Yates and Steuben counties launch passport program to showcase FLX breweries

The Finger Lakes Crafts & Drafts Pass features 11 craft beverage producers and entitles visitors to discounts at participating businesses

Note: This sponsored newsletter is a partnership between Discover Steuben, the Yates County Chamber of Commerce, and the Cleveland Prost.

Talk to A.J. Noto for just a brief amount of time and you can sense the passion deeply ingrained in everything he does. At his core, Noto is a salesman and he’s really, really good at it.

As co-owner of Abandon Brewing in Penn Yan, Yates County, it’s Noto’s job to sell the public on visiting their little slice of heaven overlooking Keuka Lake. It’s a hard job, but it isn’t a hard sell. Once you get people to Abandon, the brewery in the stunning 200-year-old red barn, they understand — it’s the peaceful atmosphere, the impeccable view, the space to spread out, the tasty food, and the wonderful beer. It’s all there.

And through a new partnership with neighboring breweries, distilleries, and tourism agencies in Yates and Steuben counties, the hope is that the sale gets even easier. By bundling and combining efforts, the goal is to reach even more people. Recently, the Yates County Chamber of Commerce and Explore Steuben launched the Finger Lakes Crafts & Drafts Pass, an alliance of 11 Finger Lakes craft beverage producers that provides visitors with discounts and special offers at each participating establishment.

Photo: Laurentide Beer Co. in Penn Yan is one of the participants in the Finger Lakes Crafts & Drafts Pass program.

“We’re all about supporting anything that’s going to bring people to the region,” Noto said. “It’s such a beautiful place. When people go there once, they’re hooked. That’s it. It’s such a special place. It’s just important that we get people there for the first time, whatever that takes.”

And tourism officials, along with brewery and distillery owners, hope that by combining their efforts, they can present a unified front and collectively work to attract visitors. There is no application to download. Instead, interested parties can visit https://www.fingerlakescountrysides.com/explore/drink/finger-lakes-crafts-and-drafts-passport/ to purchase a 1-, 3-, 5-day or annual pass. (Passes start at $24.) Once the purchase is complete, you’ll receive a text and email. Folks can present their phones at participating businesses and redeem for a pint, flight, or whatever the business offers. It couldn’t be any simpler, and it also presents a great value.

Just like in craft beer, collaboration remains central to the mission, according to Dave DeGolyer, Explore Steuben communications director. When the opportunity presents itself, DeGolyer said they like to look beyond the boundaries of their own county, especially because “travel isn’t based on counties, it’s based on experiences.”

This partnership allows them to highlight all of Keuka Lake and not just a small portion of it. The same goes for the Yates County portion of Seneca Lake.

“Our job is really trying to connect people with fun experiences,” DeGolyer said. “If we can take down those invisible barriers, we can showcase the best of the area.”

Photo: The interior of the Laurentide Beer Co. tasting room in Penn Yan.

While the scenery and quality of the beverages are nearly unmatched, the people working at these establishments remain the secret weapon. “They welcome you in and make you feel like you’re hanging out with people you already know. That’s just an inherent part of that craft beverage industry.”

The tourism folks realize that people don’t single out specific counties when they travel. Instead, they understand people travel to a region, especially in the Finger Lakes, and want to visit as many cool destinations as possible. The hope and the goal is to introduce people to many of the fantastic beverage producers in Steuben and Yates counties, while also providing an incentive for locals to patronize and support these establishments.

Asked to summarize her job, Chelsea Race, the Yates County Chamber of Commerce director of marketing, said it’s pretty simple — reach as many people as possible.

“Yates County is really the heart of the Finger Lakes,” Race said. “Say someone wants to go to Corning or someone wants to go to Naples to go hiking or go to Canandaigua to explore that area, Yates County is the perfect place to stay.”

Even though Yates County is one of the smallest counties in the state, it is jam-packed with things to do, places to visit, and destinations to explore. Add in the allure of Steuben County and you really have a winning partnership. And it goes beyond the more than 50 wineries in the two counties, because people are now drawn to the region for other craft beverages, especially over the past 10 years. The food scene is also wildly exciting.

Photo: The exterior of the expansive Abandon Brewing property, including the outdoor event space and the tasting room/brewery in the barn.

The Brewery of Broken Dreams, housed in a historic 120-year-old building, is nestled in the cozy village of Hammondsport, Steuben County, on the southern end of Keuka Lake. It is just one of the destinations available to visit, explore, and experience. The co-founders came up with the name after numerous attempts to open a brewery fell through. They thought the dream was dead, but when they found the perfect home, the name just stuck. So really, it’s not a hopeless moniker, it’s one that symbolizes the arduous journey to follow through on a dream.

Married couple Shelly Fisher and Douglass Schuckers opened the brewery nearly 10 years ago. Shelly runs the taproom, while Douglass is head brewer. Schuckers has been brewing for more than 20 years. Before opening, the brewery took advantage of the recently enacted farm brewery law, which eased the licensing process and put an emphasis on utilizing locally grown ingredients. And over the past 10 years, Fisher and Schuckers have embraced that local mentality.

Photo: The Brewery of Broken Dream (photo by Stu Gallagher).

“We have a very wide variety of styles,” Fisher said. “We don’t just do one style and that’s it. We’re also a farm brewery and we take it pretty seriously. We’re 100 percent New York state grown malts and hops.”

Fisher, who said owning a brewery is a “wonderful outlet for creativity,” said it just makes sense to combine resources and efforts for marketing. “Hopefully it’ll allow us to gain some more market presence,” Fisher said. “We’re all pretty friendly, so any time we can do something to work together, to promote, it’s a good thing for everyone. …I think it would be great if we could get even more people involved.”

Talking to any of the participating business owners, it becomes clear that they’re all bound by a shared love for the southern end of the Finger Lakes, in and around both Keuka and Seneca lakes. It’s easy to forget that we live within two hours of all these incredible destinations. And it remains an ideal place for a day trip, weekend getaway, or something even longer.

Photo: The beer menu at Railhead Brewing in Hornell. (Photo by Stu Gallagher.)

Or we can just listen to Noto, the ultimate salesman, “It’s just stunningly beautiful. It’s a gorgeous place to be and spend the day. Very relaxed atmosphere. Just a super chill environment, which I think people immediately encounter when they come. There is something for everybody. Some places you go to, it’s one brewery and 30 wineries. To me, this is a cool mixture of everything.”

These are the participants

• Abandon Brewing Co., Penn Yan

• Barrelhouse 6 Distillery, Hammondsport

• Climbing Bines Hop Farm and Craft Ale Co., Penn Yan

• Krooked Tusker Distillery, Hammondsport

• Laurentide Beer Co., Penn Yan

• LyonSmith Brewing Co., Keuka Park

• Railhead Brewing Co., Hornell

• Relative Risk Brewing Co., Penn Yan

• Seneca Stag Brewing, Penn Yan

• The Brewery of Broken Dreams, Hammondsport

• Tub Town Brewing, Bath

For more information and to purchase a pass, visit https://www.corningfingerlakes.com/eat-and-drink/finger-lakes-crafts-and-drafts-passport/.