The Ruck

Firestone Walker Night at The Ruck

Continuing on with the Troy Craft Beer Week posts, an amazing time was had at The Ruck last night. Dave and his crew have really spearheaded Troy Craft Beer Week and have been crushing it with the events. Not only did they have their Firestone Walker tap event last night, but also held their Ales vs. Lagers dinner up on the second floor. When that let out it meant we had folks from both Remarkable Liquids and Craft Beer Guild, reps from Jack’s Abby, Firestone Walker, Allagash and Troegs, Chefs from The Ruck, The City Beer Hall and Creo, staff from The Bier Abbey, World of Beer, and The City Beer Hall all hanging out celebrating the night. Awesome to say the least. Let’s check out the pics:
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Hill Farmstead takes over the Capital Region

Nuzzy pouring Hill Farmstead Arthur at The Ruck
Capital Region folks, unless you were living under a rock, you know that a handful of kegs from one of my favorite breweries made their way to the taps of a few of bars in the area last week. Two kegs of Arthur and two kegs of Everett were tapped, and each of the places I visited kicked their kegs in a couple of hours or less. I’m not going to get too wordy here, although you should check out Greg’s post on the topic.

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Enjoy Troy.

Took a little walk around Troy on Saturday to check out some of the new statues that have popped up around the city as part of the Uncle Sam Project as well as grabbing breakfast and doing a little shopping at the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market. Check it out!

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BA Bigfoot, meet Pig Destroyer Jon. Pig Destroyer Jon, meet BA Bigfoot.


Last Friday night was the Sierra Nevada event at The Ruck. Oddly, most of the beers they were offering had already been on draft earlier in the week, even the Porter on cask and the Brandy Barrel Ovila Quad. Given that we were there for wing night on Monday and had already had the majority of the event’s beers on tap, this definitely took away a lot of the luster of the event away for our whole group; I’m sure we weren’t the only ones to feel this way.
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Vintage Stone Night at The Ruck

Nuzzy doin’ his damn thing.

Sadly I missed out on any of the big Northeast Stone Vertical Epic events that happened in December. Participating in any of the ones that had VE 03.03.03 and up would have required a trip to NYC or Boston on 12/12/12 and just wasn’t in the cards that close to the holidays. Luckily, the guys from The Ruck had some vintage Stone kegs stowed away for us Capital District folks to get a taste. The lineup for the night:

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Winter Extreme Homebrew Competition / Homebrewers Shin Dig at The Ruck


Yesterday was the awards ceremony and Homebrews Shin Dig for The Ruck’s second Extreme Hombrew Competition. Things were done a little differently than last year, as they separated the judging and the awards to two separate days to make things a little quicker for all of the homebrewers who were involved, and also gave them a chance to grab lunch and share their brews with their fellow competitors.

Awards were given for the best in each category, Best in Show, and Best 6-Pack for teams who submitted a beer to all 6 categories:

  • Snow Melter – beers with chilies/peppers in the recipe
  • Free Range: Water – water in beer must come from natural source, spring, well, etc.
  • Bad Santa – 8+% ABV in your face Christmas beer
  • Beer & Cereal: Not Just For Breakfast Anymore – breakfast cereal in its mash bill
  • Funky Fermentables – 10-50% of alcohol content from outside the grist bill
  • Kitchen Malt House – brewer malted and roasted barley

The trophies were all very cool, unique, and handmade right in Troy, NY…

…by Bianca of The Broken Mold Studio. Check ’em out.


Chad getting a pour of some homebrew braggot.


Bob getting the show going.

Winner for the Snow Melter Category: Brooklyn Hopsters for Dragon’s Breath.


AlcoholiX taking home the Beer & Cereal win for Special Red.

Brooklyn Hopsters wins again for his American Wheat “Göse” in the Funky Fermentables category.

Beer Me Up Scotty taking the trophy for Calvin & Hoppes IPA in the Kitchen Malt House Category.

Three trophies. Hm, I’m seeing a trend here… Best In Show: Brooklyn Hopsters

And one last trophy for Best Six Pack. Damn, congrats man!

