Courtesy Strong Rope
11 Brooklyn breweries to visit this winter
Sit back, relax, and enjoy a beer or two
Back in November, we directed you to a number of Brooklyn distilleries to help take the chill out of the fall weather.
But not everyone loves spirits — and besides, autumn has given way to winter. We’ve made it through the holidays, famously hectic, and are now facing the doldrums of winter. It’s a great time for more casual, leisurely, less-boozy get-togethers.
Bonus: You don’t have to host. There is no shortage of homegrown breweries in the city that host visitors, give tours, and serve lots of delicious beer — some of the best of which are in the borough of Kings.
With over 20 craft breweries in Brooklyn, you’ll be sure to find something for everyone.
Wild East Brewing Co.
Tyler March and Brett Taylor met in New York’s homebrewing community in 2016. It wasn’t long before they cooked up the idea for Wild East Brewing Co. and began looking for investors — they met Lindsay Steen during that process and brought her on. The trio spent a little over a year building out the brewery and taproom, says March. They launched distribution in January of 2020, just in time for the pandemic.
Wild East specializes in Czech-style lagers and brings classic European brewing techniques to all of their brews.
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Flagship brew: “We never dreamed Patience and Fortitude would be our singular flagship,” says Taylor, “but it’s our top beer.” It’s a “crisp, Czech-style pilsner.”
Awards: Contour Interval (their flagship saison) won gold at the New York State Craft Beer Competition, among others
Pairs well with: “Patience and Fortitude pairs well with work,” says Steen. “It’s my go-to beer when I come into the brewery and want a nice, light, refreshing beer.” Tyler likes to pair a lager with a burger.
What not to mix with: Dessert, chocolate, and other super rich things
Tours: Saturdays at 1 p.m., book online — concludes with a private tasting in the barrel cellar
Taproom: Yes, open seven days a week
Address: 623 Sackett Street, Gowanus
Find it in the wild: Order it off the menu at Pasta Luise in Park Slope, Victor in Gowanus
Bonus: They use central European-style side-pour taps to guarantee the dense head that lagers love. Steen runs an on-site lab, where they do everything from standard QA to yeast cell counting, can stability tests, and more — beer backed by science.
Strong Rope
For Jason Sahler — brewer and co-owner of Strong Rope Brewery with his wife, Christina Quintero — everything is about community. “I’m interested in the community and in being a strong bond to help tie the community together,” Sahler says. Strong Rope opened in Gowanus in 2015 and its second location, in Red Hook, in 2021.
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Flagship: Pub Ale, modeled after the English bitter style
Awards: Young Lion of the West (a cream ale made with corn) won TAP New York’s Gold Medal for light beer, among others
Pairs well with: That cozy, comforting feeling that you have at a really well-worn pub. A good book. A comfy chair.
What not to mix with: Flashy one-off things
Tours: Not currently, but keep an eye out for news in 2023
Taroom: Yes at both Gowanus and Red Hook locations, plus seasonally in the Adirondacks
Address: 574A President Street, Gowanus; 185 Van Dyke Street, Red Hook
Find it in the wild: Order it off the menu at The Good Fork Pub in Red Hook, Dinosaur BBQ in Gowanus
Bonus: A licenses New York Farm Brewery, Strong Rope makes every one of it’s beers with 100 percent New York-grown ingredients
TALEA
Tara Hankinson and LeAnn Darland opened TALEA Beer Co. in 2019 in order to create an approachable, inclusive beer company. They’ve brewed easy-drinking, fruit-forward beers at their Williamsburg location since 2021 and opened their Cobble Hill spot earlier this year. Bring your hard seltzer- and wine-drinking friends to show them what they’ve been missing.
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Flagship brew: Sun Up Hazy IPA, overwhelmingly tropical and low in bitterness
Awards: Brewery of the Year 2021 in Vinepair’s Next Wave Awards
Pairs well with: Balance. Says Hankinson, “We love a balanced lifestyle.”
Avoid pairing with: Beer snobbery. “At TALEA, there are no stupid questions”
Tours: Yes, book private tours online; stay tuned for news on public tours in 2023
Taroom: Yes, at both Williamsburg and Cobble Hill locations
Address: 87 Richardson Street, Williamsburg; 61 Bergen Street, Cobble Hill
Find it in the wild: Order it off the menu at Elsewhere in Bushwick
Bonus: Both locations offer taproom yoga, themed events, and various pop-ups with local vendors
Endless Life
“Like almost everybody, it started with homebrewing and finding community amongst other homebrewers,” says Endless Life founder and brewer Jeff Lyons. After stints working at both homebrew shops and commercial breweries, Lyons turned his attention to the community. “I’m just trying to be a good neighbor, to make ourselves available to anyone in the neighborhood.”
