Sometimes the best way to get through the winter is with a locally crafted cocktail or brewed beer with a friend. Fortunately, there’s no lack of decent spots to get one around the north country, so long as you’re daring enough to venture outside during the cold north country winter months.
One such place is St. Lawrence Spirits Downtown Tasting Room, situated at 510 Riverside Drive in downtown Clayton.
The tasting room serves only the spirits produced by their own distillery, which is located by the chateau.
“We’re a retail space where you can buy our bottles, and we offer complimentary tastings of all our spirits,” said general manager Valentina Ganter. “We also have featured cocktails curated around our spirits as well, so clients can taste their favorite spirits we craft cocktails based around
them.”
“This gets people to fall in love with our spirits,” she said.
The spirits they sell, she said, include vodka, whiskeys, gin, moonshine, absinthe, and an empire cream which she described as similar to Bailey’s and all natural.
She said the mules tend to be the most popular cocktails, which marries ginger-beer with your spirit of choice.
“We also do great whiskey cocktails, like our perfect old-fashioned,” she continued.
Those of us who require a smoke with our drink can purchase cigars soaked in their bourbons and other whiskeys at the shop.
Ms. Ganter said their natural, local philosophy makes them a unique tasting room experience.
It’s all distilled nearby, and the entire grain-bill comes from New York state. On top of that, the St. Lawrence River is the only water source they use during the distillation process.
In mid-February they are planning to start offering live music on Fridays at the Tasting Room at the Chateau, located at 38289 NYS Route 12E.
Wood Boat Brewery, located along the St. Lawrence River at 625 Mary St., Clayton, serves homebrewed beer and wood-fired food.
“We’re a brewery that is themed after the antique wood boats of the St. Lawrence River,” owner Michael Hazlewood said.
“It’s a farm brewery, meaning all of our ingredients are grown locally in New York state. We’re also a brick-oven pizza and sandwich restaurant.”
Wood Boat has an assortment of different beers to offer. “Typically we have 13 beers on tap, with some of them rotating,” he said.
Their best seller is called Channel Marker, which Mr. Hazlewood described as a “very drinkable IPA.”
Their food is popular, too.
“Our brick-oven pizzas are all handcrafted, and everyone loves our jalapeno poppers,” he said.
Their wood boat themed scenery makes for a fun, unique environment.
“I think we have a little different twist on things,” Mr. Hazlewood said.
“We do the best we can to make everything as homegrown and locally sourced as possible, and to do things our own way.”
He added that the brewery has a grand-event space upstairs for rent, which is nautically themed.
Wood Boat is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., from Friday through Saturday until 9:30 p.m., and on Sunday it closes at 8:30 p.m.
In-Law Brewing Company, stationed at 5868 County Route 14, Chase Mills, also makes its own craft beverages. The two brothers-in-law, Justin Tredo and Brent Bishop, began homebrewing beer as a hobby, and it quickly snowballed.
“We just started doing bigger and bigger batches, and then my brother-in-law Brent bought the house where our brewery is located now, and it seemed like a good opportunity to make some beer for other people to drink,” Mr. Tredo explained.
If you haven’t been there, you’ve probably still seen--and hopefully tried--their beers, as they’re on tap at around 10 different restaurants and bars in the St. Lawrence County region.
The beers they make are eclectic and inspired.
“At any given time we have at least 20 beers on tap,” Mr. Tredo said. “It’s anything from IPAs to sours to lager to fruit beers and stouts.”
Their most popular is a raspberry cream ale, appropriately called Grandpa’s New Girlfriend.
“We do off-the-wall ones too,” Mr. Tredo said. “Like right now we have a pineapple black-currant Belgian sour IPA.”
Even though they have some mainstay offerings, they rotate their menu often.
“We like variety,” he said. “Even when I buy other beers, I usually don’t buy the same one more than once.”
That creative range nestled within such a homey environment sets their destination apart from other breweries.
“I think people really like our atmosphere. It’s pretty much all outdoors, and it’s very laid-back. It’s in my sister and brother-in-law’s yard in an old barn, so that’s unique, and the variety of beers is something you can’t really find around here.”
Since both brothers work full-time at other jobs, the brewery is only open part-time on Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. But they’re in the midst of expanding to a new and bigger building down the road.
“We’ll be relocating within the next year or so,” Mr. Tredo said.
Until then, customers can look forward to the various events they host throughout the year, such as St. Patrick’s Day, where there will be a band and food.
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