It’s high season in the Hudson Valley, what with leaf-peeping, pumpkin-patching, apple-picking and corn-mazing, which means when you visit you will probably have to multi-task just to celebrate October along the river. What’s more- its Oktoberfest, and every brewery in the Hudson Valley has its own spiel to get you to their brew. Whether the SmOk+oberfest at Keegan Ales, the Cooktoberfest at Captain Lawrence or the Hudson Hop & Harvest Fest at Peekskill Brewery, our Fall agendas are suddenly bursting at the seams.
If you’re like me and would rather consolidate the octobeer tour to one stop, then get thee to The Green Growler in Croton on Hudson, NY- a real gem of beer culture. The space is small and filled to capacity with beer, beer brewing gear and beer related items, like beer nuts, beer corn, beer mustard, beer BBQ sauce, and even beer made soap!
If you were interested in starting a beer library, I would start here. If you are interested in beer gag gifts or bacon limp balm, start here. If you are a home brewer they are stocked with a variety of barleys, hops and malts along with equipment and advice from knowledgable staff to guide you.
The over all selection of beer is good, featuring some less obvious craft brewers like Uinta Brewing in Salt Lake, Southern Tier in NY and a real newcomer, hudson valley’s own Rushing Duck from Chester, NY. More importantly they have growlers and about six taps of rotating kegs to choose from. Two or three times a month they have a tap-takeover where they feature all beers from one brewer.
When you go, be ready to make quick decisions and grab the bottles you want immediately, they go fast. I stood enchanted for a moment too long and had one customer clean out an entire row of Southern Tier PumKing out from under me – before I could even think to tackle him! Consider yourself warned.
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