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Flagship: “We deliberately don’t have any flagships,” says Lyons. “The idea is to keep things moving.”
Awards: Satellites Are Spinning (a lambic) won silver in the wild and sour category of the 2022 New York State Craft Beer Competition
Pairs well with: “Our Harvest Ale pairs with the season and the weather so well.”
Tours: No official tours but if Lyons is around, ask him nicely and he’ll be happy to talk you through the process
Taproom: Yes, seven days a week
Address: 585 Franklin Ave, Prospect Heights
Bonus: Endless Life uses 100 percent New York-grown ingredients
Keg and Lantern
Keg and Lantern is a brewery almost by accident. Founded in Greenpoint in 2009, K&L was originally “a local Irish pub,” says head of sales Matthew Kantack. “Over the next few years, they slowly built an in-house brewing system.” They brewed their first commercial batches in 2014 and opened a Red Hook location in 2020.
They’re deeply thankful for the beer community in Brooklyn. Says Kantack: “The fact that so many breweries were able to navigate the past two years is a testament to the brewing community and the people that support it.”
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Flagship: Golden Ale and Greeneyes, a west coast IPA
Awards: Golden Ale won TAP New York’s Gold Medal for light beer (2022), among others
Pairs well with: “The golden ale pairs well with food generally,” says Kantach. “It’s highly carbonated, so it works particularly well with shellfish and oysters.”
What not to mix with: Driving.
Tours: Yes, Wednesday to Sunday — email them to set it up
Tasting room: At both Greenpoint and Red Hook locations
Address: 97 Nassau Avenue, Greenpoint; 158 Beard Street, Red Hook
Find it in the wild: Order it off the menu at The Rogers Garden in Flatbush, The Dram Shop Bar in Park Slope, The Bar Great Harry in Carroll Gardens
Kings County Brewers Collective (KCBC)
A trio of homebrewers — Zack Kinney, Tony Bellis, and Pete Lengyel — who all happened to do programs at American Brewers Guild, got together to open Kings Country Brewers Collective.
“We were very excited to open in Bushwick,” says Kinney. “There are so many interesting artists and makers here, plus the history of Bushwick as a brewing capital in America.” At its peak, Bushwick had roughly 45 breweries — KCBC opened in 2016, 40 years after the neighborhood’s last brewery closed.
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Flagship: Superhero Sidekicks hazy IPA
Awards: Tiger Thunder won Gold in the 2022 New York State Craft Beer Competition in the American DIPA category, others
Pairs well with: “I think all our beers pair well with vintage comics,” says Kinney. “And flavorful, delicious food.”
What not to mix with: “Cardboard. There’s too much cardboard in the world already.”
Tours: Not currently, but look out for news later this year
Taproom: Yes, seven days a week
Address: 381 Troutman Street, Bushwick
Find it in the wild: Order it off the menu at Gold Star Beer Counter in Prospect Heights, Covenhoven in Crown Heights, The Ten Bells in Bushwick
Randolph Beer
Randolph Beer started life as Randolph at Broome, a cocktail bar on Manhattan’s Broome Street. “The thing about the cocktail bar is that we didn’t sell beer,” says co-founder Dave Plate. But people kept asking and they eventually stocked PBR and Lion’s Head. “When the store next door became available,” says Plate, “we took it over and did the opposite: opened a craft beer bar that ironically offered one or two shitty cocktails.”
That was 2011. What followed was a decade of expansion, contraction, sales, and moves. Their current location in Dumbo opened in 2017, which was when they began brewing their own beer.
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Flagship: Cheap Sunglasses, their Mexican-style lager
Awards: Cheap Sunglasses named one of VinePair’s Top 50 Beers in 2020
Pairs well with: A crappy or otherwise stressful day/week. “It just takes the edge off,” says Plate. “It tastes like relaxing.”
What not to mix with: “Fatal attraction, a russian imperial stout, is 15 percent ABV but drinks like its 9 percent,” says Plate. “It goes poorly with an easy, casual night out, with unassuming expectations.”
Tours: Not currently
Taproom: Yes, Tuesday to Sunday
Address: 82 Prospect Street, Dumbo
Find it in the wild: You can currently find it only at Randolph, but delivery is coming later this year
Bonus: They make Rubi, a line of hard seltzer; the space is packed with tables, parlor, and arcade games (including, famously, Dutch feather bowling); they’re constantly brewing “crazy, seasonal, single-batch, one-off, off-the-wall” beers
Coney Island Brewery
Coney Island Brewery first opened in 2007, inside of Coney Island USA’s Freakatorium. At the time, it was the smallest licensed brewery in the world, with a 1-gallon capacity. It was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 but the brewery reopened, just a little bit down the block from its original spot, in 2015.
