Easydrinking pale golden flatheaded cream ale with celery-watered crisping plies hop-dried grassy earthiness to champagne-dried green grape esters and mild herbage over rice-sugared white breaded pilsner malts.
GROOVE KEEP IT CLEAN CREAM ALE
GROOVE SCRANTON FRINGE ALE
Tidy red ale/ hazy IPA blend forwards straight-up lemony orange, apple and peach tanginess to mild grapefruit-peeled piney Chinook hops (of an IPA) with lightly spiced toasted amber graining (of a red ale).
GROOVE BROOKS DRIFT WHEAT ALE
Smooth easygoing pale wheat flagship lets cucumber-watered lemony orange rot and sparkling champagne effervescence merge atop white wheat spine for mild summertime refresher.
GROOVE GARDEN PARTY ’24 HONEY LEMON PILSNER
Briskly dry raw-honeyed lemon puree souring picks up tart orange oiling, green grape tannins, green mango salting and bitter lime peel splurge atop bready pilsner malt base of spritzy German-styled lemon-juiced summertime fun.
GROOVE BUB’S PILSNER
Dry Bohemian pilsner with musky grain husk, barnyard straw astringency and herbal hop earthiness given musty fungi dewiness as spritzy lemony orange Seltzer fizz and dark floral whims reach corn sugared bottom. Heady lil pils.
LASTING JOY BREWERY
TIVOLI, NEW YORK
In the tiny Hudson Valley village of Tivoli, LASTING JOY BREWERY opened in June 2022. “Down on a winding farm road,” this nifty mod farm-to-table pub utilizes mostly locally grown ingredients at its cozy greenish shingled barnhouse. Glass-enclosed metal Industrial benched tables and a warm couch surround the bar and brewtanks are stored to the right.
Lasting Joy’s centralized slate topped octagon-shaped bar features a gorgeous tiled turnstile draught board serving beery fountain drinks. Outside, Adirondack chaired firepits add further seating.
Mocktails, cider, wine and snacks were available alongside Lasting Joy’s highly approachable suds. My wife and I grab seats at the bar noontime on a sunny Friday, November 2024 to enjoy all ten varied home brews.
Rustic Czech-styled pilsner, Two Rivers, combined dry mineral graining with grassy Saaz hop herbage, leaving saw-dusted barnyard hay, rye and alfalfa snips.
A dryer Vienna Lager, ILOVIT contrasted its leafy hop astringency and apple-skinned dried fruiting with mild chestnut-roasted caramelization.
Dewy raw-honeyed marzen lager, Leafs Peeper, sunk leafy hop oiling and earthen truffle fungi into red-orange fruiting.
Gingery cinnamon sticks and brown-sugared nutmeg, clove and thyme seasoning led pumpkin pied Hudson Harvest Pumpkin Ale, leaving a honeyed wheat crust.
Soft-toned oak-aged sour blonde ale, Sophomore Slump, let buttery Chardonnay wining and honey mead sweetness contrast sharply acidic white wine vinegaring as its tart peach adjunct hid apricot and tangerine snips.
Honey mead-inspired Belgian wheat ale, Beekeeper’s Bliss, picked up cotton-candied butterscotch sweetness and botanical orange blossom backup.
Citric pine-embittered hazy IPA, Clouds Over Clermont, utilized woody Saaz hops, melon-like Cashmere hops and earthily floral Mackinac hops to engage its sharp citrus thrust.
Murkily tan nickel-hued Brut IPA, Pick Your Own Grape, let Concord grape tannins pick up enzymic champagne-sparkled white wining and mild orange oiling for its green hop earthiness.
Nearly as good as a beechwood-seared German smoked helles, Smoke Follows Beauty brought stylish Band-aid astringency to salami-pastrami cured meatiness and sweet smoked barley malting.
Wintry dark ale, Pie Chai Porter, plied sweet chai tea to pine nut, gingerbread, nutmeg and peppermint incense illusions above dark chocolate base.
LASTING JOY MIGHTY STOUT
Rich pastry stout collab with Mighty Donuts sinks maple-glazed donut caking into dark roast chocolate malting, creamy bourbon vanilla midst and tarry espresso bittering, picking up latent black licorice, burnt caramel and sweet burgundy snips.
