Will Cleveland

@WillCleveland13

The Rochester Real Beer Expo is the region's best beer festival. There are some other gems, but no other festival comes close to matching the depth of brewery rarities and exciting new releases.

Rochester Real Beer Week runs from June 10 to 19. Saturday's Beer Expo is the crown jewel of beer week. Tap and Mallet co-owner Joe McBane and his team work to carefully curate the entire experience.

The event, which will begin at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Blue Cross Arena, has turned into Christmas for area beer nerds. This year's draft list is absolutely insane. I count at least six breweries we've never seen locally. And each brewery, personally challenged by McBane, is bringing something savory and unique

If you're not sure where to start, I'm going to highlight a few of the beers I'm most amped about.

Beer Talk: Rochester Real Beer Expo taplist

Highway Manor Brewing (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania): I know a lot of beer nerds locally. I really count on them to keep me informed and I try to do the same. I keep up on beer news and I tend to know a lot about up-and-coming breweries (and yes, I realize that sounds like a humblebrag, but I am nerdy and obsessive). Highway Manor caught me totally by surprise. I've heard zero buzz about them, and then a few people locally started to rave. This will be my first opportunity to sample from HM. Highway Manor is bringing its Say John Saison and two barrel-aged fruited sours. I've heard fantastic reports about HM's Mr. Strawberry sour.

Barrier Brewing (Oceanside, New York): Outside of Blue Point, Captain Lawrence, and Southhampton, Long Island was a pretty quiet beer scene. That's not the case anymore. New York City and Long Island now feature some of the best breweries in the state, including Brooklyn's Other Half and Queens' Singlecut. Barrier Brewing has never been poured in our area. I've enjoyed the limited beers I've had from Barrier, so I'm looking forward to exploring the Barrier portfolio. The Expo will have a dry-hopped rye IPA and a single hop Galena IPA.

Half Acre Brewing (Chicago): Like Minnesota's Surly Brewing, Chicago's Half Acre is a brewery I would always reach for if we saw local distribution. Half Acre recently expanded distro to the New York City area. For the Expo, we'll have an opportunity to sample HA's flagship Daisy Cutter Pale Ale, which has become a new classic in the style. I hope the kegs at the Expo aren't just a single-time occurrence and we see consistent Half Acre distro.

Smuttynose Brewing (Hampton, New Hampshire): Smuttynose produces great beers across its wide-ranging portfolio. Many of Smutty's beers, especially the Robust Porter and the Finestkind IPA, are classics. I'm excited to see the diverse options Smutty will have at the expo, including the 2013 Scotch Ale and the Flanders Red.

Beer talk: Beer with a view

Peekskill Brewing (Peekskill, New York): Under the leadership of New York brewing pioneer Jeff O'Neil (the genius behind Ithaca's Flower Power IPA and sour program), Peekskill garnered attention as one of the best up-and-coming breweries in the state. O'Neil left last year and will be opening Industrial Arts later this year in Rockland, Rockland County. Peekskill still produces some of the best beers in this state, and those beers have never been poured locally. The Eastern Standard IPA and Simple Sour will be at the Expo.

Bear Republic Brewing (Healdsburg, California): Bear Republic has been producing West Coast-style beers for over 20 years. We were spoiled when we saw consistently fresh Bear Republic beers. But the severe drought in California forced Bear Republic to pull out of our market. After a two-year absence, Bear Republic re-entered the upstate market in the last few years. Like Smuttynose, Bear Republic produces some American classics. Hop Shovel IPA, a new Bear Republic offering, and Black Bear Black Stout will be available Saturday.

