4 minute read
Brewery, Syracuse
July's nominated brewmaster:
Robert (a.k.a Vandelay) Vandal
Story + Photos by Sue Rawlinson-Pais
Lake life embraces laughter. It involves friendships, family and good times. Hey, it’s living the Good Life. And, for many, that good life also includes libations—and an accompanying atmosphere to celebrate soulrelaxing, sun-soaking, water-loving moments. Often, it’s those mixing your favorite cocktail or pouring the perfect draft who add to the fun. Cheers to that.
Beer lover, motorsports + boating enthusiast, engineer + bona fide laker, Robert Vandal is the ideal man to have helped make his Man Cave Brewery in Syracuse a growing success. Brewing huge batches of beer from his own recipes, Vandal and his business partners, Jack Birch and Greg Griner, make delicious, not-hoppy brews, made in-house with their own “Frankenbrew” system. This masterful system, engineered of parts from places as far as West Virginia, is comprised of internals from old milk processing barns and more. Yes, this Frankenbrew system has made countless batches of really great beer. And brewing aside? Robert—his smile, his passion for brewing a great beer, and his playful aura with coworkers and customers alike, are a delight.
LAKElife, meet Brewmaster Robert Vandal.
Tell us some of your background.
I was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After graduating in mechanical engineering, I moved to Montreal for work. Then in 1990 I moved to Syracuse to work at a new automotive glass plant being built in Ligonier. I married my wife, Tami, in 1996. She’s the boss here at Man Cave. Bartending + brewing are my second job. My day job is in R&D, still at the glass company.
How big of a role do the lakes play in your life?
We live on a channel to Syracuse Lake, and I’ve always enjoyed water sports and boating. In my youth I raced kayaks competitively. In many ways the lakes and boating set the theme for the brewery. Our tap handles, logo and even some of our beer names are derived from a wooden boat theme and based on the 1947 17’ Chris Craft runabout that we own and enjoy today.
What’s your outlook on life?
There is no such thing as bad beer, just relative levels of goodness. Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Describe your customers at Man Cave.
Our customer base matches our menu style, very eclectic. We seem to attract all age groups and backgrounds.
How would you describe the brewery to a newcomer?
We have a friendly and warm environment with great food, beer and service. We try to make our customers’ experiences the best they can be. Our chef, Matt, does an excellent job creating great food; we are not just a bar food place. We use enviro-friendly brewing materials, recycling our spent grains to local farms for feed and employing solar roof panels to help power everything.
Tell us about your beers.
Many craft breweries try to develop the most off-the-wall flavors and beer styles. While we make a large variety of beer styles, our stuff tends to be more mainstream, easy to drink and enjoy. Our No. 1 seller is, and always has been, Sandbar Blonde which is an American Cream Ale. We like to call it a lawnmower beer; it’s simple, light, crisp and thirst quenching. While we make a few hoppier beers, we are not ‘hop heads’ by nature as a brewing team. We tend to make less hoppy session beers.
What’s the most fun drink to make?
Aside from being compelled to say Man Cave Beer, the reality is that making beer takes about 7 hours of relatively hard work per batch, although pouring it at the bar is pretty easy! At the bar, we have the most fun making the latest specialty martinis. These are often topped with a number of things, even whipped cream... its overspray has been known to hit guests at times. Our ‘Un-quarantini-martini is topped with whipped cream and sprinkles. It is really funny how martini sales will be slow until one of these concoctions makes a parade on a tray through the crowd to a table…next thing you know, we are overrun by specialty martini orders.
What do you especially look forward to at Man Cave this summer?
Today we distribute only in kegs with distributors that cover the northern 1/3 of the state and, of course, we sell growlers for takeout. We had planned to start bottling our most popular brews in March, but the shutdown put a damper on that. Hopefully we can get that back on track to start having bottled beer for sale in the summer.
Do YOU want to nominate your favorite bartender in Kosciusko County? It’s easy. Just email Sue at sue@lakelifemagazine.com. She’ll take care of the rest!
