Bullthistle Brewing Co.

Day 2 of the pre-Thanksgiving up & outstate runaround with Witz. Having escaped Syracuse fed & unscathed, the route we took was neither the shortest timewise or in distance between points there and C-Town, but it may have been the most scenic. Singing “We skipped the light, Chen-an-go” aloud is strangely telling in Sherburne, NY; a town that only has one stop light…

Little red building with an attachment standalone out on Rte 12. Up and in, the arrows points you to “BEER” should you lose your way. ‘L’ shaped pieced & plank wood topped bar, panel base, & foot box in the front corner. Seating for 7 on high wooden chairs. A pair of stainless 4 non-descript handled tap tower boxes below the bar pasted with brewery & distillery stickers. Barback piece holds growls & glassware shelved. 4X6 blackboard on the adjacent wall lists beer, cider, & wine, along with pint, flight, & growl pricing. Festive gourds on the corner of the bar as Autumn does.

Wide wood plank floors, white ceiling, & beige walls with light decorations (logo brewery pieces and a town map framed). A single flatscreen in the corner over the bar, T shirts for sale, brewery pics, and a ‘It’s a good day to have a good day’ sign. Drop 3 bulb boards chained from the ceiling over the bar, and gumballs about the floor.

8 tables, hightop & low. And there appears to be a lower sunroom space. 4 tables there, malt sacks displayed, & the light bars of 3 lined with hop vines.

It appears the 8 taps usually hold 6 beers and 2 ciders, but as the Harvest Ale had just selfishly kicked, there were only 5 beers up (Beer 30, Flagship Session, 4.6%; Innocence, NEIPA, 5%; Hefeweizen, 5.5%; Amber Ale, 5.5%; Tall, Dark & Tasty Stout, Dry Irish Stout, 5.8%), and 2 guest tap ciders from Critz Farms (Blueberry Cider & Four Screw Cider). There are 3 wines by the glass available, as well.

Got into 3 of the beers (Beer 30, Flagship Session, light & lemony; Innocence, NEIPA, hazy, Mosaic, Citra, & Cascade; Amber Ale, an English Brown Ale, chocolatey, malty, toffee). I’m thinking Amber Ale for the WIN, but the NEIPA was pretty damn good, too.

There are regulars here. I believe this to be so because they know other people here and seemed to know their way around the drink, so it would seem they’ve been here before. That’s how ‘regulars’ works. They do light foodings; apps, salads, & flatbreads, but we had gotten our feed on back in Syracuse before heading out this morning. Tunes? Yes, that happened (Zeppelin, Soundgarden, Counting Crows, Nirvana, Beck, Chili Peppers). Some good beers and friendly folks. First farm brewery in the county, Chenango.

Small brewery with five beers on tap and two guest beers. Beer I sampled was very good. Brewery was serving the beer and was great to talk to. If you are in the area it is worth a stop.

Very small brewery from the outside. The inside however, has a separate seating area and I believe the bartender said a small outdoor seating area to, their tap room was decent in size 2 short bars that could fit a of 5 people for each bar. They had 6 beers on tap with a decent variety of beer styles including a wit, session ipa, stout, peach wheat beer, Pilsner, and my personal favorite a NE IPA. For a small town of 1200 population this NE IPA was stellar. I almost bought a growler that’s how good it was but, I ran out of cash haha. They also had a very good stout. I only tried 4 out of 6 but the stout and NE definitely stood out. Friendly bartender that was talkative and told us about the town and sorts. Very laid back vibe. All in all this is a great place to stop in a very small town.