A Hudson Valley Almanac day-trip guide
Four mountain counties — Greene, Delaware, Sullivan, and Schoharie — hold 38 cideries, breweries, and distilleries between them, and this belt leans harder into true field-to-glass than anywhere else in the region: foraged wild apples, floor-malted grain, firehouses turned distilleries, and farms that grow what they pour. None of these counties alone has the density for a standalone piece, but together they're the Catskills' beverage identity.
Up on the mountain, Hunter Mountain Brewery pours 15-plus beers near the highest peak in the Catskills, West Kill Brewing works a converted dairy farm using foraged maple sap and on-site ingredients, and Mountain King Brewing Company and The Vineyard at Windham anchor Windham's Main Street. Down in the valley, Catskill village carries four producers on its own: Crossroads Brewing's taproom on the Catskill Creek, Rip Van Winkle Brewing Company, a 40-year restaurant-and-brewery institution, Subversive Malting & Brewing, one of the few Northeast breweries floor-malting its own grain, and Left Bank Ciders, foraging wild apples within an hour of its cellar. Nearby, Brewery LaHoff brews in a circa-1900 fruit-packing barn in Climax, Old Factory Brewing Company runs a gastropub-and-distillery in a renovated bottling plant in Cairo, Gray Willow is a 2024 brewpub built by two veteran restaurant families in Earlton, and Night School pours beer and wine on the Athens waterfront.
Bovina Farm & Fermentory is a 20-acre farmstead brewery, restaurant, and inn making oak-barrel-aged lagers from all New York grain. In Walton, Awestruck Mill pours in a restored historic mill, Delaware Phoenix Distillery is one of very few U.S. distilleries specializing in traditionally-made absinthe, and dear native grapes makes wine from historic American varietals like Concord and Catawba rather than European vinifera. In Arkville, Union Grove Distillery makes its award-winning Vly Creek Vodka from local apples and wheat, sharing a building with Calico Outlaw Brewing. In Andes, Wayside Cider sources wild and abandoned homestead apples, and Weaver Hollow Brewery ferments with only a house yeast culture in an old creamery. Strickland Hollow Farm & Distillery in Meridale makes Calvados-style apple brandy on a farm dating to 1841.
Two former firehouses now hold distilleries: Prohibition Distillery in a 1929 Roscoe firehouse making the Bootlegger 21 line, and Catskill Provisions Distillery in a Callicoon firehouse known for honey whiskey. Roscoe — the fly-fishing capital of New York — also carries Roscoe Beer Company, a three-time People's Choice winner at the Bethel Woods Craft Beer Festival. Along the Delaware River, Callicoon Brewing Company pours in a renovated 1880s hotel, and Seminary Hill Orchard & Cidery is home to the world's first Passive House-certified cidery, clad in reclaimed Tappan Zee Bridge timber. In Livingston Manor, Catskill Brewery is a LEED-certified microbrewery founded by Catskill Mountainkeeper's founder, and Upward Brewing Company sits on a 120-acre nature preserve called Beer Mountain. In Bethel, Catskill Distilling Company distills across the road from the original Woodstock Festival site. Round out the county with Aaron Burr Cider in Wurtsboro — a foundational figure in the American wild-cider movement — plus Bashakill Vineyards & Winery nearby, Shrewd Fox Brewery in Eldred, Stickett Inn Cider in Barryville, and Two Farms Brewing, tucked among the lavender fields of a Bloomingburg farm.
1857 Spirits — Barber's Farm Distillery in Middleburgh distills potato vodka from potatoes grown on the same sixth-generation farm — one of the few American distilleries growing its own potatoes. KyMar Farm Winery and Distillery in Charlotteville was the first licensed distillery in the county since Prohibition. Scrumpy Ewe Cider in West Fulton ferments minimal-intervention cider with sheep grazing the orchard, and Sunken City Cider in Gilboa pours over the Schoharie Creek, named for a village submerged under the Schoharie Reservoir in 1926.
This is the widest-spread piece in the series — four counties, real mountain driving between clusters. Pick one county for a day rather than trying to cross the belt. Many of these are small, seasonal, or by-appointment operations (Coppersea-style limited access is common out here), so call ahead. Bring a designated driver.
Browse by county on the Almanac: Greene, Delaware, Sullivan, and Schoharie. For the region-wide picture, see The Hudson Valley Craft-Beverage Trail, and for curated day loops, A Saturday on the Mountaintop and A Saturday in the Sullivan Catskills.
Firehouses turned distilleries, wild apples off abandoned trees — the Catskills pour like nowhere else.