Craft beverages enjoy
business boom in Otsego
New places are popping up along
the Beverage Trail with interesting takes on classic locally sourced fare
By Kevin Limiti • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
Otsego County is famous for its Baseball Hall of Fame, art museums, hiking trails and more but there is also another thing that draws people to the region, its craft beverages.
Otsego County has its own beverage trail and is home to the internationally known Ommegang Brewery. But new places are popping, each with their own unique history, many of which source their ingredients locally.
Two of these places is Rustic Ridge Winery and the High Burl Brewery, which are on state Route 80, nestled between adjacent farms. The brewery and winery dogs, Ruger and Jake, greet the patrons as they beg for animal crackers and popcorn. Inside is a homey place filled with wine and good vibes, and bartended by Holly Bennett, no relation to the Bennett family who owns the winery.
“It’s a big family get-together here,” Bennett said and the winery/brewery pairing is the only one in the area with both that she knows about.
The brewery is new and opened by Ryan and Jess Bennett, both of whom are occupational therapists. The beer is handcrafted on site and contains all local products.
Prior to this, Rick Bennett, who owns the winery was “always kind of playing with wine” and had grapes growing in the back of the winery when he finally decided to give it a try.
The Wild Cat wine tastes like apples even though, surprisingly, there are no apples in it. It is very sweet but not overwhelming. The Sweet Little Blonde is also very sweet and has a very unique taste to it that is perfect over ice for a warm summer day.
Meanwhile, south of Cooperstown, a new winery with a history in Upstate opened recently. The Montezuma Winery, which apart from wine also sells mead and honey-based vodka, opened in June and is renovating SPCA’s old thrift shop building on Route 28. It will be having a ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday, Sept. 25, with the hopes of getting the Chamber of Commerce involved in some way.
Its sister restaurant in Seneca Falls is extremely popular, but tasting room manager Anne Tandle said a lot of people were looking to the new location as a quicker way to get the Montezuma experience.
George Allen, president of Northern Eagle Distributors and an owner of the Cooperstown Brewery, said breweries in the area use a combination of grains and hops, some of which are locally sourced. He said crafting beer has always been a tradition in the area of Otsego County.
“This has always been a large hop growing area,” Allen said. “If you drive around the county, you’ll see hops that have been growing like weeds for 100 years,” Allen said.
Go to www.cooperstownbeveragetrail.com for more information.
