I mentioned a few weeks back that I had joined the taping of an episode of Beer Sessions Radio about the recent history of New York City’s beer bar scene that was brought about by this great piece from Courtney Iseman on Good Beer Hunting earlier this year. That episode is now live and you can listen to it here. There’s a lot of nostalgia and waxing poetic about the bars that made the city’s beer scene so great a decade ago. Hope you enjoy listening to it!
Meanwhile, back to the present day — we’ve got some NYC beer news to digest.
A Sampler Tray of NYC Beer News
Here are some recent news and notes about New York City breweries and beers… let’s fly through it!
Other Half Preps for 10th Anniversary
Other Half turns ten years old this month, and they’ve started the 10-week long celebration with a series of throwback beers from the brewery’s early era to get drinkers amped leading up to their 10th Anniversary Week in February. First up: OG Green Diamonds, the Imperial IPA that started it all, back when Other Half was still brewing out of Greenpoint Brew Works in Fort Greene in late 2013; and their 1st Anniversary TIPA, the only anniversary beer that Other Half never canned (back then, the brewery was doing a swift growler-filling business in their shoebox-sized taproom in Gowanus). Both are out today at all OH locations.
Circa Brewing Co. rebrands as Sound + Fury Brewing
There’s a new name for the Downtown Brooklyn brewpub that calls 141 Lawrence Street home: Circa is now Sound + Fury. The Faulkner-esque rebranding comes with a refresh of their lineup of beers and food menu, and they’re officially launching the new brand this weekend. It’s the second rebranding of a brewery this year in New York City — Queens-based ICONYC Brewing became Focal Point Beer Co. back in the spring.
It’s a Holiday Market Weekend!
If you’re looking to sip on beer and get some gifts for the holidays, you’re in luck this weekend in the city. Finback is hosting its annual holiday market at their Queens location on Saturday from 1-6pm with an array of goods from local artisans for sale, beer specials, Invisible Force Coffee, and pizza from Traze. Over at Grimm Artisanal Ales, they’re hosting a Holiday Vintage Market with their neighbors at Daniel/Oliver Gallery on Saturday and Sunday from noon-7pm. Expect vintage clothing, books, prints, jewelry, and more gift finds. Shop ‘til you drop — preferably not from overconsumption.
Save the Date!
The biggest and best celebration of beer in New York City is back for another year to kick off NYC Beer Week. Opening Bash will return to Industry City’s Box Factory for its second year, and it will be held on Saturday, February 24th. If you go to one beer event next year, make it this one. Tickets will be on sale soon and I’ll let you know when they are.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 3,252
Total breweries visited in 2023: 357
Total breweries visited in California: 255
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #275, Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits - Scripps Ranch, San Diego, California (Visited 6-Dec-2014)
It’ll be four years since my father passed away in January, and this photo snuck into my Facebook memories today. It’s from a trip we took to San Diego for a Patriots-Chargers game back in 2014. Naturally, being in one of the nation’s great beer cities, he agreed to tag along with me to a string of six legendary breweries on the day before the game. What’s probably most noteworthy about that six-brewery day is that the landscape has vastly changed since then: Stone is owned by Sapporo, Green Flash is owned by Tilray, Saint Archer is closed, and Alesmith has moved to a much larger home. Lost Abbey is perhaps the only one that hasn’t changed drastically. But Ballast Point has had the most odd, winding road since our visit that day.
It was a very different time for Ballast Point in 2014. They were in the midst of rapid expansion of both their production and distribution footprint. Their spirits division, which called the Scripps Ranch location home, was growing, too, and their beers were ubiquitous at beer bars in major cities across the country. The haze craze had not yet begun, and the “IBU arms race” was still in full swing — note the Tongue Buckler, a 107 IBU, 10% ABV Imperial Red on the menu. A year after our visit, Ballast Point would be sold to Constellation Brands for a reported $1 billion, a mind-boggling sum that seemed to suggest that craft beer’s trajectory would be a continued meteoric rise. (Narrator: it would not.)
Five years our visit, after a national expansion, the opening of a brewpub in Chicago, the opening and closing of a brewery in Virginia, a spinoff of their spirits business, and a series of layoffs, Constellation Brands sold Ballast Point to its current owner, Chicago-based Kings and Convicts, for a small fraction of its sale price to Constellation. Since then, its production has been scaled back, it’s closed the Chicago brewpub and a production facility that was once occupied by Saint Archer, and its national presence has been scaled back dramatically from its mid-teens dominance. But despite the rocky road, Ballast Point remains a popular brand in California, and its days aren’t numbered just yet. I look forward to my next Sculpin at their still-open Miramar location, which I will happily raise and toast to my dad’s memory.
The Weekly Reader
These days, Constellation is slinging Mexican Lagers, not DIPAs [Kate Bernot, Good Beer Hunting]
A trip to one of my favorite Belgian breweries [Grace Lee-Weitz, Hop Culture]
I hate sharing “Best Breweries” lists, but I don’t mind this one [Niko Krommydas, VinePair]
One Last Thing
Just a reminder that it’s Santacon weekend, probably my least favorite time of year to be in New York City (which is why I’m getting out of here tomorrow afternoon to check out some new breweries in Charlotte, North Carolina for the weekend). As a result of the throngs of obnoxious, drunken revelers storming into our city from the suburbs, the MTA bans consumption of alcohol on Metro-North and Long Island Railroad trains and platforms from 4am on Saturday until noon on Sunday. Sorry to ruin your trip out of town. Stay safe out there!
Cheers,
Chris