In April I am looking to take a trip to the Rochester area. Looking for any thoughts on where I might stop on the way. Bottle shops, breweries etc. I'll be running down 80/90 from Ohio. Any feedback would be appreciated from BA's familiar with the area's I might pass by.
Take a stop in to Southern Tier. It's not too far from I-90. From there, if your final destination is Rochester, you can go one of two ways. 1. Get back on the 90 and go through Buffalo where you could stop into Premier Gourmet, a great bottle shop, Community Beer Works, a nano brewery, and Blue Monk, a great craft beer bar. Then head to Rochester where you can go to the Genessee Brew House, Beers of the World, Nathaniel Square, and Tap and Mallet or Tap and Table. 2. If you have more time you can hope on 17/86 from Southern Tier and head east towards the Finger Lakes. Then you can stop into Horseheads Brewing, Ithaca, Finger Lakes Beverage and then go up the Finger Lakes and stop at several smaller breweries. This way is admittedly much longer but probably has better stops and scenery. Either way if you get to Rochester and want to trade some Black Note, or any other Michigan beers, or just meet up with some fellow BA's at Tap and Mallet let me know.
Sometime in April Tap & Mallet is having a Sierra Nevada total tap over !! I attended the first and lets just say the tap list was IMPRESSIVE !! I wont miss this one , I know it is on a Saturday not sure of actual date tho.
When your in Rochester check out tap and mallet, once a month they do tap takeover events from different breweries. Also the old toad is worth checking out
I'll second this. Also definitely take Mark's advice and hit up Ithaca/Horseheads/FLBC - definitely worth the trip.
We do get southern tier, dfh and I love weyerbacher but not sure what else you guts see. It would be cool to find some HF.
Best thing we get that you don't is Firestone walker. Sometimes I can get heady topper from some friends in Vermont but only NYC has HF and that is extremely limited.
