25 Best New York Breweries

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New York State has a long tradition of beer brewing. There are today more than 400 craft breweries in the state, and most of them are fairly small. Almost every bigger city and most towns have at least one, if not a few breweries. Out of 62 counties in NY, 57 have at least one. There is also an increasing number of farm breweries, which grow ingredients on their own farms or source them from their neighbors. Most breweries have tasting rooms on premises where beer enthusiasts can get beer as fresh as possible, at times straight from the tanks. Tap rooms are often popular local gathering places, offering music, food, and other events, even when the decor is very rustic and the tap room is literally in the heart of the production facility.

© Finback Brewery

Finback Brewery was founded in 2011 in Glendale, Queens, where in 2014, with a 20-barrel brewhouse, they released their first beer. Finback’s goal is to make small batches of great beer with strong flavor and complexity, from quality ingredients. Their beers are fun and unique, hoppy, complex, and smoky, perfect for drinking with friends. They self-distribute their beers to the greater NYC area, in draft format only. Their tasting room in Glendale is cozy and colorful, separated from the large outdoor space with a garage door, which is often left open to let the air come in and for the folks to circulate. The walls indoors are covered in local art and there are plenty of games for playing with friends, including a side room where you can play cornhole. Food comes from the food trucks parked outside. There are regular informative tours of the brewery upon request.

78-01 77th Ave, Glendale, NY 11385, Phone: 718-628-8600

© Transmitter Brewing

Located in a former garage under the Pulaski Bridge in Long Island City, Transmitter Brewing is a craft brewery that opened in 2014 and is owned and run by two friends with the help of a handful of part-time staff. They brew 18 to 24 barrels a week. Transmitter specializes in French and Belgian-style country ales and bottles 75% of its beers. The remaining beer is quarter-kegged and sold in top Brooklyn bars such as Bar Great Harry, Covenhoven, and The Owl Farm. Their small 10-by-12-foot retail area is open on weekends and does not have taps, it just sells choices of bottles that guests can take home or drink at one of their few picnic tables placed inside the brewery among the tanks.

53-02 11th St, Long Island City, NY 11101, Phone: 646-378-8529

© Bacchus Brewing Company

Bacchus Brewing Company is a small craft brewery located in Dryden, just outside of Ithaca, New York, that was established in 2012. They make small batches of hand-crafted beers in a range styles. Their beers are best if drunk as fresh as possible in their small, simple tap room on the coast in the beautiful Finger Lakes region. They have a core of their favorites that are available year round, and Master Brewer Richie Shallcross keeps coming up with new, seasonal beers that are available by flight, pint, or growler. You can also try their beers at their other tap room and beer garden in Interlaken, at Americana Vineyards, on the other side of Cayuga Lake.

15 Ellis Dr, Dryden, NY 13053, Phone: 607-844-8474

© Butternuts Beer & Ale

Butternuts Beer and Ale is a craft brewery established in 2005 and located in the beautiful Butternut Valley. The brewery operates from a restored dairy barn on a 120-acre dairy farm in Garrattsville, NY. Butternuts makes no-nonsense beers made with simple, natural ingredients, using clean water from the farm’s own spring and combining flavors of American-style farmhouse ales with English, German, and Belgian influences. Their small tasting room has a few tables inside and a bunch of picnic tables outside, perfect for tasting flights of their year-round favorites and seasonal specials. Their most popular beers are the Pork Slap Pale Ale, sweet and malty, brewed with fresh ginger root, and Heinnieweisse, a German-style weissbier with tart citrus flavor and banana notes. The brewery offers tours every day.

4021 NY-51, Garrattsville, NY 13342, Phone: 607-263-5070

© CB Craft Brewers

CB Craft Brewers is a small craft brewery in Honeoye Falls, western New York, in the lush countryside just south of Rochester. They have been brewing excellent beers on their premises for more than 20 years. CB Craft Brewers are currently producing more than 100 different kinds of beers every year, distributing them all over the Greater Rochester Area. Next to the brewery is their cozy and friendly tasting room, where visitors can taste 26 beers on an ever-rotating tap. Free brewery tours are available on Saturdays. There is a stage for live music events outside, as well as few picnic tables, where on warm sunny days beer fans can enjoy their brews with their dogs. They also serve lunch and dinner at their Pint & Goblet Tavern, where most of dishes on the menu are made using their beer.

