Article by Jason Shaltiel
Photos by Irina Groushevaia
A fresh wave of locally crafted beers is flowing through New York City, stirring a renaissance in what was once a brewing capital.
The revival is being driven by craft beers: artisanal beer produced in smaller quantities, each with its own distinct flavor.
“The local stuff tastes pretty much the best because it’s the freshest, it flies out the door; people want to drink locally it seems,” said Zachary Mack, 29, co-owner of the ABC Beer Company, a bar and beer shop in Alphabet City on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
ABC Beer’s bar, lounge and grocery section within a single space make for an uncommon hybrid within the dimly lighted storefront. The entrance and front area carry snacks, refrigerated beer and groceries including pickles and condiments. In the middle sits the bar, where the aroma of cooked vegetables radiates from behind the counter and handwritten tickets hang from levers, indicating the beers on tap. Toward the back is a large wooden table that seats at least 20, with a few small couches and tables nearby.
Mack started ABC Beer nearly three years ago with his business partner, David Hitchner, who opened a wine and liquor store on the block eight years ago. “He wanted to add more to what he can offer and since the laws don’t allow wine shops and liquor stores to sell beer he figured he’d opened up a new place, at least nearby,” Mack said.
As consumers show a heightened interest in craft beers, many small brewers have established bases within the city.
That correlates with a national trend, according to Bart Watson, the chief economist at the Brewers Association, a trade group of craft brewers. “We’ve seen tremendous growth – double-digit production growth – in the craft industry for seven out of the last nine years.” Watson said. “It’s one of the many things going on in the beer industry that overall point to the trend of premiumization: people buying higher value-added products. And craft is the biggest part of that, and it’s certainly shifting strategies for all sort of companies.”
In an attempt to gain a larger market share, Anheuser Busch, the giant that brews Budweiser, has acquired small, craft breweries. In 2014 Anheuser Busch acquired the 10 Barrel Brewing Company, a craft brewery based in Oregon and Blue Point, based in Patchogue, L.I. The former was producing about 40,000 barrels a year during the acquisition, and Blue Point around 60,000 barrel a year.
Big Beer was once a big business in New York, its prominence reinforced by its sponsorship of major league baseball. Rheingold and Schaefer at various times were sponsors of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants, before both teams moved to California. Ballantine was a longtime sponsor of the New York Yankees. Schaefer sponsored the New York Mets. Beer advertising slogans and billboards were prominent both inside and outside ballparks.
Now nearly a dozen brewing companies are now sprinkled within the five boroughs, including Big Alice Brewing, Sixpoint Brewery, ABC Brewing, Flagship Brewing and the Bronx Brewery. Most brew a few thousand barrels each year. The Brooklyn Brewery, the oldest and largest brewery of New York’s new wave of brewers, was established in 1987 and says it now brews about 260,000 31-gallon barrels of beer in a given year.
The roots of New York beer trace back to the 18th century, when New York was the dominant beer manufacturer in the United States. New York beers, many of them produced within the city, were distributed on a grand scale throughout the United States until the early 20th century.
By 1900 large breweries, including Schaefer and Rheingold, had become staples of the city. Hop production in central New York west of Albany helped make New York State the largest hop producer in the United States. For years, trainloads of immigrants, mostly women, were taken upstate from New York City to pick the crop.
That era began to ebb with prohibition in 1920, and continued as massive breweries, including Budweiser and Miller Brewing, arose in the Midwest. In 1976 Schaefer and Rheingold, the two remaining large brewers in New York City, decided to close their doors.
Today, brewing is one of the few industrial businesses expanding within New York City. The Bronx Brewery, which was established in 2011, focuses its entire production on pale ales, a type of beer that has been credited with starting the demand for craft beer. Last year the brewery sold 6,000 barrels, primarily through distributors, and approximately 90 percent of its sales are within New York City. (By comparison, Miller Coors and Budweiser each sell about 18 million barrels a year.)
The Bronx Brewery operates out of a large warehouse on East 136th Street in the South Bronx. The distilling area looks like a processing plant: several large distillers and processing machines are within the building, each towering over the workers pacing the facility. The entire distilling area is clean and neat with plenty of walking space and very high ceilings.
Each corner holds a trove of beer: stacked in front are hundreds of beer cans waiting to be shipped, while about a dozen dated barrels sit and age in the back. Once processed, the beer is shipped to retailers and bars throughout New York and Connecticut.
Damian Brown, a Yale graduate, co-founded the Bronx Brewery and has been the head brewer ever since. He works out of the company office, above the brewing facility. Wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants, Brown hops through the office, grabbing beers, answering phone calls and only occasionally using crutches to support the leg he recently injured while playing basketball.
For two years Brown brewed at a Connecticut brewery owned by another beer brewer before he was able to establish a base within the city. “I was up there once a week brewing, kegging and then I’d drive the kegs back to New York,” Brown says. “We had an old Red Bull truck and my business partner and I would just drive around the city, delivering kegs and knocking on doors, giving people samples, just trying to get out there.”
One ongoing challenge for the Bronx Brewery is establishing its product in a diverse and growing market. “Being local, as a local brewery, becomes less valuable when there are more local breweries,” Brown lamented. “So it is certainly is higher on everyone’s radar in a much more important buying decision, but as more breweries open in New York City, being a local brewery carries less and less weight with the consumer.”
Despite the establishment of many craft breweries throughout New York City, and even more outside, there may be plenty of room for grow. Brown said sales for Bronx Brewery beer has only risen since he kick-started the company.
And as the industry grows, the guts of patrons can expected to expand, too.