Seven WNY breweries collectively win 10 medals

By Scott Scanlon
(Photo above: (L-R) New York Beer Project Head Brewer Jason Crossett and NYBP Beer Lodge Orchard Park brewer John Hyman show off Hazy Train and Hazy Crush, two of three hazy IPAs that have stood out during the last two years in state and national competitions. All photos for this story are by Scott Scanlon)

A Western New York craft brewing powerhouse has emerged as one of the top hazy IPA beermakers in New York State, but – at least at this point – you need to visit one of its four locations to enjoy the award-winning beverages.

The New York Beer Project took home three medals last month in related categories at the New York State Craft Beer Competition.

One of the trio, Hazy Crush, also won gold last year at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and World Beer Awards in Indianapolis.

“We kind of came out of nowhere,” said Jason Crossett, head brewer and director of brewing with the 10-year-old Lockport-based outfit. “In the first four, five years, we weren’t that brewery considered making these top-notch beers, but we always thought we were.”

Hazy Crush – an Island-style IPA brewed with Citra and Nectaron hops and steeped with mango, pineapple and hibiscus herbal/fruit teas – captured silver this year in the Experimental IPA style.

Hazy Train, its close cousin – rich in tropical, berry and melon notes – bested 88 other beers to grab gold in the Hazy IPA category, the second-most crowded in the contest after traditional light lager, with 92 entries.

Righteous Day Drinker – a sweet, juicy tropical Imperial – finished second among 40 entries in the Double Hazy IPA category, behind Unfettered Soul, brewed by Strangebird Beer and Barrel House in Rochester.

Other winners

Thirty-two categories were judged Feb. 28 and March 1 during the state contest, which takes place annually at the RIT Inn & Conference Center in suburban Rochester.

In all, 72 judges winnowed 1,142 entries from 178 breweries into gold, silver and bronze winners in each category. Beers in the blind tastings were numbered, not named.

Winners were announced late last month during the annual New York State Brewer’s Association Conference in Albany.

The New York Beer Project led the solid showing for Buffalo Niagara breweries.

Others included:

Eli Fish Brewing Company in Batavia won gold in the Strong Ales and Lagers category with The Red Ale (17 entries) and silver in the Experimental category for Tiga Spon (19 entries).

Rusty Nickel Brewing in West Seneca won gold in Porters (Non-Imperial) for its Pumpernickel Porter (26 entries)

Pearl Street Grill & Brewery in Buffalo landed silver with Mangia, Mangia! Italian Pilsner in the Modern and Contemporary Light Lagers category (54 entries).

Resurgence landed silver with its Bridge Pilsner in American Lagers (43 entries).

Brickyard Brewing in Lewiston won bronze with its Magnetic North in the Belgian Farmhouse category (16 entries).

Griffon Brewery in Youngstown grabbed bronze with Oregon High Five in the Pale Ale category (24 entries).

See a full list of winners at nyscbc.com/2026-winners.

“It’s always nice to get noticed,” said Todd Eberwine, who brewed Griffon Brewing’s first New York State Craft Beer Competition medalist. “It’s an appreciation for all the efforts.”

The state brewers association helps bring off the competition with the nonprofit Raise A Glass Foundation, which also conducts wine, spirits and cider competitions.

I’ve served as a beer judge for the last six competitions in what easily has become my favorite volunteer gig. 

Judges also bestowed the Governor’s Excelsior Craft Beer Cup for best beer in the competition to Wild East Brewing of Brooklyn for its Hexenkessel, a German-style dark lager. 

Grimm Artisanal Ales was named New York State Brewery of the Year for the fifth time in a competition that just marked its 10th year. The honor is based on a scoring system that awards one point for bronze, two for silver and three for gold.

The NYBP brewing operation

Five brewers work on the Beer Project’s three 15-barrel systems. Crossett has brewed beer in Lockport since the original location opened in late 2015. Ryan Brady, head brewer at the Labatt House brewery in the Buffalo Cobblestone District before it closed during the pandemic, and Matt Gordon, former brewer at 12 Gates, which closed last year in Amherst, also brew in Lockport. Most of the brand’s flagship and seasonal beers are made there.

John Hyman grew up on a family farm he now owns in the Wyoming County town of Sheldon. He homebrewed for a decade before Crossett hired him in 2018 and trained him on larger beer systems.

The NYBP Beer Lodge opened almost two years ago in Orchard Park with Hyman as its brewer. He has focused on brewing the award-winning IPAs, OP Lager and other beers he created and tweaks in its brewhouse.

He recently debuted what he hopes will become another hazy hit: Paradise Falls, an Imperial New England hazy IPA flavored with hops grown in New Zealand.

“You see the story here,” Crossett cracked during a recent interview. “All of our secret weapons come down to Orchard Park.”

