When in Rome, Visit Copper City Brewing

Greetings, Great Beer Now fans! I recently embarked on a sports- centric brewery tour to the village of Cooperstown, New York, home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The Great Beer Now Base Hits and Brews Beer Tour 2018 is all about the beer and the sports that have made this part of the country so popular. Pop open a cold one as I explore Central New York and take in the sights and sounds of the area. Cheers!

Central New York is often visited by those seeking fresh air, small towns, and refreshing lakes. With friendly cities and villages around every hilly turn and fresh, cool air in abundance, it makes perfect sense that those seeking a respite from large urban areas would make this a vacation destination. But Central New York is quickly making a name for itself for one other important reason, and that is beer. I toured the area in seek of new and memorable suds and one of the places my adventures led me was Copper City Brewing, located at 1111 Oneida Street in Rome, New York.

Small Town Brew

Copper City is a small brewing operation in the relatively small city of Rome, New York, just up the road from larger and more traveled Utica. This brewery opened in November, 2016 and it has witnessed steady growth ever since, serving the craft beer needs of an ever- thirsty community.

Copper City Brewing features a cozy meeting space complete with traditional seating plus a lounge area with a fireplace. They have board games for entertainment and while they do not have a restaurant, it is common to find food trucks on site.

Brewing the beer at Copper City Brewing is achieved with a 5 barrel brewing system openly visible through a glass partition directly behind the bar. The output is roughly 500 barrels of beer per year but is on the rise. The brewery doesn’t package in cans or bottles yet- kegs and crowlers are currently the only packaged choices.

And for the Beer

Visitors to Copper City Brewing will find an assortment of different beers on tap at any given moment. Here is a summary of what I sampled, listed alphabetically by name, followed by the style and my Untappd rating on a five point scale:

• All Mucked Up, American IPA, 3.75
• Cheery Dubbel. Beligian Dubbel, 4.25
• Delta Double, Double IPA, 4.5
• O’Shaghennesy Stout, Irish Stout, 3.5
• Porch Light, American Pale Ale, 4.25

Overall average rating: 4.05

Copper City Brewing serves up many memorable beers. I was particularly partial to the Delta Double IPA, but I would have gladly accepted a second helping of any of the beers on tap and I like that they try to serve a wide array of customer tastes with so many different styles.

When in Rome

Copper City Brewing is your small, friendly, local brewing operation and presently the only craft brewery in Rome, New York. According to official sources, Rome has a population of about 33,000 people, so it is much smaller than the large cities we at Great Beer Now have frequented and significantly smaller than our home base of Houston, Texas.

As I was driving to Copper City Brewing I wondered all along about the name. As Great Beer Now readers already know, I prefer not to research anything when I visit new breweries because I like to arrive on the scene free from any pre- conceived notions or biases. I like to wait until I arrive before I start to assess everything and I quickly learned from one of the founders of Copper City Brewing that Copper City is actually a nickname for the city of Rome, New York. It got the nickname due to Revere Copper Products, which was the first copper rolling mill in North America and is headquartered in the area.

Copper City Brewing is a comfortable, relaxed type of place. It doesn’t produce a ton of beer (yet!) but it is actually medium sized when compared to most other craft breweries. I have visited some breweries that had tasting areas/meeting spaces so small, they would have violated the fire code if they exceeded 20 people. Copper City is larger than that and approaching from a distance, it looks like a restaurant. Once you step inside, you notice that it is about the size of a small to medium size family restaurant and while there is no kitchen actually making food, the layout, colors, fireplace, etc make you feel right at home, like you’re visiting a family establishment anxious to serve you the best it has to offer.

With the beer, Copper City Brewing is definitely a notch or two ahead of most competitors. When I was planning a trip to check out the beer scene in Central New York, I had to narrow down to a handful of places to visit and part of the reason I selected Copper City Brewing was because other craft beer fans recommended it. They said that the beer here was better than most and after sampling from the nearly dozen taps, I certainly have to agree with the collective judgment of my colleagues. Copper City beer definitely is better than most and with quality at this level, they are well- positioned to expand and grow even more in the coming years.

Central New York is an excellent vacation destination for skiing, lakes, and small town charm. It’s also a great place for beer so if you happen to find yourself in the central New York City of Rome, do like the Romans do and pay a visit to Copper City Brewing. And tell them Great Beer Now sent you.