The post-Covid landscape for Hudson Valley breweries includes feast, famine and everything in between. With visitation down across the board, taprooms are devising creative ways to bring people in (hello trivia nights). “There are so many other options for consumers that it’s not enough to brew good beer and hand out a bag of chips anymore,” says Paul Leone, executive director of the New York State Brewers Association. But the alarm bells are unwarranted. The industry is settling into itself.” And as it settles in this new era, we take a moment to report on the latest Hudson Valley brewery news—closures, sales, and new openings.
Peekskill Brewery served its final pint on Thanksgiving Eve after 15 years on the waterfront. In its heyday, the ground-floor taproom offered at least a dozen styles at any given time, a restaurant operated upstairs and an outdoor seating area featured local bands. The closing is a blow to the city. Owners Kara and Keith Berardi, along with his sister, Morgan Berardi, live in town and gave back to the community by hosting block parties, sponsoring running clubs, and hiring people from a local shelter. In their farewell message, they wrote, “We have done everything we could to keep PB operating including incurring debt and restructuring operations (several times to meet customer’s changing preferences and behaviors). However, Peekskill Brewery’s sales have not returned to pre-pandemic levels and we cannot afford to operate.”
Founded in 2014, Beacon’s Two Way is doing fine, but the business is for sale. “Priorities change,” said brewer Michael O’Herron, an engineer by trade who juggles two jobs and three young children. Named for the lazy flow of the Hudson River, the place offers an eclectic selection: “I never wanted to be known for brewing a certain style,” says O’Herron. His wife, Brittany Dufresne, oversees the business end and plans to expand events and offerings. New bar manager Emily Lugo will help execute the vision, which calls for re-opening the kitchen. Because they make cider and hold a special license from the state, they’re allowed to sell New York spirits in-house. This led to a collaboration with Denning’s Point Distillery just up the road to develop a line of cocktails where the main mixer is beer (and perhaps cider). Think sophisticated boilermakers.
In 2016, Industrial Arts Brewing opened in Rockland County and occupied space scattered throughout an historic factory complex, moving some of their product through hoses that snaked between buildings. The arts part of the name evokes the craft of brewing, along with the artist studios located within the brick labyrinth and the Hollywood movies filmed on the premises. When the operation became too unwieldy by 2019, they added a second location in a gleaming, optimized industrial space in Beacon. Gigantic silver tanks and stacks of empty cans tower overhead. They just completed the move, fully consolidating in Beacon, with their last weekend pouring their last beers in the Garner Arts Complex at the end of October. One of the valley’s largest brewers (along with Sloop and Captain Lawrence), IA’s distribution stretches from Maine to South Carolina and includes Pennsylvania, Ohio and Colorado. Twelve-packs of the Wrench IPA series are readily available at gas station convenience stores, an anecdotal barometer of market reach. Known for hops, they brew an array of styles: the taproom lists 17 beers.
Round Table Brewery opened last month at the former Industrial Arts location in Garnerville. This time, everything is housed under one roof, but the kitchen is located far from the bar and serving area. Cozy couches, comfy lounge chairs and a vintage chess set cluster around antique tables beneath the soaring ceiling. Partner Ricardo Petroni, who helped establish Equilibrium in Middletown, brings a similar focus on scientific precision to this venture, which uses a reverse osmosis system to tailor the water for each style of beer. Products will center on a core lineup, but Petroni is also open to experimentation. So far, he is partial to high-ABV brews, including a stout (9.7 percent) and a double IPA (8.1 percent) that lack the telltale boozy bite and go down easy. Technically, signature products Rood rustic red ale (7.1 percent), Alto Lindo rustic ale, and its barrel-aged version (7.2 percent) are sours, but Petroni prefers to refer to them as “tart.”
The Hudson Valley’s “it” brewery, Fidens Brewing Company in Albany, “captured lightning in a bottle,” says Leone at the Craft Brewery Association. “They can’t brew fast enough and there are lines of people out the door.” The dream began during adventurous drinking sessions at Tim Pierce’s garage. After leasing commercial space in 2019, the business exploded. When Covid hit, they closed the small taproom and filled it with brewing equipment. Last July, they opened a new 11,000-square-foot bar and restaurant at a separate location and are seeking space to further expand production capacity. Despite extending retail hours, they still limit some beer purchases due to a “huge underground secondary market,” says Pierce. Specializing in hop-forward styles, Fidens also produces sours, lagers, and pilsners, along with a barrel-aged stout only available in-house.
