New: The highly anticipated NYBP Lodge exceeds our expectations

Impressive in its early days, the New York Beer Project’s original location in Lockport hinted at the company’s ambitions when it opened in 2015. Nine years later, the opening of the New York Beer Project Lodge in Orchard Park – the brewery’s fourth location – is proof that the owners are thinking on a grand scale.

The other three NYBP locations in Lockport, Orlando and Victor, NY all have a different look and feel. The OG and Orlando locations were primarily inspired by New York’s warehouse district, and the Victor location was inspired by an old brewery in that city called The Atlantic Garden.

However, for the new Orchard Park location, owners Kevin and Kelly Krupski looked to other areas of the state. Kelly recently told us they traveled parts of the Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley and Adirondacks while developing a concept for NYBP’s fourth location.

“Lake Placid was a big inspiration for us,” she says. “We booked Whiteface Lodge and before the trip we were very stressed and doing all this. When we went in there, we were like: Wow. All our stress is gone. So we took a lot of inspiration from there and all the other places we stayed across the state.

Scale has always been a key part of the NYBP experience, and it’s no different at The Lodge. The entrance is a massive lobby with a 35 foot high ceiling. To the left, the Buffalo Room is the main dining room and bar with a bank of windows letting in boatloads of natural light. To the right of the lobby is a 15-barrel brewhouse and, beyond that, the Brewer’s Club tap room, which has more seating, another large bar and a large bay of windows facing west, where you can sit and watch a sunset. Outside of the tasting room, the NYBP Grove has an expansive patio, picnic tables, area for corn games and a communal fire pit. There are also four formal event spaces, including a barn-style room with capacity for 200 guests and a bridal suite. A 50-seat octagonal event space on the first floor is called the Twelve Club in homage to Jim Kelly, who cut the club’s ribbon at the grand opening.

The environment is new and striking, but the beer at the new location is an old familiar friend. The Lodge offers 17 NYBP beers and one seltzer on tap, with two unique beers specific to the location. We found the OP Lager crisp, dry and peppery, while the Hazy Crush IPA was juicy, round and thirst-quenching.

Yes, the Lodge is a real brewery, you might forget, and one of its key features is an open-air fermentation tank called the Koelschip. It will be used to make sour, funky beers fermented with yeasts from the surrounding Orchard Park atmosphere. Think of wild yeasts in the ambient air influencing the flavor of a beer in the same way. territory (or the land where the grapes are grown) influences the flavor of a wine. The Koelschip will be used to brew limited edition wild ales which will only be available for purchase at the Lodge.

Much like the variety of spaces at the Lodge, the food menu offers many options. It includes many classic Buffalo bar items, like hot sandwiches, wings, pizza, burgers, jalapeño poppers, mac and cheese, nachos, and chicken wing dip. There is also a section of the menu specifically dedicated to tacos called NYBP Cantina, and a seasonal section of the menu that will offer rotating prices.

It’s hard to overstate how impressive everything is at the Lodge. You could really spend a whole day there and leave wanting to come back when it opens the next day.

“The Lodge is on a whole other level,” says Kelly. “When you walk in, you just get a feeling. There is so much to look at and so many different textures. No matter what you faced during the day. You can walk in there and feel relaxed.

“You really have to see it to understand how special we think it is.”

Times at time of publication (subject to change): Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

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