300 Village Square Blvd, Honeoye Falls, NY 14472, Phone: 585-624-4386

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© Community Beer Works

Community Beer Works is one of the first nano-breweries in Buffalo, NY. They started producing fresh, high-quality American and Belgian-style beers in an old refurbished factory in 2012 and are now selling them at many of the better beer venues around Buffalo. Their small tasting room is snuggled in the heart of the production facility, and the guests can get the beer as fresh as it is brewed, surrounded by beer tanks. They work in partnership with Hydraulic Hearth Restaurant and Brewery, located in the historic Larkin District. This popular lunch and dinner venue offers brick oven pizzas and shareable starters.

15 Lafayette Ave, Buffalo, NY 14213, Phone: 716-759-4677

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© Coney Island Brewery

Coney Island Brewing Company brews craft beer and craft hard soda in their brewery in Brooklyn, NY, in the heart of the Coney Island. They brew a range of different styles and sell them from their indoor and outdoor tasting rooms, and there are eight constantly revolving taps pouring Coney Island beer. There is also always something new to try and, depending on the season, there are limited releases and specialty styles such as SuperFreak, Kettle Corn Cream Ale, and Cotton Candy Kolsch. They have a bunch of board games to pass the time with friends. If you bring someone who doesn’t drink beer, their range includes hard soda such as root beer.

1904 Surf Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11224, Phone: 718-996-0019

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© Hopshire Farm and Brewery

Hopshire Farm and Brewery is located in Freeville, NY, in the beautiful Finger Lakes Region, where Diane Gerhart and Randy Lacey grow hops and use it to craft fine beer. Everything they need for making their brews is grown on their farm or at their neighbors farms. They brew a range of different beer styles. They built their brew barn using recycled local materials as well as ash lumber cut on their lands. The brew house has a very precise recreation of a traditional New York hop kiln that they use to dry their hops. The beams in their rustic but charming tasting room are salvaged from an old barn and the gleaming mahogany bar was brought from the legendary Plum’s Restaurant in Ithaca. Come and taste their beers together with platters of local cheeses and meats. There is music every Friday and something else happening every day.

1771 Dryden Rd, Freeville, NY 13068, Phone: 607-279-1243

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© Iron Tug Brewing

Iron Tug Brewing is a microbrewery in Rochester, NY, located in an old firehouse next to Woodside St. Their goal is to produce beer as it should be made: Using only water, malt, hops, and yeast. All of the recipes for their beers have been finely tuned over the years. What really defines Iron Tug Brewing and makes them unique is their "nitro beers", which have a creamy texture and full flavors that are more evenly distributed than CO2 beers. The brewer’s goal is to make beer as close to a Guinness as it is poured in Ireland as possible. Their small tasting room has large, communal tables that are perfect for sharing. There is a mellow, relaxed atmosphere with soft blues music playing in the background. They serve a charcuterie board and freshly baked artisanal pizzas.

360 W Ridge Rd, Rochester, NY 14615, Phone: 585-865-0032

© Kings County Brewers Collective

A biologist, an ad man, and a restaurant manager walk into an empty warehouse in Bushwick and decide to start Kings County Brewers Collective. What sounds like the beginning of a joke tells the real story of three friends and passionate craft beer enthusiasts who quickly established themselves in the booming NYC brewery scene. Recently, they won the Best Brew of NYC award in a five borough challenge. Their brewery and tap room are located in a 5,000-square-foot warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and all their brews are made on site. The selection of beers available in their tasting room changes seasonally. Most are available in better bars around NY, but some are available only on site.

381 Troutman St, Brooklyn, NY 11237, Phone: 929-234-6557

© LIC Beer Project

LIC Beer Project is a fairly large craft brewery located in a converted warehouse in Long Island City. Their tap room is sited in the heart of the brewing facility, with only a garage door separating the two. It is spacious, very modern, and rustic, with wall-to-wall oak barrels, and is one of the favorite local spots for hanging out and sampling their large range of IPAs. There is plenty of seating, board games to play with friends, and the occasional live music event. There is free popcorn but no food. There are a few pizza joints nearby that will deliver.

39-28 23rd St, Long Island City, NY 11101, Phone: 917-832-6840

© LyonSmith Brewing Co.

LyonSmith Brewing Co. is a microbrewery in Penn Yan, NY, overlooking the Keuka Lake Outlet in the scenic Finger Lakes area. Established in 2013, they specialize in beers of the UK, using English hops, which have a different flavor profile from the hops used normally in the States. They use a combination of malts and the grains, fruity or floral, producing some interesting results. LyonSmith Brewing tasting room has eight beers on tap, and four of them are permanent year-round favorites: Cardiff Blonde, Rhiannon Red Ale, Rylie Pale Ale, and 1814 Flood Porter. Three taps are revolving, with their 13 seasonal brews and a new beer is rotated every month. One tap is reserved for “Brewer’s Choice,” a limited-edition beer that is offered only in the tap room.

