The State of Beer - Tompkins County

Before getting into the actual beer, I want to start with a post on the state of beer around me. Don Cazentre recently had a post on NYup.com ranking the ten counties with the most total breweries as well as doing a full county ranking of breweries per capita based on 2017 1st quarter numbers. Let's start with my current home base:

No. 20: Tompkins County
Tompkins County
Brewery licenses: 5
Per capita: 1 per 20,985
The take: In an around the Cornell University city pf [sic] Ithaca, you'll find older and newer craft breweries. The oldest is Ithaca Beer Co.

A few things struck me with this one:

1. The "take" is quite possibly the blandest of takes possible. Is that even considered a take? Even the typo gives the impression they didn't really care to write anything meaningful here.
2. I'm generally not surprised at where Tompkins landed in the ranking. If anything, I maybe expected them to be lower--probably because the "per capita" stat *might* be a bit misleading here. Ithaca is the "big city" and includes Cornell and Ithaca College. This brings a big drinking population to the county that isn't completely captured by the per capita rate listed. It makes the beer scene seem even more underdeveloped.
3. There's 5 breweries in Tompkins. Really? Doesn't seem like it. Let's go through the list:
1. Ithaca Beer Co - They remind me of St Arnold when we first moved to Houston. Solid, but could use competition in the local market to push them further. They seem to be innovating more lately (due to more regional competition?) and their 5 barrel beers in the taproom should get more recognition (and definitely publicization). 
2. Bandwagon Brewpub - This brewpub downtown is currently the only active brewery in Ithaca city. No distribution at this point, although they have started to can using a mobile cannery. I expect the distribution/canning operation to continue to grow as they've added a farm brewery outside of Tompkins county as well.
3. Scalehouse Brewpub - Pizza and beer joint (Northeast Pizza is technically the name of the pizza joint, but it's all the same place). It's a dive-type joint in a strip mall-type location. You go there for the pizza if you're the type that likes double-cheese as the default. The beer is produced with the same level of care. I believe you can get growlers filled, but there's no other packaging/distribution. 
4. Hopshire Farm and Brewery - One of the newer additions to the scene, Hopshire is on a, you guessed it, farm and has been growing quickly. They've added a larger tasting/event room and have begun bottling thanks to a mobile bottling operation. Right now, they're limited to 22oz bottles at a few select locations.
5. ...Brewery #5 stumped me for a minute. I couldn't think of it. Wait, are they talking Stout Hearted, the in-house brewery at Rogues Harbor Inn? Can't be. They closed when the Inn was recently sold. Then it hit me! How could I forgot the yet-to-open joint I've been impatiently waiting for?! I mentioned Bandwagon was the only operation currently in the city of Ithaca, right? Well we've got a new kid in town that's going to change all of that. Liquid State Brewing will be opening up this year and I'm assuming they are mystery brewery #5 included in the article. I'm excited for this joint based on these guys' backgrounds and passion.***

Now it makes sense why it doesn't seem like there are 5 breweries here. There's only 1 brewery with established distribution. While Hopshire is moving in that direction, Bandwagon has a small canning operation, Scalehouse has no distribution, and Liquid State has yet to open its doors. Essentially, if you're looking for solid local beer outside of a stop at the brewery, you're limited to Ithaca Beer Co. Yep--the scene is sort of looking a bit sad now, but I'm hoping Liquid State brings me some more local, liquid happiness in the near future!

Luckily, some nearby counties in this article have a much better outlook. I'll touch on these a bit in my next post!

Cheers!!

***I'm leaving this post to show my stupidity, and adding this edit on at the end. My excuse that I will only meekly claim is that I'm still new(ish) to Tompkins county. I totally left off Bacchus. Bacchus is definitely brewery number 5, not the forthcoming Liquid State. Bacchus just seems so much closer to Cortland that it couldn't have still been in Tompkins, but it is. Rookie mistake here. BUT--I think my claim still stands considering Bacchus' limited footprint in bars/restaurants and lack of packaging. In addition to their Dryden brewery they also have a taproom and seasonal beer garden at American Vineyards on the west-side of Cayuga lake.