Captain Lawrence Brewery

At first, I was afraid of growlers. (I was petrified).

You see, once a growler of beer is opened, it’s basically a ticking time bomb waiting to go flat. Ideally, once it’s been opened, it should be consumed in one sitting. But what if I didn’t get around to drinking it all at once? Will I have wasted half my beer? Why would I do that when I can just buy a 6-pack and drink them whenever I want?

All these fears were of course alleviated when Kyle and I split a growler of Gandhi-Bot. Then we started to think about the good things. You know the beer’s as fresh as it gets. You can get fill-ups of beers the brewery may not even bottle. It’s a reason to get together with friends. And best of all, it’s satisfying to have a huge, bulky, brown, half-gallon glass bottle of beer in your fridge that gets in everything’s way and pisses off your girlfriend.

With that in mind, we took our empty growlers down to Pleasantville, NY, for a taste of what Captain Lawrence had to offer and, of course, to bring some home.  We were so excited on the way down, we played a little jug band music with our growlers and an old rusty washboard.

 Feel free to comment if you find yourself in this picture.

The first room in the brewery is the tap room, which is fine, because that’s our favorite room. Here, brewery workers hand out sizable free samples of everything on tap. On the day we visited:

Captain Lawrence Kolsch: Light and clean tasting, with a hint of hops. A light sipper.

Captain Lawrence Extra Gold: Sweet, Belgian-y, with a bit of citrus. If not for the obvious selection of the IIPA, this would have been my favorite.

Captain Lawrence Pale Ale: Moderately hoppy with a nice malt backbone (though I had to pick it out, as I don’t like bones in my beer)

Captain Lawrence Pumpkin Ale: Nice malts and spices, though I didn’t get a whole lot of pumpkin.

Captain Lawrence Imperial IPA: Super floral & sweet, really hoppy without managing to be very bitter. Naturally, this is what both Kyle and I got our growlers filled with.

$10.50 for a growler of Imperial IPA. It's what Jesus would have done.

We also went on the short brewery tour with awesomely-named-tour-guide Ryan, who showed us the inner workings of the brewery, all the shiny machines, and the disgusting barrels of spent yeast that they donate to local farms. Eww.

Ryan also mentioned that in the next few months, the brewery will be expanding substantially with a move to its new location in Elmsford, which will finally allow them to produce 6-packs of Pale Ale and other 12 oz. offerings. Big things coming from the Captain. Be on the lookout at your favorite bottle shop.

 No brewery review is complete without pictures of big shiny things.

We didn’t realize it before we plugged the address into Kyle’s GPS, but Capt. Lawrence is about 10 minutes closer than New England Brewing Co., making it our closest commercial brewery. It’s an awesome place to grab some samples of a year-round favorite or something seasonal, the growler prices are totally reasonable, and the staff is friendly. Next time you’re in Pleasantville (and why wouldn’t you be), definitely plan to stop by.

Grrrrrrr, (I’m growling. Get it?)

Ryan