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This post is one in a partnership between the Rochester Beacon and veteran reporter Will Cleveland, featuring articles published on his Substack site, Cleveland Prost.
If you’ve been paying attention to beer in Rochester, Western New York, and the Finger Lakes this past year, you already know the vibes have been… complicated. (Let’s be honest, if you’re a regular consumer of Cleveland Prost, you can’t help but pay attention.) The industry is still bruised, still recalibrating, still trying to remember what “normal” looks like after all of this upheaval and uncertainty.
Breweries are leaning out, leveling up, or—in the most heartbreaking cases—locking their doors for good. (And if one more tasting room quietly disappears from Instagram without even a “we out,” I’m filing an emotional FOIL request. Pretty sure that’s allowed.)
And yet—because beer people are stubborn, optimistic weirdos—2025 somehow became a year worth celebrating. Not because everything was rosy, but because the bright spots actually meant something. That’s why this year’s Cleveland Prost best in beer 2025 list feels different. It’s less a victory lap and more a snapshot of a region grinding through adversity and still managing to pour some genuinely exceptional pints. It’s a reminder that even in the down cycles—and yes, we’re still very much in one—there’s creativity, community, and just enough magic left in the tanks to keep hope alive. (Hope pairs surprisingly well with a well-made Czech dark lager, by the way.)
Rohrbach Space Kitty DIPA
Rohrbach Space Kitty DIPA has become a family staple. It’s my in-laws’ absolute favorite beer and became a dangerously easy one to “sample” whenever I visited. It has now become a fridge staple for me. It represents that perfect pairing of value and taste. And when you grab it around town, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find it fresh.
Swiftwater Small Batch Schwarzbier
This variant of the brewery’s wonderful Schwarzbier is a dark lager with a little extra swagger. Classic roast meets a whisper of fruity lift from the coffee cherries, giving it a subtle, unexpected brightness.
Frequentem New Zealand Pilsner
We all know how good Frequentem’s lager game is. The Canandaigua brewery’s New Zealand-hopped pilsner is one of those sneaky-clear crushers that somehow tastes like a whole vineyard got flash-frozen and blasted into your glass. The SubZero Hop Kief–amped Nelson Sauvin brings icy-bright gooseberry, white wine zest, and a crisp snap.
Tree House Rochester?
I’ve written about this one extensively in the past month or two. It was exceedingly cool to see one of the country’s most lauded and buzzed about breweries with a Rochester presence, even for a weekend. The Tree House pop-up sale in October represented more than a can drop. It was a market test, a hype moment, and a temperature check all rolled into one. By bringing its famously hard-to-get beers here, Tree House gauged local demand, injected national craft-beer buzz into the scene, and hinted—quietly—at the possibility of future returns. Mostly, it confirmed that Rochester’s beer drinkers will absolutely show up when something special lands.
And I promise to keep digging and asking annoying questions until I positively nail down whether this New England craft heavyweight is intending to put down roots in Rochester. (My gut still tells me, yes btw.)
BriarBrothers Brewing Honest Guy Czech amber lager
BriarBrothers’ Honest Guy Czech amber lager is the kind of beer that immediately makes you nod like, “Yep, that’s the stuff.” Toasty malt, a gentle caramel warmth, and that clean Czech snap make it endlessly drinkable. It’s honest, all right—honestly the kind of pint you accidentally order twice. (I apologize to no one for making the most obvious dad joke here.)
Big Ditch Hayburner IPA
Big Ditch’s flagship IPA has basically become my emotional support beverage during Bills games. There’s just something about a 19.2-ounce stovepipe can—equal parts optimism, coping mechanism, and ritual—that feels right. Win or lose (usually both, somehow), cracking one open has become as essential to Sundays as yelling at the TV.
The year I became obsessed with a Costco beer
The Kirkland (Costco brand) Helles-Style Lager is one of the most quietly impressive deals in beer, thanks to the fact that it’s brewed by none other than Deschutes Brewing in Oregon and retails at $13 per 12 pack. Under its previous Deschutes-branded name, this very recipe earned a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival. So the quality isn’t speculative; it’s certified. The beer itself is a textbook helles: soft, bready malt character, a clean ferment, and a crisp, refreshing finish that feels more Munich beer garden than big-box bargain bin.
Its success underscores a growing shift in the industry: national retailers partnering with top-tier craft breweries to make store-brand beers that are genuinely excellent rather than generic. As chains like Costco recognize that educated drinkers want both value and craftsmanship, collaborations with respected breweries are becoming more common.
Minneapolis is a great beer city
In October, I spent a week in Minneapolis for a work conference. The sessions were dense but energizing, and the city itself proved to be a perfect host: easy to navigate (the city’s light rail is so convenient and cheap), friendly, and dotted with lots of great food and beer.
