To All The Beers I've Loved Before
Three NYC breweries opening soon and the first Travel Log of many to come
A friend of mine mentioned last week that one of his favorite beers was Brooklyn Pennant Ale until the brewery retired it several years ago. It reminded me about the rush of nostalgia I got when I tasted Other Half’s Doug last month, their Black IPA that reappeared for the first time in several years. This got me thinking: what other retired beers do I miss most?
Brooklyn Monster Ale: This was the very first barleywine I ever had, on tap at the now-closed Mug’s Ale House in Williamsburg. It set off the irresponsible love affair I had with high-gravity beer in my 20s. It went the way of its namesake brewery cat in 2012, and I still have a couple bottles from that last year in my cellar.
Magic Hat Blind Faith: When I lived in Burlington, Vermont in the mid-00s, this was one of the first IPAs that I drank on the regular. It bears very little resemblance to present-day IPAs, but the bitter herbal hop character still stands out in mind. At the brewery, you could fill a growler for six bucks at the time, so I drank copious amounts of this.
Pretty Things Jack D’Or: For most of the early 2010s, there was a steady supply of 22-ounce bottles of this beer in my fridge. It was the pinnacle of American-made saisons. It was dry (thanks to their signature yeast blend), but bold (thanks to a generous American hop addition) and smooth (thanks to the oat, wheat, and rye). It was the best of all worlds. It’s still a beer I miss dearly in New York.
But enough dwelling in the past. Let’s look toward the future.
Coming Attractions: new breweries coming to NYC
It’s March and we’ve already had three breweries open in the city this year: Endless Life, Other Half Domino Park, and TALEA Beer Co. Believe it or not, there are still more openings forthcoming as the pandemic slump starts to wind down. Here are three to keep an eye on for openings as the weather warms up.
Non Sequitur Beer Project: This roving brewing operation is going brick-and-mortar. Last week — with barely a week’s notice — he took delivery of a 20-barrel brewhouse from a closed brewery at his location on Wilson Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn. While there’s a lot of work to do before the brewery is operational, brewer Gage Siegel hoping to open the taproom soon so you can drink Non Sequitur beers on-site.
Strong Rope Red Hook: Late last summer, Gowanus, Brooklyn-based Strong Rope opened a pop-up taproom outdoors on New York Harbor in the same complex that houses the Red Hook Winery. That spot will return soon, but it’s is also where their new brewery and taproom will open later this year, with views of the Statue of Liberty and the passing Staten Island Ferry.
Alewife Brewing: They’ve been serving beer outdoors since late last fall, but Alewife Brewing’s brewery and taproom are well under construction in Sunnyside, Queens. Once completed, the spacious, mirror ball-adorned taproom with plentiful bar space overlooking the brewhouse will be serving the thirsty masses at the first brewery to open in Queens in nearly two years.
As always, we’ll let you know when each of these (and more!) openings happen.
Five Boroughs upsizes to 12-Packs
If you’re of the belief that bigger is better, here’s some good news. Brooklyn’s Five Boroughs Brewing is launching 12-packs for the first time, with their crushable 4.2% ABV Tiny Juicy IPA and citrusy Summer Ale are now available. It’s an ideal package for a summer rooftop hang or Prospect Park picnic with friends, and Five Boroughs is one of only a handful of New York City breweries to offer this package size. These bundles of joy will be hitting shelves across New York this month, and are already available through preorder at the taproom.
Travel Log: a Hudson Valley day trip
Last Saturday, with the warm, sunny weather upon us and two shots of the Covid-19 vaccine in my arm, I decided to hop on the Metro-North Hudson Line to visit three new-to-me breweries that I had been planning to visit since even before the pandemic. It was about an hour and a half ride up to New Hamburg, where I walked a mile on some winding back roads to Obercreek Brewing Company in Wappingers Falls. The all-outdoor setup was ideal for hanging around a table catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in well over a year in person. I started at 11:45 in the morning, appropriately, with a French Press, their bold, rich coffee stout, before moving a couple of hazy IPAs and basking in the afternoon sunshine. My friends and I capped off the visit by sharing a bottle of the Emergence with Cherries, a downright gorgeous brett Saison with cherries. It was a long overdue visit to a place I’ve even recommended to strangers without ever getting there myself. I’m glad I went.
Afterwards, I hopped in an Uber and headed up to Poughkeepsie to check out two recent entrants to that city’s beer scene. First up was King’s Court Brewing Company, which opened in 2018 on the ground floor of a former hotel with which the brewery shares its name. I sought recommendations from head brewer and founder Cortlandt Toczylowski, who was tending bar. He came to Poughkeepsie after brewing at Bay Area stalwart Drake’s Brewing and opening Barebottle Brewing in San Francisco. Cortlandt didn’t steer me wrong, serving me up his Bat Exodus Sweet Stout and Strawberry Fields, a Strawberry Milkshake IPA — a beer I initially balked at, but really enjoyed sipping out on their back patio.
I moved on to Zeus Brewing Company for a much-needed bite to eat (I strongly recommend the Smoked Mozzarella Sticks). Zeus was one of the very unfortunate breweries to open just two months before the pandemic, so they’ve had very little time spent operating at full capacity. The food is a big draw here, but their Queen City Pils was crisp and refreshing after a day spent mostly among stouts and IPAs. And it was served in an appropriate glassware. The taproom is a sparkling, booming space that seemed to draw beer drinkers and non-beer-drinkers alike on my visit. I’m hoping to get back up here during the summer, when their rooftop is open with views of the river and the Mid-Hudson Bridge.
