Wagner Valley Brewing Co.

Brewery, Bar, Eatery

9322 Route 414
Lodi, New York, 14860
United States

(607) 582-6450 | map
wagnerbrewing.com
BEER STATS
Average:
3.74
Beers:
27
Ratings:
912
PLACE STATS
Average:
3.8
Reviews:
34
Ratings:
56
pDev:
15%
View: Beers | Place Reviews
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Photo of BBThunderbolt
Reviewed by BBThunderbolt from Kiribati

3.28/5  rDev -13.7%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.25 | service: 3.25 | selection: 3.25 | food: 3.25
Nice location overlooking Seneca Lake. Big facility with both a winery and a brewery on location. Also a stand-alone restaurant across the parking lot. I had 2 brews during our stop, Sol Lager, and a WCIPA. Both solid, not really notable. We sat on their expansive deck with a lovely view of the lake. Certainly worth a stop if doing a brewery tour of the region.
Jun 27, 2023
Photo of WillieThreebiers
Reviewed by WillieThreebiers from Connecticut

3.85/5  rDev +1.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.75 | service: 4 | selection: 3.75
Sprawling winery/ brewery complex on the shores of Senaca Lake. Large rustic timber frame building on the right houses separate wine and beer tasting rooms. Entry in through the gift/ bottle shop, follow the hallway on the left to the end for the tap room. Long dog-leg service bar with a few barrel tables at the end. Huge deck off tap room has additional tables and fabulous view of the lake. 14 well assorted beers on tap. I had the Hop Tropic & The Full English, both very nice. Knowledgeable servers. I did not try the food. A great place to wile away an early autumn afternoon.
Sep 09, 2019
 
Rated: 4.36 by Scud31 from New York

Sep 18, 2018
Photo of dbl_delta
Reviewed by dbl_delta from Pennsylvania

3.36/5  rDev -11.6%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3.25 | service: 4 | selection: 3
Very nice place with a great view of Seneca Lake. Beers are not spectacular, but the views from the deck make up for it. Oh, and it's a winery too. So the significant other can order up a flight of wines while you work on a flight of beers. Beer wait staff were friendly and seemed to approve of my flight choices; wine stewerd (or whatever you call 'em) were totally out of my league. But then I'm not a wine enthusiast, so YMMV. Anyway, the views are great.
Oct 25, 2017
Photo of The_Beer_Guru
Reviewed by The_Beer_Guru from New York

4.73/5  rDev +24.5%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5
This place is by far one of the best breweries I've ever been too! The scenary is beautiful! Such a great vibe with awesome outside seating. You can see Seneca lake and acres upon acres of their wine vineyards. You can also do self guided tours throughout the brewery which is very cool. I didn't t get to try there food but by the looks of it it looked pretty up scale and fancy. They had about 10 beers on tap and the one I picked out for my flight were all fantastic! I would definitely go there again and highly recommend it to anyone who likes great beer and great vibes!!
Oct 03, 2017
 
Rated: 3.75 by Jlang2012 from South Carolina

Oct 25, 2016
 
Rated: 3.41 by zekeman17 from Pennsylvania

May 16, 2016
 
Rated: 4.04 by StrangerTides from New York

Mar 09, 2016
Photo of dhmxray
Rated by dhmxray from New York

4.32/5  rDev +13.7%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4.25 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.25
Great server, great selection and great view.
Oct 18, 2015
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Reviewed by VetsPackage from Massachusetts

3.68/5  rDev -3.2%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 3.75 | service: 3.75 | selection: 3.25
Pretty sweet little set up, massive backyard/patio set up out back right in the mix of their vineyards. Selection was limited and the beers were a tick above average at best but if you're a wine drinker you get the best of both worlds with this place.
Aug 04, 2015
 
