A Hudson Valley Almanac day-trip guide
Westchester and Rockland sit closest to the city of any counties in this series — 19 producers, anchored by the brewery that started Westchester's craft-beer movement and the county's only cidery and only winery. Less than an hour from Manhattan, most of the time.
Captain Lawrence Brewing Company is Westchester's craft beer pioneer, founded in 2006 by a UC Davis-trained brewer who worked at Sierra Nevada — as many as 100 different beer styles a year and 10-plus GABF medals, now distributing to Europe and Japan. Current Spirits, a speakeasy-style distillery from the same founder, sits right next door. The newer Captain Lawrence Barrel House in Mount Kisco specializes in barrel-aged sours and stouts.
Peekskill Brewery opened on the Peekskill waterfront in 2008 and helped establish the region as a craft-beer destination before its brewmaster went on to found Industrial Arts; River Outpost Brewing Company pours nearby along the river. Further south, Sing Sing Kill Brewery filled a gap in downtown Ossining with community-funded renovation of two long-abandoned storefronts, and in Port Chester, StilltheOne Distillery was the county's first distillery since Prohibition, known for honey-based vodka. In Yonkers, Yonkers Brewing Company runs a cavernous waterfront taproom near the Metro-North station, and Simple Motive Brewing Co. pours out of a historic building downtown.
Wolf & Warrior Brewing Company is a certified farm brewery in downtown White Plains known for double-dry-hopped imperial IPAs, and Soul Brewing Company in Pleasantville specializes in porters, stouts, and English-style bitters. Broken Bow Brewery in Tuckahoe runs an inventive small-batch nano-brewery, and Marlowe Artisanal Ales in Mamaroneck relocated across the Hudson from an original Nyack pub. Hardscrabble Cider in North Salem is Westchester County's only cidery — a micro farm-cidery on the family's own 60-acre orchard.
Torne Valley Vineyards in Hillburn, founded in 2009, is the first fully functioning winery in Rockland County, set on a restored 19th-century estate along the Ramapo River. Red Barn Cidery in Congers is the county's first farm-to-glass cidery, opened in 2023 on the fifth-generation Dr. Davies Farm. District 96 Beer Factory in New City and Gentle Giant Brewing Company in Pearl River are two of the county's most active craft breweries, and Stony Point Brewing Company runs a German-themed Bierhaus in a historic brick building in West Haverstraw.
This is the most drivable-from-NYC piece in the series — most stops are 45 minutes to an hour from Manhattan, which also means weekend crowds. Elmsford's Captain Lawrence cluster is the natural anchor for a day; pair it with either the waterfront towns or Rockland depending on which side of the river you're on. Bring a designated driver.
Browse by county on the Almanac: Westchester and Rockland. For the region-wide picture, see The Hudson Valley Craft-Beverage Trail.
The closest the Almanac gets to the city, and still every bit a working farm-and-craft scene.