Breweries, Wineries and Distilleries

Within about an hour and a half of the cabins, and a little farther toward Lake Champlain, you can drink beer, cider, mead and wine where it is made: a farm brewery in Dickinson Center, a brewery and meadery in Bloomingdale, three brewpubs in Saranac Lake, the home of Ubu Ale in Lake Placid, a beer hall with a row of food trucks in Tupper Lake, and small wineries in the Champlain Valley. The nearest taproom is about 27 road miles away, so pick a driver before the first flight. Every stop below held an active New York license or posted its 2026 hours when this guide was written; hours change with the seasons, so check each one before you go.

Where the makers are

The cabins sit in the Town of Bellmont, about ten road miles south of Malone. There is no brewery in Malone; the closest makers are west of the village in Dickinson Center and Hogansburg, and the biggest group is an hour south in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. Road miles are measured from the cabins.

For a beer without the drive, Malone's pubs and the bowling alley bar are on the where to eat page, about twenty minutes from the cabins.

Close to the cabins

Township 7 Brewing Co., Dickinson Center

Township 7 is a small farm brewery at 303 State Route 11B in Dickinson Center, about 27 road miles west of the cabins, roughly 45 minutes. It pours unfiltered, unpasteurized beer by the glass or in flights, plus hard seltzer and its own sugar-free ginger ale and seltzers, which are sold only in the taproom. Growlers to go come in 32-ounce and 64-ounce sizes. There is no kitchen: bring cooked food and snacks, or order delivery from a local place such as Firehouse Pizzeria. The taproom is casual and open to all ages, and dogs are welcome if they are kept under control, since there are other pets, children and free-range chickens on the grounds.

Its website lists the taproom open every day, from noon on most days and from 3 p.m. on Tuesday, to 9 p.m. or later on Friday and Saturday, with a weekday happy hour from 3 to 7 p.m. Those hours carry no date, so call (518) 651-9532 before you make the drive. Its events page lists live music and karaoke nights into December 2026, and in August 2025 the Rome Sentinel put it on a list of the ten most remote breweries in upstate New York.

Maple Brewing, Hogansburg

The Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort, at 873 State Route 37 in Hogansburg and about 32 road miles from the cabins, brews its own beer. The resort, owned by the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe of Akwesasne, broke ground on Maple Brewing in July 2018 and opened it on March 1, 2019: a 1,400-square-foot brewhouse with a four-barrel system built to make 160 half kegs a month, which the resort billed as the first casino in New York State with a brewery. The resort's website lists lagers, pilsners, porters and double IPAs on tap, plus seasonal beers, and sells the beer in 12-ounce cans, by the four-pack or the single can, at the Reflections Gift Shop in the main lobby. Its brewing license was renewed in June 2026. The where to eat page lists the resort's restaurants and late hours.

Mountain Miss CiderWorks, Malone

The only maker with a Malone address is a farm cidery, Mountain Miss CiderWorks, whose license runs to 2029. Its Bordertown Bluet is a semi-dry blueberry cider of 6.5 percent alcohol, made at Prairies Orchard in Malone from New York apples and blueberries from Burke Family Farm. It posts no tasting-room hours, so treat it as a local cider to look for rather than a stop.

Saranac Lake and Bloomingdale

Saranac Lake is about 43 road miles south of the cabins, about an hour. Three brewpubs and a Hex and Hop taproom are in the village, and Hex and Hop's main brewery is just north on NY 3 in Bloomingdale. The village and its trails are in the Saranac Lake and Paul Smiths guide.

Hex and Hop, Bloomingdale and Saranac Lake

Hex and Hop makes beer and mead, a wine fermented from honey, using raw Adirondack honey and New York hops, malt and fruit. The brewery and meadery at 1719 State Route 3 in Bloomingdale, about 43 road miles from the cabins, pours everything it makes, with snacks from a small kitchen, non-alcoholic beer and a root beer on draft, and a beer garden with a fire pit and live music. Its website lists it closed on Monday, open 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, noon to 9 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 8 p.m. Sunday, with a note that fall hours can change. The second taproom is in its production brewery at 15 Brandy Brook Avenue in Saranac Lake, open 5 to 9 p.m. Friday and noon to 9 p.m. Saturday, with local food trucks. Bring a clean growler to fill, or take crowlers home.

Blue Line Brewery

Blue Line, at 555 Lake Flower Avenue, opened in a former car wash, and the car wash counter is built into the middle of the bar. It started as a tasting room with small brewing equipment and grew into a full pub. The food is a thin, crispy, personal-size bar pizza in the South Shore style, plus brined wings with house sauces, and beer goes home in crowlers. It calls itself family-friendly. Hours on its website: 4 to 8 p.m. Monday, 4 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, noon to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, and they can vary with the weather.

