The best part about hiking WestKill Mountain, after the stunning vistas of course, is the cold pint awaiting you at West Kill Brewing after you’ve bagged this Catskills high peak. It’s a point of camaraderie that as you hike up or down the mountain, the majority of faces you pass will turn up again later at the brewery, sitting around a fire pit, clustered around a picnic table, or sprawled out on a blanket somewhere on the lawn.
In good news for the faint of hike, soon you won’t have to make the trek out to Spruceton Valley or toil up and down the 3,900-foot peak before throwing back a West Kill beer. The brewery is opening a tasting room outpost smack in the middle of Midtown Kingston this summer. The plan for a facility in co-owner Mike Barcone’s hometown dates back to pre-pandemic times. “We were originally looking to do a larger barrel-aging and blending, mixed-use operation,” Barcone says. “Then when COVID happened, we decided to ramp up production up here. So we pulled away from doing anything larger in Kingston and turned our eyes to opening up a really awesome tap room.”
During the pandemic West Kill’s retail business “took off like a rocket,” with can sales through the roof. Naturally they scaled up to meet demand. With production consolidated in one location, the hunt for a became easier. “Kingston has always been a natural spot for us,” says Barcone, whose family ran Barcone Music on Broadway for 40 years. “It’s the gateway to the Catskills, so it completely works with our brand and our vibe. We looked in Catskill, Hudson, Rhinebeck—but Kingston was the best fit, personality wise.”
In a crowded industry, West Kill Brewing has set itself apart for its crisp, distinctive beers brewed with pure mountain water and locally farmed and foraged ingredients. It’s a treat drink it at the source, but a good beer is good anywhere.
The satellite tasting room will be housed in a long, low building at 602 Broadway (across the street from PAKT), which housed a seamstress shop for many years. The recently renovated building is divided into three spaces, with West Kill renting the 1,200-square-foot center unit and the entire grassy, 3,000 square foot side-yard. The tasting room will be flanked by a tattoo shop and the offices for nearby bar Tubby’s.
“The vibe is going to be very much Catskills farmhouse or public house,” Barcone says. “Very woodsy, Catskills fish and game club, turn-of-the-century resort vibe—not Borscht Belt, but the turn-of-the-century boarding houses.” The bar will have 12 tap lines, which will pour a mix of West Kill beers and draft wine and New York State cider. The food program is still TBD. An extensive selection of West Kill’s tall boy four-packs will be available for sale as well as a limited offering of merch. In the yard, Barcone imagines lowkey music programming, like vinyl nights, and tabletop shuffleboard.
“We’re super excited,” he says. “Obviously the buzz has been getting around. We’ll go have a couple drinks at Tubby’s and people come up to us to say how pumped they are. That whole area is having nice growth going on with Ollie’s coming into Tony’s and Tubby’s, PAKT, and Lunch Nightly. It’s a cool little block.”
