On the grounds of Old Adriance Farm, Black Snake Brewing is a small-scale brewery with big Hudson Valley flavor.
A beautiful stretch of countryside lies in the quiet in-between of Poughkeepsie and Rhinebeck. Within this panorama of verdant treescapes and rolling acres, the hamlet of Staatsburg is often overlooked by cars coasting along the length of Route 9G. On their way to bustling Market Street in Rhinebeck or south to energized downtown Poughkeepsie, drivers bypass the rolling grounds that connect the spaces, sometimes without ever considering what lies beyond that well-worn yellow-striped roadway.
Yet, perhaps they wouldn’t if they knew that it’s precisely on this blissful sprawl of land that Old Adriance Farm resides. A family-owned, women-led farm and rustic event space, Old Adriance Farm is a delightful pitstop for everything from fall pumpkins to holiday wreaths. Manned by three generations, the setting is home to countless animals, a vegetable garden, and even a farm store. This autumn, it added one more credential to its list of reasons to visit.
Beer.
Opened at the beginning of November, Black Snake Brewing Company is a new venture for the Old Adriance Farm team, which already stays perfectly busy with weddings and events, not to mention a whole slew of four-legged friends. Yet the idea was a longtime dream for Samantha Coon, the farm’s event coordinator, who first envisioned it in a daydream.
“About three years ago I was very pregnant and fell asleep during a pedicure,” she jokes. “I had a dream that I was cutting the ribbon at this grand venue.”
Her dream came true on November 9, when she and her mother, Stacey (who she dubs “the big boss”), welcomed an overwhelming number of guests for the debut of its first-ever beers. There were three brews on tap, ranging from Creek Road Cream Ale to Angry Robb’s IPA and Poppi’s Pale Ale, and they all nearly cleared out. The IPA was the most popular drink of the day, but just barely. Thanks to the positive consensus on the Creek Road Cream Ale, the brewery plans to make it the signature drink at Old Adriance.
“We went through about 92 percent of our product at the grand opening,” Coon enthuses, adding that her brewmasters are already hard at work to produce larger batches. The brewers in question — Bill Storey and Pedro Mejia — are local homebrewers who sold Coon and her family on their dunkel (a coffeelike brew) and raspberry saison, the latter which was produced with local berries. To craft the beer, the duo make use of the eight varieties of hops — Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Comet, Hallouen, Liberty, South Cross, and Triple Pearl — grown onsite. They currently use a 1BBL system to brew, although they’re branching out to collaborate with Cousins Ale Works in Wappingers Falls in order to tap into the expanded facilities.
As far as the experience at Black Snake goes, the brewery prioritizes local first. It dedicates three of its six taps to its own beers, with another three left open to showcase a rotating selection of local brews from makers like Cousins Ale and Slate Point Meadery in Pleasant Valley. The brewery hopes to establish the three debut brews as its signatures, with a changing inhouse selection as the brewers see fit. Of course, that’s just on the hoppy side of things.
For something other than beer, visitors can sip New York State libations from Taconic Distillery, Hudson Valley Distillery, Millbrook Winery, and Milea Winery, to name a few. Drink specials (apple cider mimosas, anyone?) made with local ingredients vary by month, with a goal to keep every visit to the farm unique.
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Admittedly, Black Snake Brewing doesn’t need to try too hard to ensure visitors have a one-of-a-kind experience. As a true farm brewery, it charms with a rural, family feel at every corner.
“On any given day while visiting the brewery, you may be greeted by our friendly flock of free-range chickens or Dolly and Loretta, the sweetest goats around,” Coon says. In addition to the farm upkeep, she and her mother, father, and three children manage the farm store, a hub for local artisan fare that’s just as perfect to take home as it is to snack on at the brewery. While the brewery itself does not have food, it happily welcomes bites brought in from the farm store. In warmer months, Old Adriance hosts food trucks for onsite events as well.
Black Snake Brewing may still be setting into the hops scene in Dutchess County, but it’s happy to join the ranks of producers like Arrowood Farm Brewery and Plan Bee Farm Brewery. Looking ahead, it plans to drop a wheat beer and a dunkel in winter, with pop-up events like burger and pizza nights to come.
Black Snake Brewing Company
148 North Creek Rd, Staatsburg
Fri 3-7 p.m., Sat 12-7 p.m., Sun 12-5 p.m.
