It’s easy to appreciate a message that gets directly to the point. The sign outside Roscoe Beer Co. (RBC) reads “Great Beer Served Here.”
It’s one thing to say it. Another to back it up, over and over again. At RBC, this isn’t just confidence talking. It’s 300-plus unsolicited Google reviews doing the vouching.
Take Walter Bowne, who stopped in after a late summer hike:
“After a day in the wilds, it was great to rest at this brewery I’ve heard much about from friends in Honesdale, PA. Loved seeing women in their 70s walk in with fly-fishing gear and talk. Lovely beers. Country decor. Warm vibe. Solid IPAs. Friendly staff.”
For context, RBC’s sign also reads “Trout Town Proud.” It should be. Roscoe is widely recognized as the birthplace of American fly fishing and the river writes the rhythm here.
“It’s what I love most about this place,” says Head Brewer Charles Mills. “Depending on the season, you’ll see hikers, families picking up kids from camp or college, hunters dressed in camo with fur on their sleeves or people in waders leaving little puddles as they head to the bar.”
“Run what ya brung”, as they say.
Little Town. Lotta Heart.
This is the kind of place where friends and neighbors team up to build sheds, buck firewood, and spruce up community gardens. It’s also a place that aims a little higher. In 2011, this community of 600 rallied over 267,000 votes to win the World Fishing Network’s “Ultimate Fishing Town” contest, toppling over 300 other entries.
In true Catskill grit, residents, local businesses and Sullivan County staff erased an 11,000-vote deficit on the contest’s final day.
“We’re not the richest, we’re not the biggest and we may not be the smallest,” said Elaine Fettig, president of the Roscoe Chamber of Commerce at the time. “But we sure have a lot of love.”
The prize was pride, a check to the Chamber for $25,000 and momentum for a riverside town already asking itself what’s next.
Why Not a Watering Hole?
Every town needs a public house. Especially one now known as the Ultimate Fishing Town. So, a local entrepreneur hatched an idea to open a Catskills craft brewery where river guides could fill their boats with guests and locally branded suds bearing names that paid homage to the storied fish of the Willowemoc and Beaver Kill. Roscoe Beer Co. was born in 2013.
“From the very beginning, it was a place for locals to go, relax and catch up on things. Whether that was stories from a day on the water, in the woods or planning for tomorrow,” says longtime resident Robert Eggleton. “It’s always been a place that brought the community in. It’s Roscoe’s cabin.”
The foot rail on the bar is an old railroad track salvaged from the Ontario and Western Railway that helped invent the modern Catskills in the late 1800s. Today, that corridor is a vehicle-free recreational trail enjoyed in all seasons.
Among the historic photos, walls adorned with taxidermy and a fish tank complete with live trout, there’s a nod to first responders. What started as displaying a single patch from the Roscoe Volunteer Fire Department quickly evolved into a place for visiting firefighters, police officers and EMTs to join the local company. Hundreds of patches now share the space together.
Good Neighbors
If you wander in on Bingo Night hosted by the Roscoe-Rockland Ladies’ Auxiliary, they’ll hand you a card. Warmer months bring corn hole, giant Jenga and retro movies on the lawn. Kids and dogs welcome. The annual Summer and Oktoberfests feel as much like community block parties as they do family reunions and destinations. An old bus serves as the stage for both live music and plein air projections of “Goonies.”
“Community always comes first,” says Operations Manager Shannon Feeney, who has been with RBC from the beginning and witnessed every step along the way. “This place has lifted up the community because the community has lifted it up. It’s Roscoe’s tap room.”
It’s a theme naturally curated by the welcoming lifestyle of the Sullivan Catskills, where love of the outdoors, good conversation and dedication to honest hard work flows through everything. There’s a reason the site of the original Roscoe Beer Co. is now home to Do Good Spirits, a distillery housed in Roscoe’s original Volunteer Fire Department building constructed in 1929.
“This isn’t a place where things are taken for granted,” says Christine Routledge, current president of the Roscoe Chamber of Commerce. “Here the term good neighbor means something.”
She would know. Her home is directly next to RBC’s beer garden.
Good Food. Good Cheer. Good Beer.
Of course, a brand is only as good as the people who make it. To this day, Rob swears RBC’s Brown Ale is the best he’s ever had, and when it comes out seasonally, he’s the first to fill a growler or two. For Christine, who isn’t a beer person, it’s the fried pickles.
“I go for the food, my husband goes for the beer and we just sit by the fire. It feels like home,” she says.
It’s the kind of place where every member of the staff has a nickname, like Birdie, also known as Shannon Sweeney, whose company email address is not ssweeney@.
“I swear, there’s a whole group of folks who visit regularly and only know me as Birdie,” says Shannon, who likes to play golf and can lay some claim to RBC’s gold medal-winning Weekend at Birdie’s sour ale.
Keeping it Fresh & Local
Today, all RBC beers are brewed on-site and distributed by the company to ensure the freshest beer possible finds its way into your drift boat cooler. As their label says, The Mountains Are Calling, and that includes bringing along Eagle IPA, Streamside Pilsner and Surface Take Hazy.
For longer floats, go with the OTG Limitless Lager, a 4.2% ABV beer available in 15-packs. Extra points for guessing what OTG stands for.
Pro tip: The label features a Catskill Mountains lakeside scene with a platform tent.
“People come to the Catskills to get away from the distractions of modern life,” says Charles. “It’s my goal for our beer and the tap room environment to help everyone feel like they walked into their buddy’s cabin after a good day outside. We don’t care if your boots are muddy.”
It’s a place where scenery is the star and things like RBC beers play a supporting role. As seasons flow, so do the taps, with Limited Legacy Releases like the Two Headed Stout and Whitetale Pale Ale popping in for small-batch cameos.
“It’s important our beer reflects the character of the Catskills,” says Charles. “We’re not flashy and neither is our beer.”
Get the Goods to the Goods
What else would you expect from a place with a Beer Guide Program unlike any you’d expect from the title?
For Birdie and Charles, it’s RBC’s way of saying thank you to the humble crew of locals who helped build a brewery, and a way for them to share what they love with those who love and care for the Catskills as much as they do.
“The best things aren’t rushed,” says Birdie. “Besides, the longer you stay, the more you get to know a place, and before you know it, you’re a part of the story.”
A story better told over a great beer.