3 Great Places for a Craft Beer in Cooperstown, NY

If it is a combination of variety and quality you want from your craft beer adventure, you wont go wrong with a visit to Cooperstown in New York. Once the former hop-growing capital of North America, and today the home of Ommegang Brewery, Cooperstown has the pedigree to provide everything a craft beer enthusiast could want.

Here’s our picks for your top craft beer stops in Cooperstown New York:

Brewery Ommegang

Actually located on a hop farm, the Brewery Ommegang is probably as close to paradise in New England for Belgian-style beer lovers. They offer six high quality, award-winning beers year-round, plus seasonal and special-edition brews such as the super-successful Game of Thrones series. You can tour, taste and shop at the brewery seven days a week, with an on-site shop offering to-go beers and growler fills. Considering the popularity and availability of Ommegang beers, the size of the brewery operation was surprisingly small. One truly unique feature of the brewhouse is their open fermenter, which they use to blend wild fermented beer back into their batches to stay true to the traditions of Belgian breweries. The tasting room offers up some belgian inspired food options as well, including their very popular frites with dipping sauces. If you’re going to Cooperstown and reading hereforthebeer.com chances are this is where you are headed anyhow – so check out what they are up to on their website and keep reading for some lesser known Cooperstown craft beer options…

Alex and Ika
We’ve been out to Cooperstown on several occasions and seem to find ourselves eating at Alex and Ikas at least once each visit. With their unique and delicious approach to global menus, along with a small but carefully curated craft beer list, Alex and Ika’s restaurant has the whole package. Located at the end of a small alleyway, the interior is cosy yet elegant. Theres a small bar area where we have dined on our visits. While the menu has many refined and upscale choices, we usually go for the burger with its fresh-baked rolls, home-made pickles and in our experiences has been perfectly cooked. A great accompaniment to an Ommegang Belgian IPA. On every visit we’ve had great experiences with the friendly and social staff as well. You can find Alex and Ika’s restaurant on Main Street in Cooperstown and online here.

Council Rock Brewery

Did you know that there’s more than just Ommegang brewing beer in Cooperstown? Neither did we. But we were pleasantly surprised to discover and sample some of the beers from Council Rock Brewery. This small brewery has nearly the same brewhouse we have at Whetstone Station, a 3 barrel Psycho-Brew system, and much like us they are putting out about 3 or 4 beers of their own at a time. They were each good and in particular the Full Nelson was an interesting fruity Amber. The kitchen also puts out some great comfort food, try the Bacon Mac and Cheese or the Chicken Pot Pie. Certainly worth a stop. See the details at councilrockbrewery.com

So when you’re making your nearly essential pilgrimage to visit Ommegang Brewery, be sure to branch out to some of these other great craft beer stops in Cooperstown New York. And, oh yeah, the baseball hall of fame is there too. ;-)