MONTOUR FALLS, NEW YORK

Slingin’ soft toned suds in the village of Montour Falls since July ’22, DIVERSION BREWING CO. expanded to this countrified midtown after opening its first location at a Chemung barnhouse 30 miles south in July ’16. Run by local prize-winning homebrewers Dutch Blokzyl and Dan Bennett, Diversion’s easygoing fare suits both delicate palates and blue collar denizens.

There are twelve taps adorning the mounted industrial pipeline at the small back bar. Six window fronted beer barreled tables with metal chairs crowd the narrow, plank wood-floored, red brick-walled interior.

My wife and I pull up to the slate-topped bar to get all eight proprietary suds available on a chilly November ’23 Sunday at noon.

Mild yellow-cleared pilsner, DB Lite, let dry champagned citrus spicing grace lightly barley roasted cracked corn rusticity.

Tart raspberry pureed pale ale, Pilsberry, stayed thin as wispy blueberry and strawberry fruiting faded over its white wheat bed.

Mild spiced apple sweetness melted away for Appley Married, a fruited pale ale with oaken cherry and tart apricot pectins.   

Sweet potato-infused pumpkin ale, Gourd Jam-It, retained a dry squash vegetalia that receded its spiced pumpkin pie sweetness.

Spritzy clear-yellowed wheat ale, Witty Remark, engaged its orange-peeled coriander spicing with cidery lemon souring and mild green grape vinegaring.

Dryly soft-tongued Imperial IPA, Empires Key, placed lemon-licked pining and musty floral daubs inside lightly embittered hop resin.

Stark black IPA, Nightfall, ignored its stylish Cascadian dark ale black malt roasting for understated orange-apple spicing, missing the mark.

Dark-roast dried coffee saturated East Coast Roast, a mellow coffee stout with rich dark chocolate creaming, musty earthen soiling and dried fruited wisps given a lemon rind twist.