Beer Review: Lake Placid

"I'll Take Your Finest, Cheapest Chardonnay"

Beer Review: Lake Placid

The view from Jason's family's cabin in Tupper Lake.

Yayyy, fall leaves!

There are a few things in life that I live for.  One of them is fall time in the Adirondacks.  Unfortunately, scheduling difficulties only allowed us to catch the very end of the fall, leave changing, season, but we made it and celebrated by drinking up in Lake Placid.

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Lake Placid Pub & Brewery

Lake Placid, NY

*** (3 out of 5)

P.J. O'Neill's (Lake Placid Pub & Brewery)

This pub/brewery in Lake Placid though is one of my favorite places to hit up when I'm visiting the 'Dacks.  It's a little confusing, however, because they have an upstairs bar area and then a downstairs bar area called P.J. O'Neill's (Irish Pub).  I'm not sure why there are two split bar areas in one building but I'm also not that worried about it.  Has a nice mountain, ski lodge kind of feel to it which is what you expect from a pub/brewery in this area.  They could work on updating the music though: a lot of 70s and 80s hits with a splash of Foster the People... really.  We hung out downstairs at P.J. O'Neill's and got ourselves a delicious sampler:

Eric enjoying his own personal sampler.

Festbier:  Smooth, creamy, malty, somewhat mild.  I really liked it and it was an easy pub drinking beer.

Ubu:  We actually have this beer now where I work so it was interesting to have it straight from the pub.  Hardy, dark, roasty, finishes with a nice bitter taste that doesn't stick too much on your palette.

Lake Placid IPA: Bitter, lingering bitterness on the palette, light, hoppyyyy.  Bitter throughout the whole tasting experience.

Free popcorn, yes!

Hefeweizen, bottle only.

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Great Adirondack Brewing Co.

Lake Placid, NY

*** (3 out of 5)

Stealth, horrible, photo of the inside of the restaurant.

The most ridiculous looking table in the restaurant: (Eric) Damon, (Eric) Altman, Chris (Senor Cristobal), & Jason.

If you like your beer with a side of class then this is your place.  I have to warn you though: their prices are steep (for both beer and food).  Last year out of drunken stupidity, Jason, Eric and I visited this brewery/restaurant and splurged on Maine lobsters, 24oz filet mignons, plates upon plates of steak fries, beers and pint glasses (which we didn't ask for but received anyways).  What can I say, I like de best.

This year, most of us were hurting a little bit in the finances department so we took it a bit easy.  Except for Senor Cristobal who spent about $60 on one lobster, drank it with a glass of Pinot Noir, followed up with Makers Mark on the rocks.  Eric (unlike last year) enjoyed free bread, a piece of butter, and leftovers from Chris's lobster carcass.  I splurged on a $26 sirloin, which I apparently read the description wrong because it was ground sirloin, shaped back into looking like a steak... (I should have gone with the lobster, gahh!)  So this year we did try to opulence it up as much as possible but I don't think the people who were dining around us enjoyed our table manners, loud jokes and picture taking.  Our waiter though was hilarious and a good sport, so that we really appreciated.  But, in general, this place has Lake Placid rich ski bum written all over it.

Chris with his opulence meal: lobster & pinot noir.

Eric with his unopulence meal: butter

and...

lobster carcass.

I will say this: their beers are pretty good and delicious but nothing that is so spectacular that they deserve the prices that they are.  I'm pretty sure the sampler that we received was around $16 (kind of high) and when we asked about buying a growler it was something like $34 for the growler and the fill and then $15 for refills.  Something absurd like that.

Love the sampler trays!

Hefeweizen:  Medium mouth feel which is really thick for a hefeweizen, made with 50% wheat, almost a little tart.

Adirondack Abbey: Alcohol taste, hardy, little burn, Ommegang-esk, ABV is weak but the beer is mild enough to make it very drinkable.

Saison:  Little sour, fruity, light, tart, could be more tart, somewhat spicy, weak aroma.  Good in flavors but left me wanting more punch from it.

Whiteface Stout: Malty aroma, med-thick mouth feel, roasty, dark, really well balanced.  Both my favorite and Jason's favorite from the night.

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And just because I know you're curious, here's some pictures from the rest of our debauchery from a another ridiculous weekend in the Adirondacks:

Altman, Jason & Chris hiking up Mt. Jo in the High Peaks Region of the 'Dacks.

Summit of Mt. Jo

Ad-Rock (from the Beastie Boys) and Mr. Potato Head (from childhood).

First night in Tupper Lake, hat party!

A bunch of city folk in a townie bar...

You can't see it, it's electric! You gotta feel it, it's electric!

Jason in the back, Altman on the left, muah (Krysten) in the middle & Chris on the right.

(Eric) Damon & (Eric) Altman at Lake Placid Pub & Brewery.

Knives in bars, totally okay.

"Hey guys, watch me try to slam this piece of Swiss cheese with Sweet Baby Rays on it into my mouth..."

Mario D. (Chris) likes to eat Swiss cheese.

Stump: the true American Adirondack drinking game.

(1) Find log (preferably a stump).

(2) Put in a nail for each person.

(3) Flip hammer one time, catch it, and immediately try to nail someone else's nail into the stump.

(4) Drink a lot and try not to hurt yourself.

Other fun games we came up with include:

• Pierre Chardonnay Palms (think Edward Scissorhands but with Chardonnay bottles).
• Jorge Tequila Manos (think the same, but with tequila).
• Mr. Whiskey Shot (aka bring Chris to a bar with you if you enjoy endless whiskey shots)