Brooklyn Brewery

A few Brooklyn breweries survived Prohibition by marketing malt beverages and medicinal alcohol. The last two great brewing families Schaefer and Liebmann (Rheingold) closed in 1976. Intent on starting a brewery that would pay homage to the rich history of their beloved borough, Steve and Tom set their sights on bringing in the legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser (I Love NY logo- NY Magazine) to create a logo that would give their fledgling Brooklyn Eagle (newspaper) Brewery brand an instant identity. Milton even agreed to waive his usual fees in exchange for an equity stake in the company. Steve and Tom raised $500,000 from family and friends, personally persuading each to share with them in their plan to build a “microbrewery.”

Shelving the “microbrewery” plan, Steve and Tom commissioned brewmaster William M. Moeller, a former head brewer at Philadelphia’s Schmidt Brewery, to brew Brooklyn Lager at the FX Matt Brewery in Utica, New York. Moeller pored over the brewing logs of a grandfather of his who had brewed in Brooklyn at the turn of the last century to develop a recipe for Brooklyn Lager.

The result was an all-malt lager beer with a tangy aroma created by “dry-hopping,” an age-old technique of adding hops during the maturation process to create a robust aroma. Brooklyn Lager made quite a splash in the 1980’s beer scene in New York City, dominated by the light, rice and corn lagers sold by Budweiser, Miller and Coors.

In 1988 Steve and Tom were hitting the streets to educate consumers from the bottom up, exposing a new generation of beer drinkers to flavorful beers that had been all but lost to the American beer scene. In 1994, Garrett Oliver was brought on board as brewmaster. His beers and books include The Brewmaster’s Table and The Oxford Companion to Beer. He won the 2014 James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine, Beer or Spirits Professional.

On May 28, 1996, Mayor Rudy Giuliani cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the new Brooklyn Brewery brewhouse, tasting room and offices in Williamsburg Brooklyn.

Amarcord Brewery in Rimini, Italy teamed up with Brooklyn Brewery in 2011 to launch the first of four collaborative beers: Ama Bionda, Ama Bruna, Ama Mora and Ama Reserva. In 2003, Carlsberg, the fourth largest brewery in the world, assumed responsibility for distributing Brooklyn beers in Scandinavia. The Brooklyn brands took off as Brooklyn began to develop an international  American craft beer revolution began to take root around the world. In 2014, Brooklyn Brewery and Carlsberg celebrated the opening of their joint venture brewery Nya Carnegie, operating as a brewery and tasting room in Stockholm, Sweden. It was the first time an American craft brewery had established a facility overseas.

Later that year, Brooklyn donated a microbrewery to the Culinary Institute of America, one of the world’s foremost cooking schools located in the Hudson Valley north of New York City. Garrett is developing a brewing curriculum for the CIA to familiarize students with the brewing process and produce beers for the school’s restaurants. Garrett has an expanded barrel-aging program housed in the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard down the road from the brewery and an extensive roster of experimental batches tucked away for study (and tasting).

I along with some 25 other people took the Small Batch Tour that takes place from 5-7PM Monday through Thursday. Reservations are required. We started by tasting 4 of their beers plus kept the tasting glass. Quite a bargain at just $10. The beers we tasted were: Brooklyn Lager, Local1, Wild Horse Porter & Unsung Hero.