RiverTrail Beerworks

RiverTrail opened in 2024 at 79 Woodruff Street, on the river beside the Adirondack Rail Trail. It pours twelve house beers and four guest taps from other New York brewers, sells its beer to go in cans and crowlers, and serves lunch and dinner daily from a menu with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dishes. Outside there is a large heated, screened patio and two fire pits on the river. Hours are 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Dogs are allowed on the porch in the warm months; once the plexiglass goes back on the porch windows in early October, the health department rules keep them off it.

Bitters & Bones

Bitters & Bones, at 65 Broadway, is a restaurant and bar with its own microbrewery; the brewing tanks went in during September 2021. The house beers rotate among clean lagers, hoppy ales and darker malty beers, and the kitchen leans on smoked meats, house sausages and charcuterie. It opens at 8 a.m. for breakfast, serves lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., or 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and the bar stays open to midnight. Weekend evenings fill up; weeknights are calmer.

Lake Placid and Ray Brook

Lake Placid is about 52 road miles from the cabins, about an hour and a quarter. From Saranac Lake, NY 86 runs east through Ray Brook into the village. For the rest of a day there, see the Olympic sites guide.

Ray Brook Brew House

Ray Brook Brew House, at 1153 NY 86, makes what it calls wild and traditional beers and pairs them with a kitchen that mixes local and far-flung ingredients. It is open noon to 7 p.m. Monday to Thursday and noon to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and closed on Sunday; the hours shift with the seasons.

Lake Placid Pub & Brewery

The pub at 813 Mirror Lake Drive is the birthplace of Ubu Ale, and it pours Ubu alongside twelve house beers. The kitchen serves pub food, such as pizza, wings, burgers and pretzel bites with beer cheese, from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon to 9 p.m. on Sunday, and the bar stays open to 2 a.m. Dogs are welcome in the front beer garden.

Big Slide Brewery & Public House

Chris and Catherine Ericson opened Big Slide in June 2016 as their second brewery in Lake Placid, in a former tile warehouse on NY 73 at 5686 Cascade Road, near the horse show grounds. Ten house beers are on tap, among them Giant Double IPA, Leipzig Gose and Fireside Cream Ale, which won a gold medal from the New York State Brewers Association in 2026. The food runs to brick-oven pizza, burgers and entrees, with Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. and oysters on Friday evenings from 5. It is open 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday. Big Slide, the Lake Placid Pub and RiverTrail Beerworks in Saranac Lake are sister businesses.

Raquette River's Lake Placid tasting room

Raquette River Brewing of Tupper Lake runs a tasting room in the Alpine Mall at 2527 Main Street, open noon to 6 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and noon to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It is the easy way to try the Tupper Lake beers on a Lake Placid day.

Tupper Lake

Raquette River Brewing was founded in 2013 by Mark Jessie and Joe Hockey, and its brewhouse and beer hall are at 11 Balsam Street in Tupper Lake, about 60 road miles from the cabins, about an hour and a half. It is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, with shorter hours on Christmas Eve. Besides its own ales it serves New York liquors and ciders.

Food comes from Food Truck Alley outside. PorkBusters and Poppy's Wood Fired Pizza list 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, LJ Food Truck opens all year from Wednesday to Sunday, and the Marketplace truck is closed until April 2027. The trucks are separate businesses, so check the brewery's social media for the day's lineup. The beer hall calls itself family friendly and dog friendly inside and out, and it has won the Best of the Mountains awards for local brewery from 2023 to 2026 and for dog-friendly business in 2025 and 2026. In fall 2026 it runs an Oktoberfest and a Big Buck Contest from October 24 to December 6. Pair it with The Wild Center or the Tupper Lake end of the rail trail.

Plattsburgh and Keeseville

Plattsburgh is about an hour and a quarter from the cabins by County Route 25, US 11 through Chateaugay and NY 190; the Plattsburgh guide has the rest of a day there.

Valcour Brewing Company

Valcour Brewing fills the Old Stone Barracks at 49 Ohio Avenue, on the Oval of the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base, about 63 road miles from the cabins. The barracks were built in 1838 and restored in 2015 for the brewery. The menu is locally sourced and known for its burgers. Hours on its website: closed Monday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. Some GPS systems do not route there correctly, so call (518) 324-2337 for directions if yours gets lost. A new farm brewery license, ADK Fox, was issued in May 2026 for 111 Ohio Avenue on the same base; look for news of an opening before you plan around it.

