{"id":187298,"date":"2026-04-06T16:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/187298\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:53:14","slug":"new-york-craft-beer-day-is-april-11-your-only-job-is-to-show-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/187298\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Craft Beer Day is April 11. Your only job is to show up."},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s get the hard part out of the way first: there is a holiday on Saturday, April 11, and it was not invented by a greeting card company. New York Craft Beer Day<\/a> \u2014 officially proclaimed by Governor Kathy Hochul in 2025, now in its second year \u2014 is a real, actual, state-sanctioned occasion to go to your local brewery, drink something made by someone who cares deeply about what they put in that glass, and feel good about it on multiple levels simultaneously.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of government action that is genuinely hard to argue with. Who, exactly, is the constituency opposed to craft beer? Who is out there writing angry letters about the $4.8 billion in annual economic impact generated by New York\u2019s more than 500 independent breweries, the 22,000 jobs supported by the industry, the farmers growing grain that ends up in your pint, the taprooms functioning as community living rooms in cities and small towns all over this state? (All stats from the New York State Brewers Association btw.) Nobody. There is no anti-craft-beer caucus. There is no organized opposition to locally made things being enjoyed by local people in local establishments. And so when state government shows up and says, yes, we see this, we value it, here is a day \u2014 it is both genuinely heartening and, frankly, extremely smart politics. Everybody wins. The breweries win. The drinkers win. The governor gets to stand in front of a lot of happy people holding beer. This is what good governance looks like, and I will not be taking questions.<\/p>\n

Now. About the glass.<\/p>\n

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Every year, New York Craft Beer Day comes with a limited-edition collector\u2019s glass available at participating breweries while supplies last. A dollar from every glass sold goes back to the New York State Brewers Association to fund advocacy, education, and promotion on behalf of independent breweries across the state. It is a good glass for a good cause. But this year\u2019s glass has an extra layer, because the artist behind it is someone you should already know, and if you don\u2019t, allow me to fix that immediately.<\/p>\n

Her name is Kaylin Schafer. Online, she goes by Sad Scribbles. Her whole thing \u2014 and I say this with enormous affection and zero condescension \u2014 is drawing pets badly for $20.<\/p>\n

Except here\u2019s the actual truth, which Kaylin will never tell you herself because she is constitutionally incapable of giving herself credit: she does not draw pets badly. She draws pets extraordinarily well in a style that is loose and expressive and full of personality, the kind of work that captures something true about an animal in a way that a technically perfect photograph sometimes can\u2019t. There is warmth and humor and genuine craft in every piece she makes, and the fact that she has built a following across the region on the premise of doing it badly is either the most effective piece of personal branding in western New York or a masterclass in underselling that I find both baffling and endearing. (Probably both. Definitely both.)<\/p>\n

What makes the choice of Kaylin to design this year\u2019s glass especially fitting \u2014 beyond the obvious fact that she\u2019s talented and the result looks great \u2014 is that she is not some outside hire who was handed a brief about hops and told to make something. She is, by any reasonable measure, one of the more deeply embedded people in Rochester\u2019s craft beer community, and has been for years. She started her craft beer journey at Skewed Brewing in her native Watertown. She came up at the Tap and Mallet, the South Wedge institution that helped define what a serious craft beer bar could look and feel like in this city, and whose absence continues to leave a gap that has not quite been filled. (RIP, always.) From there she moved into event production, running and booking events for Other Half Brewing\u2019s Finger Lakes outpost, which, if you know anything about Other Half, you know is not a low-pressure gig. And now she\u2019s at Swiftwater Brewing in the South Wedge, where she does a little bit of everything \u2014 and where \u201ca little bit of everything\u201d includes one of the best brewery social media presences in the region. (For reference, Kaylin has spent more than half her life in craft beer.)<\/p>\n

I want to dwell on this for a second, because it deserves more than a passing mention. Go look at the promos Swiftwater put together for their recent Sopranos trivia night. Just go look at them. I\u2019ll wait. That is the work of someone who understands both the medium and the audience, who knows how to make something funny and specific and shareable without trying too hard, which is the hardest thing to do on the internet and the thing most brewery social media gets completely wrong. Kaylin gets it right, consistently, and Swiftwater is a better and more visible place because of it.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Here\u2019s Kaylin in action at a recent pop-up. (For reference, pet portraits now cost $20 and it\u2019s worth every penny.)<\/p>\n

The point is: Kaylin designed the 2026 New York Craft Beer Day collector\u2019s glass, it looks great, it was made by someone with deep roots in the thing being celebrated, and you should get one. You can find participating locations at thinkNYdrinkNY.com\/new-york-craft-beer-day<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I also want to take a moment to be completely transparent about my personal stake in Kaylin\u2019s success, which is this: she recently drew our three cats \u2014 Tonks, Teke, and Yams \u2014 as a Christmas present for my wife, and it is one of the better gifts I have given in recent memory. (I am taking full credit for commissioning it. That is how gifts work.) If you have a person in your life who has a pet, which is most people, and you are looking for a gift that is thoughtful and funny and will genuinely make them feel seen, I am telling you: Sad Scribbles<\/a>. Twenty dollars. Go to her Instagram \u2014 she\u2019s at sad_scribbles_ <\/a>\u2014 and make it happen. You\u2019re welcome in advance.<\/p>\n

But back to Saturday, and why it actually matters beyond the collector\u2019s glass and the state-sanctioned excuse to day-drink responsibly.<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s craft brewing industry is one of the genuine success stories of the last two decades of small business development in this state, and it exists because of an enormous number of individual decisions made by people who were willing to bet on something they believed in. The brewery owners, the head brewers, the taproom staff, the people cleaning tanks at six in the morning and pouring pints at six in the evening \u2014 they in communities that needed it. We have talked in this newsletter at length about what it costs to keep a small independent brewery running in 2026 (electricity bills doubling overnight, insurance going up and up and up, a distribution landscape that has gotten genuinely hard), and the short version is: it is not easy, it has never been easy, and the breweries that are still standing deserve the support.<\/p>\n

New York Craft Beer Day is a low-lift way to give some of it. You don\u2019t have to do anything complicated. Visit a local brewery. Buy a beer. Get the glass. Check in on the New York Craft Beer App and unlock a badge (yes, there is an app, yes, there is a passport rewards program, yes, this rules). Try something you haven\u2019t tried before, from a brewery you haven\u2019t been to, or one you have been meaning to get back to and just haven\u2019t. Bring someone with you who doesn\u2019t think of themselves as a craft beer person. Order them a lager and watch them reconsider.<\/p>\n

At last count, the state has 500 breweries (give or take a few). The glass was designed by someone who has spent her career inside this industry, drawing it badly and loving it fiercely. April 11th is one day. The math is very much in your favor.<\/p>\n

Go drink something good. Buy the glass. Commission a pet portrait. In that order, or any order you like \u2014 this newsletter is not a rulebook.<\/p>\n

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