Erie Canal Part 3

The next stop was in Utica, NY. We’re right next to the Aqua Vino Restaurant and the $1/foot dockage is paid to them but there aren’t any amenities except for the restrooms in the restaurant.

Our main reason for stopping here is we thought taking a brewery tour might be fun. So the next day we got the bikes out again and headed for the Saranac Brewery.

Saranac is owned by the F. X. Matt Family and is the oldest family-owned brewery in the State of New York. There were once 12 breweries in Utica but this is the only one here today. This is part of the extensive gift shop.

There was an ad campaign in the 60s starring two talking beer steins, Schultz (the German) and Dooley (the Irishman). Some of the people on the tour remembered the ads and got a kick out of seeing all the different Schultz and Dooley steins. They also had a 5-gal. beer stein with the inscription in German: "only a real man can drink this full".

There were 25 people in our tour group led by Alison who gave us a history lesson along with info on the making of their beer. They weren’t bottling as it was a Sunday so we watched a video on that. The brewery’s slogan is “Spirit of the Adirondacks” and that’s the source of the water used in the brewing process. This is a display of some of their specialty beers (also I liked the stained glass). There were quite a few beautiful original Tiffany lamps along the tour.

We hopped on the 1888 trolley and were dropped back at the main building to finish the tour at the Hospitality Room (bar). We were given tokens to be used for 2 pints of any of their beers or soft drinks (root beer, orange and Shirley Temple) so that was kind of fun. This is the only brewery to keg their own root beer so maybe we should have tried it. Paul was surprised that he liked their summer beer, Pomegranate Wheat (he thought it would be a girly beer!)

We learned that after the 13 yrs of prohibition ended, Saranac was the first brewery in the U.S. to begin brewing beer, within one hour of the announcement! They have a collection of polyphones (the old time music boxes) that played periodically. Here’s one of them, beautifully restored.

The tour was very well done and a worthwhile stop. We didn’t overdo and made it back on our bicycles just fine and headed out into the Canal. Right after Lock 20 there’s a park and place to dock overnight. I got a kick out of this sign on the restroom building. Thanks, Loyal Order of Moose, for the flush toilets! That night was the closing ceremony of the Olympics from Beijing. We were surprised we were able to see a lot of the coverage of the games since our mast is down and we weren't sure what kind of reception we'd get.

Monday night, Aug. 25th, was spent at the free dock in Rome, NY. It’s at a park near a dam but no electricity or facilities. We used our bikes again and did some errands and shopping and used the library. Hopefully when we were in Rome we “did as the Romans did”!

ps: Thanks to the 2 people who sent us the words to the Erie Canal song, which I learned is entitled "Low Bridge". Now I can have more of the words running through my head!