Stop, Collaborate, and Read
A hop head's beer fest returns and a brewpub gets me horizontal
Collaboration beers have been all the rage for the past few years. They really picked up during Covid-19, which is amusing when you consider how many of those “collaborations” were simply virtual meetings about a beer recipe without any physical participation, in the interest of propping up an industry that was struggling for survival in a world without in-person interaction. These days, there are still plenty of collabs releasing each week in the beer world, and for me, they are still reasons to get excited. This is particularly true when the collaborative beer itself plays off of the participating breweries’ strengths.
Case in point: two of my local breweries released an intra-neighborhood collaboration last week. Niteglow and KCBC brewed Strictly Bushwick, a play on both their neighborhood and their dedication to sourcing New York State ingredients. The amber lager, brewed as part of KCBC’s Lager Appreciation Month (let’s be honest — every month should be Lager Appreciation Month), takes a page from Niteglow’s playbook of sourcing 100% of raw materials from New York State, and the name is a nod to KCBC’s other New York State-sourced beer collaborations. It’s just one of many shows of solidarity across a struggling industry. The brewery down the street isn’t just your competition; it’s also your neighbor.
And in the case of my other brewery down the street, Eckhart Beer teased a collaboration with Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster Garrett Oliver earlier this month. Knowing this collab will also be a lager, I’m telling myself good things come to those who wait.
Green City Returns to Gowanus on June 20th
Hop heads, rejoice! Other Half’s Green City Festival is less than a month away. The annual festival returns to the brewery’s Gowanus taproom and will feature over 40 breweries from across the country pouring their green goodness on a Saturday afternoon, June 20th. Over 50 breweries from around the country will be pouring throughout their Gowanus taproom and brewhouse. The list still packs a punch, with heavy hitters like American Solera, Cerebral Brewing, Hop Butcher for the World, North Park Beer Co., Side Project Brewing, The Veil Brewing Co., and Vitamin Sea Brewing among the breweries making appearances at the event. The beer lineup, as always, will include some special collaborations and they’ll have cool merch, food, and other surprises lined up for the event.
Green City will take place from noon-4pm on June 20th, with the first hour reserved for Early Entry ticketholders. Tickets are still available — General Admission is $85 plus taxes and fees, and Early Entry Tickets are $110 plus taxes and fees.
Upcoming Beer Events of Note
Manhattan: Kills Boro C’est Bon Stichfass Tapping at As Is, Friday, 5/22 at 6pm, free entry
Governors Island: Threes Shapeless Days Launch Party at Threes Brewing Governors Island, Monday, 5/25 from 11am-6pm, free with RSVP
Manhattan: Foam Brewers Some Things Last a Long Time 10th Anniversary Tour at Blind Tiger Ale House, Wednesday 5/27 at 5pm, free entry
Brooklyn: Forever Brewing Grand Opening at Forever Brewing, Saturday 5/30 from noon-11pm, free entry
Long Island: South Shore Craft Brewery Beer Fest, Saturday 6/6 from 1-5pm, tickets start at $60
Bronx: Brew at the Zoo at Bronx Zoo, Friday 6/12 from 6-11pm, tickets start at $94.99
Manhattan: Curds & Hops Cheese & Beer Tasting at Murray’s Cheese, Friday 6/19 from 6:30-8pm, tickets $110
Brooklyn: Green City at Other Half Brewing Gowanus, Saturday 6/20 from noon-4pm, tickets start at $85
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 3,997
Total breweries visited in 2026: 74
Total breweries visited in Tennessee: 59
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #3957, Dynamo Brewing & Beverage, Chattanooga, Tennessee (Visited 4-Apr-2026)
From the second I walked into Hello Monty, the restaurant that plays host to Dynamo Brewing & Beverage, I knew I was going to enjoy it. You’re greeted with a stack of horizontal serving tanks behind the bar, along with three cask engines just to the left. This, along with the strong urging from multiple beer industry folks in Chattanooga on the previous night, was all I needed to know this was a beer nerd’s brewery.
The approach to beer here seems to be simple and clean. No silly beer names, just straightforward beer-flavored beers, like their Helles, Oatmeal Stout on cask, and Spring IPA, part of a seasonal rotation of IPAs with different hop bills. They specialize in beer-flavored beer with no gimmicks. I paired these beers with an excellent bowl of shrimp and grits for brunch, as one does in the South (the food here is also outstanding). It’s not a typical brewery taproom, but rather a somewhat upscale restaurant masquerading as a brewery. And I liked every minute here.
The Doom and Gloom Tracker
At least 2 breweries I’ve visited closed or announced their closure in the past two weeks:
Brewery #307, Bauhaus Brew Labs, Minneapolis, Minnesota [Visited 6-Mar-2015]
Brewery #3146, Wheelie Pop Brewing, Seattle, Washington [Visited 2-Aug-2023]
The Weekly Reader
How Heady Topper became an iconic beer [Jeff Alworth, All About Beer]
The end of Schlitz [Chris Drosner, Milwaukee Magazine]
A winding tale of a brewery that blamed their demise on woke [Jim Vorel, Jezebel]
Another merger of small breweries [Ezra Johnson-Greenough, The New School]
One Last Thing
Barring any surprises, in nine days, I will visit my 4,000th brewery. The amount of time elapsed between each thousand breweries seems to breeze by, so let’s see how the pace of my last thousand breweries compares:
Brewery #1,000: 2-Dec-2017 (5,342 days after brewery #1)
Brewery #2,000: 23-Aug-2020 (952 days after brewery #1,000)
Brewery #3,000: 1-Apr-2023 (951 days after brewery #2,000)
Brewery #4,000: 30-May-2026 (1,155 days after brewery #3,000)
Guess I’m getting slow in my old age. Stay tuned next week to find out where I’m headed for the milestone (a hint: I’m not leaving the country, and I’m barely leaving the region).
Cheers,
Chris