Northeast Beer Tour - Part 1 (Upstate New York)

The Humans' families live in upstate New York, so we decided to do a bit of a beer tour while we were up there over the summer, visiting family in New York and friends in New Hampshire.

This first post discusses some of the bars and breweries that we found in New York.

Watertown/Sackets Harbor

Sackets Harbor Brewing Company (212 West Main Street, Sackets Harbor, New York)
For our first stop, we met some of the Human's friends from high school at the Sackets Harbor Brewing Company, in Sackets Harbor, New York.  Sackets Harbor is a small village where Black River Bay meets Lake Ontario, about 10 miles west of Watertown, and 75 miles north of Syracuse.  It is best known for the battlefield which saw action during the War of 1812.

The Sackets Harbor Brewing Company opened in 1995, and occupies the former New York Central Railroad building in the village.  It rests on Black River Bay, and a recent deck expansion allows for plenty of seating overlooking the water.

Tasting flight reflects the brewery's history as a railroad building.

We purchased a tasting flight that included nine 4 ounce beers.  It is nice to have a chance to try their entire series of beers, but that's a bit much for one person (or Spore) to drink on a hot summer day before they get warm.  For the most part, the quality of the beers was better than average, especially for a relatively small operation. Our favorite was the Third Rail Porter.

They have separate lunch and dinner menus, and the dinner menu leans a little toward "fine dining" for a brewpub.  There are lots of options, but they lean toward steaks, duck and seafood.  There isn't a sandwich to be found on the dinner menu.  The one exception is their Thursday night menu, when you can get a burger and a beer for $10.

Other nearby options include:

• The Sackets Boathouse (214 West Main Street, Sackets Harbor) - The boathouse includes both sandwiches and also "better" fare.  They have twelve beers on tap, and have lots of outdoor seating on the water, as well as indoor seating.  I'd actually recommend the food here instead of the brewpub.
• The Hops Spot (214 1/2 West Main Street, Sackets Harbor) - Opened in 2011, The Hops Spot has the best beer selection anywhere in the area.  They have 26 taps, and regularly have breweries such as Dogfish Head, Stone, Great Divide, Brooklyn and Unibroue on tap, as well as cellared beers.  Growlers are also available.  They have a small, but good, menu that includes a number of burgers, sandwiches, sides and appetizers.  There is outdoor seating, but it doesn't overlook the water.

Meanwhile, if you're looking to buy some bottles to take home (or to the hotel), I'd recommend going to Bottle Caps in Watertown.  It's a small store, but they have a great selection.  Most, if not all, beers are available in singles if you would just like to try a few things.

Rochester/Canandaigua

MacGregor's Grill and Tap Room (759 South Main St, Canandaigua, NY)
After some mandatory family time, we headed to Canandaigua, near Rochester, to meet some of the Human's former co-workers.  We met at MacGregor's, near Canandaigua Lake, one of the westernmost of the Finger Lakes.

MacGregor's is a small chain of six restaurants in the Rochester area, all of which have an excellent beer selection.  For instance, the Canandaigua location has approximately 75 beers and ciders on tap, including local breweries and larger breweries such as Stone, Southern Tier, Bell's and Dogfish Head.

Their menu is better than the average pub menu, mostly made up of sandwiches, salads and burgers.  And, of course, they have the Western New York staple of beef-on-weck, which was very good.

Locals Flight, along with McKenzie's Black Cherry Cider.

Stouts/Porters Flight

Their draft prices are typical for the area, but the really good deal is their flights.  Each flight includes 6-5.5 ounce tasters, for only $8 or $9.  We started with the Locals flight, and then followed that up with the stout/porter flight.

MacGregor's is a great place where you can sit on the deck (unfortunately, not overlooking the water), have good some food and some great craft beers.

After stopping at MacGregor's, I'd recommend grabbing some ice cream at the nearby soft-serve stand, and taking a walk by the water in the park that is right across the street.

While in the Canandaigua area, you may also want to drive a few miles down the road to Naked Dove Brewing (4048 State Routes 5 & 20).

Finger Lakes Wineries

Even this is a beer blog, I'd like to take a moment to let you know what a nice job some of my other yeast friends are doing at the wineries of the Finger Lakes region of Central New York.

There are over 100 wineries in this region, mostly around the Cayuga, Seneca, Keuka and Canandaigua Lakes.  These wineries make a number of different types of wine, but the region is best known for its excellent Rieslings.  The shores of these lakes are also home to a number of breweries (that we haven't had a chance to explore yet) and a few distilleries.  Some stops that I would personally suggest include:

• Finger Lakes Distilling (4676 New York 414, Burdett, NY)
• Lamoreaux Landing Winery (9224 State Route 414, Lodi, NY)
• Damiani Wine Cellars (4704 State Route 414, Burdett, NY)
• Red Newt Cellars (3675 Tichenor Road, Hector, NY) - A great place for lunch.

Hamilton/Syracuse
Good Nature Brewing (8 Broad Street, Hamilton, NY)

Once it was time to visit Mrs. Human's family, we moved on to Central New York to discover what that area had to offer.

Good Nature is a small farm brewery that opened in early 2012 as a nano- (2 Barrel) brewery, but within a few months of success had become a micro- (7 Barrel) brewery.  Then, in less than two years, they needed more space, so it was necessary to move their tasting room from a small room at the entrance of their brewery to a taproom downtown in the village.  They take pride in sourcing most of their ingredients from the local area, including some farms which have recently begun growing hops for the brewery.

The taproom is a small, but nice, space on Broad Street, open Tuesday-Saturday and some Sundays.  Along with a bar that seats around a dozen people, they have a number of tables where you can have a seat and enjoy their beers.

Chicory Mocha Porter, and a couple of cider samples.

They typically have around a dozen of their own beers on tap, along with a local root beer and local ciders.  In addition, they always have one of their beers on cask.  Thursdays are usually Randall day, where they run one of their beers through a randall to add additional flavors.  (When we were there, they were running the chicory mocha porter through coffee beans and blackberries...yum.)
They do not serve food at the taproom, but you are welcome to bring food in.  The brewer is a former chef, but they would rather concentrate on the beers and encourage people to patronize the other local businesses.  They supply menus to all of the local restaurants so that you can find something to bring to the taproom.

Some other local businesses that you might like to try include:
No. 10 Tavern (10 Utica St, Hamilton, NY) - Just a few doors away from Good Nature, they have some great food (especially the muffaletta), and 10-12 beers on tap.
Harvest Moon Cidery (3232 Rippleton Road, Cazenovia, NY) - A few miles away in Cazenovia, they have around 9 ciders currently available.  These ciders are also available in local grocery stores.

Albany
Nine Pin Cider Works (929 Broadway, Albany, NY)

From Central New York, we moved on to New Hampshire, but that will be covered in the next post.  On our return we stopped at Nine Pin Cider Works in Albany so that Mrs. Human could try their supply of ciders.

Opening in 2014, Nine Pin is located in an area that is a mixture of industrial buildings and restaurants.  They have a small tasting room that is open Wednesday-Saturday.  They don't serve food, but often will have a food truck out front.

They make approximately 15 different types of ciders, and will usually have at least 4-5 available in the tasting room.  We weren't really that impressed with the ciders that were available in the tasting room when we were there, but that was during the summer.  I would hope that the flavors would improve in the fall and winter.

The next post will discuss the places that we visited during our time in New Hampshire.