Beer Superlatives 2025

The annual look back at the year in New York City beer

Hello, and welcome to 2026. I took a couple weeks off over the holidays to travel, unwind, and celebrate the holidays (and my birthday). Now that we’re back to business, it’s time to start the newsletter with yet another piece of bad beer news.

Alewife Brewing in Sunnyside, Queens closed its doors over the holidays, marking the fourth brewery closure in New York City in 2025 when they served their last beer on December 28th. It marks the end of a long run for Alewife that began when it first opened as a beer bar in Long Island City operated by Patrick Donagher back in 2011. A small brewing operation was added to the LIC location in 2018 before the original bar was closed and a brewery and taproom opened in Sunnyside in 2020. The announcement of Alewife’s closure includes an explanation that won’t surprise longtime readers here:

The years since the pandemic have been incredibly challenging for the craft beer industry. Rising costs and shifting consumer habits have made recovery difficult, and we’ve reached a point where we can no longer sustain operations here in our beloved home.

Alewife becomes the ninth brewery in New York City to close in the past two years, and the third closure in the past two months — Five Boroughs in Brooklyn poured their last beer in mid-December and Torch & Crown abruptly shuttered their Manhattan taproom in November.

It’s not entirely gloom and doom this week. It’s time to take a look back at the year in New York beer in 2025, with the long-standing annual feature…

The Brew York Beer Superlatives 2025

Best Brewery Opening: Eckhart Beer Co.

In a year of brewery closures, there was one true bright spot: Eckhart Beer Co. finally opened its doors to the public in September. The stunning taproom has already hosted several beer releases, a Kolsch service night (the next one is coming up on Saturday), and lots of community events like gaming nights and trivia. But the main attraction is the beer: it’s New York City’s first lager-focused brewery, and the Czech and German-style beers here are spectacular. Everything is clean, nothing is too quirky, and Eckhart has quickly made a name for itself with its beer-flavored beer. It’s a welcome addition to the city’s beer scene at a time when we’ve seen a lot of subtractions.

Honorable Mention: Kills Boro

Event of the Year: Kills Boro Pizza Party

After a long drought of years out of town during the event, I finally went back for the 2025 edition of Kills Boro’s Pizza Party in July, and it remains hands-down one of my favorite beer events in New York City. It helps that the weather was good for this outdoor event, but copious amount of slices I consumed and washed down with great beer made for a nearly perfect day in the beautiful setting of the lawn at Snug Harbor Cultural Center on Staten Island. I managed to discover an excellent new brewery that wasn’t on my radar at Pizza Party — Lumen Beer in Omaha, Nebraska. It’s part of what motivated me to take a trip to Omaha later in the year when I visited Lumen in person. Adding to the fun this year: the new Kills Boro taproom had opened just a month earlier, so the after party was nearly as fun as the Pizza Party.

Honorable Mention: NYC Beer Week Opening Bash

Best Bar Opening: Barcade FiDi

Manhattan’s Financial District has always been hurting for great beer bars, and the late summer opening of Barcade FiDi brought the neighborhood a much-needed spot for good beer. It’s also a sign that Barcade has still got it after all these years — 21 years after opening their first location in Brooklyn, their newest location does all the same things right: a rotating beer selection and tons of great arcade games. Heck, this spot in a portion of the former Century 21 department store is cavernous. You could get lost playing the games here, but you’ll definitely find your way back to the bar for more refreshment from a beer list that still carefully balances old-school and new-school beers.

Honorable Mention: Round Table Brewery Brooklyn Taproom

Most Heartbreaking Closure: Top Hops

When Top Hops, which was down to one location in Essex Market, closed in October, it signaled the end of an era. For thirteen years, Top Hops was a go-to spot for beer nerds for both beers on-premise and takeaway, and Ted Kenny’s brand flourished in in the peak of craft beer madness in New York. Most significantly, they were a dedicated spot for Goose Island’s annual Bourbon County Brand Stout release on Black Friday, and their original Lower East Side spot was where people would line up in the cold to snag a bottle. The beer scene in New York City feels a little emptier without Top Hops being a part of it.

