Southern Tier Brewing Company, Lakewood NY

10 July 2023

What a fabulous experience this was!

I’ve wanted to stop here ever since they opened but my travel plans and their hours never coincided. Now that they’re open seven days a week, I had no excuse so I planned my trip to spend a night here so that I could really enjoy this visit to STBC.

STBC operates The Empty Pint brewpub right at their headquarters and what a gorgeous space they have!

They were doing a pretty good business for a Monday, a light day for them, but with so much space you wouldn’t even have known there were so many people there except for the lines at the indoor bar where you order both food and drinks (the outdoor bar wasn’t open).

The flight runs from right-to-left:

NU Haze (Hazy IPA, 6%) – This was the most hoppy of the beers in the flight but it was very good, just perhaps not quite what I was looking for today.

8 Days a Week (Blonde Ale, 4.8%) – This one really surprised me by how good it was. It was clearly a Blonde Ale but with something a bit special thrown in to make it stand out from the crowd without being obnoxiously over the top.

Phin & Matt’s Extraordinary Ale (American Pale Ale, 5.6%) – As good as the Blonde was, this was even better. I took a crowler of this to enjoy at my hotel this evening.

Mango Rays (Wheat Ale, 5%) – This is not your father’s wheat ale! The addition of “just enough” mango has turned this into a super-enjoyable sipping beer for summer days. Wow.

IPA (Classic IPA, 7%) – I’d expected something hoppier than this but it was so well balanced that it really surprised me. I loved it.

They don’t have an extensive food menu, but what I had was very tasty. This is a Reuben – you get a choice of side salad (with very fresh ingredients) or chips – but instead of sauerkraut in the sandwich they use a chunky coleslaw that isn’t super vinegary. That coleslaw works perfectly with the other flavors and especially as a partner to the very crispy, perfectly-grilled bread. And, it’s just the right serving size to allow room for more beer!

Juice Jolt (Super Juicy IPA, 6.8%) – This wasn’t what I expected; it was much better than I’d expected. I suspect they use mango in this as well and that really makes this stand out from the crowd of excellent juicy IPAs (looking at you, Sloop!). It almost but not quite convinced me to do this in a crowler; instead, I decided to take cans of it home. (They didn’t have this in cans, sadly, but I did get cans of the Double IPA version of this: Double Juice Jolt.)

There’s only one dessert on the menu, but that’s one more than a lot of brewpubs have. Even though I certainly didn’t need it, I decided to extend my visit a bit and order it – this is the Toffee Cake and it’s every bit as decadent as it looks while at the same time being light and not terribly filling. I wouldn’t mind having the recipe for this one, I can tell you.

I do see Southern Tier beers near me reasonably often, but the most common is definitely the PumKing (Imperial Pumpkin Ale) in the Fall. That one is a real winner, but I was amazed on this visit by the breadth of styles they make and how good they all are. This is certainly going on my list of places to return to in the future!