Meier’s Creek Brewing Co.

The story of Meier’s Creek Brewing in Cazenovia, New York, is one of commitment and perseverance, especially considering their recent roots. Let’s start at the beginning: spring of 2020 amid a growing COVID-19 pandemic.

“We couldn’t do any of the stuff you would usually do when launching a brand,” Director of Sales Jordan Pollock said. “It kind of started grassroots, doing can drops. So, on a Saturday or Sunday, we would release anywhere from two to five beers and just put it out on social media and people would come.”

They complemented that with self-distribution, petitioning area bottle shops to carry their product. Eventually, bars started opening up and Meier’s Creek was on draft seemingly everywhere in Central New York. Pollock came armed with a decade of experience in the industry and was able to tap connections across the state as well. With all that working for them, they’ve grown to include a second location in Syracuse’s Inner Harbor.

They focus on New England-style IPAs, but have also branched out into a number of other traditional styles. In fact, they’ve made about 150 different beers in just their first few years. Among the flagships: Velvet Fog NEIPA and Floatin’ on By German pilsner. Every year, they produce an all-New York state dark lager that includes hops from their own front yard at the farm brewery.

They take a commitment to local ingredients to the extreme, even serving up burgers made from cows across the street that also happen to feed on Meier’s Creek’s spent grains. They make an extra effort to use ingredients from local farmers. Central New York has a great hop-growing and agricultural legacy that reaches back to the mid-1800s.

“Especially in this area, there’s an abundance of really good products,” Pollock said. “We are a farm brewery, we are a New York state brewery, so we want to use as much New York state farm product that we can.”