LASTING JOY SOPHOMORE SLUMP SOUR BLOND ALE
In the bottle, tart peach adjunct tucked into vinous white-wined green grape tannins and honey mead-like sweetness for oak-aged 2nd anniversary celebrator. In the backdrop, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigios illusions absorbed by mild whiskey malt tinge and given slight peppercorn pungency.
OLD FACTORY BREWING COMPANY
CAIRO, NEW YORK
Inside a former bottling plant alongside Catskill Park in the trout-fishin’ town of Cairo, OLD FACTORY BREWING COMPANY has occupied this red brick walled, cement-floored warehouse space since December 26, 2020. Owned by Tim Cornelison and his son, Old Factory churns out a consistent variety of reliable mainstream fare.
A covered front porch leads patrons to the old Industrial watering hole. Its beautiful epoxy-stained ivory slate bar top with Classical gold trim siding welcomes happy quaffers with twenty seats flowing down a narrow hallway leading to a patio-tabled backspace. There are 24 draught handles stationed at the bar. The restored block wood front wall, strung Edison lights and work lamps add to the small town rusticity.
Sandwiches, wraps, burgers and mac ‘n cheese fit the small pub menu on my dusky November ’24 stopover.
Soft-tongued lemon spicing and subtle floral daubs perked up Brilliant Blonde, despite its dishwater Seltzer phenols.
Mild apple-orange-pear fruiting picked up mild fungi musk for Nutrunner Pale Ale, a honeyed pale malted moderation.
Leafy hop oils soaked the honeyed orange-red-yellow fruiting surfing the lemon Seltzer fizz of seasonal Octoberfest.
Buttery Hogan’s Alley Red retained raw-honeyed astringency for apple, orange and peach fruiting given dewy peat mossing.
Dry NEIPA, Window Bars, placed lemon-soured guava and green grape tartness next to milder orange peel sweetness.
A dark bronze hue stood out for fruitier NEIPA, Cairo Haze, regaling grapefruit, navel orange, peach and mango fruitiness over dry oated wheat.
Juicy Mosaic hopped West Coast IPA, Mosaic, showcased lemon-peeled yellow grapefruit bittering complemented by mild mandarin orange sweetness contrasting lacquered pine resin.
The only dark ale on my autumn visit was Lil Holiday Stout, a wintry celebrator with dry-spiced chocolate roast, light vanilla creaming and pine nut toasting.
UNION STREET BREWING COMPANY
HUDSON, NEW YORK
Entering thru a side entrance and up the stairs to a spacious beergarden across the multi-floored blue grey barn house, Hudson’s UNION STREET BREWING COMPANY, a converted 1930’s warehouse, features a black sillstone-topped bar with dual draught stations, high ceilinged wood beams, exposed rafters and piping, porcelain-styled concrete floors, a few community tables and wall-paneled benches.
Opened for biz July, 2023, Union Street spreads to the lower level, where a couched billiards room opposes a light lounge space. Brewer Keir Hamilton (formerly of Sixpoint/ Alewife) and owners Emma & Paul O’Donnell enjoy crafting ‘hop-forward’ ales alongside pleasantly understated beers (many distinctly Euro styled). Light pub cuisine went well with the approachable suds.
At noontime on a Sunday in November ’24, the black patio-furnished beergarden fills up with local families while my wife and I consume ten tidy treats at the plastic-stooled bar.
Floral lemon spicing received brusque IPA-fruited bittering (grapefruit rind, orange peel, pineapple) for sharper-than-expected German pilsner, Ten Days Of Perfect Tunes, countering its grassy hop astringency with biscuity pale malts.
Stylish banana-clove sweetness embraced the oaken vanilla-dried green grape esters of Weizenfelder, a slightly soured hefeweizen.
Zestful dry-hopped Citra-Mosaic combo powered hazy IPA, Planning An Escape, letting sunshiny lemon brighten salty gooseberry-guava tartness, yellow grapefruit bittering and mandarin orange tang atop creamy oats.
Classic West Coast-styled IPA, Tread Lightly, retained dry citric pined identity as grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering gained candied pineapple-tangerine tartness given waxy perfumed pine needling.
Utilizing Simcoe, Amarillo and Cashmere hops, dryer west Coast IPA, Cancelling Plans, sank dank pine resin into lemon-seeded grapefruit bittering over lightly honeyed malts.
