Horseheads brewery Upstate opening Finger Lakes taproom

Chemung County brewery hopes to open its Watkins Glen tasting room by next spring

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Nearing its 12th birthday, Horseheads-based Upstate Brewing Company is looking to open its first “branch office.”

By next spring, the Chemung County brewery wants to open Upstate Brewing FLX in Watkins Glen, Schuyler County. The 1,300-square-foot tasting room at 21 N. Franklin St. will feature plenty of natural light through multiple garage doors, ample outdoor seating, and a location conveniently located across the street from the Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel and next to the Seneca Cheese Company. There is also hope that a restaurant will open at the other building on the same property, creating a perfect symbiotic relationship.

For brewery owner/founder Mark Neumann, opening a second taproom is a logical way to expand the brewery’s reach. (The original location has an Elmira mailing address.) As he sees it, more than 90 percent of the people who visit Upstate’s original location are local to that area. So by opening just 30 minutes (roughly 20 miles) from its current home, Neumann said many people, including a lot of tourists, will be introduced to the Upstate brand.

“It is close enough to manage and get beer there fairly easily, but it will cater to almost a completely different audience,” Neumann said. “Everyone in Watkins Glen, for the most part, isn’t coming to Elmira. As much as I’d like to have them, they aren’t coming. It lets us tap into the whole tourist market there.”

Neumann estimated Watkins Glen, at the southern end of Seneca Lake, will present the opposite, where 90 percent of its customers won’t be from the area.

“It gets us a new audience without moving too far away,” Neumann said. “I get phone calls and email all the time, ‘Oh, I’ve got this place in Syracuse or in Rochester or in Buffalo that would be great for a brewery.’ But that’s not really easy to manage. It sounds good, and yeah, they are bigger markets, population-wise. But unless you’re going to do another brewery there, it really doesn’t make sense and I really don’t want to do another brewery.”

The potential of another taproom allows Upstate, through the skill and craft of long-time head brewer Mike Cooper, to up its production from May to October (to supply both locations) and then focus on distribution the remaining part of the year.

(Until recently, Upstate beers were available in the Rochester market through a local distributor. But that distributor closed, leaving Upstate without a Rochester-based partner. Neumann said he is happy to focus on selling beer in his taprooms where the profit margins are much higher.)

From the start, Upstate has been known for its flagship Common Sense ale, a modern take on a traditional Kentucky Common ale. Think of it as a dark cream ale. The style was widely available around Louisville, Kentucky, and then went extinct during Prohibition. Upstate expanded its portfolio into hazy IPAs and now into lagers.

The future Upstate home is a long, rectangular building with three garage doors. Neumann said it is very similar to the brewery’s current 1,100-square-foot tasting room. “It translates very well,” he said.

Neumann said construction inside the new space should be wrapped up by the end of October. The exterior will feature two courtyards (just outside the garage doors). That will nearly double the capacity of the tasting room.

Upstate is awaiting approval from the State Liquor Authority for its permanent farm brewery license. (The brewery is currently operating under a temporary farm license and can’t open another spot until it obtains the permanent license.) The farm brewery act, originally passed in 2012, mandates breweries use at least 60 percent New York state-grown ingredients in their beers. It also allows breweries to open up to five satellite locations (sometimes lovingly referred to as “branch offices”).

Neumann considered multiple properties in the Hammondsport and Watkins Glen areas before discovering what he believes is the perfect location.

“Ultimately, I wanted to go somewhere close but where you’re hitting a very different crowd,” Neumann said. “To grow logically, we either needed to go to a larger city significantly farther away or do something in a spot closer with the tourist dollars coming in. This new property, it’s shocking how perfect it is for us.”

Upstate joins a number of other New York breweries who have opened new locations in the Rochester and Finger Lakes areas. That list includes Other Half, Rising Storm. Tin Barn, and Big aLICe. Plus, more should soon follow in those footsteps. (Check this space for more news very, very soon.)

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