Rated: 4.04 by TheBeerdedCharmer from Pennsylvania

Jun 17, 2015
 
Rated: 4.35 by SonictheBeerhog from New York

Jun 17, 2015
Photo of EMV
Reviewed by EMV from Pennsylvania

2.91/5  rDev -23.4%
vibe: 2.75 | quality: 3.25 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3
This is kind of like the Disneyland version of a Finger Lakes winery/brewery. They have both and don't do either of them extremely well. It's packed (on the tour bus route), and it felt like a pig push the whole time we were there.... and note the massive gift shop. We went with the brewery tasting and their beers were okay. A few pretty good ones and a few duds. The guy doing our tasting was younger and clearly in a hurry... it was a "how fast can I pour these for you and move on to the next grouping" kind of tasting, so not the way I'd choose to do things. I got a few bottles to go and their Reserve Trippelbock was probably my favorite. There are much better breweries to visit on Seneca lake that are more about the beer.. not about being a tourist stop. Two Goats and Horseheads were both vastly better and within 15 minutes.
Apr 29, 2015
 
Rated: 4.5 by greyghost86 from Delaware

Nov 20, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by FaradayUncaged from Michigan

Oct 26, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by grahuba from Connecticut

Oct 20, 2014
 
Rated: 3.5 by dwatty from New York

Oct 09, 2014
 
Rated: 1.16 by Pete9094 from Pennsylvania

Aug 13, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by Cooker_stp from New York

Jul 20, 2014
 
Rated: 3.5 by oriolesfan4 from Maryland

Jul 06, 2014
 
Rated: 3.5 by jfcaa193 from Canada (QC)

Jul 03, 2014
 
Rated: 4.5 by joelambic from Illinois

Jun 18, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by mmmbeerNY from New York

Jun 12, 2014
 
Rated: 3.5 by reizorc from Pennsylvania

Jun 03, 2014
 
Rated: 3.5 by NJBeer265 from New Jersey

Jun 02, 2014
Photo of Budinetz
Reviewed by Budinetz from Pennsylvania

3.91/5  rDev +2.9%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4
Upon arrival you have a choice to your the brewery or the winery. There is a small fee for the brewery if I can remember, however it isn't too expensive. The offerings are usually fantastic with he exception of a few. The staff pouring the offerings is always extremely helpful with any questions and with always give accurate information about the brews and the property. They do fill growlers here and the property is non smoking due to NY state law which is a plus in my book. The decor isn't anything amazing but it does have the tasting room adjoining to an open glass viewing area of the mash tun, fermenters, lagering tanks, etc. thy also have a six pack area where you can buy cases or six packs to take out. I thoroughly enjoy this place!
Jan 04, 2014
 
Rated: 3.5 by BillRoth from Maryland

Dec 19, 2013
 
Rated: 3.75 by ambruns1979 from California

Nov 30, 2013
 
Rated: 3.75 by Wortman1998 from New York

Oct 16, 2013
Photo of CountryRock2001
Reviewed by CountryRock2001 from New York

4.88/5  rDev +28.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5
Nice rustic style brewery on Seneca Lake in Lodi, NY. Great selection of beers, a little something for everyone. Gotta get there early for tastings because it gets busy really quick. They also have vineyards and a winery there as well. Highly recommended.
Feb 24, 2013
Photo of DirtyPenny
Reviewed by DirtyPenny from Massachusetts

3.45/5  rDev -9.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4
It almost sounds like damning with faint praise, and to be fair I did not sample the wine (not a wine drinker) but the best thing I had to drink there was the root beer. Seriously. It's unbelievable and I'd have gladly picked up two or three bottles or six packs if that were possible. Sadly the only way to leave Wagner with it would have been to purchase a growler, and that'd push the price of it to $12 for roughly 2 liters of soda. Yikes.

The grounds are very pretty and there's a lovely view of Seneca Lake. It's a bit odd finding your way around though, and the inside route to the brewery portion of the business was through a pretty nondescript hall, making me think we'd gone into some employees only area.

Service was pretty much what you'd expect in the brewery and in the adjacent restaurant. Someone forgot our app and we had to remind the waiter. No biggie. Food was very good and the menu lists wine and beer pairings for various meals, which was helpful.