After last visiting the area in 2015, I knew it had a wonderful beer scene. But it has only grown and matured since my last trip. I made a point to revisit Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery, where the Masala Mama IPA on cask was as soft, fragrant, and perfectly conditioned as I remembered. (Beer nerd credentials earned here: Remember when, waaaay back in the day, Masala Mama was the top-ranked IPA in America on the Beer Advocate top 100 list. I do.)
Arbeiter Brewing’s Haha Pils, fresh off its Great American Beer Fest gold medal, was another standout: crisp, clean, and the kind of beer that makes you consider moving just to have it as your local. Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub delivered a malt masterclass with its own GABF-winning Doppelbock, rich and elegant without ever tipping into heaviness.
Sierra Nevada Pils
Outside of the Costco Helles (and Genny Light, duh), this new Sierra Pils in the adorable 8.4-ounce cans was probably the beer I consumed most in 2025. It feels like a love letter to moderation and maximum refreshment.
Lower Lake The Phantom dark lager
Lower Lake’s The Phantom is a dark lager with real presence—a lovingly balanced blend of German and Czech traditions. Sleek roast, soft chocolate, espresso, and hints of stone fruit glide into a clean, easy finish. I first had it at August’s Flour City Brewers Fest and immediately wanted more. Now I can’t wait to get to Hamilton to see what else they’re pouring.
Golden Age Beer Kellerwald
I’ve written about how much I adore the Pittsburgh beer scene on at least two occasions (once for the D&C and once more for this newsletter earlier this year). Golden Age, located in Homestead, is one of the purest expressions of Pittsburgh’s beer soul, a place that doubles down on tradition with borderline monastic devotion. Lager-only, German-only, no gimmicks, no shortcuts. Kellerwald, a traditional kellerbier (meaning “cellar beer,” it is a hazy lager due to how young it is served—before it has fully conditioned and clarified), embodies that ethos: soft, herbal, and beautifully unfiltered.
Counterpart Double Barrel Coniferous (Blend)
This Ontario brewery is one of my favorite to visit. The food is just as good as the beer. If you’ve read this space long enough, you’ll recognize the affinity I have for the brewery’s barrel program. Its wood-aged beers are exceptional. I was a huge fan of the barrel-aged barleywines Counterpart released earlier this year and eagerly await the next barrel drop.
Trophy Brewing Méthode Traditionnelle
Trophy’s Méthode Traditionnelle is the brewery’s first spontaneously fermented wild ale. It’s the payoff of a three-year obsession. Co-founder Chris Powers calls it the Raleigh brewery’s take on a traditional Belgian lambic, a blend of one-, two-, and three-year-old beers made entirely with North Carolina ingredients. The result is layered, tart, and quietly wild. It’s a true test of patience.
Jacksonville beer scene surprises
Jacksonville’s beer scene surprised the hell out of me—and I mean that in the nicest, most foam-forward way possible. I spent a week in Florida in March for a work conference, fully expecting to sneak in a brewery visit or two between panels and PowerPoints. Instead, I found myself in a full-blown beer city, one that’s way more dialed-in, diverse, and quietly confident than its tourist-brochure reputation suggests.
Take Ruby Beach Brewing’s Ruby Brewsday Red IPA. A red IPA isn’t exactly the trendiest style these days, but this one was a palm-tree-shaded reminder that balance still matters.
Then there was Myrtle Avenue Brewing’s Jiffy Feet Black IPA, a style I rarely encounter in the wild anymore. This one popped with roast and pine in a way that felt almost nostalgic.
But the real revelation was Aardwolf Brewing’s Belgian Pale Ale—bright, snappy, yeast-driven, expressive, and proof that Jacksonville doesn’t just follow trends; it quietly masters classics. This one even has a GABF medal in its history.
As we close out another year—one that felt at times like a hangover we just couldn’t quite shake—it’s worth remembering why we keep doing this. Not “this” as in obsessively refreshing brewery tap lists (though, guilty), but this ritual of taking stock of a beer scene that refuses to sit still. Rochester, Western New York, and the Finger Lakes aren’t just dots on a map with stainless steel; they’re communities built pint by pint, conversation by conversation, and—when needed—by the collective sigh of relief when someone finally brings back a fan-favorite saison.
What made 2025 special wasn’t perfection. It was persistence. Breweries big and small found ways to adapt, innovate, or simply keep the lights on long enough for someone to walk through the door and say, “I needed this today.” So, as we look to 2026, I’m choosing cautious optimism (the official emotional stance of the Cleveland Prost newsletter). There are challenges ahead—there always are—but there’s also talent, ambition, and a stubborn regional spirit that’s hard to count out. If this year proved anything, it’s that great beer still has a home here.
Will Cleveland is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. A former Democrat and Chronicle reporter, he writes about beer in the Finger Lakes region and Western New York on Substack.
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