The Bar Towel

Are there any halfway decent beer stores across the border from Kingston? I need to make a trip to Watertown NY in april and wouldnt mind picking up something.

Nothing crazy but hopefully I could get some Dogfish 60min IPA or Sierra Nevada celebration ale....

I will credit a fellow BarToweller with this info, but these are all a good drive and not just across the border. GoogleMap and you will see hitting a few of these could eat up several hours.

(Hope you don't mind Al since this is mainly store information you emailed me.)

Al of Kingston wrote:
The best in Syracuse is a odd place called the Galeville Grocery. And another 45 minutes south or so is Ithaca's Finger Lake Beverages. I've never gone to Beers of the World in Rochester but I think FLB is comparable plus they are a wholesaler so their stock moves faster. My real goal is to get to Half Time Beverages in Poughkeepsie which apparently has 1800 types of beer.

Alan

Thanks for the tip - I'm hoping not to go as far as Syracuse or Ithica though. Hopefully less than an hour from the border theres a little corner store with something other than Bud and Miller

Hi A.,

And no problem B. - unfortunately there is no shop in Watertown that has a broad range of beers. You can get the excellent Thousand Island Pale Ale and the Lake Placid range of beers at most places like Hannafords grocery across from the Salmon Run Mall as well as maybe some Saranacs. You have to go farther south to Oswego or Syracuse to get a better selection. There may actually be a better selection at the Alex Bay Mart near the 1000 Islands bridge but still relatively limited.

Thanks Al, thats exactly what I'm looking for - just regular stores that at least have a decent selection of local beers. Gotta load up on my hoppy american IPAs before summer

Cheers!

Your best bet is for the TIPA, then, but look for 46er from Lake Placid and Saranac IPA.

A wrote:Are there any halfway decent beer stores across the border from Kingston? I need to make a trip to Watertown NY in april and wouldnt mind picking up something.

Nothing crazy but hopefully I could get some Dogfish 60min IPA or Sierra Nevada celebration ale....

If you're willing to travel a little further east to Canton, you can hit Bassettes. Great little dive of a place.

http://ratebeer.com/Place/new-york/cant ... e/1150.htm

Yes, if you are coming from Brockville or east, it is easy to cross at Prescott-Ogdensburg, head inland about 15 miles to Canton, shop at Bessettes and head to Watertown on highway 11. The shop would be not much more than an hour from the west end of Ottawa. They have changed their distributor last winter and carry some beers not available north of Syracuse like Middle Ages or Smuttynose.

I might end up going at Bessett's soon.

Do they carry Victory?

I am pretty sure they had Prima Pils and maybe a few other ones but I would call ahead as they are irregular supply.

Thanks for the tip on Bessetts. I am coming from TO so its in the opposite direction but it might be a good plan B if Watertown is a bust.

Thanks!

If that is the case, you could go another 45 minutes south and to the west, you would hit C's of Oswego. Another hour would get you to Beers of the World in Rochester and about as much more would get you to Buffalo and Premier Gourmet. Cross at Niagara and a few hours you are home.

Well it appears Bessets only adds about 30 min in each direction no? That is about my threshold of tolerance for this trip

Just for the record, I was over in Jefferson Co. NY today and can confirm that the Alex Bay Mart in Alex Bay has a better selection than anything I could find in Watertown. Not as good as Bessetts but Thousand Island Pale ale, Magic Hat and a few other surprises that seem absent from Watertown. Given that there is a huge US army base outside of town, it makes no sense to me why Watertown is so poorly served.

On the upside, Watertown has a new chain bar/roadhouse on outer Arsenal street called Texas Roadhouse that has the best ribs I have ever had in my life - and I love ribs. Massively meaty and a few micros on tap as well as more in the bottle. Perfect for a Watertown Wizards baseball pre-game meal.

Just wanted to thank people for the info in this thread. I drove to Bessetts this afternoon from downtown Ottawa (about 1:15 door to door; my roundtrip was about 3hrs including browsing time and paying about $50Cdn in duty for my $110US worth of beer).

I spoke briefly with a guy who worked there. He said they get one big delivery each month (near the beginning of the month). The selection was certainly good, but I wouldn't call it great (i.e. not in the same class as Galeville or Party Source in Syracuse but orders of magnitude better than the LCBO).

I picked up:
- Stone IPA
- DFH 60 Minute IPA
- Middle Ages IPA
- Lagunitas IPA
- Smuttynose IPA
- SNPA
- Harpoon IPA
- Saranac IPA

I'm set for a while now but I think I'll be doing this run every couple of months to restock the fridge.