The beer is kind of hit or miss, with a couple of good brews but some others that have odd notes or textures. The Sled Dog dopplebock lacked the oomph I'd expect from that style, and the Mill Street Pilsner was chewier and heavier than the typical pils. I'd definitely recommend the Cayman Station oatmeal stout though.
Oct 18, 2012
Photo of shivtim
Reviewed by shivtim from Georgia

3.64/5  rDev -4.2%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5
Stopped in with a few friends while we were in nearby Ithaca for a wedding.
We checked out the deck, but then stood at the bar to do a beer flight tasting.

The building is pretty nice. Like a lot of the wineries in the area, it has a big deck and a big yard overlooking the Lake. There's also a small bottle shop so you can get some to go, and they do growlers as well.

The beer was fine. We got to try everything they had on tap (plus the root beer) for $3.50, which was a great price. Oddly the bartender poured each taste one at a time, and waited until we were dont before pouring the next. Maybe this is the influence of being in a wine region? My favorite was the triple boch, which was actually a solid beer.

Worth a quick stop if you're looking for some beer in Ithaca. I think Two Goats down the street has a more unique and beer-centric atmosphere.
Aug 02, 2012
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Reviewed by StonedTrippin from Colorado

3.68/5  rDev -3.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4
part of a winery operation, so a lot of the beers are kind of run of the mill offerings, seems secondary to the vino, beer for wine people maybe. however, a couple of their beers are outstanding, especially the sugarhouse maple porter. the atmosphere here is great, sit out on a big open deck overlooking the grapes and the lake, gorgeous finger lakes vibes here, summer days could pass by like minutes out there. apparently some live music at night too. service at the brewery is a bit bogus, always crowded and understaffed. food available next door for a premium wine crowd price, but it is quite good, with much better service, more formal maybe, and the beers come in generous sample flights. you cant beat this place in the summer for outdoor relaxing. they fill growlers and have a cooler full of bottled beers too, the beer is getting better and better, but remains secondary. its about the atmosphere, and if you are on a winery crawl in the area, its nice to be able to break it up with some beers at this place. i liked it here a lot.
Jan 31, 2012
Photo of jifigz
Reviewed by jifigz from Pennsylvania

3.73/5  rDev -1.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5
I stopped at this place for just a few minutes with my buddy when I was u around the fingerlakes. This place was clearly much more of a winery than a brewery, but it's beers weren't too bad at all. They were nothing stunning, but they were good. We had the tasting of all their brews and then we each had one pint, I think I had the Doppelbock but I can't remember. The best part about this place was the location. The vineyards surrounding it are just lovely and the lake right in the background is great. The folks working the bar area were nice and chatty as well, and they didn't seem to care about much of anything. They were very laid back and funny. There was some lady in there that was joking around with the bartender and she obviously didn't like beer, or hops, for that matter. He had her trying all these things and she was having horrific reactions to them. It was quite humorous.

If you are in the area check it, but I wouldn't seek it out like a pilgrimage or anything. But a cool place.
Dec 14, 2011
Photo of mjw06
Reviewed by mjw06 from Pennsylvania

4/5  rDev +5.3%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 3.5
Was here for a wedding. How can you beat this atmosphere? Great lakefront view with plenty of water, trees and other vineyards to look out upon. They've got a great selection of quality beers and the prices are very reasonable. The food even took me for surprise, as it was served buffet style but tasted as good as any individual plate. Some kind of alfredo chicken that was very tender.

The bartender was great, he knew the beers very well and was able to describe them in a way that I would expect from somebody who works at a brewery/vineyard.