I hopped on a Metro-North train home and fell into a food-and-beer coma as the Hudson Valley faded back into the city and the sun set over the Palisades. A successful first post-vax brewery hop!
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,108
New breweries in 2021: 34
Breweries visited in England: 107
Ceremonial Counties of England in which I have visited a brewery: 9 out of 48
Brewery of the Week
Brewery #1464, The Brewery of St. Mars of the Desert, Sheffield, England (Visited 2-Mar-2019)
Remember how I waxed poetic about Pretty Things Jack D’or? Like, a thousand or so words ago? Well, there is a place where you can drink Jack D’or now. But it’s not in the states, and it’s not under the old brand. For those who followed the story of Pretty Things, when founders and brewers Dann and Martha Paquette called it quits with their Massachusetts operation in 2015, they traveled the world. Eventually, they settled in Sheffield, England, an industrial city about two hours from London by train and not far from where Martha hails. And in 2018, they started building a brewery there.
If you remember Pretty Things’ beers, you’ll probably find a lot of things about The Brewery of St. Mars of the Desert — or SMOD — familiar. Take, for instance, the color scheme of the taproom — familiar shades of blue and red that appeared on much of the swag that their New York sales rep (Jim “Bocky” Barnes) used to hand out. Take the tap handles that were on the bar on my first visit, which I had last seen at places like The Ginger Man and Spuyten Duyvil. And take my first beer: Jack D’or Is Perhaps Not Actually Dead, a dual strain, well-hopped Saison. It wasn’t quite the same as its American predecessor, but it was still absolutely fantastic.
Martha and Dann were incredibly gracious hosts, considering they were typically closed on Saturdays. But when I inquired about visiting, they invited me into their taproom that was open expressly for a running club meet, spending two hours talking with me and giving me the grand tour of their small brewery and koelschip, and then guiding me through Sheffield to several other stops the rest of the day, including nearby Neepsend Brewery, a pair of lovely pubs, and the Peddler Night Market, where their beer — on tap for the first time — had already sold out upon our arrival.
Sheffielders might not have a clue about the envy that a handful of nerdy American craft beer drinkers have for them. But I’m happy they get to enjoy SMOD the way we enjoyed Pretty Things.
Etymological Nerdity of the Week
I had to look up the demonym for Sheffield to make sure I wasn’t using the incorrect word for people from the city. But I only doubted myself because there are so many untraditional demonyms in England. Among the better-known is Liverpudlian to describe someone from Liverpool, but there are plenty other unique ones: a person from Newcastle is a Novocastrian, a person from Southampton is a Sotonian, a person from Manchester is a Mancunian, a person from Leeds is a Leodensian, and a person from Birmingham is a Brummie.
While these demonyms are much rooted in the history of language, the most surprising fact I came across in confirming this is that the word demonym itself has a very short history! In fact, its first use, according to Merriam-Webster, was just 31 years ago, and it was popularized in the late 1990s — about the time I started wondering if there was a word for these words.
Beer of the Week
Puffery
Great Notion Brewing (Portland, OR)
Munich-Style Helles
5.4% ABV
Amazing that it took seven of these newsletters to find a Helles, arguably my favorite style of beer, to name Beer of the Week. This was a picture-perfect glass of beer for a picture-perfect Friday evening in Brooklyn last weekend, and it seems fitting that I feature a Great Notion beer that’s not an IPA, the same way my first Other Half-brewed Beer of the Week was a Porter, because I’m an obnoxious contrarian. What more can you ask for in a Helles than floral and earthy hops and a crisp and slightly toasty malt character? Maybe a flight to the Pacific Northwest to drink Great Notion’s beers fresh?
Long Read of the Week
Let’s talk extinct beer styles! I’m a sucker for some historical context around an American beer style that’s gone the way of the dodo: Kulmbacher (or Culmbacher, depending on the source) was a dark lager with German roots that took off in the US in the late 19th century. Mike Stein detailed its history in Good Beer Hunting last week. It’s an interesting read for beer geeks who are history buffs.
One more thing
Baseball season starts next week! So I want to ask: what’s your all-time favorite ballpark beer? Let me know in the comments. Don’t be ashamed if it’s something cheap — I raced to get an Old Style when I first stepped into Wrigley Field in Chicago (a year before it was tragically taken away).
Mets fans have been spoiled by having Mikkeller NYC attached to Citi Field for the past few years, and it'll be a shame it's gone (even if slated to be replaced with a different brewery, I think). I have extremely fond memories of popping in there before a game and checking out their absurdly large tap list. Once in the stadium, I was usually good for at least one Henry Hops pilsner. I'm looking forward to hitting the New York State craft beer stand in left field once I'm vaccinated!
Brooklyn Pennant was such a RELIABLE standby. Attended quite a few TransAlt parties at BB where that was the only beer I'd get.
While I hope they bring it back someday, I understand their reasoning & today is a very, very different beer market from when those used to fly off the shelves. This summer might have to include a "Don't Take The Locals For Granted" beer agenda where I go back to a few sentimental favorites that aren't as marketable as the trendy IPA styles that many markets are grabbing. (Ironically that's going to include a few Sixpoint IPAs that are ubiquitous but considered the opposite of trendy)
Also, RIP KelSo! Not so much "discontinued" as "disruptively displaced" & given the ride they've been on, it's probably for the best that they didn't land any big deals to open a new brick & mortar facility in the last two years, they'd be toast. Last I heard it was a small contract operation bordering on being a large homebrew project.