Blue Collar Brewery Inc.

Blue Collar is the 4th brew bub in the town made famous by the Vassar Brewery (and later College) all within walking distance of the Walkway Over the Hudson and downtown Po-town.
Housed in an old industrial building from before before, I remember picking up paper products in a van from there over 40 years ago.
It's a long, kinda dark and lonely walk in from the street but plenty of parking in front and in their lot.
Bathrooms on the left and right as you enter, brewery below on left, shadowed, dusty kitchen on right as you walk in to the bar in back..
Sparse decor, wire rack shelves as a back bar , several large TV's with sports and more sports and one dedicated to old old tv shows - Rawhide, Dragnet, My Mother the Car etc. Lots of old, worn brick and ancient beams remain, a few tables and a few more up a few steps overlooking the bar. 12 stools at the bar, no keno or juke box, video games or food. You can order in, or buy a bag of pretzels.
Mostly older gents - ok that describes me now I guess - but older dammit! Nice guys, mostly members of the Pub Mug Club, always see someone I know from way back or meet someone new to talk beer with. Avoid politics talk here is my advice, then again - you do you.
Food may come back - I've had pretty good and very bad here over the years. The beer though is consistently good if not great. Traditional styles for the most part, a Cream Ale, an IPA ( clear and as it should be) a great Baltic Porter from time to time, a Hazy and a Red - basic stuff but made with care and pride if not imagination.
All 4 BP's in Po-town are decent choices but if you want the one where you don't pay extra to get nothing extra, try Blue Collar.

 

 

Blue Collar Brewery is located inside an old cold storage warehouse on the north side of Poughkeepsie, NY. The building feels very dense, and as you go deeper into it past the open kitchen on your right and the brewery on view in the basement to the left it feels like you're entering into some kind of special 'central chamber'. As you step down into the dining room you'll notice that it's not that large, but there's more room upstairs, and there's plenty of room at the bar if you need to wait for a table. TV's run atop the length of the bar and sports is a big thing here. The exposed brick and wooden floors are very nice, but unfortunately all of those hard surface mean it can get pretty loud sometimes - of course some people like that! There are 8 beers on tap including a cream ale, an IPA, a wheat beer, a Belgian-style, and a porter so they've got all of the bases covered. The menu is a bit limited as well but does the same thing with wings, nachos, quesadillas, burgers, and fish & chips - there's something for everyone. It may or may not be your style for dining, but it at least warrants a stop at the bar for some fresh beer.

 

In the total opposite direction from where I thought we were going but then, well, there we were. Kind of around that park there, and up that way. Brewpub one-two Sunday fun day with (evil) Davo. Oh, ‘keepsie…

Parked in that can I or can’t I lot across the street and entered, letting my eyes adjust. Walked the plank or so it seemed, sunken (look down, there it is) brew room to the left and a mad kitchen to the right (was not expecting that), and through to the rear room. Pass under the mez to the bar; fitted light wood with a vertical plank rough wood base, and foot board for you know what (so my feet don’t swing madly), and seating for a dozen+ on hightop chairs.

Barback is big brick, as are all the walls. Racking on the wall with glassware, growlers, pitchers, and even a little wine. Logo plate displayed on the barback, a shelf on center with growlers and a POS system, and a framed vertical blackboard on the end listing beer selections with ABV’s & IBU’s, and a few wines, too. 6 flats across the top, showing a whole lot of American League East play (we’re watching 4 games simultaneously).

Ancient wood plank floors and a slanted plank ceiling, caged pan lamps over the bar and mounted lanterny types throughout. Nearly a dozen tables of mix & match across the room, and another dozen or so atop the mez, from wherest to survey all that is yours.

A pair of stainless steel towers with 8 taps each sit along the bar; something to grow into. Currently, 5 house beers (Rye Pale Ale, 5.8%, some spicy ryeness; Cream Ale, 5.7%, corny but not too bad to style; Belgian Blonde, 6.5%, very bubblegummy hefe-like with a candy sugar Belgianiness; IPA #3, 7%, not my thing; Oatmeal Stout, 4.8%, I really liked this beer, oaty goodness and all crazy licorice-y). Revisit 2 and a half months out finds 3 of 5 of the same beers on with 2 new additions (ESB, 5.9%, pleasant enough albeit a bit sweet for style; IPA #4, 7%, better than the #3 but still not great).

They do food which was a surprise to me, as I thought this was a brewery with a tasting room or maybe a tap room, and not the brewpub proper that it is. We ‘et a short while ago but I was good for some onion rings now and forever, although I really wanted the fish & chips the guy next to Davo was having, as you know, it looked kind of totally awesome. Was also of the contemplating of wings, nachos, a spicy chicken wrap, or fuck, a salmon avocado BLT.

The guy behind the bar Kevintending is the father in this father/son show; the son being the brewer who I haven’t seen in my two outings here. Real nice folks. Great space, carved out of something something from the late 1800’s. Food menu looks real good (read: need salmon avocado BLT) so I need to hit that when back next. A real nice Oatmeal Stout for me, thank you, and I see they’ve finally gotten around to offering the sampler.

Came when they opened in November of 2014 and again now the following July of 2015. Five in-house beers on tap, yet still not offering a flight for sale; however, I was offered free samples. Tasted the rye pale and IPA.... Both two dimensional and uninteresting. I offered a full pint of IPA. While definitely drinkable, it has a high malt profile to back-up the high bitterness, but there was no hop flavor. I haven't noticed an improvement in beers since opening, they are but bad just not pushing any limits and come off amateurish.

 

Stopped in a random Sunday at noon right when the opened. A nice old brick industrial building in Poughkeepsie. I walked up the stairs through the restaurant seating area and the bar was on the far wall. A nice bar step up with 2 tap towers with about 10 lines each. They currently only serve 5 beers but plenty of space to add more. 5-6 large TV's behind the bar with good viewing. There were only a few customers there so I was able to chat with the bartender for a bit who was really nice and pretty knowledgeable.

Checked out two of their beers while I was there. The Rye Pale Ale and Smoked Stout. Both beers were underwhelming and pretty flat. I could tell the flavor was there but they definitely could use some work. I will pop back in the near future to see if it was just the end of the barrels or a true problem.

I didn't eat any food and it was an off time to gather what kind of atmosphere they get. I would recommend checking it out and hopefully the beers are a little better. Cheers!

 

The building is really cool, lots of brick. The beer is good quality, though limited. The food was a miss for us. Hope to see more beer offerings in the future. They should consider offering local guest taps as more of a draw. That would keep people coming and give them time to get their own beer up to speed.

Happy to see them open, and look forward to seeing them grow.

Rehabbed industrial brick building on the outskirts of Poughkeepsie. Entrance has a walkway that overlooks the brewhouse below and feed into a dining room with a straight bar that seats about 15 and runs the length of the back wall. A dozen or so tables fill the remainder of the room. There is an additional dining area upstairs, but I've never been up there. 8 beers on tap, mostly, on the mediocre side, although the Smoked Brown Porter was very nice. Friendly bartender. I have never tried the food.