I wish I could remember each beer well enough to review them, but I left very impressed. My favorites were the dopplebock, IPA and the oatmeal stout. The maple stout was good as well. This is a place that I hope I may be able to go back to.
Aug 21, 2011
Photo of jayhawk73
Reviewed by jayhawk73 from Maryland

4.14/5  rDev +8.9%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4
Stopped by Wagner Valley Brewery more for the wine, imagine my surprise when I found out they brewed beer too! The building I was in was a massive gift shop, with everything you could imagine, and then some. If you wind your way back, you can get to the tasting room, which has brewing equipment around it. The older gentleman that helped me was extremely helpful, and had a killer sense of humor to boot. I did a sample of all the beers they had ($1.50/per), and the Tripel was my favorite. All the beers were good though, and I enjoyed all of them. I ended up buying 3 750's of the tripel, 2008, 2009, 2010 for about $50. I did not try the food, so I can't comment on that. If you're in the Finger Lakes region, definitely make a stop at Wagner Valley- it's worth it.
Aug 02, 2011
Photo of akorsak
Reviewed by akorsak from Pennsylvania

4/5  rDev +5.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4
Cruising the Finger Lakes before heading towards Cooperstown.

Atmosphere: Wagner Valley is principally two buildings, the Ginny Lee Cafe and the Store. Brewing equipment and winery functions, along with tasting bars are in the Store. The campus sits on Lake Seneca, maybe a half mile to a mile of vineyards between the shores and the site. Gorgeous views, as you'd expect.

Quality: Friendly staff, greeters aplenty, clean facilities, reasonable prices.

Service: There were at least 4 greeters/cashiers hovering near the entrance. We were here on a Friday, so the big crush was still one day away. Barstaff was friendly.

Selection: 8-10 house beers on tap. The sampling room, assuming you went all in, cost $1.50 to taste all (including the trippelbock). The maple porter and IPA were standouts for me. They do not, as is par for all the breweries we visited, grow their own hops. Seems funny, don't you think?

Food: We passed on food, enjoying instead the beer and views.

Beer and wine are both available to go in six packs, single bottles and growlers (six packs and growlers refer to beer only, dummies).
Aug 02, 2010
Photo of tdawgydog
Reviewed by tdawgydog from New York

4.3/5  rDev +13.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5
Go for the view, stay for the wine and beer. This place has one of the best views of the lake. A massive deck overlooks Lake Seneca. I can't speak for their wine because I didn't get a chance to partake, but I can speak for the beer. Just $1 to partake in the beer tasting, where you get about 9 different beers. Once your done tasting you can purchase pints, samplers, growlers etc. Purchased a growler of Hefe and also IPA. The store is also very nice and has plenty of wine alcohol related junk.

There's a cafe restaurant in the building right next to the winery. They appeared to offer deck seating overlooking the lake. This was one of the nicer and busiest wineries that we visited during our trip to the finger lakes region.

I picked up a growler of IPA for a co-worker and and growler of Hefe for myself. The hefe was apparently just tapped, as it was the beginning of their summer season. This place was pretty busy, but you can't beat the $1 for the beer sampler. There were 8 - 9 beers on tap and each one of them was well done.

If you are touring the Finger Lakes region of NY, I would definitely make a stop at this place and check out their beers and wines if you so fancy.
Jun 02, 2010
Photo of AndyAvalanche
Reviewed by AndyAvalanche from Massachusetts

3.94/5  rDev +3.7%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5
My wife and I were on our 1 year anniversary and decided to goto the Finger Lake region and test out some wineries in the area. Fortunatly there were a couple of places to get some beer as well and this was one of them. We hit up about 7 wineries on our last day and Wagner was one of them. I was really excited because I finally got to try some beer. We got these wine passports so we got free tastings for several select places and this was one of them. Since it was the "off season" just about every place we went to let us try a few extra things, including Wagner. She got to try the wine first, then we went back to the brewery section. They didn't ahave a huge selection, but something in every category. They only thing they currently didn't have on tap was the maple porter (which I was really looking forward to). He let me try everything else, including the Triplebock which is generally a couple of bucks extra. I tended to like the darker beers (as usual). The wheat beers were pretty decent, but in January I wasn't really in the mood. I really liked their Lager, dopple bock, and oatmeal stout. There IPA was actually very excellent as well. I decided to leave with a mix a six pack which came to $10 and my wife got a bottle of wine. I was debating on getting the 750ML bottle of the Triplebock but couldn't justify the money for it, plus we were coming back with so much wine as it was, it would have been difficult to store for the ride home. The beer was a little pricy, but standard for quality craft beer. If I lived in the area I'd likely get some of their products regularly. I'd reccommend getting a trip up there in the off season, it's much more 1-to-1 attention. The staff was really friendly and helpful. He was also knowledgeable about beer, but very curious on how the craft beer scene was in the MA area and wanted to learn about other styles. I really enjoyed it and would certainly do another tasting there and get some more beer, especially a crack at that Maple Porter.
Feb 01, 2010
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Reviewed by slander from New York

