I was recently out with friends, drinking at our regular bar, when someone brought up the topic of craft beers. We had to admit that Brooklyn Brewery may be the only one we’ve really tried. If we had tasted others, we couldn’t recall them because their names were too esoteric, just like craft beer itself.
One of my buddies mentioned the “Hof Ten Dormaal Barrel Aged Project: No. 9,” which he had once before and was dying to try again. That’s how it started—our craft beer bar crawl. It was a few days before Christmas and we googled the Hof Ten to find where we could get it.
Stop 1: Jeffrey Craft Beer & Bites
311 E 60th St, Manhattan, (212) 355-2337
Our search led us to The Jeffrey Craft Beer & Bites on the Upper East Side. It’s actually right under the Queensboro Bridge. The interior aesthetic is industrial chic featuring a wood-and-copper bar and a ceiling made from re-purposed keg pallets and exposed plumbing fixtures. The Jeffrey has a custom-built draft system from which 30 hard-to-find global brews can be found. We drank the Hof Ten and were immediately impressed.
Jeffrey Beer Bar via FacebookStop 2: Transmitter Brewing
53-02 11th Street Ste A, Queens, (646) 378-8529
Next our beer crawl landed us at Transmitter Brewing. The Long Island City bar is in an unsafe, unappealing warehouse district down the Pulaski Bridge. Because of the garage door façade, we first thought the bar was an auto repair shop. The Transmitter specializes in Belgian-style farmhouse ales made with home-grown yeast. The beers we tried were complex and refreshing. That’s perhaps why the priciest restaurants in Manhattan, like Del Posto and Eleven Madison Park, have offered the beers on their menus.
Later, after many sips, we realized then that we’ve been bar hopping the wrong way for years. That night we were going to change. Around 8 pm we headed out and waited for a cab. It had gotten colder and already it was very dark, so we huddled close together and put our hoods up as the wind lashed at our faces.
Transmitter Brewing via FacebookStop 3: Threes Brewing
333 Douglass St. Brooklyn, New York, (718) 522-2110
It was now around 10 when we ended up in Brooklyn, where seemingly every neighborhood had its own brewery. But we found a list of the best craft breweries in Brooklyn on our smartphones and chose Threes Brewing first. The brewery has its own state-of-the-art brewing facility with 20 taps serving their beers. They not only specialize in farmhouse beers but also hops. The décor is an interesting blend of rustic yet industrial influences. Along the wall, behind the long bar, was a bookcase-like structure that displayed small kegs. There was ample, booth-like seating in addition to tables and chairs.
Threes Brewing via FacebookStop 4: Berg’n
899 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, (718) 857-2337
Our next stop was Berg’n, which is a massive beer and food hall in Crown Heights. A hip hangout, Berg’n offers microbrews in addition to food from various vendors. It has a 12-tap lineup and a list of 36 bottles. The bar is enormous! The 9,000-square-foot former garage also has an industrial-chic vibe with its polished concrete floors—very Brooklyn!—and its large garage-style doors that roll up into the ceiling. Because of its sheer size, Berg’n is the kind of place where you can sit on the picnic-like tables on a Saturday afternoon and drink beer all by yourself for countless hours, and no one would give a damn.
Berg'n via FacebookStop 5: Dirck The Norseman
7 North 15th Street, Brooklyn, (718) 389-2940
Greenpoint Beer & Ale is home to Dirck The Norseman, a brew-pub that crafts a variety of beer and food. We were wowed again by the 6,000-square-feet cavernous space that’s dotted with communal tables. Yet despite how large it was, the bar had an intimate, inviting feel due to the dim lighting. It too had an industrial vibe with cement floors, reclaimed wood and tin, metal walls, and dissected kegs refashioned into light fixtures. Beer is brewed on site, and we settled near the open fireplace to keep warm while we drank.
As you’d expect, we were drunk by now, but the night was young, and we still had a few more bars we wanted to try…
Gabi Porter via Flickr, Dirck the NorsemanStop 6: Other Half Brewing
195 Centre Street, Brooklyn, (347) 987-3527
So our next stop was Other Half Brewing in Carroll Gardens. They craft beers for draft consumption in limited release bottles and cans. The Other Half has tables for communal drinking, raw walls, and a rustic-like tap room. The décor was lacking; then again, you don’t come here for the atmosphere. You come for the hopped-up beers.
We settled down and tried the Green Diamonds Imperial IPA. That beer alone was worth the trip. A little while later, as we nursed our beers, which were piney and bright, we got kicked out because the bar was closing.
Other Half Brewing Stop 7: Glorietta Baldy
502 Franklin Avenue, Brooklyn, (347) 529-1945
We ended up at the Glorietta Baldy in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which used to be a hair salon. The cozy bar has a bare-bones understated interior with red walls and exposed brick. Once you’re inside, you can forget the moribund street with rows of bodegas, fast-food joints, and dry cleaners. The 55-seat bar has 12 rotating taps from both local and out-of-state beers.
There were more beer bars in Brooklyn that we still needed to try. It would take another night, maybe two, or even three, to try them all. But we had one last stop that we didn’t want to miss because it had been recommended to us by some bartender at a bar we no longer could remember. So we got an Uber and headed to Yonkers…
Glorietta Baldy, Bill T. via YelpStop 8: Yonkers Brewing Co.
92 Main Street, Yonkers, (914) 226-8327
This spot was really out of our way, and we just made it for last call because the bar closed at midnight. The exposed HVAC and the tin-like metal chairs made this brewery feel like the other industrial breweries we tried. Despite the late hour, the bar was packed. We managed to find a seat amid the crowd. We had to try the Yonkers Lager (Vienna style), which is their flagship beer. Like most of the drafts we tasted, it was quite satisfying. It was not too sweet and not too bitter—just a perfectly enhanced beer that we felt we could enjoy anytime.
Yonkers Brewing Company via FacebookWhat a night…So many drinks, so little time. What bars should we check out next week?
[Featured Image: Paulaner NYC Bowery]
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