Lagunitas Brewing (Petaluma, California): Lagunitas is Bear Republic's Sonoma County neighbor. Lagunitas recently opened a second brewery in Chicago and made international headlines when it took a huge investment from Heineken. Technically, it's not a craft brewery anymore, but the infusion of Heineken money hasn't impacted the quality of the beer. It still produces classic West Coast-style hoppy beers. Lagunitas will be pouring two of those here in its Born Again Yesterday Pale Ale and The Waldos' Special Ale (perhaps the most resinous IPA ever available in our market). I'm most excited by the Sonoma Sour Kronik. I've never had a sour/wild ale from Lagunitas, and this one has never been tapped in our region.

Sloop Brewing (Elizaville, New York): Sloop recently expanded distribution to our market and some of my favorites will be available at the Expo, including the Juice Bomb IPA. I'm most excited for Sloop's Confliction, which recently won a gold medal at the prestigious World Beer Cup in the American-style sour category. Confliction is a dry-hopped kettle sour.

Perennial Artisanal Ales (St. Louis): Perennial produces a lot of quality beers, across a wide range of interesting styles. Abraxas, an imperial stout with ancho chili peppers, cacao nibs, vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks, is one of the beers that Perennial is most known for. For the Expo, Perennial is sending Vanilla Bean Abraxas, which features extra vanilla goodness. Long-time readers in this space will recognize that I am a sucker for vanilla-forward imperial stouts. Vanilla Bean Abraxas is the beer I'm most excited about at the entire festival.

Kent Falls Brewing (Kent, Connecticut): Kent Falls is another buzzed about brewery that has never seen distribution in our area. The young Connecticut brewery specializes in farmhouse-style beers. For the Expo, Kent Falls will have its Anachronism, a Polish-style Grätzer or Grodziskie. A Grätzer features oak-smoked wheat malt and Kent Falls' version features its house yeast culture. It's a style I know nothing about, but I'm always excited to learn.

Roc Brewing grows up ... kinda

Local beers: There are quite a few local beers that I'm excited to try. Here are just a few of them: Stoneyard McBane's WIPA, which is a fun amalgamation of styles with super fruity hops, orange peel, coriander, and wheat. It drinks like a creamy tropical fruit juice.

Stoneyard, Swiftwater, and Auburn's Prison City are releasing a collaboration beer appropriately called Prison Yard Water. It features a huge laundry list of ingredients, but is the brainchild of some of the best brewing brains in our region. Should be fun.

Roc Brewing celebrated its fifth anniversary earlier this month and will be pouring some of the new beers that were brewed specifically for that occasion. The cream ale with lemon peel was a winner and the Pinot Noir barrel-aged strawberry lemon sour was also lovely.

Three Heads is opening its massive new beer palace in the middle of beer week. At the Expo, 3HB will be pouring two new creations: a dry-hopped sour and a palate-crushing DIPA.

Make sure to stay tuned to my beer blog on the D&C site where I'll be offering daily reviews and also highlighting the events I'm most excited about.

WCLEVELAND@Gannett.com

Words from an Expo founder

The Rochester Real Beer Expo is in its sixth year and is going stronger than ever. It is organized by the large dedicated group of South Wedge folks, who are all driven to make this neighborhood as fantastic as possible.

All of the proceeds go towards that cause, making this neighborhood better. The money that is raised this year will be going toward a historic street light project on South Avenue.

Many boxes need to get ticked to make the Expo happen. I get the fun job of handling all the beer aspects. From the very beginning my approach was to not only bring in the best breweries that were in our area, but to challenge them to delve into their cellar and come up with very special offerings.

As the owner of the Tap and Mallet, I am fortunate to have some great friends who work in craft beer and are willing participants in this mission. I have always felt that with any sort of tasting, it should provide new experiences. What is the point of drinking a bunch of beers that you know very well and can grab a six-pack of from most stores?

The brewers now make it a point of pride to put their best foot forward. As a result the Expo has become known as one of the best beer festivals in upstate New York. The specific beers at Expo change each year and the event has always managed to offer the very best of the current craft beer scene. I am thrilled to say that this year will be no different.

— Joe McBane, co-owner, Tap and Mallet