Heading to Finger Lakes in a few weeks. We went last year and did Seneca, this time we're planning to visit Ithaca & Cayuga Lake. Read up on Ithaca here on BA, but was wondering if anyone had any thoughts, suggestions recommendations when it comes to beer and Cayuga Lake. Thanks in advance.
Pretty simple: 1) visit the new Ithaca beer facility 2) go to finger lakes beverage: one of THE best bottle shops in upstate ny 3) bandwagon brew pub: good eats, ambitious brews 4) Ithaca ale house: fat kid burger and a racer 5 Other spots of note: Ithaca Coffee Company-eats, coffee, bottle shop with solid selection The Piggery-fresh, local pork (if you're into that kinda stuff) Maxie's Supper Club-eats/beers Northstar House-eats/beers
About a 15-20 minute drive past the new Ithaca brewpub, but Horseheads is cranking out amazing beers and are great people too.
There's Bacchus brewing in nearby Dryden, Scale House brewing in North east Ithaca and Rogues Harbor Brewing at Rogues Harbor Inn in nearby Lansing. Also Chapter House pub in Ithaca Collegetown area ( opens at 5pm) is a old time classic that may have begun brewing. A new brewey is located on Dryden road between Ithaca And Dryden but not quite open yet. Same for west side of the lake at Trumansburg- Three Herons brewing is serving some fantastic BBQ but brewing not on line quite yet. Cortland Beer Co in nearby downtown Cortland has 10 solid beers on tap and well worth the 1/2 hour drive to get there. Next street North ( Court St.)from the Cortland brewery is the Red Jug pub - they have 3 pints for $5 on Fridays from 4pm to 9pm and 2$ pints on Saturday- all solid Craft taps.Ithaca Coffee has a second location at the Triphammer mall- great tap selection a good selection of bottled brands. Check out the Boathouse Restaurant in Ithaca on the lake inlet channel- neat decor and good food.
Great suggestions. I'll add that Ithaca Coffee Roasters not only sells retail bottles, but both locations also have small bars with good selections and cool people on staff. They both also do beer tastings and sometimes they'll have a casks on the bar. The Chapter House on Stewart Ave near Cornell has a really nice tap selection, too. I'll also have to give extra endorsements to the Ithaca Ale House and Bandwagon. Really great places.
+1 to the Chapter House. I spent many a night sitting there drinking beer and eating popcorn instead of studying.
This should help you out too. Not all of the breweries are great but you do find some good beers out on the trail. +1 Horseheads http://www.fingerlakesbeertrail.com/content/