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Flagship: Mermaid Pilsner and Merman NY IPA, available year-round
Awards: Maple Tapper won Silver in the 2022 New York State Craft Beer Competition in the Amber Dark Lager category, others
Pairs well with: The beach, your couch, a bar, the airport — any place or occasion
What not to mix with: “Sadness,” says GM Victoria Pitula. “Just like you can’t ride a rollercoaster without laughing, you can’t have a Coney Island beer without having a good time.”
Tours: Yes: Free tours every Thursday and Friday at 4 and 6 p.m.; tours plus a guided tasting and food pairing every Wednesday
Taproom: Yes, Wednesday to Sunday
Address: 1904 Surf Avenue, Coney Island
Find it in the wild: Order it off the menu at Skinny Dennis and Lucky Dog in Williamsburg, McMahon’s Public House in Park Slope
Bonus: Steps away from Luna Park, Coney Island Beach, Coney Island Amphitheater, and more
Grimm Artisanal Ales
Joe Grimm was an experimental musician, and Lauren Grimm a sculptor and conceptual artist, before founding Grimm Artisanal Ales. They operated nomadically, brewing when and where they could, before putting roots down in East Williamsburg in 2018.
The Grimms approach brewing with a fermentation-as-art approach. They’ve carefully cultivated a house yeast strain over 250 generations, and have developed a deft hand at guiding wild, spontaneous fermentation. The results are incredibly unique ales.
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Flagship: Wavetable IPA and Grimm Weisse
Awards: Named NYS Brewery of Year 2021 & 2022 by the New York State Brewers Association, others
Pairs well with: “For all of our beers pizza is a great pairing,” says marketing and partnerships lead Peter Schwartz. “Also, music; adventurous and experimental music, in particular. Spiritual jazz. Krautrock. Hilma af Klimt paintings”
What not to mix with: Mind-body dualism
Tours: None offered currently
Taproom: Yes, seven days a week
Address: 990 Metropolitan Avenue, East Williamsburg
Find it in the wild: Order it off the menu at Torst in Greenpoint, Mekelburg’s in Clinton Hill and Williamsburg, and Hops Hill in Clinton Hill
Bonus: They have a wine brand, Physica, available exclusively (for now) at the taproom; they’re opening a rooftop pizzeria later this year
Transmitter Brewing
“Anthony [Accardi] and I met doing amateur bicycle racing,” says Rob Kolb of his Transmitter Brewing co-founder. “We’d ride around Central Park talking about beer, food, wine, whatever.”
Accardi had homebrewed back in the ‘90s, and Kolb talked him into picking it back up again. Before they knew it, they were looking into opening a brewery. They founded Transmitter and opened in “a dump of warehouse in Long Island City” in 2014 and made the move to their current location, after years of planning, five months before Covid.
Transmitter has no flagship brew, instead opting for a seasonal rotation. “A2, our Abbey-style Dubbel,” says Kolb, “and BW1, the Barley Wine, are great winter beers.”
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Awards: S9 Noble Saisan won Silver in in the 2022 NYS Craft Beer Competition in the Belgian Farmhouse category, others
Pairs well with: We have a collaboration barleywine with King’s County Distillery that works great with any dessert. Or as a dessert itself.
What not to mix with: The funkier, sour beers will overpower light, delicate seafood
Taproom: Yes, seven days a week
Address: 141 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn Navy Yard
Find it in the wild: Order it off the menu at Diner in Williamsburg, Mekelburg’s in Clinton Hill and Williamsburg, Gold Star Beer Counter in Prospect Heights
Five Boroughs Brewing Co.
In 2017, Blake Tomnitz and Kevin O’Donnell turned their lives upside down, quitting their corporate jobs and opening Five Borough Brewing Co. “He called me and said ‘I’m quitting my job, but you’re doing it with me,’” recalls O’Donnell.
Five years in and the pair is well on the way to meeting their goal: “The whole idea was to make beer that is approachable, affordable, and that you can find on any street corner in the city.”
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Flagship: Tiny Juicy IPA
Awards: Tiny Juicy IPA won bronze at the World Beer Cup in the Session IPA category
Pairs well with: “‘Make Good Decisions,’” says O’Donnell. “It’s a sign we have in the taproom that’s become a bit of a mantra for us.”
What not to mix with: Dry January
Tours: They partner with City Brew Tours, who curate guided tours of breweries
Taproom: Yes, Thursday to Sunday
Address: 215 47th Street, Sunset Park
Find it in the wild: Order it off the menu at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg, Doublé in Bushwick, Greenwood Park in Greenwood
Bonus: Among other events, they periodically host a Drinking and Dragons night, inviting Brooklyn’s gamers to bring their campaigns to the tap room. Keep an eye on their Instagram for more (including other themed game nights).
