ROAD TRIP: Prison City Brewery, Auburn, NY
Friday morning bright and early, or at least somewhat early, Anita and I headed to Auburn, NY for a wedding. We settled in on I90 west and drove about 3 hours. We passed cities that brought back memories of when we first moved upstate after my discharge from the Air Force. The Mohawk Valley is beautiful too, with history appearing at every turn: old towns, bridges and locks along the Canal. I waved at Herkimer County Community College where I went to school while living in Cherry Valley. Finally we reached exit 40 and took NY34 south through Weedsport to Auburn.
It was a short ride to Auburn from I90. Anita and I lived in Moravia, just about 15 miles south of Auburn back when I was going to college in Ithaca to the south. We never visited Auburn. It’s a nice little city though, bigger than we expected with lots of history. Saturday we visited the Seward house. Seward was Governor, Senator and aspirant for President, losing to Lincoln. He was Secretary of State under Lincoln and responsible for the purchase of Alaska.
When we got to Auburn it was about 1 PM so we stopped at Prison City Brewery for lunch. It’s a brewpub with a nice outside dining area, and was somewhat busy.
It was hot so we opted to eat inside. Prison City had 20 taps. About eight were their brews. I started with the 4.1% Quiet Riot IPA a session NEIPA type brew, loaded with Mosaic and Denali hops. Anita had a Just Cause Wheat beer, 5.5% abv, with raspberry and lime zest.
It was a nice setting. Standard pub food was offered with few surprises. Anita got a salad and I had the bangers and mash. After a bit I had a Lockdown Brown, 5.4% abv. It was a solid brown, with caramel, chocolate and noticeable black patent notes too.
Just before leaving we were able to track down the head brewer, Ben Maeso below.
We chatted briefly about the Psycho Brew system, which they had in the back. We had to get to the wedding down the lake so we hit the road again. On the way back Saturday we stopped again to pick up a couple of crowlers for back at the shop, one Quiet Riot and one Lockdown Brown, a bit over $26.