The guys waiting for Bob to wrap it up so they can go back to drinking each others’ brew.

Chad’z Cherry Chocolate Stout





Nice turnout of a bunch of guys enthusiastic about their craft. Looking forward to see what they come up with next time.

Repeal Day at The Ruck

I was planning on using a spirit for my Repeal Day post yesterday, perhaps the gin I picked up at New England Distilling over the weekend, but man did I have a hankering for some Ruck wings. So, I grabbed a couple of tasty treats from my recent hauls and headed down.

Allagash House Beer

Three Floyds Zombie Dust

I brought some ZD I’ve been meaning to share with the guys (although no one could blame me for keeping all of that deliciousness to myself if I did) and some Allagash House Beer from my tour there over the weekend. House Beer is only available at Allagash, and is sold by the crate, so I’m pretty happy to be able to share it friends and with some of the future trades I have in the works. 

The Bruery Mischief

Lawson's Finest Maple Nipple

Dave brought down some 2000 (!!!) Brooklyn Monster Ale, Lawson’s Finest Maple Nipple and The Bruery Mischief. I’m not big on most Brooklyn beers these days but this Monster Ale killed it. Huge fan.

Brooklyn Monster Ale 2000

Jon showed up later with some Audacity, Crossroads’ latest bottled beer (I believe only the second beer they’ve bottled). I missed out on the Winter Warmer, so I was happy to give this one a shot. These bottles have been aging in their cellar for two years, too. Huge candied sugar present here with just a hint of Belgian spices. Keep ‘em coming, Hutch!

Crossroads Brewing Audacity

And naturally I mixed in a few other beers in that were on draft like Evil Twin’s Soft Dookie (droooool), Stillwater Artisanal’s Autumnal and Anderson Valley’s Heelch O’ Hops.

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Not a bad way to celebrate the 79th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, huh? 

Few Pics from Dogfish Head Night at The Ruck

— Dogfish Night is always a great time. I got to tick almost all of the beers they had that I haven’t checked into in Untappd yet (missed three but we were hitting the road for yesterday’s Hill Farmstead haul pretty early). Dave knows how to put on a great party. I spent the majority of the night enjoying myself so only a few pics were taken. Check ‘em out!

Dave (owner of the Ruck) and Jay from Jay’s Beer Review.

Matty J!

Ev holding it down

Nuzzy doing his damn thing.

Buff doing some sort of sign language. Not sure.

Erica and Elise making sure the bar isn’t going anywhere.

Caleb sadly not making me wings hot enough to make my nose bleed.

Dogfish Head shortbread cookies made from the tap handle!

I… don’t know. This was their idea. I swear.

Matt, the head brewer of Chatham Brewing, Russ from Homebrew Emporium, and Bob from the Ruck.

Sad looking Randall all out of World Wide Stout. :( Gotta get there early!

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The Ruck (link) | 104 3rd Street, Troy, NY (map) | All The Ruck Posts

Dogfish Head Night at The Ruck Tap List Announced

— Got this response about their November 16th event via their Facebook this morning:

  • 60 min
  • 90 min
  • 120 min
  • Faithfull 
  • Palo Santo
  • Midas Touch
  • Black and Blue
  • Burton Baton
  • Red and White
  • Chicory Stout
  • Aprihop
  • Chateau Jiahu
  • Namaste
  • Sah Tea
  • Festina Peche
  • World Wide Stout
  • Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew
  • Tweason’ale
  • Raison D’etre
  • Immort Ale
  • Theobroma
  • Hellhound On My Ale
  • Punkin
  • My Antonia
  • Indian Brown
  • Shelter Pale Ale

And the bottle list:

  • Urkontinent
  • 75 Min
  • Saison Du Buff (Stone Version)

I’ll update if I hear anything about casks, Randalls, build your own Randalls, etc.

EDIT: Brian updated me with the Randall list:

  • Midas Touch with lime and mint
  • One year old World Wide Stout with vanilla beans, bourbon soaked coffee beans and Werther’s Originals.

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The Ruck (link) | 104 3rd Street, Troy, NY (map) | All The Ruck Posts