A friend of ours just moved to Stony Point, NY and was throwing a housewarming party. Lucky for him and our fellow guests there is plenty of beer along the way. Ok, maybe not lucky for them because they weren’t in the car, and the breweries are maybe not so much “on the way” but are certainly in the proximity of his house. And across the Hudson river.
Sing Sing Kill Brewery (Ossinging, NY)
There are a lot of Kills in Upstate NY, Wallkill, Fishkill, Beaverkill, literal roadkill but we’ve never been to Sing Sing Kill Brewery of Ossining, NY. This brand new (only a few months old at this point), NYS Farm Brewery has plenty of bar and table seating so bring friends and games. Aside from their house brews they also serve house sodas, collab beers with Big Alice, ciders from Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery and lambic wheat beers from Duncan’s Abbey.
We sampled 6 of their house beers and an extra from Duncan’s Abbey. The top three we sampled were the Honey Hibiscus Wit, SSKB SMaSH Pale, and the Chocolate Milk Stout. Honey Hibiscus is a light and aromatic witbier with 30 pounds of locally sourced honey, dried Hibiscus, coriander seeds and orange peel. The aromatic part was down, however the flavor of the coriander and hibiscus didn’t really shine through.
SSKB SMaSH pale is proudly brewed with 100% NYS ingredients. The pale was done well, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Last was the Chocolate Milk Stout sitting at a light 6%. After watching the pour we had anticipated a creamier, more rich chocolate concentration but it was a little anemic by comparison to other chocolate milk stouts.
Sing Sing Kill is just getting its foothold in the brew scene; and the system has only been online since March of 2018 so we weren’t expecting world class beer at this point. The majority of the flight was fair (2.5+ on Untappd). The Hibiscus was headed in the right direction if they can work on delivering more flavor. As we do with most baby breweries, Sing Sing Kills rating will be withheld until we get a chance to visit again.
River Outpost Brewing (Peekskill, NY)
Located in Peekskill, NY right on the river is a literal river outpost. It’s actually a hell of an outpost in both beer standards and size of the facility. This brewery has a boat dock, massive porch with an outdoor bar with live entertainment, full size ropes course, large arcade and even a fancy seafood restaurant upstairs (Fin and Brew) if you’re looking for more refined dining than the bar area pizza; which we highly recommend.
The beers are brewed in house by Justin Sturges who started off as a shift brewer at Captain Lawrence and worked his way up the corporate ladder to an Experimental Brewer role. During his 9 year tenure at CL, he helped the brewery produce some of our all time favorites including Seeking Alpha, Flaming Fury and Hopsomniac.
River Outpost has only been in operation for 8 months now, but the experience that Justin brings to the table certainly shows on his 7 barrel system. Speaking of 7, we had 7 tasters from River Outpost, and all of them ranked above to well above average. In order from least to most favorite we had Sharkee, Nurse Batchie, PeaceSkill, Lag Tide, Skillbilly, Whir King Man, and Basil-licious.
Let’s talk a little about Whir King Man and Basil-licious. Whir King Man is a hybrid resin and critra brew that was super clean, and super hoppy. It sat at a chill 6.6%, and I think it’s a good place for it. Not too boozy, not too not-boozy. Basil-licious was basil almost to a fault. The huge flavor explosion worked really well with our pizza, but I don’t think I could manage a full pint or anything over 12oz. For those herb-beer seekers, this is a must try and probably growler fill.
The beer at River Outpost was only matched by the impressive scale of the brewpub; it’s quite a place. We highly recommend taking a stop even if it’s a bit of a detour. River Outpost earns a solid 4.25 out of 5. Oh, and yes there is a full bar and macro beer for those of your friends who complain about craft. There is something to keep your entire party entertained here.
Peekskill Brewery (Peekskill, NY)
Peekskill Brewery of Peekskill, NY is home to some unusual treats. The brewery was founded long before we started Beerventuring; sometime around 2008 we think. All of these years of experience certainly show up in their craft. We’ve stopped at Peekskill a handful of times over the years, and we always seem to find something new to tickle our fancy.
As we still had to attend a house warming, we only had room for a quick pour each so we settled on two we’ve never had before; Hidden Tack, and Super Stario. Hidden Track is a Cascade dry hopped sour ale with a satisfying amount of lemon zest, and a few hints of grapefruit. This crushable beer is also a “really pretty” beer according to Melissa’s super scientific analysis. Super Stario DIPA sits on the low side of the DIPA scale with 8% and 50 IBU, but still is full of hop. We’re not sure what the hop combination is, but it struck a fair balance between juicy and bitter; so if you’re seeking a juice bomb, this probably won’t cut it for you.
One thing we’ve never had the opportunity to try is the restaurant side of the brewery. We’re usually rushing between A + B, that the food always gets bypassed here. Our next trip up the Hudson will have to amend this oversight because the food does look delicious.
Peekskill Brewery always hits the spot. In the few times we’ve been there, there had only been a couple of beers that we’re average (Malt Balls, Eastern Standard) and several beers that were outstanding (Higher Standard, Dead to Me). Try and make it around lunch or dinner and let us know what we’re missing out on. Peekskill earns a must stop 4 pretty beers out of 5.
And then we finally made it to our friend’s housewarming party for some serious adulting.