Briny lemon pith bittering circled orange peel sweetness in a musky fungi setting for In The Intern, a lightly meringue-creamed saison.
Oaken white wine-barreled ‘mixed’ saison, The Sun Is Getting Heavy, dispensed buttery Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and honey mead wining for its earthen barnyard-dried pilsner malt rusticity.
Zesty orange peeled coriander spicing and grains of gingery paradise paced boozy (9.3% ABV) tripel, Superbier, spiked by rum-sugared banana, buttery Chardonnay, lemon curry and dried cherry.
Casual dark mild, A Winter’s Moon, a classic Brit session ale, let nutty burnt coffee seep into peat-smoked dark-roast hop char.
Dark-roast chicory coffee and dark cocoa enabled embittered black malts to infiltrate dry coffee stout, The Grind Never Stops, today’s final libation.
RETURN BREWING
HUDSON, NEW YORK
The story goes a New York-based team of brewing industry veterans came together before the autumn of 2021 and formed RETURN BREWING (initially at the former Crossroads brewery in nearby Catskill). Specializing in Eastern European-styled pilsner-lagers plus mixed fermentation ales, honey meads and barrel-aged fodder (some with foraged sources), local businessmen Mikey Lenane (ex-Sixpoint/ Hudson Valley brewer), long time pal JD Linderman and Jack Liakas share a mutual love for adventurous beer.
Across the railroad tracks from Upper Depot Brewing Company, Return’s current Hudson residency began in 2023. Its tan overhead-doored brick garage houses a 12-seat, L-shaped, yellow wood-topped bar with barrel-seated butcher block tables strewn along the rest of the cement floor. Stringed Edison lights and exposed pipes line the walls. Ciders, wines and cocktails are available as well.
My wife and I consumed a fine kolsch and stout at the crowded bar on a Friday twilight, November ’24.
I brought home Return’s Polished Pilsner, Westwhere IPA and Satin Jacket Czech-style Dark Ale (all reviewed in Beer Index).
Rustic kolsch, Come Back, let grassy-hopped lemon musk spread thru dry champagne-sparkled green apple tartness and white grape esters.
Commodious stout, Shadow Line, combined coffee-milked dark chocolate with dark caramel, bonfire toffee and maple molasses contrasted by hop-roasted oats char.
UPPER DEPOT BREWING COMPANY
HUDSON, NEW YORK
Directly across the street from Return Brewing, Hudson-based UPPER DEPOT BREWING COMPANY maintains a renovated 19th Century train station. Set in a charmingly V-shape roofed brick railroad depot with a gray wraparound deck, its post-mod Industrial wood-floored, steel-designed interior includes a 12-seat L-shaped bar featuring centralized draught handles (and 4 TV’s) plus several wood tables and a snazzy mezzanine.
Long-time friends Monty Bopp and Aaron Maas combined their love of brewing after getting established in the local culinary industry, opening Upper Depot December 28, 2022.
A Western-clad couple danced to an excellent Country bluegrass band playing along the back wall space.
My wife and I visited Upper Depot after our Return stopover to try six sound suds emanating from the sunken, stage left, wood paneled brew tanks.
Classic German pilsner, 80/20, let honeyed lemon sweetness pick up musky Hallertau hop herbage and mild grassy astringency atop cereal grained pilsner malting.
Dry lemon-peeled grassy hop musk suited flagship kolsch, Common Crossing, a dry malted moderation with slight floral herbage and sly sparkling champagne spritz.
Bitterly dry West Coast IPA, Wandering Ollie, placed zesty grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering and tangy pineapple zing across pine lacquered hops over pale malt sugaring.
Juicy-fruited NEIPA, Oakdale, regaled tangy mango-pineapple-guava tropicalia and zestful orange-peeled grapefruit pith bittering seeped in mild pine resin above softly creamed wheated oats.
Brown-sugared maple molasses countered dry black chocolate for maple brown ale, Sugar Shack, a toffee-candied Tootsie Roll.
Maple-glazed dark chocolate syruping coated the dry nutty coffee tones and setback vanilla snips surfacing for sweet stout, Shop The Cooler, a fine nightcap for my post-dusk getaway.