Raise Your Left Hand in Your Right Hand
Folksbier shutters, a very good kitty, and a gold star for City Star
I’m back from my first trip to Colorado since the 2019 Great American Beer Festival, and damn, did I miss that state and its fantastic breweries. Naturally, I stepped right off the plane and went to Ratio Beerworks and Bierstadt Lagerhaus, my two favorite spots in town (I’ve been known to call Ratio “my Denver office” because they open at noon on weekdays and have reliable WiFi). My friend and I headed up to Greeley and Loveland on Friday, Cheyenne and Fort Collins on Saturday, and… a brewery that, after visiting 186 in Colorado over the past 14 years, you might be surprised I hadn’t visited: Left Hand Brewing.
I’ve gotta hand it to Left Hand. Their taproom is nothing like I pictured given their relative size (they’re the 47th largest craft brewery in the country and the third largest in Colorado). It was downright quaint and the service was outstanding, with servers who were incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about the beers they were pouring. I had to have a Nitro Milk Stout, but I got a variation with cacao and peanut butter powder that was absolutely delightful. I also had a Cold IPA that was pretty darn tasty. There was enough experimentation on the board that we could’ve spent all afternoon there. I’m sorry I left you off my list for so long, Left Hand. I promise I’ll be back again soon.
Folksbier abruptly shutters in Carroll Gardens
Brooklyn-based brewery Folksbier abruptly closed this week after seven years of making beer in Carroll Gardens. Travis Kauffman, the brewery’s owner, announced its closure in an email to staff earlier this week, and promptly removed Folksbier’s website and social media presence.
Folksbier had opened back in 2014 and initially did not have a taproom, relying on distribution to beer bars around New York in a slow but steady rollout of kegs over their first three years. In 2017, the taproom opened, offering fans of their beer a chance to drink on-site in a room adjoining the brewery that evoked the feeling of a cozy cabin in the woods. Later in 2017, Folksbier canned for the first time, allowing their beer to hit beer shop shelves around the city and beyond.
During the pandemic in 2020, Folksbier became to-go only for a long stretch like most breweries. Without an outdoor space, it was only permitted to reopen its taproom upon the return of indoor dining in September, having to close again during Covid’s second wave in New York during the winter.
The OBL Helles was a lager standout in the city, and their Glow Up Series of Berliner-Style Weisses were sought-after among beer geeks. Collaborations were another strength — the Wellspring Doppelbock they brewed with Threes was a standout from the pandemic era, and their Black Seed Glow Up with Black Seed Bagels made headlines back in 2019.
This is the first brewery closure in New York City in 2021. The last came in 2020, when Mikkeller NYC shuttered at Citi Field after a Mets season without fans.
Have a memory of Folksbier you’d like to share? Leave a comment in this post’s thread.
Beer Community rallies to raise money for Grimm’s brewery cat
If you’ve visited Grimm Artisanal Ales’ taproom in Williamsburg, you might have come across their beloved brewery cat, Simcoe. Simcoe often wanders between tables and stands guard outside around the front door of the brewery. Unfortunately, she’s become gravely ill, possibly as a result of ingesting rat poison, and the initial prognosis is not good.
“I’m really not ready to give up on her yet. She’s enriched the lives of so many people who come to our brewery, has many fans all over the world, and if I am being frank, she is my best friend and my favorite coworker, Operations Coordinator Aiyana Knauer wrote in her GoFundMe pitch to raise money to cover Simcoe’s medical expenses.
In just twelve hours on Tuesday, members of the beer community rallied to her defense, raising over nine thousand dollars to meet the GoFundMe’s goal. And while Simcoe isn’t out of the woods, the news yesterday was a bit brighter: she’s up and walking and responding well to supportive care. Here’s hoping there’s a chance we can see her back at the brewery, because it just won’t be the same without her.
This Week’s Local Beer Releases
I’m not going to be in New York for most of November, and it’s a real bummer, because there are a ton of great beers out that I want to try. So I’m going to call out some beers out this week that I would be looking forward to if I was actually going to be home: the Five Boroughs Street Beer Hazy DIPA, Finback’s Soaring High Pilsner collab with HOKA, Torch & Crown’s Super Nice Imperial Stout collab with Super Nice Coffee & Bakery in Harlem, and Threes’ forthcoming collaboration Altbier with Fox Farm. So, won’t you please try them for me?
