Day 11

I barely got any sleep last night, but felt okay at 6:30…good enough to head out on the bikes for 5.75 miles.  After getting cleaned up and the car packed up, we had one last meal with the Celmers minus Justin, and hit the road.  The drive from Buffalo to Syracuse was fairly uneventful and we found Middle Ages Brewing quite easily.  

Although they did not have tours, we did get to sample several of their beers for free and enjoyed the company…including a black cat who resides on the bar.  We were tempted to fill up a growler, but resisted the urge and settled on two tall bottles, one was a double IPA and the other was an Ale called the Wailing Wench.  It was quite easy to get through Syracuse and we headed onward to Utica.  We went through some very heavy rain, but made it through the storm quickly.  I hope it doesn’t catch up with us.  The drive from Syracuse to Utica was quicker than expected overall.  We were able to find the Matt Brewing Company, better known as Saranac, without a problem, but we arrived at 2 and the next tour was at 3.  I guess we will have to wait it out until 3 before taking the tour and then heading to Albany.  There was a restaurant right across the street where we are seeking refuge from the heat.  The current temperature is 90 and it is humid.  We ordered a Saranac Pale Ale, which was alright.

The Saranac tour was one of the most impressive tours I have been on.  Part of the tour was a beautiful museum; the other part was a typical warehouse-type brewery, but on a large scale.  I learned a lot about Matt’s Brewing Company, and I wondered why it wasn’t just called Saranac, but was educated in the fact that Matt’s is the primary company which has one line of beers with the name of Saranac, which is named after a collection of stars.  F.X. Matts is the name of the founder of the brewery.  They also brew different beers, such as Utica Club.  It was very interesting and informative.  We paid $5 for the tour and at the end of the hour, you got two full pints.  Since I was driving, I only had one.  I had the Ubu, which was pretty flavorful and I would give a 4 out of 5 rating.  The other Saranac brews are okay, but lack flavor. 

From Utica, we headed to Albany.  This was the best part of the drive scenery-wise.  We were in the mountains and I enjoyed following the river.  The Econo-Lodge we booked was nice, but our room was on the second floor, so we had to haul all of our supplies up the stairs.  We looked forward to dinner at Brown’s Brewing Company in Troy, which is only 10 minutes from the hotel. 

Once we got to Brown’s we were immediately disappointed with the atmosphere and the lack of flavor of their beers.  We must be spoiled!  They did have a tasty cocktail with rum and pineapple, which was very refreshing in the heat.

I was hoping to have some steamed veggies for dinner, but struggled to find anything on their menu besides a salad.  I gave in to a small salad which was reasonably priced and had their homemade salsa as a dressing which was tasty.  Ty had their Hombre burger which had onion strings, bacon, cheese, and jalapenos, with fries.  He was satisfied and took half the burger to go.  That should come in handy later.  Instead of hanging out in Troy, we decided to just head back to the hotel room.  I think that was a good decision.  We are both exhausted and have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.  At least tomorrow, the breweries are closer together.  We are hoping to bike tomorrow a little more than in the past couple of days.  We’ll see how we feel.