Ausable Brewing Company

South of Plattsburgh, Ausable Brewing is at 765 Mace Chasm Road in Keeseville, the village beside Ausable Chasm, about 78 road miles from the cabins, an hour and three quarters. Its fall hours are 2 to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, noon to 8 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Food trucks and live music come on event days; in October 2026 that includes Pawloween on Sunday, October 25, when dogs come in costume.

Wineries and the Adirondack Coast Wine Trail

The Champlain Valley of New York became a federal wine region, an American Viticultural Area, on August 22, 2016. The vines here are grapes bred for cold climates, such as Marquette, Frontenac and La Crescent. The Adirondack Coast Wine Trail, approved by the State Assembly in 2014, ran 66 miles from Mooers to Morrisonville and linked seven wineries. None of those seven is on the state's list of active licenses in October 2026, so the old trail maps are out of date. Three wineries in the area hold farm winery licenses now, and each one is below.

The Four Maples winery in Champlain

Four Maples, at 40 Gamlaw Road in Champlain, was founded in 2008 and is named for four century-old maples on the grounds. It makes red, white and fruit wines from grapes grown on the estate, with a tasting room and self-guided walks through the vineyard, and it is listed as wheelchair accessible. Its website lists tastings on Wednesday to Sunday afternoons, asks you to reserve by phone, email or message, and closes the tasting room in winter until April, when bottles are still sold. The tasting room serves food, and picnics on the lawn are welcome. Dogs wait outside, since pets are not allowed in the tasting room or the winery. It is about 59 road miles from the cabins, roughly an hour and a quarter, near the Canadian border; call (518) 298-9463 to book.

Highlands Vineyard, Keeseville

Highlands Vineyard, at 1092 Highlands Road in Keeseville, about 80 road miles from the cabins, planted its first 250 vines in 2013, opened in 2018 and has grown to about 5,000 vines of 12 varieties. All of its wines come from its own cold-hardy grapes, among them a dry red Marquette Reserve, a dry white called Adalmiina, a dry white St. Pepin and a semi-dry wine made with maple syrup from the property. A flight is six two-ounce pours, served in a 1,200-square-foot timber-frame tasting room built from trees on the property, looking out over the Champlain Valley. A 2024 profile put its season from Memorial Day weekend into October, weather depending, with Friday evening concerts, local bands and food trucks from early July to early September; call (518) 836-5355 for this year's dates.

Olde Tyme Winery, Ellenburg Center

The nearest winery to the cabins, about 34 road miles away, is Olde Tyme Winery at Brandy Brook Maple Farm, 439 Brandy Brook Road in Ellenburg Center. The family started the winery in 2015 and makes red, white and fruit wines in sweet, semi-sweet and dry styles, using fruit and the farm's own maple syrup; the farm also sells syrup, maple cream and maple sugar. Tours and tastings are free, wine tastings for ages 21 and up. No hours are posted, so call (518) 569-5146 first.

Cider

Three farm cideries are within reach. Kaneb Orchards in Massena, about 44 road miles from the cabins and started by Edward Kaneb Sr. in the early 1970s, offers more than 20 apple varieties and makes hard cider; its website, updated in 2026, says it is open for the season, and the phone is (315) 769-2880. Chazy Orchards, at 9486 Route 9 in Chazy, an apple orchard north of Plattsburgh, holds a farm cidery license into 2027. Mountain Miss in Malone is above.

Distilleries and spirits

Gristmill Distillers, the farm distillery in Keene, has no walk-in tasting room, so plan local spirits around a market morning or a brewery taproom. It makes Black Fly whiskeys (bourbon, rye, American and maple), 1892 Forever Wild apple brandy and 1653 Vodka from 100 percent corn, using New York corn, rye, apples and spring water. It cannot take walk-up visits or casual tours; private tastings may be arranged in advance during some summer months, and it pours at the farmers markets in Saranac Lake and Keene.

The easy way to taste local spirits is at a brewery. A New York farm manufacturer may pour and sell, by the glass or the bottle, any product labeled as made in New York, so a farm brewery taproom can serve New York spirits next to its beer; Raquette River's beer hall does. For a bottle to take home, use a liquor store.

Potsdam, Canton and Massena

West of the cabins, Canton and Massena have breweries of their own. Potsdam is about 48 road miles away and Massena about 47. Bent Beam Brewing celebrated its grand opening in August 2026 at 41 West Main Street in Canton, about 59 road miles from the cabins, roughly an hour and a quarter: a new 3,360-square-foot brewpub with 64 seats inside, two outdoor patios and a core list of a Mexican lager, a hazelnut brown ale, a fruited sour and IPAs, plus rotating small batches. In Massena, Gristmill Brewery at 38 Water Street brews under a restaurant brewer license renewed in April 2026, and Kaneb's ciders are close by.

