Vermont to Finger Lakes

When you're passing through NY: Lake Placid brew pub, Common Roots brewing (just opened, but doing great things), Henry St. Taproom (and many other places in Saratoga), Bombers Burrito Bar in Albany (for food mostly). Enjoy!

 

It depends on where you cut over to I-90. If you go down I-87, Shmaltz Brewing is in Clifton Park, a bit north of Albany.

 

Nothing better then a hike in Ithaca (even in the winter) then a visit to the brewery.

 

You definitely have most of the standout breweries on your list already. If you're going to be in the Rochester area, I would check out Stoneyard and Swift Water Breweries. We also have a couple great breweries that just opened in the Auburn area, The Good Shepherds and Prison City brew pub

 

Yes, come hike! Ithaca Beer is up and down, brew-wise, but there's always lots to sample and the food is great.

 

Don't know when you are coming, but two goats is going to be closed from 2/16-3/2. Best advice is to check out the finger lakes beer trail website. Be forewarned though, a lot of the places listed (especially if its a winery), do not make their own beer. They only sell contract brews. I would skip ithaca as it is no longer a quality brewery. Go to Nedloh instead as their head brewer used to be at ithaca.

 

Two Goats is a really fun place, especially when there's live music. For example, I'll be rocking the room on 3/6 . If you're around, come enjoy The Small Kings.

 

If you're taking 88 over to Horseheads from Burlington, you'll pretty much pass right by Ommegang. Probably worth a stop.

Edit: I meant 88 to Horseheads from Albany. But big picture, I guess that would be from Burlington too.

 

My wife and I actually hit naked dove, abandon and climbing bines today. The beer was the best at climbing bines - although I have to go back once the weather gets nicer so I can play their onsite 9 hole frisbee golf course! The atmosphere was great at abandon. And the prices were the best at Naked Dove.

Naked Dove is located in a traditional industrial setting for a small brewery. It is unassuming from the outside and inside. Not really a place to chill out for long but was welcoming and orderly. A flight of 6 beers was 4$ and that included a branded tasting glass and a $2 discount if you bought beer (all of which were 9$ per growler, 13/per if you bought one of their screw top growlers, 29/per if you purchased one of their swing top growlers.

Abandon offered 12-15 beers ranging all different styles and a flight of 4 cost 5$. They put the 'farmhouse' into farmhouse brewery. Beautiful building off the beaten path and a nice place to kick back during the cold upstate winter months. Not exactly my style but my wife enjoyed the oatmeal stout. Growler prices ranged from 15-25$ depending on what your into. Tasting glass cost 2$ to purchase. It snowed like crazy today and my car couldn't make it all the way up to the brewery. We parked on the side of the road and a group of drunken marines picked us up on their way to the brewery.

I would really suggest visiting climbing bines hop farm on your trip. It is about 20 min from abandon. The tasting room is small and modern. The the growler prices were not cheap (18$ maybe?) but tasting were 4/6$ and 9/10$ (included tasting glass). Good range of styles. My favorite beer (of the 15 or so we tried today) was the 100% New York State IPA. A delicious unfiltered sessionable ipa. All ingredients grown in new york most of which come from within 5 miles of the brewery. Really the essence of localized craft beer. While we were talking with the bartender (who was part owner and provided very good customer service/banter and with an additional 3-4 tastes on the house) he mentioned that they have a 9 hole frisbee golf course on the premises and they sell a few different frisbees as well. They also sold their own swing top growlers and I picked up one of those dogfish head style ipa glasses for 5$

 

That's interesting...

We visited Abandon, where we were really impressed by both beer and atmosphere. And we skipped Climbing Bines, because my brother, who is a local, told us the beer is pretty weak (and he's typically not even that difficult to please).

 

I would agree. When visiting the finger lakes this summer - we stopped at Horseheads, Market Street brewpub, Keuka, Abandon, and Climbing Bines. I thought the beer was the weakest at Climbing Bines.

 

Abandon is a must, glad to see it was 1st on your list.

 

Tasted a great BB Stout from Hopshire Farms East of Ithaca recently. Probably worth a stop if you're coming in from that direction.