Questions with Infinite Answers
Tracking New York's largest beer makers and visiting a landmark-turned-brewery
Four times so far this week, friends and readers have reached out to me to ask where they should be drinking beer when they visit New York City. This is not an unusual question for me to be asked, but I have a habit of answering their question with two questions. Given the vastness of our city and its beer scene, I usually ask: where are you staying and what do you like to drink?
If they’re the type of tourist who insists on staying in Midtown, I might direct them to As Is (though I’ll always encourage them to leave the awful Disney-like bubble of Times Square). If they’re staying further downtown, my recommendations might include Blind Tiger. In the outer boroughs, the follow-up questions become even more important: do you like sours? Grimm might be your best bet. Have your dog in tow? Fifth Hammer’s a great option. Like lagers and English-style beers? Wild East should be on your list. Haze bro? Other Half and Finback are easy winners.
What’s funny is I don’t think I’ve ever given the same answer twice. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to exploring our city’s beer scene, and that’s what I love about New York City’s beer scene. No beer business is trying to be everything to everyone, and none need to be in a city as vast and diverse as ours is.
Brewers Association releases annual Top 50 U.S. Breweries list
The Brewers Association has released their list of the 50 largest craft breweries in the U.S. by sales volume in 2023 — and this year, five on the list have a presence in New York State.
This year’s list shows the move toward consolidation in a weakening beer industry, particularly among some of the largest brewers. Nowhere is that more true than in New York, where Tilray, now the country’s sixth-largest craft brewing company, acquired Patchogue-based Blue Point to complement their 2022 purchase of Montauk Brewing. Tilray’s acquisitions in the past year, which include 10 Barrel, Breckenridge, Redhook, and Widmer Brothers, moved the company up from ninth on the list in 2022.
Another addition to the list this year was United States Beverage LLC, the Connecticut-based beer importer that acquired Utah’s Unita Brewing and entered into partnership with Westchester County’s Captain Lawrence Brewing in 2023. The collective volume of the two brands put the company at number 45 on the list.
The four other brewing company in New York saw just slight movement: Duvel Moorgat, the parent company of Cooperstown’s Brewery Ommegang, held onto its 4th-place position for the fourth consecutive year. Artisanal Brewing Ventures, which includes New York’s Sixpoint and Southern Tier in addition to Pennsylvania’s Victory, slipped from 6th to 7th on the list, leapfrogged by Tilray. Brooklyn Brewery jumped from 10th to 8th this year, and Matt Brewing in Utica jumped from 14th to 13th, although some of that is rooted in the fact that Stone Brewing, 7th on last year’s list, fell off the list of independent brewers when they were acquired by Japanese beer giant Sapporro.
The Brewers Association also released preliminary numbers on U.S. independent brewers’ growth in 2023. Despite all the doom and gloom (including in this newsletter), more breweries opened than closed last year, with 495 openings and 418 closings, bringing the total number of breweries in the U.S. to 9,812. The gap between those figures was the closest it’s been in a decade and a half, and it’s the fewest openings in a year in the U.S. since 2012. That said, while the entire beer market declined by 5.1% in 2023, craft breweries saw just a 1% year-over-year decline, meaning craft’s market share of all beer actually increased from 13.1% to 13.3%.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 3,408
Total breweries visited in 2024: 124
Total breweries visited in Florida: 94
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #3408, Amicus Brewing Ventures, Tallahassee, Florida (Visited 14-Apr-2024)
I’m a sucker when beer and historic preservation come together in interesting ways. This particular brewery is in the Old City Waterworks in Tallahassee — an operation that dates back to 1889. While the building had outlived its usefulness as a waterworks by the 1950s, it became a National Historic Landmark in 1979 and continued to be owned by the city of Tallahassee as it fell into disrepair in the last decade. New owners took over the space and restored it to its former glory, and that restoration is documented on the walls of the taproom with a very thorough history of the building.
For however old the building itself is, it’s evolved into a lovely place to drink beer. The narrow but long indoor drinking space has plenty of space that’s removed from the bar at the center of the room. The outdoor space includes an uncovered deck, a pavilion, and a lawn with Adirondack chairs under the trees and cornhole boards out in the sun. The building is also across from a park that hosts concerts regularly, making the entire space vibrant on the day I visited as you could hear the soundcheck from the nearby amphitheater.
The beer was quite nice, too. I enjoyed the Braver Hund German Pilsner, a crisp, clean easy-drinker that I should’ve ordered a full pint of (kudos to Amicus for offering half-pints). The Talos’ Awakening, a Blonde Ale with vanilla and coffee from a nearby coffee shop that I visited just minutes before, was a fun, flavorful offering, and the Fuggles’ Brew, a Dark Mild, was a delightful sessionable sipper. A mere six months in, Amicus has a good thing going all around.
The Doom and Gloom Tracker
At least 1 brewery I’ve visited closed or announced their closure this week:
Brewery #224, Renegade Brewing Company, Denver, Colorado (Visited 4-Sep-2014)
The Weekly Reader
Nothing like a good ol’ beer heist [Olivia White, VinePair]
A long-closed beer bar in Albany with a lasting legacy [Kevin Kain, Casket Beer]
The meteoric rise of a Wisconsin brewery you’ve probably never heard of [Jerard Fagerberg, Good Beer Hunting]
The Masters at Augusta has a “mystery beer” [Josh Berhow, Golf]
One Last Thing
A reminder that this weekend is the final weekend for beloved beer bar Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg, who will close for good this Sunday. Saturday is Cantillon Zwanze Day there, so it’s fair to say they’re going out with a bang. I’ll really miss this spot, particularly on those warm spring and summer days in the backyard and the cold, winter nights with a warming strong beer in their cozy space. Spuyten Duyvil was a pioneer for craft beer in New York, particularly opening my mind to some imports that would otherwise not even be on my radar, and it will be dearly missed.
Cheers,
Chris