The Finger Lakes is more than spectacular views of the lakes. Here you will find not only numerous wineries on the Finger Lakes Wine Trail but there is quite the craft beer scene. I will be covering them here and giving you my impressions of them. I hope you will visit as many as you can, I know will be!
Finger Lakes Breweries (Seneca and Kueka Lakes)
- Ithaca Beer Company
- Seneca Stag Brewing Company
- Grist Iron Brewing Co.
- Two Goats Brewing
- Kueka Brewing Company
Ithaca Beer Company
- Address: 122 Ithaca Beer Dr, Ithaca, NY 14850
- Website: https://ithacabeer.com/
- Phone: (607) 273-0766
- Hours: Wednesday, Thursday 4–9 PM Friday, Saturday 12–9 PM. Sunday 12–6 PM, Monday, Tuesday Closed
A few miles outside of downtown Ithaca is the Ithaca Beer Company. When you pull up you will realize it’s a LARGE brewery. They were established in 1998 and have moved a few times as they have grown larger.
For as large as the brewery is, their taproom isn’t that big. There is a decent sized outside patio with Adirondack chairs and a large canopy for shade. They occasionally have live music out there in the warm months.
Almost all of the ingredients for the beers are locally sourced so it gives the beers a definite local taste. Julie, my bartender, was friendly and gave me the background of the brewery. I liked the nice variety of beers and had trouble choosing 4 for my flight.
I chose the Italian Pilsner, Lakeside Lager, NE IPA and the Doublebock. The Lakeside Lager was quite light and refreshing, perfect for a hot summer day. The Italian Pilsner reminded me of Peroni. The head brewer did a field trip around Italy tasting beers to come up with his version.
That’s research I would like to do! The NE IPA had a nice hoppy, citrus flavor that wasn’t overpowering and had a nice flavor. The Doublebock tasted like it came from Germany. The toasted malt gave it a nice rich flavor and was fermented in Wheat bourbon barrels to give it a unique flavor.
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There is a pretty full menu of the typical burgers and pizza but also has some salads and vegetarian options along with dessert. I had a single smashburger that was quite delicious! I loved the fact that even the liquors and food were sourced as locally as possible. If you find yourself in Ithaca, I would highly recommend a visit to the Ithaca Brewing Company for a flight and lunch/dinner.
What You Should Know:
- Open: 1998
- Tours Available: Yes
- Live Music: No
- Events: Yes
- Food Available: Full kitchen
- Pet Friendly: Yes
- Other Drinks: Wine, Limited liquors, Sodas
- Flight Cost: $12
Seneca Stag Brewing Co.
- Address: 1720 NY-14, Penn Yan, NY 14527
- Website: https://senecastagbrewing.com/
- Phone: (315) 694-7586
- Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11 AM–8 PM, Friday, Saturday 11 AM–9 PM
After spending the night in Penn Yan I was looking to do a bike and brew ride. At the end of the Keuka Outlet Trail you will find the Seneca Stag Brewing Co. I’m not sure f it was a new building or a converted barn but it’s a inviting place.
It has a large outside seating area with a large covered area for live music. One of the first things you will notice walking up is a doggie gate blocking the entrance. You can either step over it or enter through the door.
It’s a little different as there is no bar seating area at all. Their flight is 4 five ounce pours. I ordered a Fiestbier which I wasn’t super crazy about. It’s a pilsner with a malty flavor. The Albier is a hybrid beer of an ale and lager. Being I like both types, I definitely liked this beer.
The Marzen or aka Octoberfest type beer was excellent. Wayyy better than the typical Sam Adams Octoberfest. And finally the Munich Dunkel. It wasn’t as malty as a typical dunkel which was fine with me. I quite enjoyed it.
There is a decent menu if you are hungry. I had BBQ pork sandwich that was delicious, it had a sweet smoky taste. The puppy that was the owners dog had free run of the place and like to make her presence known by laying on your feet.
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If you enjoy games, every table had a game and there was quite the variety. Overall if you find yourself in Dresden or Penn Yan, I would recommend a visit!
