Where To Drink Craft Beer In New York
As you guys likely already know, we’re quite partial to traveling for beer. Every year, Tiff and I head down to Brooklyn for our fave music festival, Afropunk, so of course we try and squeeze in some brewpub and beer bar visits while we’re in town. This summer we decided to do a full blown Brooklyn brewpub crawl - here’s where you need to visit next time you in NYC.
Updated February 2nd 2020 with Part 2.
Part 1
Other Half Brewing
It’s not a trip to Brooklyn if you don’t swing by the gods, Other Half. If you’re a hazeboi like me, you’ll fall in love with Other Half’s deep menu of tropical, flocc-y, smooth, creamy juice bombs. The taproom is located in Red Hook, a fairly easy trip from Manhattan, and it’s a cosy spot with a decent number of tables. There’s usually ~20 or so beers on tap, so we got a flight, and if you time it right there should be a reasonable variety of cans to go. This trip, there were four different cans to choose from so of course I picked up a 4 pack (really should have grabbed more), and their merch game is strong. My Other Half tee is my new fave.
Threes Brewing
From Other Half, we took the subway north to Williamsburg and hit Threes Brewing’s Franklin + Kent location, which is a bar only as the brewpub is located elsewhere in Brooklyn - this spot made more sense based on our next moves. It’s a modern taproom with a small patio located in a residential neighbourhood, and they have a fridge full of cans to go. They didn’t offer flights so we grabbed half pours and a full can - probably not the smartest move as we were going into a marathon of a day but the beers were fantastic and the service was great.
Grimm Artisanal Ales
The next stop saw us taking a bus - my first time ever doing that in New York City - to an area I’d never been to before to hit the brand new Grimm taproom. It was glorious. Spacious with a food vendor and a number of cans and bottles to go, their menu was wider than anticipated so we got like 5 half pours of cloudy, hazy IPAs. By this point, we were starting to get pretty lit but I do recall the beers being phenomenal. I’ve always enjoyed every beer I’ve ever had from Grimm, so I’d love to come here when I’m not expecting to go anywhere else and just soak it in.
Brooklyn Brewery
Brooklyn Brewery is one of the OGs of NYC beer, and we’d heard that there are a ton of brewery-only brews available here. Alas, the opening hours are extremely strange and when we turned up, they’d unfortunately already locked the doors. From what we could see through the windows, it looked dope - solid menu, large taproom. The FOMO was real. According to the website, the hours seem to have improved since we visited, but we’d definitely suggest getting there early. The opening times of the brewpubs on a week day aren’t exactly helpful for a crawl, but now we know for next time.
Greenpoint Brewery
Our final stop was Greenpoint Brewery, a spot we’d walked past a few nights before and were excited about. We turned up right before closing so there was maybe 3 people in there, but we were able to grab a beer and a pour of wine from the tap to wrap up the evening. The ambiance was warm and fun, and I can only imagine how dope it’d be when it’s rammed. I had a lactose IPA, and I’m super keen to see what the rest of their menu is looking like.
Part 2
BierWax
We kicked off the second instalment to our Where To Drink Craft Beer In New York at BierWax, a dope vinyl-themed craft beer bar in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. We hung out with the owner Chris for a podcast, and sampled some of the finest NY brews as their menu is packed with all the NY hype brews, alongside some special gems from out of town. BierWax have a great Hip Hop theme so they hold regular vinyl-only events, and the who’s who of the NY Hip Hop scene are regulars. The perfect place to start a craft beer crawl in NYC.
LIC Beer Project
Our second stop was Other Half, which we’ve already spoken about earlier, so after hitting OH we headed out to Long Island City in Queens to visit LIC Beer Project. The cosy brewpub boasts an eclectic tap list - we rocked a crispyboi and a hazeboi - the vibe is super chill, and it’s a fairly close walk from the subway, making it easy to get to. I wish we could have stayed longer and got into some more from them. We will 100% be back.
Interboro Spirits & Ales
Interboro are a brewery I’ve hardly had any beers from - we actually drank an Interboro beer during the podcast with Chris at BierWax - and they were by far the best surprise of the crawl. Situated in the neighbourhood just behind Grimm, they’re kind of tucked away on a side street which is great because it kind of feels like your little secret. I rocked a flight of their beers and all of them were fantastic (a lot were named after classic rap songs which I appreciated), we had some wings and vibed out to ‘90s Hip Hop. Another spot I genuinely wanted to spend more time in, and grab some cans to go, too.
Tørst
The final stop on our second annual NYC craft beer crawl was arguably the most famous beer bar in Williamsburg, Tørst. The space itself is beautiful with a super modern feel and the tap list written on mirrors behind the bar. The vibe was chill for a Monday, so after a full day of drinking, we grabbed a brew each - I went for a phenomenal slow pour pils from Suarez Family - and we had their famous fried chicken sandwich, which more than lived up to the hype. The tap list was mostly focused around New York state but looking at the list on the day I’m writing this, it’s even more eclectic with beers from Vermont, Maine, Ontario, Belgium, Colorado and beyond. It’s pricey but worth it. Spectacular.
Brooklyn is a diverse borough for craft beer. It’s so big that you’d need to separate it into neighbourhoods to cover any major ground, and during this short trip we only covered the west side. If you find yourself in New York City for any reason, there’s absolutely no shortage of breweries, brewpubs and beer bars to satiate even the most complex of palates. Get it in ya!