Empire Farm Brewery: Malt Beverage Wonderment in Central New York #Visitcny

Greetings, Great Beer Now fans and followers! This is the fifth entry in a multi- part series of blog posts relating to the Great Beer Now Country Bales and Autumn Ales Beer Tour 2018, which took place in west central New York. I made my way from Syracuse to Binghamton and back, stopping along the way to visit some of the best breweries, wineries, and distilleries the area has to offer. Grab a beer and follow along on my journey through this scenic section of New York State. Cheers!

 

Life sometimes presents the unexpected. There are those unanticipated events that wreak havoc on one’s day, leading to confusion, disarray, and often requiring an abrupt change of plans. But there are some unexpected events that enhance the moment, turning the ordinary into something extraordinary and even resulting in lasting, unforgettable memories. A perfect example of the latter is Empire Farm Brewery, located at 33 Rippleton Rd in Cazenovia, New York.

Rural Rendezvous

Empire Farm Brewery is a country brewery with a large presence. The building that houses the complex contains 40,000 square feet of space and a 60 barrel brewhouse. The facility and large parking lot are situated on 22 acres of farmland and with a presence this profound, the brewery is impossible to miss.

Empire Farm originally started as a brewpub in Syracuse in 1994 before opening the Cazenovia location in 2016. The farm here in Cazenovia is being cultivated to produce barley, herbs, fruits, vegetables, and hops. Once in full swing, the farm will produce many of the ingredients needed to brew the beer.

At Empire Farm Brewery, beer is the star of the show, but there is one important co- star, and that is food. The menu consists of food options such as burgers, sandwiches, soups, pizza, entrees, and kids meals and each item, as you might guess, matches quite nicely with one of the house beers.

Time for Drinks

Empire Farm Brewery serves about twelve of its own beers on tap at and it also bottles beer for outside distribution. Here is a listing of the beers I tried, listed alphabetically by name, followed by the style and my Untappd rating on a five point scale:

• Deep Purple, Fruit Beer, 2.75
• Empire Shandy, Radler Beer, 3.75
• Hop Harvest Ale, American Pale Ale, 4.25
• Livlet Rye IPA, American IPA, 4.25
• Oktoberfest, Marzen, 3.75
• Roasted Pumpkin Ale, Pumpkin beer, 4
• Runway Rose, Spiced/Herbed beer, 4

Overall Average Rating: 3.82

Empire Farm Brewery brews and serves a wide variety of beers, many of them quite creative and interesting. The lineup is solid all- around with no one standout in the pack. If I had to select a favorite, the Hop Harvest American Pale Ale is the beer I would rate the highest but place the beer lineup above in front of me on a different day, and there is a good chance I would rate a different one as my personal fave.

Great Expectations

Empire Farm Brewery is a brewery that took me by surprise. As my readers are already aware, I don’t normally conduct research when I take a beer tour. I prefer to visit breweries without foreknowledge so that I will be free from bias. All I knew about Empire Farm Brewery was that it was a country brewery in Cazenovia, New York and with this limited knowledge, I was expecting a small brewing operation with a modest tap room and maybe 500 to 1000 barrels of annual production. Imagine my surprise when I pulled into the parking lot and witnessed the large facility and two massive fermenters on the building’s exterior! It wasn’t at all what I envisioned and I couldn’t wait to walk inside and discover more.

I took a tour of the brewhouse almost immediately upon entering and I couldn’t believe the size of my brewing surroundings. I learned from the tour guide that Empire Farm Brewery produces around 15,000 barrels of beer annually and that its numbers are on the rise. The brewery is well positioned to become a major force in the New York and regional brewing industry and with such a massive brewhouse, it already has the capacity to brew large volumes of beer for interstate and even international distribution.

The interior of Empire Farm Brewery has the look and feel of a café style family restaurant combined with a brewery taproom. The restaurant, like the bar, doesn’t offer table service. You seat yourself and then order food at the counter on the far end of the dining/drinking space, then wait for the food to be prepared. The members of the staff are all patient and helpful and they do, indeed, know a thing or two about food preparation. I ordered a cheesesteak and fries when I visited and it was not only delicious, it made for an excellent companion to the house beers. The American style food isn’t over the top or bursting with creativity. But it is solid, beer- compatible comfort food and the type that most anyone will find to their liking.

Empire Farm Brewery is, of course, a farm as well as a brewing establishment and since it is located in a hilly, forested area, the outside views are just as enjoyable as the inside views, if not more so. The outdoor patio is the place to be during the warmer months of the year and if you really like the natural setting, you can park yourself in one of the lawn chairs, facing the trees. They even have an outdoor fire pit perfect for cozying up next to during the cooler times of the year.

Life is often full of surprises. Country breweries are often small, friendly, and inviting in an intimate kind of way, but Empire Farm Brewery is quite different. It didn’t turn out to be the petite maker of malt beverages that I expected. It’s a large operation and I left feeling impressed and enlightened by its sheer size and potential. It proves that memorable surprises can, and often do, occur when you least expect them so be sure to visit Empire Farm Brewery the next time you’re in the west Central New York area and experience a  little enlightenment of your own. And tell them Great Beer Now sent you.