Not Your Father's Potent Potables
Some weed with your beer, some Modist-y, and some good beers in Bushwick
We need to talk about the elephant in the room: legal weed. Despite the pleas from industry observers that it’s not taking market share away from beer as far as intoxicating substances go, it’s definitely seeping into beer culture in the places where it’s legally allowed to.
Minnesota is the gold standard for this — a law passed in the state last year allowed breweries to get into the low-dose THC game. Breweries almost immediately started producing THC seltzers and edibles — or sold those made by others. On my visit last weekend, it was a variety of approaches in the still-dodgy regulatory structure: some sold THC beverages to go. Some sold them to stay, in cans, along side their beer offerings. Others simply offered THC edibles as a “snack” option. Now that recreational cannabis is fully legal with another bill signed into law this year, it’s in the retail space, too, with liquor stores selling THC consumables. Even at my hotel bar, I could charge a low-dose THC seltzer to my room.
It feels like the Wild West compared to the incompetently rolled out system in New York, and it certainly seems like this sort of system won’t be coming to the Empire State anytime soon considering you can still count the number of stores legally selling weed in the five boroughs on two hands. But it’s definitely something to watch — instead of weed coming for beer market share, could it actually help beer sustain growth? Minnesota may offer some answers, if any other place is willing to get as gutsy as the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Celebrating NYC’s Beer Bars: High Low Beverage Company
High Low
295 Wyckoff Ave.
Bushwick
Despite living in Bushwick myself, I feel like I haven’t given this spot, a gem of a bar on Wyckoff Avenue, the respect it deserves in the two and a half years of writing this newsletter, so I’m digging up this old feature to remind you of the great beer bars that exist in this city. One evening last week, my plans got thrown for a loop and I ended up stopping in, and the vibe was so chill and the beer list was stellar, featuring a Wayward Lane stout on nitro, the Sierra Nevada Foam Pilsner for five bucks a pint at happy hour, and the Godspeed Sklepnik: Pitch Lined on their side-pull faucet. Pictured above: the Fox Farm Dwell, a delightful hazy pale ale from my favorite Connecticut brewery. If you find yourself at the Myrtle-Wyckoff subway station, you should stop by High Low. And if you’re even remotely close by, you should make a detour here.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 3,176
Total breweries visited in 2023: 281
Total breweries visited in Minnesota: 59
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #825, Modist Brewing Co., Minneapolis, Minnesota (Visited 6-May-2017)
Last weekend, I went to Minneapolis and visited Modist for the first time since my initial visit back in 2017. Back then, the production was in just a corner of a large building, and the rest of the space beyond the taproom was being used for a skateboarding event, with kids and adults alike doing tricks on ramps to the chagrin of the beer drinkers around the room.
These days, that open space for skating is now jam-packed with brewing equipment, as Modist has expanded. But appropriately in keeping with their roots, the taproom was adorned with skateboards for an annual Art Show when I visited again last weekend. It’s nice to see even as they grow that they stay true to their roots.
The beers at Modist were outstanding from the get-go, and this year, they got the honor of being the first brewery where I drank a Festbier in 2023 — The Time is Nigh, a Festbier aged in an oak foeder for four months. Their Supra Deluxe, a Japanese-style Rice Lager with Sorachi Ace hops, was also an absolute delight. Occasionally, we’ve seen their beers here in New York, particularly for beer festivals, but it was nice to drink again at the source, even if the clap of a skateboard after a jump isn’t echoing across the room.
Random Beer Fact of the Week
From Brewbound: I think we East Coasters sometimes are oblivious to just how big a deal Firestone Walker is out West. COO Nick Firestone shared in an annual business planning meeting this week that the brewery has a whopping 20% of market share among craft beer in the state of California. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when I see their 805 Blonde Ale on tap virtually everywhere I go in the Golden State.
The Weekly Reader
It’s not every day that two NYC breweries are mentioned in one Times write-up [Robert Simonson, NYT]
The most checked in beer on Untappd in every state right now [Katie Brown, Vinepair]
Heading away this weekend? Here’s how to pack beer in your suitcase [Em Sauter, Forbes]
Get to know Beny Ashburn and Teo Hunter and Crowns & Hops [Grace Lee-Weitz, Hop Culture]
One More Thing
I’m going back over to the England for the long holiday weekend, and it’s depressing to note that the precipitous trend of brewery closures across the pond continues. The London Beer and Pub Guide, my favorite resource when I head to the UK’s capital, keeps track of regular openings and closings of breweries in the city. When I went back overseas for the first time since Covid in early 2022, there were 133 entries in their guide. As of their last count, it’s down to 112, with very few new openings in the hopper. It’s been bleak, thanks to the combination of Brexit, inflation (particularly when it comes to energy prices), a Covid hangover, and a declining interest in beer. I’m hoping to see some bright spots this weekend, but at the very least, I look forward to a few nice pints.
Cheers,
Chris
The other factor in London breweries closing (or, in a couple of examples, moving out of London) has been the precipitous rise in rents on railway arches! The Arch Co have shot themselves in the foot by forcing out a number of good businesses...