EP-185 Taylor and Dan Suarez of Suarez Family Brewery

Suarez Family Brewery has become something of a North Star for our
editorial staff—not to mention many brewers and drinkers around the
country—for everything that’s right about craft beer in 2018.

Sessionable, delicious beers made by a family in the Hudson Valley that’s
part of a small community of farmers and small businesses in the area:
What’s not to love? To top it all off, Dan Suarez’s brother owns an
essential restaurant in Germantown called Gaskin’s.

At the little brewery on U.S. Route 9 across the from the corn fields and
housed in an old lighting factory, the Suarez family makes exquisite
Pilsners and Pale Ales alongside what they call Country Beers—those that
are barrel-aged or wild-fermented, but still every bit as delicate and
balanced. Their taproom is family friendly, in large part because they have
a small, young family of their own. How could it not be?

Our Editorial Director’s profile of the brewery in 2017 was something of a
coveted story assignment amongst our team, and one of the few that Austin
L. Ray reserved for himself. It’s a moving portrait. You should read it.

But like any small business so closely tied to the family that runs it,
there’s struggle, too. And it’s about more than just making ends meet.
While the beers may be the epitome of balance, balancing one’s life is
every bit as difficult and necessary. Managing the start-up pace of a
small, hands-on brewery, expanding the market for those beers via delivery
runs to New York City, raising a toddler, and a busy taproom that’s
increasingly becoming a destination for beer fans? These things, perhaps
even more than trying to crack the code on these so-called crispy little
beers, are what’s keeping Taylor and Dan Suarez up at night.

Not that you’d believe they struggle with anything. Their reputation for
being very relaxed, chill folks with a small town brewery is, at least on
the surface, the epitome of the small brewer dream in America. Taking a
deeper look, as we do today, will only make you love them more.