My new reality

This Brewery Review could not be more fresh: Hex and Hops is a new brewery in Bloomingdale, NY that just celebrated their grand opening on Saturday. Before we get to that, however, let me make this a longer story.

Christina was visiting us this weekend and spent several sunshiny days on the lake with Bebernitz West cousins. When the house cleared, we headed out to watch the new professional baseball team in town, the Empire League’s Saranac Lake Surge. Christina will be attending the Yankees/Red Sox game back in NYC on Friday so we thought we’d support the local team and check out the talent for comparison. There is no comparison whatsoever. We did have a blast watching what is probably a slightly better (maybe/maybe not) than your average college team beat the pants off their local rivals from the big city of Plattsburgh. It was a perfect Adirondack day: sunny and hot with clouds and random showers, dust blowing off the infield, and kids running around catching (a lot of) foul balls and overthrows.

We stayed the whole game, not worrying about parking lot traffic (there was none) and even meeting a few new neighbors! And then, we headed out to Bloomingdale, a 10 minute drive up Rt. 3 along the Saranac River (where just last week a bull moose was hanging out for photos) to Hex and Hops.

Hex and Hops is the newest brewery in the area, and also an apiary to boot! The partners have combined hops and honey for fermenting and sale. The brewery itself is newly renovated and wide open with the new shiny fermentors behind the bar. The owners were chatty and friendly. Their current brew menu has mostly IPA’S for now. The Summer Crush cherry wheat beer was not yet ready, though that is the one I would have chosen. Instead, Christina and I shared the St. Arnulf which was just the max amount of hoppiness I like. Greg enjoyed the IPA’s, even the No BH IPA which was considerably hoppy despite the ‘no boil hops’ name. He also sampled the Honey DIPA. He likes a DIPA but I thought the addition of the honey was a little overpowering. Greg and the head brewer discussed brewing and boiling and alpha to beta conversion while Christina and I scarfed up the local cheese plate which we had ordered. The cheeses were delicious as was the white bean garlic dip. All the food is locally sourced, including the food trucks that will be there Fridays through Sundays. If you go, take a clean empty mason jar and lid and get some of the wild honey they sell ($5.00 with your own jar as I recall).

We then headed to the new 1892 Grille at the north end of USL near the airport in the former Cone Cabin ice cream stand. The specials looked interesting but we settled for a cheeseburger wrap, a hamburger, and a Buffalo chicken tossed salad. Everything was good and cooked well and the fries were fresh and just the right amount of crispy. ‘1892’ pays homage to when the ADK park was established (thank you Verplanck Colvin) and also when the bottle cap was invented. We won’t rush back but if you’re looking for a good burger, do visit.

I do have a little local gossip too: the Big Tupper Brewery which had recently closed is allegedly reopening under new management later this summer so there’s that Brew View to look forward to. And also, if you are in Tupper Lake check out P 2s, a local tavern with local brews on tap and good music. It’s apparently an old mainstay and is worth a visit. I guess I should go!