Captain Lawrence Brewing Co.

6/7/2008 8:28:33 AM, saturday, june 07, 2008
What a fun place to go for their early Friday evening tasting. Excellent beers. Tons of growlers going out. Generous samples. Nice people. Excellent. Only took a point off for not having any bottles for sale. I was hoping to procure a bottle of smoke from the oak, but it was the wrong time of year.

5/21/2008 4:33:14 PM, wednesday, may 21, 2008
I had the good fortune of visiting in January and meeting Scott and the whole crew. This little industrial hole in the wall in a commuter town is a nice little gem. They have quite a bustling growler business in the evening and open some fun beers. Scott talked a little about what he’s done and what he plans on doing. I had samples of a number of their draft beers, scored a good selection of 750s and even got to do some trading. The tasting room is well decked out and accommodating. Lots of people coming and going. Nice!

5/13/2008 1:49:56 PM, tuesday, may 13, 2008
A fun place to come hang out at. All the normal beers are growler fillable for very cheap ($12 10% IIPA including glass, $10 without). Everything is good to sample for free. Pretty out of the way, though. Westchester is otherwise a beer wasteland. When special releases are on though this place is certainly worth the trek. Half a mile from the metro-north train station, and 2 minutes off the highway. Unfortunately Scott and the crew are super-busy during all opening hours at this point and its tough to get some time in to talk to him.

4/5/2008 8:53:08 PM, saturday, april 05, 2008 [ Updated saturday, june 14, 2008 ]
just realized how close this is to me and got a friend to make the trip over. tasting room is small but welcoming. scott was friendly and poured up a sample of each of there beers on tap and i happily got a growler filled and left with two special release bottles as well. rates are reasonable for the quality and i liked the come on in and try them all and take a growler to go concept. definitely a busy place. non stop stream of people getting fills while i was there which i guess speaks of the beers quality. i give the beer highest praises, but the setup is a little strange.

2/5/2008 2:17:51 PM, tuesday, february 05, 2008
I love going to Captain. I am fortunate enough to be able to drive only about an hour to get there so picking up bottles and growlers especially at release time is key. The place is fun and has a nice tasting room and Scott or someone is usually around to give tours during tasting hours. The beers are always good and always fresh. Scott is also usually experiementing with something and has a ton of barrels that are aging something for you to see. The Vaccaro family are all stand up people and I recommend to anyone to make it to the brewery.

2/3/2008 4:30:56 AM, sunday, february 03, 2008
As others have said, beer that is sold at the tasting room cannot be consumed on site, so all of their pours are free samples, which are generous pours by the way. Five beers currently on tap. The place was absolutely jammed with people. Growlers were being filled constantly and at times people were three deep at the bar. The folks behind the bar were friendly and helpful and kept the beer flowing. I had a chance to meet Scott who obviously loves what he is doing and to talk about beer. Behind the tasting room is the brewery operation, and Scott lead a very informative tour. A long trip for me to get there from the North Fork of Long Island, but very glad I went.

1/31/2008 2:23:32 PM, thursday, january 31, 2008
This is a tasting room, this is NOT a pub. And because of funny NY state laws you can buy are bottled beer and growlers but you cannot consume them in the tasting room. Nothing can be purchased and consumed in the tasting room. So what they do is give customers free samples of the currently available beers. Do not expect a large selection, just what has been brewed recently. They don’t have vintage/special bottles for customers who visit the premise. The tasting room itself is a rather unpleasant place to sample their excellent beers. A lot (and I mean a lot) of people coming in and out to get their growlers filled and buy bottles. With kegs and cases coming in and out the tasting room is in a constant hectic state and can become quite stressful. Only a few stand up tables to drink your samples. On the plus side: a great view on the brewery and the chance to chat with this amazingly talented brewer. But the main reason to visit this place is get your hands on special releases. Judging how popular these special barrel-aged releases are getting I suspect it won’t be long before the brewery is the only place you can buy them. And for that main reason I give the place a high overall rating.

1/2/2008 10:45:52 AM, wednesday, january 02, 2008
A small and functional room that opens so rarely that such a popular microbrewery residing in makes it sure to be overcrowded. And it was! Still, with them having no permits, you get the chance to try everything free. Some rarer draught only offerings are really good like the impressive regular pale ale. It is not a place to hang around, but coming here to buy a new release has a certain pilgrimage feel to it that is a big part of the beer hunting life mode. Helpful and friendly staff, despite being in heavy demand, did their best to offer excellent service. With their increasing popularity, it will become very hard to speand more than an hour in this small room, but it can still be worth it.

12/18/2007 1:06:52 PM, tuesday, december 18, 2007 [ Updated tuesday, december 18, 2007 ]
This microbrewery’s tasting room is quite charming but was so full of people coming in and out, getting growler fills and wanting to taste the week’s offerings that it didn’t feel that comfortable a place to stay for a while. They do not have a license to sell beer on tap on premises, so they have to give you free samples. What a shame. :) Scott was there to serve beer with a few of his acolytes/employees, so you cannot get more knowledgeable service than that. I would not hesitate to come back down for any of his special releases (like we did for the Nor’Easter last weekend), but I would not come here to spend a few hours. Scott is brewing masterpieces and will become the next Tomme Arthur, if I may venture into prophetic territory.

9/4/2007 3:38:30 PM, tuesday, september 04, 2007
It is what it is a brewery with a tasting room. Small wooden bar and pretty much the only thing to do is stand and drink. Pretty cool direct view of the equipment and barrels. Beers poured by Scott himself and you can take home growlers and bottles of what’s available, which I did. 2 free big samples of every beer that’s on. It’s out of the way from the city but do what I did and head there early then come back into town. I’ll go back.