, refreshing sessionable beer that’s extremely approachable for those just getting into craft beer. 10 Point Ale is available year round and while it’s approachable and easy to drink, it remains unique enough for craft beer veterans to enjoy over and over again, too.

Wyndridge uses American 2 row, caramel, and Munich malts for the base of this beer and relies on Perle hops for the bittering and aroma. 10 Point Ale comes in at 4.8% ABV with an IBU rating of 20.

Laughing Crow IPA – The ubiquitous India Pale Ale is easily the most popular style of craft beer today, and Wyndridge Brewing’s Laughing Crow IPA is a shining example. Laughing Crow uses a hefty late addition hopping to give the beer tons of hop aroma without making the beer too bitter.

Laughing Crow also relies on local water with a high mineral content to give the beer a crisp taste and dry finish so there’s no cloying sweetness hiding in the background. The malt bill for Laughing Crow includes 2-row, Vienna, and Aromatic malts, but the hop bill is where this beer truly shines. Wyndridge uses Zythos, Falconers Flight, Cascade, Belma, Chinook, and Galena hops to craft a beer that has tropical fruit and citrus notes with a refreshing bitterness that’s far from overpowering. Laughing Crow IPA comes in at 6.5% ABV and a respectable 40 IBU.

Barn Dog Chocolate Vanilla Imperial Porter – The porter style of beer is a unique one that’s come in and out of popularity for more than 100 years, and is seeing a resurgence today as brewers add new and interesting flavor profiles to this classic style.

Wyndridge Brewing’s Barndog Porter features fresh cut vanilla beats and cacao nibs from Ghana to give the porter a complex yet approachable taste that truly does the porter style justice. The vanilla is very present on the nose, with the middle and finish dominated by silky smooth dark chocolate notes.

Barn Dog features a malt bill consisting of 2 row, chocolate, Crafa III, caramel, and flaked barley along with a top-secret hop bill that gives the beer a bitterness that’s present but far from dominating. Barn Dog comes in at 7% ABV and 24 IBU.
Crafty Ciders
Craft ciders are the single fastest growing segment in adult beverages, making them a pretty hot commodity. With mass-produced ciders flooding the market, it can be difficult to find a cider that’s crafted with care by a family-owned brewery. Wyndridge offers a lineup of ciders for every palate out there, even the die-hard IPA fan that might not initially try a cider.

Dry-Hopped Hard Apple Cider – If hops are your thing, the Wyndridge’s Hopped Hard Apple Cider is for you. Their hopped cider is a blend of crisp apples and bitter hops that works surprisingly well together.

Wyndridge uses locally pressed apples, yeast, and hops to make their cider a truly local treat. The result of this blending of hops and apples is a fresh, clean hopped cider that’s semisweet at 5.5% ABV.

Cranberry Hard Cider – If tartness is your thing, then Wyndridge’s Cranberry Hard Cider is just for you. This cider starts with their base cider with a splash of fresh cranberry juice added. The light tartness of the cranberry offsets and compliments the sweetness of the apples. Cranberry Hard Cider is a year-round cider that’s 5.5% ABV.

Original Hard Cider – You always remember your first, and for Wyndridge their Original Hard Cider is their first offering to be sold. This cider is fermented with champagne yeast to give it a dry finish while keeping enough sweetness to make it refreshing and light.

Original Hard Cider is 5.5% ABV and is always made from freshly-pressed apples that are sourced locally, never from concentrate. Drink this cider chilled, but forego the ice, you’ll be glad you did.

Wyndridge Farm Brewing’s beers and ciders are proudly distributed by Frank B Fuhrer Wholesale in and around the Pittsburgh Area