The 3 of us are doing a baseball / golf trip in three weeks. We are going to a Batavia Muckdogs game on Wed June 4th (630 pm), we will be driving up Glenmore PA but prob will not be there until 4pm at the earliest. I was thinking about hitting Eli Fish Brewing in Batavia. We are staying in Buffalo (Hampton Inn Downtown) that night and I think we will get to the hotel around 9pm so figured hit some local bars around the hotel since most of the breweries will be closed by the time we get to them. Thursday we go to Toronto for Phillies / Bluejays game(will post in Canada forum) Friday driving from Toronto to Syracuse and golfing at Ravenwood Golf Club (Victor, NY), Mets game (635) and hotel is 5 minutes from the stadium. Saturday we head to Binghamton and golfing at Ely Park (Binghampton, NY) then the Rumble Ponies game then head home after the game. Looking for recommendations (beer or golf) on the route to Syracuse from Toronto and the route from Syracuse to Binghampton. Also any recommendations for Batavia/Buffalo, Syracuse and Binghampton.
Buffalo, Rochester, and Avon have Mortalis locations. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/52338/ If you’re willing to take a slight detour into Rochester, via i490, Strangebird is a worthy destination, with lots of caned goodness to-go. They also have solid food options. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/60477/ On your way back to i90 is Aurora’s tap room. Good beer modest to-go options. They also have a taproom in Syracuse, which I hope to visit soonish. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45871/ - https://www.brewaurora.com/rochester - https://www.brewaurora.com/syracuse As for golf, Ravenwood is pretty good, and I have lost a bunch of balls there. There are too many comparable to spectacular courses to list, so just do a search on google maps and check out their websites. If the above suggestions aren’t to your liking, then I can suggest several others, depending on your preferences and willingness to venture off the freeway. @micada has the down low on Buffalo. Maybe try @ColdOne for Syracuse Binghamton has options however I’m less familiar with them Toronto, try @Coronaeus @scott451 or @Electros Good luck, there will be an embarrassment of riches along your journey.
If you go through Rochester before hitting Batavia, map out One Stop Brew Shop. They are a quasi-distributor for the region and get a nice batch of craft beers regularly. It’s about 40 minutes from EF. They have WeldWerks Diez Anos De Medianoche and Coconut Coffee Medianoche in stock…come on now! Eli Fish is a nice place with some good sleeper beers, e.g., Heavy Maple, Ol’ Stumpy Boi, any barrel aged stouts they might have, 100th Meridian Barleywine (if in stock)… Mortalis is a must BUT they (both Buffalo and Avon) are closed on Wednesdays. I work minutes from your Buffalo hotel pick, so if you had any specific beer(s) of great interest, let me know and maybe we can work out an in-person hand-off Thursday morning. Or, see if @TCgenny is going to that ball game… In the immediate area of the hotel are a bunch of craft breweries like Other Half, Resurgence, Southern Tier, Big Ditch, Frequentem, Briar Brothers, Spotted Octopus, Belt Line, Pearl Street Brewery, Hofbrau House, plus less crafty places like Flying Bison, Rusty Nickel and a variety of hard core Buffalo corner bars to fill up on Genny, Labatts, PBR… Ravenwood is nice. You should like that. Cheers!
South of Syracuse, if you're up to go a little off 81, Meier's Creek in Cazenovia. They have a tap room in Case, too, but the farm that was built by Empire that precipitated their collapse ended up cleaning up nicely for MC. In Binghampton area, Beer Tree, either Farm or Factory are good. I think there's one more location maybe closer to the ballpark, but I have only been to the 2 I mentioned. Good food and beer at both.
Binghamton you're gonna want the Beer Tree Farm. Not far off 81, very good beers, tons of taps, food is good. And if it happens to be nice out (a big fuckin' if this summer apparently) they've got a huge and gorgeous outside area. Not much else to speak of in Bing unless you head out to Endicott but that's a 20-minute detour. Syracuse you have WAY more in the way of options. I would hit Buried Acorn, very close to the 90/81 interchange, tons and tons of styles, lots of to-go beer, good vibe and I think their barrel-aged stuff is some of the most slept-on in all of NY. If you've got time for two stops, Aurora Brewing just opened a taproom not far off 81. Super cool space, great hazies and sours and will also have plenty of to-go options. If you have a LOT of time, swing on over to Underground Beer Lab. A bit out of your way and the taproom kind of stinks but they make some of the best beer you'll find upstate. Buffalo has a stupid, stupid amount of options. Like you could spend 2-3 days hitting everything there. The good news is Buffalo ain't that big and is easy to get around in so you can for sure hit a few spots but the ones I'd prioritize are, in no order: - Frequentum - Thin Man - Mortalis - Big Ditch - Other Half - Autark - Community Beer Works - Briar Brothers You'll kind of have to piecemeal what works best for where you are and how much time you've got but honestly you're gonna find great beer and super friendly people anywhere in that city you go. If you have more specific questions hit me up, I've lived in or frequented all of these places so I got you.
FYI CBW and Thin Man are both not open for bar / pick-up business. CBW acquired TM a few years ago and evidently they’re still having issues. Retail at stores only, with an infrequent dock sale at random times.
Ah forgot that Thin Man was in that weird limbo mode, but CBW is news to me. Looked like it happened in November of last year? Hopefully they both get shit sorted.
Agreed. They both have some good BA offerings, but for now they are Minkie Boodle and yellow beer centric.
What in the god damn fuck. Just looked it up and closed their taproom in March. Cool that they're still making beer and I love a (Stephen A. Smith voice) weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed-uhhhhh seltzer too but that was a regular stop from me on the way out to the Finger Lakes.
Huge agreement with Buried Acorn’s barreled beers. They had a taproom just outside of Ithaca for a bit, and we marveled at what they put out—both stouts and sours from out of the barrel. Also some decent lagers and hoppy beers. Really just a little bit of everything.
