Paul O’Neill is as meticulous about his ale as he was about playing rightfield for the New York Yankees in the glory days of the late 1990s. The analyst for the Yanks’ YES Network, and Rye Brook resident, also concentrates on work, family and golf and thus is not given to lending his name to a variety of products, said Brandon Steiner. So when O’Neill approached Steiner – a sports memorabilia industry leader and founder of Yonkers-based CollectibleXchange.com – about crafting a beer, he immediately thought of Michael Chiltern, founding owner and brewer of Wolf & Warrior Brewing Co. in White Plains, whom Steiner first met when he hosted an event for the Syracuse University Alumni Association a year and a half ago.
“Paul is really intense, over the top, and Michael is really intense and over the top,” Steiner, a Scarsdale resident, said of their meeting last April. “It was the perfect match.”
The result of all this intensity was Warrior 21 Northeast India Pale Ale, which made its debut just before Memorial Day weekend last year. On Feb. 2, some 200 fans of beer and the Bronx Bombers joined O’Neill, Chiltern and Steiner as they relaunched Warrior 21 at Wolf & Warrior with a freshly brewed batch.
More than 40% of craft beers are classified as India Pale Ales (IPAs), a kind of brew whose history is steeped in British colonialism. As Chiltern described it during an interview outside the brewing room of the 6,000-square-foot Wolf & Warrior – which is half bar/eatery – the British East India Co. was looking for a British ale to enjoy in India in the early-19th century, but those that made the long voyage would arrive spoiled. Adding more hops not only served as a preservative; it created a flavor with more bite – or a certain bitterness, if you will – and crispness.
Warrior 21, which is 6.5% ABV (alcohol by volume) is made with citra, strata, mosaic and lotus hops. It has notes of stone fruit, such as mangoes, juicy citrus and a hint of pine, Chiltern said, with what the press materials called “a beautiful, creamy, hazy orange gold body.” With a rating of roughly 4 out of 5 on the internet, Warrior 21 is the first Northeast IPA to be brewed in collaboration with a professional baseball player, a Yankees player and a World Series champion. (O’Neill played in five World Series with the Yanks, in ’96, ’98, ’99, 2000 and 2001.)
On the Bombers, the all-in O’Neill was called a “warrior” by George Steinbrenner, the team’s imperial owner, and he wore the number 21, which the Yankees retired on Aug. 21, 2022.
But the name Warrior 21 also dovetails with Wolf & Warrior, which Chiltern named after his children Vuk and Branko – “wolf” and “warrior” respectively in Serbian, wife Jelena’s native tongue. (The family lives White Plains.) Though he studied photography and anthropology at Syracuse University and would go on to work in the video department of Morgan Stanley and serve as a cameraman for such shows as “Animal Planet,” “Reading Rainbow” and “Trading Spaces” as well as at usopen.org (2003-08), Chiltern had gotten interested in the communal aspects of beer while studying in Zimbabwe in 1998 – the year the Yankees set a record for most baseball games won in a season and postseason (125).
Photographs by John Cirillo for Cirillo World.
In 2012, he visited The Brooklyn Kitchen’s home-brewing shop and decided to try his hand at making beer. With the brew a hit among family and friends, he branched out from IPAs to other kinds of beers, winning medals in 12 of 14 contests by 2018, including the National Homebrew Competition. A year later, he founded Wolf & Warrior, a five-barrel capacity New York state-certified farm brewery – a first for White Plains – with more than 60% of its grains and 30% of its hops grown in the state.
Today, Wolf & Warrior produces 255 barrels a year in its five fermenters. There are always about 13 house-made beers on draft, along with a guest cider and a guest sour. The beers include American, New England “Hazy” IPA, West Coast IPA, Golden Ale, Pilsner, Porter and Stout as well as seasonal beers, to go with the kitchen’s array of burgers, sandwiches, tacos, wings, chicken tenders, a Greek-style salad and cookies. Just as important, Steiner said, you can find Warrior 21 in DeCicco’s 11 locations in Westchester and Putnam counties, and at Mamaroneck’s hafttimebeverage.com, with plans for the beverage to be carried in Trader Joe’s and Wegmans.
Clearly, Wolf & Warrior is a home run.
For more, visit wolfandwarrior.com.