3.8/5  rDev 0%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4
All brunched up and looking for a beer (sampler). Couldn't wouldn't shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we've got a 5 hour ride back down at some point, but I'm riding shotgun for once so I'm sans a care, chillin', jabbering on, expressing concerns, opinions, positions, fiddling with the radio. What? Shut up, I don't snore. Always wanted to see this place, well, okay, not always, but fairly recently got it into my head to want to do so, I just never, ever get up here in daylight hours, this Lodi on the lake, Wagner...

You enter through the craft & gift shop and are immediately grilled for your intended destination (where the beer lives, please). Wine, through that door over there, beer, this way, but we still managed to get sucked into a winery tour, and were swept downstairs to see the barrels in storage. Yep, they're vats all right. Oh, marked by date, you say? Run, run away!! Up the stairs again, don't look back, I'm sure they'll lay no chase.

Into the beer room. Corner angled wood bar with a 10 tap tower on the barback counter below shelved pint glassware & growlers. On the opposite wall , an unused 6 tap tower, below shelved same 7 small sample glasses, and chips and pretzels for sale (sadly, no jerky here). A big board above the taps on the back wall lists tap selections, and to the right, beer award medals (GABF, World Beer Cup, Tap NY) and shirts for sale. Windows show a large exterior deck riding an "L" around the back and side with views over Seneca, and connecting over to the wine tasting areas.

Pricey as all hell, a sampler costs a dollar (for the whole sampler, not for each sample glass). I was flush, so I splurged and picked up the entire tab for the 3 of us. Wait, I've got this one, yeah, I'm sure. I did spend some quality time chastising the kids behind the bar for Wagner not attending the previous day's beer festival in Ithaca (Oh, I don't know, it's the beer festival in the Finger Lakes, you're in the Finger Lakes and make beer, duh). The samplers were poured and we got a head start on Phil, out for one of many a smoke. 6 Full timers, The Mill Street Pilsner, light as light does; the Grace House Honey Wheat, clover honeyish; the Dockside Amber Lager, a deep dark color, malty caramel, very nice; the Wagner IPA, not altogether Cascadey, although they are used here; the Caywood Station Oatmeal Stout, roasty, oaty, chocolatey and creamy, yeah; the Sled Dog Dopplebock, sweet alcohol at 8.5%, molassesesque; and 2 seasonals, the Summer Sail Hefeweizen, a good banananana cloviness; the Sled Dog Trippelbock, sugary sweet and chewy alcohol at 10%. The best of the lot was that Dockside Amber Lager, but I liked the Caywood Station Oatmeal Stout & Summer Sail Hefeweizen, as well, and they lemme try the root beer and it was pretty tasty, too.

As we have brunched just beforehand, there would be no looking in on the Sarah Lee General Lee Meriwether Lee Majors Lee Marvin, but it's its own stand alone building right over there. Our resident Heather had said the food here was so-so, so we opted for the Stone Cat Café down the road some instead, a wise choice me thinks. As such, this was more tasting room at a brewery than a brewpub excursion, but with a brewery, winery and restaurant, I could see one being kept busy here for a while. Interesting stop on the trail of grapes.
Oct 03, 2008
Wagner Valley Brewing Co. in Lodi, NY
Brewery rating: 3.74 out of 5 with 912 ratings