Brooklyn Brewery

Brooklyn Brewery
79 N 11th St.
Brooklyn, NY 11249

It was supposed to be a “Happy Hour Knitting on the Roof” meetup. I should have guessed since it was pissing down rain, the roof would be closed. I was a little peeved that I kept posting and the organizer wasn’t answering me. Turns out, she was in Singapore because her grandmother died. She did refund our money. I think, I got an e-mail but never checked to see if the money actually came through. Back to my problem, I was in Brooklyn, it was raining, and after all this effort I didn’t want to just go back home, you know? The meetup was at Berry Park, located at 4 Berry Park in Brooklyn. On the way there I saw, painted on the side of a building, the Brooklyn Brewery Logo, so I checked Google maps, Brooklyn Brewery is around the corner.

Last summer when I made up the list for my ‘Summer Brewery Tour’, Brooklyn Brewery was on it. Not very high on it since I had been to it before and I was focusing on breweries that were new to me. The inevitable result was I never made it to Brooklyn Brewery. My coming here this was was, as noted above, kind of an accident. But I was here and determined to make the best of it. So I started tasting the sours. First was Rose de Ville, then London Gose, as I was chatting with the bartender, he (without me asking) then gave me Sour Cloud and Bel Air Sour. I wasn’t really sold on any of the sours, maybe cause it was a cold rainy night and had decided to get the Oktoberfest. Before I could order it, the man next to me ordered a Lager and a Pilsner, the bartender poured a Lager and an Oktoberfest. Before he could pour out the Oktoberfest I yelled, “I’ll take it!” Everyone was happy.

Next up was the “Defender IPA”, which I have only had in bottles. Much better on draft and fresh.

From the cellar: Brooklyn Brewery’s “High End” beers. The bartender gave me a taste (moral of the story, ALWAYS chat up your bartender, and BE NICE), Better Angels, Sour – Flanders Oud Bruin, Tart, vinuous & divine cuvée barrel vintage oud bruin, then, K Is For Kriek, American Wild Ale, “Kriek” means “cherry” in Belgian Flanders, aged in Bourbon barrels, unfortunately, I can’t read my notes so the rest of what I tasted is lost to history. And no, these aren’t my descriptions, I copied them from Beer Advocate.

More about the brewery, they are green, they reuse their cups for tastings and said cups are made from plants. I’m not sure how that works, but I think it means the cups degrade, they don’t last forever in a landfill. I would also say, from what I saw, not exactly family friendly. They have a lot of merchandise, they are also the oldest brewery in NYC. They have two types of tours. On Saturday is a general tour, first come first serve. During the week you need to make an appointment and pay a fee, but you get a tasting glass to take home and a private tasting. They even have a room for it! I thought I had a picture of it, but apparently not. It is in the video, which is not posted here because it is sideways. However, if you go to my Instagram (link in the sidebar) you can see it there.

My last taste of the night was Brown Ale and my last beer of the night was Black Chocolate Stout, one of my favorites. And as they say, Good-bye and Good-night.