Finger Lakes breweries?

Going up to the Finger Lakes with the wife for a couple days. Doing a day of just beer stuff. We'll be staying near Ithaca and plan on mostly doing Cayuga Lake area stuff if possible. Definitely going to Ithaca brewery, Wagner Valley and Hopshire Farms and Brewery sounds interesting. Probably will end up at Bandwagon at some point. Any other suggestions? I preferably would like places with tours. Thanks in advance!!!

Most of the other little breweries/brew pubs are small in/around Ithaca so tours are going to be hard to find. I can direct you to a few local brew pubs in downtown Ithaca that offer good food and their own beer to match..There is also a little restaurant with their own brewing system in Lansing, 5 minutes from downtown, called Rogues Harbor.

Ithaca beer is great but try to get there early, That place gets slammed on the weekends and the boy band bar tenders with shirts 2 sizes too small are a pain in the ass to try to order from. Took me 20 minutes standing at the bar to get a beer.

You could switch to wine, lots of little wineries around the lakes. Go hike the gorges and visit watkins glen

Ithaca and Fatheads.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. We're actually staying at rogue's harbor seems like a cool place. Ithaca does a tasting with the tour right?

bnmir said:

You could switch to wine, lots of little wineries around the lakes. Go hike the gorges and visit watkins glen

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we're actually doing a day of beer for me and a day of wine for her so if you have any wineries not to miss near Cayuga lake let me know!

Was up that way a few months back. The wine in the area is ok--and I say this with some confidence coming from California. However, Finger Lakes really excel with cool white varietals. Bully Hill on Keuka was pretty good (not really worth the drive if coming from Cayuga). 90% of the reds I had weren't very good (and most places don't comp on bottle purchases). The best wine tasting is on Seneca lake--and your best bet is to get a passport as wine tastings individually can add up $$$ quickly.

As far as beer, we went to Two Goats Brewing. The beer was decent---if you drive by it the view of the lake from the deck is why you should stop and get a pint. Otherwise, the Ithaca tap houses are the best places to get beer in the area (from the numerous people I spoke with). Check on BeerAdvocate for a good list.

A bit of a drive from Ithaca (about an hour), but I see you're from Kingston, so you could pass through Binghamton and take 17 home. We have Water Street Brewing Company here, they have some really good food and good pints and growler fill-ups. We also have the North Brewery, which is where I go, but they can only sell growlers and do tastings of what they have on tap (5 beers). Black Bear Winery is close to Binghamton, and they have some interesting wines made from different berries and stuff, and I remember them making a good cider but it's been a few years since I've been.

I went to college in Binghamton, ahhh boy do I miss that overcast rainy weather...

jglazer said:

I went to college in Binghamton, ahhh boy do I miss that overcast rainy weather...

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It's still here if you miss it that much!

Maybe a good transition point from beer to wine would be 3 Brothers Wineries & Estates in Geneva on Seneca Lake. I think it's about an hour from Ithaca Brewery. They have 3 wineries on site and their brewery War Horse too. A friend of mine visited there and brought home some War Horse beer for me.

Cortland Beer Company Isn't that far from Ithaca.