Beer of the Week! 05/06/2023

Aurora The Cut

Normally $16.99 / Now on Sale for $15.96
New England Style Pale Ale

The story behind Aurora Brewing Company is great. After bunches of breweries started by business bros or by people who hit their stride right out of the gate, it’s nice to hear about people who had a slower journey.

King Ferry is a hamlet, not even a town, in New York’s Finger Lakes region, but that’s where you’ll find Joe Shelton and Mark Grimaldi and Aurora Brewing Company. They met through their wives, who had been best friends in high school. In the early teens, Grimaldi worked as a marketing manager for a wine distributor and importer in Ithaca, while Shelton sold commercial printing. On the weekends, they would get together and homebrew.

In 2016, they opened Aurora. “It was just a little hole in the wall,” says Grimaldi, only open two days a week with occasional food options. Still, the duo were there and they brewed. They worked on recipes, they talked about marketing, they slowly put things together.

By 2020, they had some recipes they liked. They got a new system, which really allowed them to make some better beer. Soon, Syracuse bottle shop owners were driving over to King Ferry to get Aurora beer. Later, Grimaldi and Shelton brought in brewers Bryant Nettleton and Ben Woodard, who helped raise the quality of their beers … and, today, the quality is certainly there with this beer.

The Cut is an American Pale Ale made the way you make a New England Style IPA. First, they ferment their malt with Star Party yeast, a yeast that has been modified to interact with hops to release their thiols — compounds in hops that can give the intense fruit flavors that NEIPAs are known for. So then come the trio of New Zealand hops — Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, and Riwaka. The whole thing is left unfiltered, of course, and there you have it! — a cloudy, creamy, brew overflowing with juice flavors with some zest around the edges.

Coming in at 6% ABV, you’d never know this wasn’t an IPA. It really begs the question of what makes the Cut an APA rather than an IPA. Of course, at this point, that’s just something to casually ponder while we’re busy enjoying it.