matthew 'fuj' scher

Chatham, NY: Growler fills at Chatham Brewing [Beer]

After the kicking back a few of Chatham’s brews during the previous night’s dinner at New World Bistro Bar, I knew just the place to go to do some growler fills for a party Elise and I were going to later that night. I’m not usually the type to stick to one single brew throughout the the night, but their Imperial IPA was just too good not to.

Chatham Brewery isn’t that far away, maybe 40 minute drive max. We loaded up the car with the pooch and were on our way. Going by the street address, we were kinda lost. We found the location, walked up a flight of stairs and found ourselves looking at pretty business like office space; this definitely wasn’t a brewery. We found a door that had the Chatham Brewery symbol on it, which directed us to the back if no one was around. Looking out back we saw a couple of garages and some folks hanging out so that’s where we headed.

The brewery wasn’t much to look at but that’s kinda the point of this place, isn’t it? It’s a true microbrewery, AKA small brew, small batch operation, brewed in basically what amounts to a garage. Every beer geek’s dream, right? And I think it’s great. They do some awesome beers and deserve every bit of the cred they’ve been receiving recently.

We tasted several of their beers that day, while the brewer Matthew Perry showed us around their facilities. Pretty impressive they output the amount of beer they do in such a small space. The ONE time I’d actually want my 18-135mm lens because I didn’t have much room to backup and take a shot of the whole thing and and I didn’t even have it. 

Even though I just had their Imperial IPA the night before and tried and enjoyed the beers I had that day, I knew I needed another growler of it since it was just too damn good not to. Just look at that insane lacing on a plastic cup. I was once again seriously impressed. Elise had a tough time decided between the Maple Porter and the Stout but ended up with the Stout. (The stout went over well with the non-beer nerds at the party that night. The DIPA? Not so much.)

We spent about 45 minutes hanging out and BSing with the brewer and tasting beers. It was pretty cool since you usually don’t get that kind opportunity often. I didn’t want to keep him long since I knew he was heading up to TAP NY later on that day, where they ended up taking home the Vassar Cup for best Brewery in the Hudson Valley. (Congrats!).

I’m keeping an eye out on Chatham Brewing and will definitely get some growlers filled there again. They got some barrel-aged beers with barrels sourced from a local distillery I absolutely cannot wait for.