138 Water St, Penn Yan, NY 14527, Phone: 315-536-5603

© Other Half Brewing Company

Other Half Brewing Company is a microbrewery located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Established in 2014, they produce large range of different styles of beer, many in collaboration with other breweries. There are 18 taps in their small, rustic tasting room, which has very few tables and is separated from the production area with a never completely closed garage door. The small space does not keep away beer aficionados, who tend to pack the tap room, especially on weekends. They rotate their beers on tap, so there is a good chance that everyone will find something they like. They self-distribute all over Brooklyn and their cans are available only at the brewery. Small snacks are available in the tap room, but the guests are allowed to bring their own food.

195 Centre St, Brooklyn, NY 11231, Phone: 917-765-6107

© Rockaway Brewing Company

Rockaway Brewing Company was started in 2010 by two friends and home-brewers in their backyard in Rockaway Beach. In 2012 they started brewing commercially using a 2-barrel brew system located in the brewery in Long Island City, Queens, growing to 5-barrel system yet still hand-crafting every batch using fresh ingredients. They sell their brews all over Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. You can also try them in their small tap room attached to the brewery or, since 2016, in their new space in Rockaway Beach as well. Both locations are fun places to hang out with friends, rustic but friendly, offering their malt-forward easy drinking beers as well as brewery tours.

46-01 5th Street, Long Island City, NY 11101, Phone: 718-482-6528

© SingleCut Beersmiths

Established in 2012, SingleCut Beersmiths is a craft brewery in Astoria, Queens, dedicated to making fresh IPAs and lagers. All their beers are brewed on site and are served as fresh as possible. The reason for the higher quality of fresh beer is mostly because the hop flavor and aroma inevitably fade over time, changing the profile of a beer. So, the best place to taste SingleCut beers is right in their tasting room in the heart of the production facility. High ceilings, modern decor, and industrial-chic design make this place a hip and popular local gathering spot. There are also a lot of board games, good food options, and frequent live music events.

19-33 37th St, Astoria, NY 11105, Phone: 718-606-0788

© Sixpoint Brewery

Sixpoint Brewery is a craft brewery founded 2004 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY, in a 7,000-square-foot former furniture factory. They started by distributing kegs to local bars and restaurants, instead of bottling their beer. They began canning beer in June 2011, and started releasing seasonals the next fall. Sixpoint currently brews four beers year round: The Crisp (pilsner), Sweet Action (ale), Bengali (IPA), and Resin (IIPA). Sixpoint today distributes its beer all over the country. They do not have a tasting room on site and the brewery is only open on the Saturday when they release new cans.

40 Van Dyke St, Brooklyn, NY 11231, Phone: 347-227-8676

© Barrier Brewing Co.

Barrier Brewing Co. is a small brewery established in 2009 in Oceanside, NY, on the south shore of Long Island. Using their one-barrel system, their first year of production yielded over 700 barrels of beer. In 2012, they moved to a larger space, upgraded to a 5-barrel facility, and increased capacity to 1,500 barrels. Tucked in an industrial park across the train tracks, this unique brewery today produces more than 60 different kinds of beers, with no flagships and no seasonal brews. Their tap room offers 12 beers on tap, constantly rotating. They offer free popcorn and there is food from the local food trucks parked outside. Their beers are also available all over Long Island, in draft, cans, and bottles.

3001 New Street, Unit A2, Oceanside, NY 11572, Phone: 516-594-1028

© Big aLICe Brewing

Located in Queens, NY, Big aLICe Brewing is a New York State farm brewery producing innovative, locally sourced beer. Big aLICe Brewing was established in 2013 with a 10-gallon pilot system, brewing and bottling unique, one-off batches sold from the brewery through the CSB membership program. Brewery founders Kyle Hurst and Scott Berger worked with local Community Shared Agriculture and Food Co-ops to procure fresh local organic ingredients for their beer, hoping to preserve seasonal, local flavors. Their small tasting room is a popular local gathering place, with tables tucked everywhere within the production facility. They distribute their beer throughout the five boroughs, greater New York, Long Island, and Massachusetts. Some of their most popular beers are the Sour One, Freedom Bock, Hibiskas Goes-uh, and the Cascade Single Hop Sour. They produce six new craft beers every season.

