Hudson Valley Brewery Named Best Craft Beer In New York

It's no secret that New York is getting filled with more and more breweries these days. If you wandered around the Hudson Valley for five minutes, chances are you'd run into a place that sells terrific craft beer. Now, the Taste New York Craft Beer Challenge has called attention to what they believe is the best craft beer in the state.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo started the event online to draw attention to the booming craft beer industry. Over 42,000 votes were cast to narrow down over 300 New York breweries into a top five. Those five finalists were invited to Manhattan where they each brought one beer to represent the brewery. Judges included chef Mario Batali and former football star Thurman Thomas.

Genesee, Southern Tier, and Prison City were all there, but top prize was a tie between Brewery Ommegang from Cooperstown and the Hudson Valley's own Roscoe Brewing Company! Roscoe's winning entry was its Two-Headed Stout, a strong and delicious dark beer that definitely deserves the top prize.

This looks to be the first in what is meant to be an annual event, so we'll see if Roscoe can hang onto the prize next year. But it is pretty cool that we can get that prize-winning Trout Town craft beer right in our own backyard. Congrats to Roscoe Brewing!