Mid-Atlantic breweries in planning (2020)

Damn, that's some service! Excited to hear how those beers are.

 

Got another opening: Roaring 20s in New Lebanon opened for growler fills on Saturday. Gonna check them and Roe Jan out for sure if everything is opened next month.

 

And another: Bagg's Square in Utica said they're ready to start brewing and their space inside is good to go. Looks huge and stunning, too. Breweries out that way can re-open next Friday so maybe they'll have some beers for growler/crowler fills then.

That's most of what was supposed to open around here. Now only waiting on Great Sacandaga (Broadalbin), Rail-to-River (Ravena), and Bye-I (Cohoes, and they honestly may have beer to go by sometime this week).

Well, and also the new Common Roots brewery which is coming along very nicely.

 

Torch & Crown's first brick-and-mortar spot is now open in Soho.

 

Lost Borough in Rochester is selling everything (brewery, equipment, IP, etc) to a startup called Heroes Brewing. So LB is gonna wind down very soon and re-open the taproom as Heroes sometime over the summer.

Also in 585 news, Birdhouse Brewing is opening in Honeoye. Just growlers-to-go to start but I imagine they'll be opening in a few weeks since Rochester taprooms can re-open for inside service next Friday.

https://www.democratandchronicle.co...novated-grist-mill-ontario-county/3085985001/

 

Bagg's Square in Utica opening on Friday which, what timing! I was gonna be out there Saturday as it is. Gonna check out that, Seven Hamlets and pooooosssibly Heelpath and report back.

 

Bagg's Square: One of the most beautiful taprooms I've ever seen. It's in an old historic building downtown, exposed brick and hardwood floors everywhere, a real minimalist-but-homey vibe and the place is huge. Nice courtyard for outdoor seating. Had a hoppy blonde, hefe and IPA. Hoppy blonde was forgettable, but the hefe was super nice and the IPA was in that Maine Beer Co juicy-but-crisp style which was impressive.

7 Hamlets: This is a nice space too. It's got an upscale local-rural taproom vibe going on, tons of space inside and a huge wrap-around porch out front. Had a very nice dry irish stout, nice saison and nice NEIPA. Nothing revolutionary but great variance on the taplist for sure. Also a dope mini-golf place in close walking distance for whenever that opens back up.

Heelpath: Very much a local watering hole vibe, but the one beer I had was good, plenty of outdoor seating and very dog-friendly.

 

Common Roots in the home stretch -- moving stuff over from their temporary taproom now and shooting for an early July opening for the new spot.

 

Bye-I in Cohoes is open. Kind of weird, they didn't advertise the opening at all it was just a random 'come down and try a flight' Intsgram post and I was like, "oh, guess they're open now." I guess such is how these things are gonna go during COVID.

I checked out Roe Jan and Roaring 20s a couple weekends ago. Sat outside and nowhere near any other humans in both instances. Enjoyed the beer and the spots at both. Roe Jan has a gorgeous deck (I would imagine inside is too, but didn't check it out) and I really dug their pils, farmhouse and NEIPA. Nice, varied taplist of about 12 beers. Dope fuckin' thai eggrolls there too.

Roaring 20s is an old something-or-other repurposed for a brewery, had some seating inside and a shitton of space outside. They had tables but you could bring your own lawn chairs too if you wanted. Thought their kolsch and IPA were both very good -- the latter was a malty-but-still-fruity effort akin to Good Nature's Annie (so I dug the hell out of it) and the staff was incredibly welcoming.

All staff and patrons were masked up at both places, too, which I feel should be mentioned too given reports of places (not breweries, necessarily) not giving a fuck about that sort of thing.

 

The effort shows. And I don't remember being ever welcomed to a brewery as brightly and genuinely as I was by the staff there. That's definitely nothing I require from a place but it goes a long way into making me want to come back and spend money there.

 

And yeah, all the early word on Tin Barn has been terrific.

Can't wait to do an EQ/RD/TB/Drowned Lands loop when the latter opens up.

 

Rushing Duck! Sorry -- went a little acronym-heavy there haha.