The Beer Project has won awards in past years but has been on a roll the last two years for far more than Hazy Crush. Baby Crush, a lower-alcohol version of Hazy Crush, grabbed a gold medal last year at the World Beer Awards, as did Hazy Train. Righteous Day Drinker grabbed silver. Other NYBP winners in the contest included Lakehouse Pils with a silver and Goddess Kolsch with bronze.

Both Buffalo region breweries also feed the beer demands of the NYBP gastropub opened Valentine’s Day 2019 in the Rochester suburb of Victor.

Sean Hamilton leads brewhouse operations in the company’s Florida location, launched in November 2022 in the Winter Garden west suburb of Orlando.

All four locations offer beers to go in cans, crowlers and growlers.

Hazy Crush, Destination IPA and Victor Lager tend to be Beer Project best-sellers, Crossett said.

Key ingredients

Crossett and Hyman said the size and success of Beer Project allows brewers more tools to brew popular and award-winning styles.

They count the centrifuge in the Orchard Park brewhouse and the way they procure hops as two key benefits.

A beer centrifuge can cost $100,000 or more. It spins a batch rapidly to remove residual yeast and bacteria, shortening conditioning time and creating a smoother, cleaner product.

“It’s been a game-changer for IPA quality,” Hyman said. “We also use if for lagers.

He said he stores IPAs for five weeks and lagers up to 10, a week or two more in both cases than other brewers might.

The brewers also take their ingredients seriously – in the case of IPAs, especially the hops.

“We got to a point several years ago where we were buying enough volume of hops that we were able to go and select our own in the Pacific Northwest,” Crossett said, “and then, a couple years ago, Johnny started doing hop selection on our New Zealand hops.”

Crossett and Hyman visit hop farms in Oregon each September, combing fields of the cone-shaped flowers along the way. They select patches of the farm, called lots, from which to buy their three most important hops – Mosaic, Citra and Simcoe – which produce earthy, bright citrus/tropical and stone fruit backbones, respectively. 

Hop farmers in New Zealand have invited the duo to fly down under and hand-select the varieties that for the last two-years have gone into most of their award-winning IPAs. They include Nectaron (peach and pineapple flavor profiles), Nelson Sauvin (white wine/grapefruit), Riwaka (passionfruit/dank) and Superdelic, a newer variety with red fruit, candy and citrus notes.

“I’d like to go some day,” Hyman said.

Like wine, the subtle nuances in hop taste and aroma that come with changes in farm landscapes, as well as seasonal climate conditions, may escape the tastebuds of casual drinkers, but Crossett and Hyman believe this level of detail helps them dial in their blockbuster beers.

It’s part of the vibe that owners Kevin and Kelly Krupski developed more than a decade ago as they visited craft breweries across the country to find out what worked, and what didn’t, before they dropped what looks like a downtown Denver brewery and gastropub onto a semi-rural Niagara County parcel, just north of the Erie County border.

All four locations focus on quality pub food, live music and special events, and lots of their own beer, along with wine, spirits and other beverages.

“You need to have this kind of environment where the experience and atmosphere really matter, in addition to having a great product,” Crossett said. “And you need to have food because you need to keep people in the building so they can drink and you can sell more beer.”

Hyman produces 15 to 30 barrels of Hazy Crush and Hazy Train every four weeks.

The overall brewing operation can churn out 3,500 barrels of beer annually – enough for 868,000 pints of beer – roughly five times as much capacity as a decade ago.

It includes enough to produce NYBP beer for other taprooms, restaurants and beer retailers.

“There’s talk about that,” Crossett said. “We do have capacity, so we could go into distribution. It’s whether or not the owners decide they want to make the plunge into that space.”

Upcoming events

Derby Dash on the Niagara Wine Trail: Gear up for the Kentucky Derby on May 2 at participating Niagara County wineries. Derby attire is encouraged. General admission tickets cost $35 and include a souvenir glass and one free tasting at each winery. VIP tickets run $75 and also include transportation from the Seneca Niagara Casino, a wine bottle bag, casino buffet and free-play discounts. Buy tickets up to April 30 and learn more at niagarawinetrail.org/derby-dash.

CollaBEERation: The Buffalo Beer Geeks and Beer By Coleman offer this sixth festival. Pairs of upstate New York breweries once teamed up to collaborate on the offerings. This year, hundreds of Beer Geek members have worked with more than beer, cider and mead makers for the event, which starts at 1 p.m. April 25 at the The Powerhouse in Buffalo. Bee Spit, Big Ditch, Brewery Ardennes, Community Beer Works, Lilly Belle, Mortalis, NYBP, Pod City, Resurgence, Southern Tier and Strangebird are among the sites where the collabs were made. Learn more, see a list of available collaborative craft beverages and get tickets at collabeerationfest.com. Cost is $78.60; designated drivers pay about $13. Food and merchandise will be offered for sale. Attendees will pick the favorite collaborative beer awarded the Buffalo Beer Geeks Championship Belt.

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WNY craft focuses on beer, wine, spirits and other craft beverages across the Buffalo-Niagara region. Have a tip or idea for a column? Email Scott@WNYcraft.com