Ultimate Hudson Valley Guide to Local Beer and Breweries in 2013

Want to make a small fortune? Start with a big fortune, and go into the beer business.

Yes, that joke has been made about a lot of other endeavors — show business, the restaurant business — but that doesn’t make it any less true for wannabe brewers. The leap from simple homebrewer to professional manufacturer can set you back many thousands of dollars in start-up costs and licensing fees. The payoff: long hours, slim profit margins, and calling in favors from friends and family to help with the heavy lifting.

And yet, more and more happy hopheads are taking the small, first steps into professional brewing. The Brewers Association estimates that more than 400 craft breweries (defined as annual production of six million barrels or less) opened nationwide last year.

Fortunately for us, some of the best are here in the Valley — and more are popping up all the time. Excitement is building on Poughkeepsie’s Main Street as construction continues on the old Mill House (formerly the home of Mill House Panda). This fall, a new brewpub is slated to open at the site, which promises “artfully crafted ales” and an all-out celebration of “Hudson Valley food, farms and beer.”

And there is lots to celebrate. Many of our local breweries are racking up an impressive and ever-growing list of awards, which keeps everyone motivated. And of course most brewers aren’t usually in it for the money — not yet, anyway — they’re in it for the love of beer and all that it stands for: fun, festivity and, in many respects, community. A bar, as anyone old enough to remember Cheers can attest, is where everyone knows your name. Inside the brewing world, everyone knows one another as well, and that’s one of the unexpected benefits of the trade.

“We all help each other,” says Adam Watson of Sloop Brewing Company. They hold monthly meetings, open to all local brewers, to get together, trade ideas, talk shop, and sample each other’s latest concoctions. And they’re all willing to lend a hand. “I talked to Tommy Keegan [of Keegan Ales] for hours, and he was more than happy to help,” Watson says. “He even drew diagrams of how to set up a brewing system.” Garry Brown of Brown’s Brewing in Troy helped Tom Crowell and Jake Cunningham at Chatham Brewing get equipment. “We did a collaboration with Neil Evans at Albany Pump Station to develop a new product,” says Crowell. Cave Mountain brewer Jamie Caligure gives Crossroads Brewery’s Hutch Kugeman a day off each week by helping out with some grunt work. It’s not unknown for one brewer to wash another’s kegs.

For all that bonhomie, however, there is, not far below the surface, a never-ending level of stress. “It’s not like you can just wake up one morning and make beer,” says Alan Daniels of Half Time Beverage. “It’s the most interesting entrepreneurial endeavor you can become a part of. You can have the best recipe, but you need business smarts before anything else.” From getting the financing — “it takes forever to get up enough money to open a brewing facility,” Daniels says — to wading through the Byzantine licensing requirements and the mandatory beer distribution system, brewers quickly learn that they may be in over their suds-soaked heads. The good ones stick it out, though, because they just can’t imagine doing anything else.

And they tend to stick it out here because the Hudson Valley is a great place to be; Crowell says it is actually underserved compared to other markets. “There aren’t as many breweries per capita as in Vermont, Maine, or Boston,” he says, “so the market hasn’t gotten overly competitive.” Which leaves room for even more brewers in the future. “We are in an industry that is still in its infancy,” says Daniels. “Everyone wants local. It’s growing, it’s exciting.”

See below for our 15 favorite local breweries, some beer history, a new hops co-op, and our top five beer bars and brews.

	Keegan Ales, Kingston The best brews and news to come out of Kingston’s Keegan Ales in 2013
	Newburgh Brewing Company, Newburgh The best brews and news to come out of Newburgh Brewing Company in 2013
	Hyde Park Brewing, Hyde Park The best brews and news to come out of Hyde Park Brewing Company in 2013
	Sloop Brewing, Poughkeepsie The best brews and news to come out of Poughkeepsie’s Sloop Brewing in 2013
	Peekskill Brewery, Peekskill The best brews and news to come out of Peekskill Brewery in 2013
	Skytop Steakhouse and Brewing Company, Kingston The best brews and news to come out of Kingston’s Skytop Steakhouse and Brewing Company in 2013
	Rushing Duck Brewing Company, Chester The best brews and news to come out of Chester’s Rushing Duck Brewing Company in 2013
	C.H. Evans Brewing Company at the Albany Pump Station, Albany The best brews and news to come out of Albany’s C.H. Evans Brewing Company in 2013
	Captain Lawrence Brewing Company, Elmsford The best brews and news to come out of Elmsford’s Captain Lawrence Brewing Company in 2013
	Chatham Brewing Company, Chatham The best brews and news to come out of Chatham Brewing Company in 2013
	Cave Mountain Brewing Company, Windham The best brews and news to come out of Windham’s Cave Mountain Brewing Company in 2013
	Brown’s Brewing Company, Troy The best brews and news to come out of Brown’s Brewing Company in Troy in 2013
	Crossroads Brewery, Athens The best brews and news to come out of Athens’ Crossroads Brewery in 2013
	Defiant Brewing Company, Pearl River The best brews and news to come out of Pearl River’s Defiant Brewing Company in 2013
	Gilded Otter Brewery, New Paltz The best brews and news to come out of New Paltz’s Gilded Otter in 2013
	The History of Beer: Albany, New York, Once the Largest Brewing Hub in America Sudsy state: The Valley’s extensive beer history is rediscovered
	The King of Beers: Half Time Beverage, Poughkeepsie Alan Daniels’ Half Time Beverage remains one of the world’s best places to buy — or just browse — brews
	Five Can’t-Miss Hudson Valley Brews Alan Daniels of Half Time Beverage in Poughkeepsie weighs in on his bucket list of local suds
	Top Five Hudson Valley Beer Bars in 2013 The Valley’s top five bars that take their craft brew collection to a new level
	Dutchess Hops Cooperative at Eastern View Farm in Lagrangeville to Create First Major Commercial Hop Yard in the Hudson Valley Things are hopping: A new Lagrangeville co-op brings hops production back to the Valley