What You Should Know:
- Open: 2021
- Tours Available:No
- Live Music: Yes
- Events: Yes
- Food Available: Full kitchen
- Pet Friendly: Yes
- Other Drinks: No
- Flight Cost: $12
Grist Iron Brewing Co.
- Address: 4880 NY-414, Burdett, NY 14818
- Website: https://www.gristironbrewing.com/
- Phone: (607) 882-2739
- Hours: Sunday 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM, Wednesday Closed, Friday, Saturday 12:00 PM – 9:30 PM
While hiking the gorge trails at Watkins Glen Park I tried a local beer from Grist Iron Brewing. Ater a few mile hike it really hit the spot and decided to see the source of the beer. Besides I needed a place to watch the World Cup game of the US vs Australia.
The brewery is about 6 miles from Watkins Glen downtown where our Airbnb was located. The brewery is at the top of a small hill like pretty much every winery is around the lake. It’s a pretty good sized brewery and they had quite a bit of outside seating with great views of the lake.
Naturally they had a gift shop as you walk in but I made a beeline to the cashier so I could order some beer and food. I ordered the same beer as I had at the park and a smoked brisket sandwich. Luckily they had the soccer game on and watched the US beat Australia as I enjoyed my beer.
Next I had to try a flight of of other beers. The Juicy Way NEIPA would make anyone from New England proud, citrusy but not overpowering. The Good Buzz Honey Beer was very light and refreshing with just a bit of honey taste, perfect for a hot day.
The Right on Red Ale was delicious with a nice malty flavor and the Low Voltage English Mild was my least favorite. It was a little too bitter for my taste and was super low ABV at 2.4%. My smoked brisket was on the sweet side but very good and came with some kettle chips.
If you have a dog, it will be very welcome there and if you are a tourist we got some great recommendations from the bartender for wineries and places to go for dinner. Always ask a local for recommendations! I couldn’t recommend a visit ant more, just go!
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What You Should Know:
- Tours Available: Yes
- Live Music: Yes
- Events: Yes
- Food Available: Full kitchen
- Pet Friendly: Yes
- Other Drinks: Wine, Ciders, Limited liquors, Sodas
- Flight Cost: $12
Two Goats Brewing
- Address: 5027 NY-414, Burdett, NY 14818
- Website: https://twogoatsbrewing.com
- Phone: (607) 546-2337
- Hours: Sunday – Thursday 12–8 PM, Friday, Saturday 12–10 PM
While driving Rt 414 that hugs Seneca Lake I passed the Two Goats Brewing Co. With a name like that, how can you pass it up? One thing I liked right off the bat was that it was on the west side of 414 so there was a great view of the lake with no road and traffic to see.
Being a fan of live music, especially local acts, it was a pleasant surprise to have a three piece local band playing. They were exceptional! Playing many classic hits from the 70’s and 80’s which is my favorite era for music, they also had many originals.
After taking in the view of the lake from the rear patio I went inside the brewery to see what types of beers I could find. They had a decent variety of beers on offer and I quickly found four I wanted to try. It had a great locals atmosphere inside, with board games if you want to entertain the kids.
First up was the Redbeard Red, being from the Tampa area where we have a yearly Gasparilla Festival featuring pirates I had to try it! It had a nice but not overpowering caramel and malt flavor. The Golden Crush was a hazy IPA which every brewery has a few. It had a nice citrus profile but wasn’t too strong.
The Goat Juice was unusual as it was a hazy kolsch, I wasn’t to crazy about it. I love dunkels after my trip to Germany and always order one if it’s available. It was of course my favorite, I love the malty flavor of them!
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What You Should Know:
- Tours Available: No
- Live Music: Yes
- Events: Yes
- Food Available: Full kitchen
- Pet Friendly: Yes
- Other Drinks: No
- Flight Cost: $12
Kueka Brewing Company
- Address: 8572 Briglin Rd, Hammondsport, NY 14840
- Website: https://www.keukabrewingcompany.com/
- Phone: (607) 868-4648
- Hours: Sunday 12–5 PM, Monday 2–7 PM, Wednesday 2–7 PM, Thursday 2–7 PM. Friday 12–7 PM, Saturday 12–6 PM
The Kueka Brewing Co is a little off the beaten path close to Kueka Lake. It was a rainy day and the parking lot was just about empty when we pulled in. The place had a inviting atmosphere and a friendly bartender who seemed pretty bored.
