Visiting the Captain Lawrence Brewery

When we went on the Manhattan by Sail beer tasting cruise over the 4th of July weekend, they were serving Captain Lawrence beer, and we liked the beer so much, we added the Captain Lawrence Brewery on our list of places to visit. True to our word, we visited the Captain Lawrence Brewery this past weekend. The brewery is in Pleasantville, NY, which is only a 50-minute ride by train. As we have been experiencing with many villages and towns in the northern NY area, Pleasantville was such a nice, pleasant (no pun intended) community. We walked out of the train station into the weekend farmer's market, which was abundant with colorful, ripe vegetables and yummy-looking homemade goodies. Then we walked past several diners, boutiques and other cute businesses on our way to the brewery.

At the brewery, we tasted a lot of the same beers that were on our beer tasting cruise, but they were just as good the second time. There was a new beer (new to us) that was a very smoky porter. The smoky taste was actually quite strong, but not in a bad way. It was a unique taste, and a very good sipping beer. Also, the tasting room just hands out free 5 oz samples, which is really nice. However, (as you might guess) there are some people who take advantage of this. So, I hope the brewery continues this practice and a few people don't ruin it for the rest.

The brewery tour was actually given by the founder/owner. It's a small brewery, so it wasn't a very long or complex tour, but it was interesting. Here are some of the things we learned:

- NY's soft water makes it good water for brewing beer as it is more 'moldable' as far as adding ingredients and getting the right mix/taste/body/etc.

- The founder/owner completed the Master Brewers Program at UC Davis. (I like knowing that the people brewing my beer know what they are doing!)

- The brewery was founded in 2006 and is currently at capacity, but only able to serve parts of New York and Connecticut.

- Sometime in late 2010/early 2011, they will be moving to a much larger brewery which will allow them to serve all of New York and hopefully expand beyond New York/Connecticut.

The Brewery

The Tasting Room

Matt reading the history/news wall

Could not have said it better ;)

This is the staff kitchen/supply area, but it reminded me so much of a college apartment kitchen (with beer bottles, bumper stickers, small appliances) that I had to take a pic.

The fermenting barrels.

A fellow tour goer kindly offered to take our picture.

But of course, we always have our standard 'arms-length' picture :)

We will definitely make plans to visit the new brewery sometime next year after it is up and running :)

On a side note, there was a "Best Breweries to Visit" list hanging in the tasting room. Of course, Captain Lawrence was on it, or I'm sure it would not have been hanging there ;). But, there were also several other breweries in NY and surrounding states. So, now Matt and I have more breweries on our list of places to go! ;)