While on a brewery crawl with friends in Rensselaer County, I made sure we stopped at Ilium, mostly because of the current Yelp buzz there. Make sure you follow the street numbers, because the doorway to the west says "Ilium" above it, but the tap room is next door. The interior is very inviting, with many comfortable bar stools and seats on the first level, and a lounge upstairs which will seat about 20 people with an assortment of tables and lounge chairs. We were able to chat with the owner/brewer, Mike, for quite a while, he's very outgoing and great for chat.
There will be about a dozen pours available on tap, with approximately half of them being their own brews, and the other half being a combination of beers from neighboring breweries, hard seltzers, and ciders. Pours will change about every 2 weeks. There is also a short homemade cocktail list and a reasonable amount of liquors available to make good, basic, cocktails. They will let you sample anything on tap prior to ordering it. I don't know if flights were available, we didn't ask and didn't find out if short pours were available. As someone who likes some carbs and salt as I'm drinking, I really appreciated the warm mid-sized complimentary pretzel that came with each beer. You'll have to check their calendar of events to find out what other types of foods may be available on any given day.
Ilium's location in Troy is very convenient, and this is a great add to the list of breweries in the area. read more