They had a nice selection of beers, not all IPAs like so many places. My first was the 607 Lager, I’m a big fan of Vienna style lagers and this didn’t disappoint. A nice malty flavor with a touch of sweetness.
The DLS Chocolate Coconut Macaroon sounded interesting but when I tried it, it just seemed like they were trying to do too much and it didn’t do anything well, pass.
Polymorphic IPA was quite good, second fav to the Vienna Lager. It had a variety of hops that have it a nice citrus flavor without being too strong. The Briglin Red Road was a excellent red ale. It had a slight caramel and roasted grain flavor that is characteristic of the red ales.
It’s too bad it was raining as they had a nice outside patio with Adirondack chairs and firepits. They must have live music as there was a covered pavillion with a stage setup. I hope they get a good crowd on weekends since it seems pretty dead during the week.
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What You Should Know:
- Tours Available:No
- Live Music: Yes
- Events: Yes
- Food Available: A few bar snacks
- Pet Friendly: Yes
- Other Drinks: Sodas and flavored hard seltzers
- Flight Cost: $12
A Short History of Brewing in the Finger Lakes
Before the Finger Lakes was wine country it was beer country, and before it was beer country it was hop country. That last part is the piece most people have forgotten, and it is where the story has to start.
For most of the 1800s, New York grew the hops that the rest of America brewed with.
When New York Owned the Hop
The first commercial hop yard in the country went in around 1648 in Massachusetts, but by the middle of the 1800s New York had taken over. By 1849 the state was growing close to ninety percent of the nation’s hops.
The heart of it sat just east of the Finger Lakes, in Madison, Oneida, and Otsego counties, where farms bolted hop kilns onto their barns and the whole landscape reorganized around one crop. Harvest meant hop parties, with pickers arriving by the wagonload to pull the heavy bines by hand, then eat and dance in the empty yards at night.
Brewing followed the hops. German immigrants ran small lager breweries in Ithaca, Elmira, Geneva, and nearly every other town with a railroad and a thirst.
The Collapse
It fell apart fast. Around 1910 a downy mildew blight tore through the hop yards, the aphids made it worse, and the dry Yakima Valley out west could grow the same crop without the disease.
Then came Prohibition in 1920. The price of hops dropped from a dollar a pound to a nickel, the farmers pulled the bines out of the ground, and by the end of the decade the New York hop industry was finished.
What came back after repeal in 1933 was not the same thing. For forty years American beer meant a handful of giant brewers making pale lager cut with rice and corn, and the Finger Lakes had no real place in it.
The Revival
The turn came slowly. Homebrewing was legalized at the federal level in 1978, the microbrewery wave reached upstate New York in the early 1990s, and Ithaca Beer Company opened in 1998 and proved a small Finger Lakes brewery could sell well past its own zip code.
Then the law changed, the same way it had for wine a generation earlier. New York passed the Farm Brewery Act in 2012, and starting in 2013 it handed a cheaper license and direct-to-customer sales to any brewery that used New York ingredients.
The catch was the requirement to buy local hops and grain, and that one rule put hops back in the ground. Cornell’s research station in Geneva went to work on disease-resistant heritage varieties, and a band of small growers and brewers began rebuilding what the mildew and Prohibition had killed.
Where It Stands
The Finger Lakes Beer Trail launched in 2011 with two dozen members and now runs past seventy. The wineries got into it too, with Wagner on Seneca Lake brewing alongside its tasting room.
If you want to taste the heritage directly, look for the farm breweries growing their own hops, like Climbing Bines near Penn Yan and Hopshire up by Ithaca. Two Goats and Lucky Hare on the Seneca Lake hillsides pour the unfussy version, a good beer with a view of the water.
It is a younger scene than the wine, and rougher around the edges in the best way. Drink it for what it is, a region relearning a craft it used to own.
