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Brooklyn Brewing

Brooklyn Brewery by: Kyle Bloser

Brooklyn Brewery has a cool history of how it became what it is today. Steve Hindy, who was a correspondent an avid home brewer, who had just moved back to the states and settled in Brooklyn, originally started it in 1984. Later that year with his downstairs neighbor, Tom Potter, they founded the Brooklyn Brewery. They founded the brewery in hopes of continuing the great heritage in the Brooklyn area in producing beers before prohibition and before the invasion of the American adjunct lager. The first beer they brewed was their signature Brooklyn Lager which was the only beer they produced for the first few years of production. After having success and deciding to open their own brewery, they hired renowned brew master Garrett Oliver in 1994, who then developed many of the signature beers the company is known for today. The brewery is currently undergoing a major expansion project that will increase beer production and allow for more special edition beers to be brewed. 2013 is also the 25th anniversary of the brewery, which they will be releasing a few limited edition brews to commemorate their Silver Anniversary.
The first beer to be discussed is the Brooklyn Brown Ale, which is a hybrid English ale that combines characteristics of both northern and southern style English ales to create a unique tour of the English Isle. In terms of flavor it is very unique; it isn’t just your typical English Ale but leaves you definitely wanting more. It is very smooth and drinkable for a darker beer, which normally tend to be on the heavier side. The thing that makes it unique is the hoppiness that is added due to the late hopping which is their own addition to the traditionally non-hoppy brown ale.

The next beer is the East India Pale Ale. IPA’s were originally brewed so a beer could survive a long boat ride. The name comes from where most of those ship voyages were heading, the East Indies. IPA’s are strongly hopped with a bitter note, very refreshing on a hot day. This IPA has many spices in it, such as lemongrass, pine and citrus. The combinations of all of these flavors create a unique IPA that is very good and allows you appreciate the beer for and all of the ingredients that are added to the beer.

Brooklyn Lager is their first original beer that the company was founded on. It is a Vienna style lager that is a very drinkable and smooth European style lager. This lager is dry hopped while cold which gives it a rich and extremely flavorful finish that makes it easy to pair with any food. It’s a great summer beer that is crisp and refreshing, yet full bodied in its own way.
The Local #1 and Local #2 are very special and unique beers all the way from the ingredients used to brew them to the way they are fermented. They use fresh, many local, ingredients to add an almost local flavor for lack of a better word to the two beers. The #2 uses honey from a local farm that give it the flavor of the area. Another local addition is the light and dark raw sugars that are used in the fermentation process to give sugars to the yeast. This is an important step that adds to the fermentation of the beer that Brooklyn Brewing uses their own unique yeast chain in. One of the most unique things about the two are the way that they are both bottle and re-fermented which is a very rare thing today. This process is very old school and has almost been extinct except for a few breweries around the world that keep the tradition alive. Local #1 is a lighter ale where #2 is a little bit darker and richer, both are amazing and play off of each other allowing them to be an appropriate beer to enjoy with any meal.

Sorachi Ace is a very special beer in that Brooklyn Brewing is the only brewery to make it. What makes it unique is that sorachi ace are actually a type of hops. These hops were invented in Japan by a local brewery there in the late 1980’s. The beer itself is a saison, which is an unfiltered farmhouse ale that makes it a perfect beer for the summer months. The beer originally was only released as a seasonal beer, that was part of the brewmaster’s reserve series, but it was so popular they decided to make it all year long. They dry hop the beer with the unique hops that allow it to have an even stronger flavor of the unique hops that gives the beer its name.
The brewery has many other beers that are only available in the Brooklyn area and are part of the Brewmasters Reserve series that are quite good. The brewery has successfully brought back that heritage of making great beer in the Brooklyn area that was started by the immigrants throughout history. They will also continue to create new beers that play off of their great heritage and 25 years of success that has come with their dream that started with just two friends making a home brew.

To learn more about Brooklyn Brewing you can visit them on the web at www.brooklynbrewing.com – Brooklyn Beers are proudly distributed by Frank Fuhrer Wholesale.