Last Saturday, on 4/20, I did something I had never done before in New York State. I walked down to my local, state-licensed, legal marijuana dispensary and bought some edibles. It had been a long time coming, and the wait was mostly a result of the state’s complete bungling of the rollout of legal weed dispensaries. For those not in New York City, for the three years since recreational cannabis was legalized here, you’ve been able to buy weed of questionable quality from many storefronts, streetside trucks, and sidewalk tables operating illegally around the city, with so little enforcement that they’re seemingly on every street corner. Despite a promise that legally-operating retail outlets would roll out quickly during 2023 after the state’s first dispensary opened in Manhattan, the slow roll that’s involved foot-dragging and construction costs and lawsuits meant that my neighborhood’s first licensed weed shop until last month. So, to mark the occasion, I stopped in to purchase some edibles — something I’ve only occasionally dabbled in, mostly on visits to Colorado when it was something new and exciting.
Just days later, Other Half Brewing announced the launch of their Oh2Chill product line — fruit-flavored non-alcoholic seltzers infused with Delta-9 THC, the hemp-derived compound that became legal nationally as a result of the 2018 Federal Farm Bill that legalized hemp products with low levels of THC. It’s interesting to see breweries in places that don’t allow alcohol companies to produce state-regulated THC beverages to take this path, a path that allows Other Half to send their products nationwide even when their beer is only sold in a handful of states.
New York’s situation is a far cry from a state like Minnesota, where the legislature accidentally greenlit real-deal THC beverages from beer makers in a move that potentially saved some breweries from going under over the past eighteen months. But a growing liberalization of marijuana, including calls for it to be removed from the FDA’s Schedule I drug list, could open up opportunities for brewers that are struggling with a slower-growing customer base and a crowded marketplace some time down the road.
In the meantime, we’ll see if this gummy will do anything to make this week’s newsletter more inspired. It’s more likely I’ll just fall asleep before it’s done.
Queens’ LIC Beer Project has closed
LIC Beer Project, which had been brewing beer in their namesake neighborhood for nearly nine years, has quietly shuttered their taproom. No formal announcement has been made apart from Google Maps labeling the venue as “permanently closed,” but the brewery wound down operations and was last open in late March.
The brewery first opened in the spring of 2015, touting its first-in-the-city coolship, an aggressive barrel-aging program, and a focus on Belgian-inspired beers. The beers in their first year that won the brewery praise included the Ardent Core, a Saison, and WonderLIC, a Belgian Pale Ale. Within two years, the focus had shifted to follow the tastes and trends of New York City beer drinkers, and a slew of hop-forward beers followed. Coded Tiles became the brewery’s flagship hoppy pale ale and cans were ubiquitous around the city’s beer shops. Pile of Crowns, a hazy Double IPA that developed a cult following, became an annual release around the brewery’s anniversary each May, in a day called Coronation Day.
LIC Beer Project sustained itself during Covid with direct-to-consumer deliveries around the city, then with outdoor seating on their sidewalk, but with a plethora of other breweries around the area, staff turnover, plus being in Dutch Kills, on the furthest edge of a developing residential area near Queens Plaza, there were likely many factors that resulted in the taproom’s closing.
The closure leaves 48 total breweries licensed in New York City’s five boroughs. It’s the first to shutter in the city this year, and the second taproom to close in Long Island City in six months — Big aLICe called it quits on their original brewery and taproom last October.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 3,408
Total breweries visited in 2024: 124
Total breweries visited in Illinois: 76
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #3339, One Lake Brewing, Oak Park, Illinois (Visited 18-Feb-2024)
I’ve noted in this newsletter the number of different ways I’ve seen taprooms make themselves family-friendly. Most of those ways are passive offerings on the part of breweries — games and toys for kids, play spaces, open space to run around, and even playgrounds. But on my visit to One Lake over Presidents Day Weekend this year, I walked into a game of brewery bingo that catered to kids. No quips or giggles when O-69 is called, no cussing or rude bingo caller… just a good old fashioned multi-round game of bingo where even when parents won, the kids came to collect the prizes (amusingly, one kid opted to choose the prize of a beer for her dad). Instead of parents dragging their children to a brewery taproom they probably find boring, this place put the children in the spotlight.
So cheers to you, One Lake. Way to zig when others zag. And great job on the Vienna Lager, too.
The Doom and Gloom Tracker
At least 3 breweries I’ve visited closed or announced their closure this week:
Brewery #244, Boxing Bear Brewing Company - Corrales Taproom, Albuquerque, New Mexico (Visited 13-Sep-2014)
Brewery #383, LIC Beer Project, Long Island City, New York (Visited 7-Apr-2015)
Brewery #2556, Urban South HTX, Houston, Texas (Visited 28-Jan-2022)
The Weekly Reader
Beer from Bagels! [Arthur Chi'en and Amanda Geffner, Fox 5]
Celebrating ten years of Transmitter Brewing [Beer Sessions Radio]
An analysis of Brooklyn’s Shackmeister Ale [Doug Veliky, Beer Crunchers]
Seeking out the rare but beloved Eisbock [Brett Cortelletti, VinePair]
One Last Thing
Tis the season for Saison. This Saturday is Saison Day at Threes Brewing in Gowanus, Brooklyn. They’ll have a lineup of lovely representations of the style from both their own brewery, co-host Allagash Brewing and others, like Transmitter, Oxbow, Off Color, Forest & Main, and more. Starting at noon, enjoy exclusive draft pours, some surprises from the cellar, and a homebrewed Saison competition. See you there!
Cheers,
Chris
wow. lic beer project? location was always suspect for those of us BK centric, but the beers were right. always regretted not buying the queen of crows t-shirt on its initial release before #basquiat shut it. oh well. beer memories.