Beer Saturday Part II - Peekskill Brewery

After the good time we had procuring our bottles of Flaming Fury at Captain Lawrence, we made our way to Peekskill Brewery in Peekskill, NY. It was a rainy day, but that didn't affect the nice little drive to the town beside the Hudson.



This place is only a year or so old, but its already established itself as a solid stop on any craft beer lover's road trip (or boat trip) through the region.



Their menu consists of a majority of craft breweries on tap in addition to 3-4 of their own brews. When we arrived, they had their Paramount Pale Ale, Yeah Peaches and Wee Heavy on tap. Both the Paramount Ale and the Yeah Peaches were solid choices. We only sampled the Wee Heavy, but something seemed off about it. It had a medicinal, almost chloroseptic taste to it. Maybe it was just a bad tap or something like that. The other two beers were much better.



This here is the PB Paramount Pale Ale. The bartender was very friendly and answered all our beer geeky questions about the brewer and the brewery and how they started.



As you walk down the hallway that connects the two portions of the restaurant, you stumble upon windows that look into the (tiny) brewhouse. Honestly, it's microscopic. The brewer cannot possibly be claustrophobic.. I think one person is about the max-cap of that little room.



Definitely a cool place to check out if you're in the area. I don't know if I'd recommend road-tripping specifically for this place, but plan on stopping in as you're passing through.

Beer Saturday Part I - Captain Lawrence Flaming Fury Release

This past Saturday, my brewing buddies and I went on a short tour of some of the local breweries and brewpubs. First up was a stop at Captain Lawrence in Pleasantville, NY. They were having a release for their latest barrel-aged sour ale, Flaming Fury.



Here you see the crowd forming the line to get their beers. We arrived there at about 10:30 and waited out the rain before getting on the line. At 12:00, Scott Vaccaro himself emerged and announced that it was time to begin. This was the first time I've been to a release at CL, so it was quite a sight to see person after person emerging from the brewery's doors with the maximum allotted 4 bottles awkwardly carried in their folded arms. No lie, despite being around 80th in line, I still had a nervous feeling that it would all be gone by the time we got to the front.



Once you get inside, you get a sense of how small the brewery still is. Despite its small size, there are tons of barrels stacked to the ceiling labeled with all sorts of delicious future brews. Mouth-watering.



After purchasing our bottles (NOTE to anyone who goes to any future releases, its cash only. Somehow I stupidly didn't realize this), we hung around for a bit to sample some of the beers they had on tap for tasting. We had the new Pumpkin Ale, the Smoked Porter and the Double IPA, all of which were quite good. We also perused the brewhouse and took note of how they did things right. Beer geeks get excited by empty grain bags displayed on the wall.



Above you'll see the aftermath. Click the photo to get a closer look. Some of the empty beers displayed on the wall are among the best in the country. The beer community is so generous, sharing their stashes with all...very cool.

Our next stop was Peekskill Brewery in Peekskill, NY, but i'll save that for Part II.

Trying to plan a NY/NJ Brewery/Brewpub Tour for Saturday

So far the plan is

Captain Lawrence for the Flaming Fury Sour Ale release (Pleasantville, NY)
Peekskill Brewpub (Peekskill, NY)
Defiant Brewing Company (Pearl River, NY)
Gaslight Brewery/U-Brew Homebrew Store (South Orange, NJ)
then back to Brooklyn for the No Joke Octoberfest at Spuyten Duyvil:

In Wooden Barrel:
1. Hoffstetten Original Hochzeitsbier von 1810
2. Schneider Organic Weisen-Edel Weisse

In Gravity Keg:
1. Zehender Mönchsambach Bernstein Lager
2. Spezial Rauchbier
3. Will Schederndorf Landbier
4. Bayer Theinheim Unfiltered Lager
5. Sauer Rosdorf Unfiltered Lager
6. Fischer Greuth Rauchbier
7. Fischer Greuth Lager
8. Löwenbräu Buttenheim Lager
9. Klosterbrauerei Weissenohe Dunkel
10. Mahrs Bräu Pils
11. Kraus Hirschaid Pils
12. Lindenbräu Gräfenberg Vollbier

On Tap:
1. Heller-Trum Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock Unfiltered
2. Hofstetten Kuebelbier Zwickel
3. Hofstetten Honig Bock (honey bock)
4. Mahr's Der Weisse Bock
5. Monchshof Festbier
6. Monchshof Schwarzbier

German Mead:
Steinwaelder Hausbrenneri Schraml's Dry Mean (matured in plum brandy oak barrels, 15.5% alc./vol.)


...NO JOKE

Should be quite the Saturday. Does anyone have any recommendations for additional breweries and/or brewpubs in the immediate area that are must-visit?