Buying beer, wine and spirits to take back

New York sells beer in grocery and convenience stores and wine and spirits only in liquor stores. In Malone, The Jug Store at 44 Finney Boulevard sits on the same street as Price Chopper; the groceries and supplies page lists the other liquor store, the beer sellers and the bottle deposit rules. Liquor and wine stores may open on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., a change the state made in October 2023.

The makers sell to go as well. A farm brewery, winery, cidery or distillery may sell by the bottle any New York-labeled product at its own premises and its tasting rooms, which is how a brewery can hand you a crowler of its beer and a bottle of a neighbor's wine. Township 7 fills 32-ounce and 64-ounce growlers, Hex and Hop fills your own clean growler or sells crowlers, RiverTrail sells cans and crowlers, Blue Line sends beer home in crowlers, and the casino's gift shop sells Maple Brewing cans. Wineries sell their bottles at the tasting room.

If you order a bottle of wine with dinner and do not finish it, a New York restaurant may reseal it for you to take home; carry it in the trunk, as below.

Driving, open containers and the border

New York forbids drinking, or having an open container of alcohol, in a car on a public road; the rule covers the driver and every passenger. The one exception is a restaurant-resealed bottle of wine carried in the trunk or, in a car without a trunk, behind the last upright seat. Put growlers, crowlers and opened bottles in the trunk for the ride back to the cabin.

Guests driving down from Montreal or Ottawa should leave Canadian-made beer, wine and spirits at home this season. A presidential proclamation bars a long list of Canadian alcoholic drinks, from beer and wine to cider and spirits, from entering the United States as of September 29, 2026. It makes no exception for a traveler's own bottles, and in early October a trade lawyer and the Canadian Snowbird Association were both telling travelers to bring none. Buying in Malone on the way in is the easy answer. The border guide has the crossings and their hours.

A tasting day with a designated driver

Pick the driver before you leave the cabin. In New York, a blood alcohol level above .05 can bring a charge of driving while ability impaired and .08 or more is driving while intoxicated; a first DWI carries a fine of $500 to $1,000 and at least six months without a license. No one under 21 may be served alcohol, and a server must refuse anyone who is visibly drunk.

A Saturday in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid

A Champlain Valley day

Call both northern wineries a day ahead: Olde Tyme posts no hours, and Four Maples pours on Wednesday to Sunday afternoons and asks you to reserve. Then drive east to Olde Tyme Winery in Ellenburg Center, about an hour, go on to Four Maples in Champlain, and finish with an early dinner at Valcour Brewing in Plattsburgh, about an hour and a quarter from home. On a Friday in July or August, swap the brewery for the evening concert at Highlands Vineyard in Keeseville if this year's series is on.

A short afternoon

Township 7 in Dickinson Center is about 45 minutes away. Bring sandwiches from Malone, sit down with a flight, fill a growler for the evening and be back at the cabin before dark.

Children, dogs and ID

Bring photo ID; no one under 21 may be served. Several taprooms welcome families: Township 7 is open to all ages, Blue Line calls itself family-friendly, Raquette River calls its beer hall family friendly and Hex and Hop seats young guests anywhere but the bar. The cabins' house rules do not suit children under 10, so these are stops for families with older children and teenagers, who can have the house ginger ale at Township 7.

For dogs, Raquette River in Tupper Lake is dog friendly inside and out, the Lake Placid Pub has a dog-friendly beer garden, Township 7 welcomes dogs kept under control, Hex and Hop welcomes them at its outdoor seating and RiverTrail allows dogs on its porch in the warm months. At Four Maples, dogs wait outside the tasting room. The cabins take pets for a fee; the dog guide has the rest.

Hours through the year

Raquette River closes only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, and the other brewpubs post weekly hours. The wineries and cider houses follow the growing season: Four Maples closes its tasting room in winter until April, Highlands Vineyard has opened from Memorial Day weekend into October, and Kaneb opens its orchard for the season. Hex and Hop warns that its fall hours can change. Ausable Brewing posts separate fall hours, Ray Brook changes hours by season and Blue Line notes that weather can change its day. Tupper Lake's Marketplace food truck is closed until April 2027. Winter roads add time to every drive; the winter driving guide covers the routes. On a snowy night, the closest taproom is the cabin itself: a growler from the afternoon, the fire pit and the hot tub.

Questions

Sources

Facts on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. Hours, fees and schedules change; confirm before you go.

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