UPSTATE COFFEE

First Cracked Cream ALE

Now you have the best of both worlds; Upstate Coffee to start your adventure and First Cracked Cream Ale to celebrate your achievements along the way.
First Cracked is the ultimate clean and crisp Cream Ale with a nice coffee flavor and aroma, perfect for that evening campfire.

16 fl.oz • 5% A|C./Vol. • Cream Ale

the Collaboration

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1 Collaborative Label Design

This was a fun process between Upstate Coffee’s graphic designer, Chelsea Maymon and Scott Veltman who is the Master Brewer of Indian Ladder Brewery. Scott had just recently made a stout beer called the Tall Mutha Chucka and when we first met at the brewery this was the first beer we had together. I thought the beer was exceptional and was drawn to the can design. I thought it would be cool to keep a similar layout and look with the intention of making a nod to one of my favorite beers I have ever had. The two beers look great next to each other and I have a feeling this graphic layout is here to stay for some more superb Upstate, NY beers in the future.

2 Choosing the coffee

When Scott suggested that we do a Pale Ale I was excited and then when he texted me and said, “Let’s do a Cream Ale”, I was really excited. Cream Ale’s are by far some of my favorite beers and is not commonly used for a coffee base. Knowing how amazing Scott is a brewing, I said “yes” immediately to the idea. When we were going over cold brews to select the coffee, light and medium coffee’s were the primary focus. We ended up with an unanimous vote of an Ethiopian light roast that I roasted just for this beer. Upstate Coffee will be launching this as one of the next roasts in the future and has a perfect balance of fruit and floral tasting notes.

3 Brewing the Beer

In this photo, the master mind behind the First Cracked Cream Ale goes to Scott however, I get the gold metal for the highest Wart Hopping dumping in the world.

4 Adding Ethiopian Upstate Coffee

Scott told me that there was a bunch of coffee added…. I’m not convinced and pretty sure it was just one bean lol!!!

5 Cleaning the mash

This is not actually as gross as it looks and tastes rally good! I was happy to jump in and get dirty while cleaning out the Mash.

6 Canning

Making new friends during these collaborations, working together to make the beer and designing the labels is what it's all about. My next favorite part is canning the beer and trying it for the first time while watching the cans zip through the canning line is an amazing experience.

Indian Ladder Cindery and Brewery

Located just outside of Albany, Indian LadderFarms Cidery & Brewery is a New York State Farm Brewery and Cidery owned byDietrich Gehring and Stuart Morris. The Tasting Room and Biergarten offera true farm-to-glass experience, with beers crafted from 13 varieties of hopsgrown at Indian Ladder combined with grains grown and malted in New York, andhard ciders produced from Indian Ladder’s 100+ acres ofapple orchards and berry patches. Beers and hard ciders are available ondraught, as well as in cans and bottles. Farm-inspired dining is provided bythe Indian Ladder Farms Dining.