OSSINING, NEW YORK

Open since 2018 and straight across the street from Ossining’s courthouse half-mile from the Hudson River, SING SING KILL BREWERY crafts stylistically straightforward, well balanced, easygoing beers not just for milder tastes. A certified New York farm brewery utilizing locally sourced ingredients, SSKB occupies a downtown marble-faced red brick professional building with green awnings.

Head brewer, Matt Curtin, with long-time friend, Eric Gearity, created SSKB after the former developed his zymurgy skills in Syracuse during college in ’93. At the time, Curtin frequented local craft beer haven, Blue Tusk, and recently defunct brewery, Empire, while living upstate. A traditional brewer uninterested in “kitchen sink” aberrations, he concentrates instead on typical styles such as IPA’s, stouts and pale ales, creating a few year-round flagships and a bunch of nifty one-offs.

Taking its name from the famous local prison, Sing Sing, this family-friendly pub took over an abandoned storefront and is part of Ossining’s burgeoning revitalization. A beautiful epoxy-topped 10-seat serving station occupies the right side where four small community tables are setup. The centralized draught lines emanate from large plumbing pipes and a large refrigeration unit sidles the elongated bar. To the far left, glass doors lead to the three-barrel brew room.

My wife and I visit mid-May ’21 on a sunny afternoon with Roscoe the dog, downing nine 4-ounce samples while eating a frankfurter with mustard and sauerkraut (available on the light pub menu) at the makeshift front patio.

Mild yellow-cleared flagship, Killer Cream Ale, brought maize-dried lemon bruising to mineral-grained pilsner malting, utilizing citric Cascade hops instead of standard herbal Saaz varietal.

Made from 100% New York ingredients, fellow flagship fodder, Singularity Pale Ale let musky lemony orange dryness seep into pasty pale malt spicing and wispy herbal notions.

Spritzy lemon sunshine engaged Keeper & The Kill Wheat Ale, a tidy moderation with cucumber-watered melon rind earthiness drenching any banana-clove reminder.

Brown tea-like Charlotte The ESB let waddle-seeded dewy peat moisture to sop up its dry rye breading.

Tart kettle-soured Cran-Tastic linked subtle green grape esters and sharp crabapple crisping to mildly vinous cranberry salting.

Brisk pale yellow-cleared Flaming Hoops India Pale Ale retained lightly floral-spiced grapefruit and mandarin orange serenity as well as musky cologne perfuming.

Laidback citrus-spiced Cascade hops guided Too Many Matts, an approachable Imperial IPA with perfumed orange peel sweetness, lightly embittered yellow grapefruit tanginess and resinous pine tones.

Decadent Chocolate Milk Stout burrowed fudgy cocoa goodness into soy-floured hazelnut, spiced toffee and earthen truffle illusions.

Black cherry insistence serenaded spiced chocolate sweetness and mild ancho-habanero peppering for Chocolate Cherry Chili Milk Stout, leaving teasing cinnamon snips.