The 7 Best Breweries and Cideries Near Albany, Ranked
Taproom interior at an Albany brewery
Seven local breweries and cideries in and around Albany, ranked by beer quality and how much you’ll want to linger.
The top four
1. Nine Pin Cider Works, Broadway. New York State's first farm cidery, granted the licence in 2013. The Belgian Cider and Signature Dry are both excellent. 2. Druthers Brewing on Broadway. Reliable pizza and their Fist of Karma Brown Ale is a legitimate local classic. Also has locations in Saratoga and Schenectady. 3. Rare Form Brewing in Troy, a 15-minute drive. Small, focused, some of the best hazy IPAs in the region. 4. Chatham Brewing in the Berkshires foothills, worth the 40-minute drive for the Maple Amber.
Five through seven
5. C.H. Evans Brewing at the Albany Pump Station. The building alone, an 1874 pumping station, justifies a stop. Beer is solid rather than exceptional. 6. Indian Ladder Farms Cidery and Brewery in Altamont (20 min), great in fall when you can pick apples then drink cider. 7. Wolf Hollow Brewing near Schenectady, quieter but the Belgian styles are underrated. What didn’t make it: several taprooms that opened and closed in the past three years — the local scene turns over fast.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Troy, answered with this month’s numbers.
Not really. Nine Pin, Druthers and the Pump Station are all downtown-ish but spread out enough that you’ll want ride-shares between them. Troy has a tighter walkable cluster if you’re willing to cross the river.
Druthers, without question — wood-fired pizza that would stand up on its own. Nine Pin brings in food trucks. The Pump Station has a full pub menu, decent but not the reason to visit.