8-08 43rd Rd, Long Island City, NY 11101, Phone: 347-688-2337

© Bridge and Tunnel Brewery

Bridge and Tunnel Brewery is a tiny, nano-scale craft brewery in Ridgewoood, Queens, owned and operated by Rich Castagna. This one-man brewing operation was established in 2012, focusing on darker, more flavorful beers, after home brewing for more than 10 years. Bridge and Tunnel Brewery was noticed at the DBA Cask Ale festival in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, receiving excellent feedback on the beer produced in his 150-foot garage on a 1.5-barrel self-built brewery, using reclaimed and repurposed tanks and materials. Bridge and Tunnel produces 25 beers, including local favorites such as Slaughterhouse Stampede Black Rye IPA, 20 Spot, and the Switchblade Coffee Cream Ale, among others. The cozy little tasting room attached to the production room offers free popcorn and has a bunch of TVs and games for the clients.

15-35 Decatur St, Ridgewood, NY 11385, Phone: 347-392-8593

© The Bronx Brewery

The Bronx Brewery was established in 2013 in an industrial neighborhood of Bronx, in a historic building with a colorful past that was once an iron works showroom, a lace garment factory, and a vending machine factory before being refurbished into a brewery. Their spacious tap room is a popular gathering place, especially on weekends, when folks come for cool brew in the white-tiled industrial space, relaxing on squishy sofas or sitting around old barrels, playing foosball or trying their regular Tropical Session IPA, a spicy, fruity Belgian pale ale, and limited-edition seasonals. When the weather is nice, the tap room extends outside where plenty of picnic tables sit beneath a railroad trestle overlooking a magnificent mural.

856 E 136th St, Bronx, NY 10454, Phone: 718-402-1000

© The Flagship Brewing Company

The Flagship is one of the two craft breweries on Staten Island. It is located in an old automobile dealership building in Tompkinsville, not far from the Staten Island ferry. The brewery produces a large range of beers, from an American pale ale to a dark mild. There is a spacious, open tasting room with lots of picnic tables and a cozy living room area with a fake fireplace, a pleasant spot to spend time with friends while tasting the fresh brews. A glass wall separates the tasting room from the brewing area. They do not have food, but there is an iPad mounted on the wall, which offers menus from local eateries that will deliver to the brewery.

40 Minthorne St, Staten Island, NY 10301, Phone: 718-448-5284

© The North Brewery

The North Brewery was established in 2013 by a father-son team and their friend after many years of home-brewing. This small craft brewery in Endicott, NY, currently runs off a 1.5-barrel system using about 50 different recipes. All their beer is currently distributed locally. They use New York rye and hops from nearby hop farms and they plan on making a single malt beer using malt from a nearby farm. The North brews a wide range of IPAs and sours and a large variety of kettle sours. Their best known beer is the God Complex, a full-bodied imperial stout with mocha, serrano peppers, and hazelnut coffee.

110 Washington Ave, Endicott, NY 13760, Phone: 607-785-0524

© Two Goats Brewing

Two Goats Brewing is a craft brewery established in 2010 in Hector, NY, in a renovated 1800s barn that is today solar-powered. They use a 7-barrel brew system originally built by Glenn Shepard and Kingdom Brewers of Vermont. The fermenters and serving tanks were fabricated by Vance Metal in Geneva, NY. All their beers are brewed on the premises. Their philosophy is to make world-class farm-style beer with quality ingredients. Their tasting room, attached to the brewery, is fun and quirky, with a large deck overlooking the Seneca Lake. Besides cool brews, Two Goats also serves house-made beef sandwiches, local wines, ciders, and soft drinks. The place is a popular local gathering spot and it gets really crowded on weekends.

5027 State Rt 414, Hector, NY 14841, Phone: 607-546-2337

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Wagner Brewing Co was established in 1997 at Wagner Vineyards near Lodi, NY, in the scenic Finger Lakes area. It is the oldest brewery in the area. They currently offer a variety of award-winning craft-brewed beers, including nine draft lines that often rotate and range from light to dark and from bitter to sweet. They also make all natural, non-alcoholic draft root beer. Visitors can taste their beers at the long bar indoors or outside on the deck overlooking the lake. They offer self-guided tours of the brewery. Lunch is available from March to October at the Ginny Lee Café next door, with a wonderful view of the lake and vineyards.

9322 NY-414, Lodi, NY 14860, Phone: 607-582-6450