Honorable Mention: Mekelburg’s Williamsburg

Trend of the Year: Brewery Closures, again

Let’s face it: 2025 was not kind to New York City’s breweries. Amid layoffs at some breweries and complete closures of others, it’s been difficult for people in the industry who make and serve our beer to stay afloat. Over the year, we lost 18th Ward, Five Boroughs, Torch & Crown, and Alewife. Remarkably, that’s actually fewer closings in New York than 2024, when we had five. But there are likely other breweries in the city that are teetering on the brink and only need one bad month for them to shutter, and that’s not great. Nationally, the Brewers Association indicated that for the second year in a row, more breweries closed than opened. Now more than ever, if you can, support your local brewery.

Upcoming Beer Events of Note

• Brooklyn: Not-So-Dry January Party at Finback Brooklyn, Saturday 1/10 at noon, free entry

• Brooklyn: Kolsch Service Night at Eckhart Beer Co., Saturday 1/10 from 6-10pm, free entry

• Brooklyn: 11th Anniversary Party at Threes Brewing, Thursday 1/22 from 5-11:30pm, free entry

• Brooklyn: Gun Hill Barrel Aged Beer Festival at Gun Hill Publick House, Saturday 1/24 from noon-5pm, tickets start at $60

• Manhattan: Curds & Hops Cheese & Beer Pairing at Murray’s Cheese, Friday 2/20 from 6:30-8pm, tickets $110

• Brooklyn: NYC Beer Week Opening Bash 2026 hosted by the NYC Brewers Guild at Brooklyn Monarch, Saturday 2/21 from 1-5:30pm, tickets start at $100

Brewery Tracker

Total brewery count: 3,933
Total breweries visited in 2025: 297
Last non-Covid year I visited fewer than 300 breweries: 2016 (203)
Total breweries visited in Florida: 110

Brewery Visit of the Week

Brewery #3915, Blast Beer Co. at Southernmost Pint Brewpub, Key West, Florida (Visited 18-Dec-2025)

I tend to avoid touristy destinations, but I was told Key West was a place I had to see at least once. Hell is other tourists, I often joke. But once the cruise ship passengers leave port each day, Key West gets much more manageable and friendlier. I wandered into Southernmost Pint on a quiet Thursday night and was able to enjoy great conversation with the handful of folks around. And after my last beer of the night, that’s when I found out that all the beer made under the Blast Beer Company name is gluten-reduced. That’s how dialed-in everything was. Surprisingly, this isn’t some massive state of the art brewery — the beer is brewed on a small system in a room in the back of the building. The Czech-Style Amber Lager and Westie IPA were my favorites of the bunch, but every single beer I tried across multiple visits here was true to style and flawlessly made, and the beer list went deep on styles, with 16 beers from all across the spectrum. This spot may not be the brewery that draws tourists in off the cruise ships or the one that makes beer for the bars that serve the tourists, but it was definitely the brewery for me in Key West.

The Doom and Gloom Tracker

At least 4 breweries I’ve visited closed or announced their closure since the last issue:

• Brewery #336, Goldspot Brewing, Denver, Colorado (Visited 22-Mar-2015)

• Brewery #860, Destination Unknown Beer Company, Bay Shore, New York (Visited 30-Jun-2017)

• Brewery #1725, 515 Brewing, Clive, Iowa (Visited 13-Oct-2019)

• Brewery #2176, Alewife Brewing, Queens, New York (Visited 6-May-2021)

The Weekly Reader

• How New York breweries are adapting in changing times [Christian Garzone, WHAM]

• Praise for my favorite airport beer bar [Don Tse, Craft Beer & Brewing]

• The right way for a brewery to close [Andy Crouch, All About Beer]

• If you are doing Dry January, here’s some NA beers to try [VinePair]

One Last Thing

I’m starting to plan out my travel for 2026, and my first two international trips will include looking for beer in unexpected places: I’m headed to Paris next week and Rome in February. While neither of these trips are focused on beer, I’ll be on the lookout for some hidden gems. Readers, if you have recommendations in these cities, by all means share them in the comments.

Happy New Year!

Cheers,
Chris