Peekskill Brewery

I recently discovered that the Peekskill Brewery was kind of, sort of, on the way up to my wife's home town in western Massachusetts. When I say on the way up, I mean it was less than a 30 minute detour out of the way and didn't require crossing the George Washington Bridge. After a slightly disastrous detour to go to DeCicco's a couple years ago where we ended up slightly lost in NYC, my wife has some issues with me suggesting random stops. However, the map directions seemed pretty straightforward so she agreed. Plus, Pax's cousin Linnea had been to a brewery at a little over 5 weeks old, so he really knew he had to get to one when he was younger. It just wouldn't have been respectable if she went to one at an earlier age than him.

After a slightly harrowing drive on streets winding around a mountain, we ended up in the town of Peekskill and then the brewery. It's not terribly obvious that you've arrived but eventually you'll notice the writing on the side of the building like we did. The actual entrance to the building is actually past the first parking lot which we didn't realize. I'm guessing the main parking lot gets full but for lunch on a Saturday it wasn't so bad. But, we parked in the first lot and just walked around to the front, it wasn't like it was far.
I wish I had some pictures of the building, but with Pax in tow I totally forgot to snap a few. Basically, it's two floors with a large bar area on the first floor and then tables and a dining area on the second floor that overlook that part of the building. There's a bar on the second floor, as well, so if the first floor is full, head up. I will say that for a random Saturday, this place was already pretty full on the first floor. Pretty beautiful looking building too. Quite impressive really.

We sat down at a table and ordered our first beers. Jo stuck with the Simple Sour the whole time, which was lightly tart and pretty solid, but I ordered two flights of four beers each. They let you choose the four and most likely your server will offer some advice. Our server was really helpful throughout the meal and offered me some suggestions on which beers to try first.

I didn't take any notes on the beers, but I thought they were all at least above average. The one IPA in this flight, Eastern Standard, was pretty good though it's no surprise as the head brewer here came from Ithaca which is well known for it's IPA, Flower Power. I think this flight actually had one of my favorites of the day which I think was called Common Ground. Basically, they took Hop Common, their steam beer, put it on cask and cold pressed coffee into it. Wonderful coffee flavor permeated the whole body without any bitterness or acidity.

We ordered some food and I got a second flight.

The black IPA in this flight was really good too.

The food, while expensive, was filling and tasty. While the real reason to visit here is for the beer, you won't leave disappointed after your meal. Your wallet might be a bit lighter, but since they are locally sourcing the food and seemed to care about the quality, the cost wasn't particularly surprising or a big deal, at least to me. I'm really glad we decided to detour to check this place out, I just wish I had done it sooner since we aren't heading back up that way any where near as often now. All in all, just a lot of really good beers and I'm a little jealous of the people that live around here. Guess I'll just have to drown my sorrows at Tired Hands.