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,441
New breweries in 2021: 367
Breweries visited in Colorado: 189
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #2424, City Star Brewing, Berthoud, Colorado (Visited 22-Oct-2021)
I visited a lot of stand-out breweries in Colorado last week that could’ve made it into today’s newsletter. Wiley Roots and WeldWerks in Greeley made fantastic IPAs and sours and stouts. Zwei in Fort Collins might be quietly making some of the best German-style beer in the U.S. And back in Denver, Cohesion might be one of the best brewery openings in the Mile High City in a long time.
But City Star? City Star is different. Nestled in a store front on the main street in Berthoud (about 40 miles north of Denver), its atmosphere on a Friday night is what made it so special. The beer is something I already knew about — a friend had tipped me to their beers at GABF as far back as 2013. But the small-town vibe1 of the brewery’s booth always reminded me that I had to visit.
We walked in to a bustling taproom with some great live bluegrass playing. The sprawling space has three different rooms and a back patio. People lined up for beer at the bar and didn’t seem to mind the conversation with the staff when ordering a beer. Everything runs a little bit slower and feels a little bit more genuine in small-town Colorado. The patio was dimly-lit as it was just after sunset, and it was a great spot to unwind with some delicious beer.
The All-American IPA was just a simply, clean, nicely hopped beer. The Bandit Brown, a GABF gold medal winner, was an outstanding brown ale with a pleasant but not overbearing malty sweetness that really hit the spot as the temperature started to drop outside.
Every town of Berthoud’s size (or half of Berthoud’s size, as it was when it opened) should have a brewery like City Star. It’s clear it’s a gathering place for locals, though we never felt unwelcomed as visitors. Colorado has so many hidden gems like City Star, and I can’t wait to track them all down.
Social Post of the Week
Black Ops in cans? Black Ops in cans.
Beer of the Week
Hidden Missile Helles
Black Tooth Brewing Company (Cheyenne, Wyoming)
Helles Lager
5.5% ABV
It had been five years since I had been to Cheyenne when I visited last Saturday, and the number of breweries in the Equality State’s capital city had doubled — from two to four. Black Tooth, whose original location is 325 miles north in Sheridan, came dressed to impressed. It’s a gorgeous space with equally gorgeous beer. This Helles, brewed on the pilot system here in Cheyenne, was deliciously crisp, slightly fruity, and full of flavor. It was the best of a string of above-average small pours I had on my visit to the taproom, which I highly recommend if you find yourself in Cheyenne — which, if you do, can you let me know why you’re there, since someone there asked me the same question?
Long Read of the Week
Josh Bernstein has a great piece in the Times this week on a threatened species: the beer bar. It includes mentions of several great bars that closed during the pandemic across the country, like Denver’s Falling Rock Tap House, Portland’s Bailey’s Taproom, Manhattan’s One Mile House and Brooklyn’s The Diamond.
One More Thing
There are always beer events on the Brew York Event Calendar, but there’s a unique one on Saturday night: a photo exhibition by photographer Kevin Figueroa called This Is How We Brew It, and it features photos of the women and POC in New York City’s beer scene. The event is at the Thames Art Center in East Williamsburg on Saturday from 6-9pm. Details on the photographer’s Instagram — and yes, free beer will be served.
Cheers,
Chris
The “small town vibe” of Berthoud in 2013 is far different from that in 2021. The town grew 102% between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, and its population stands at over 10,000.
I moved to Carroll Gardens at the start of 2020. I was already a fan of Folksbier so I was thrilled to be living a short walk away. One night I was coming home from an underwhelming date and decided to pop in since it was on the way home. There were only three other people, but they were sitting at the bar chatting with the bartender. Turns out I had stumbled into an impromptu bottle share, which I happily joined in on. Spent the next three hours hanging out with good company and good beer. Folksbier will be missed.
Such a bummer, enjoyed Folksbier's stuff especially their Grand Army Stout accompanying a dozen oysters, as well as Echo Maker and Night Walk.
I have a very vivid memory from early May of 2020, walking with the family about 2 miles to the tip of Red Hook and back, and stopping to pick up an order from Folksbier on the way — the geometry of how to get to their place was complicated due to the BQE. I think it was the first of the local craft breweries I was able to get beer from during the pandemic, and that really meant something to me at the time, a glimmer of hope. Wish I could have gotten their beer more regularly.