Over the weekend, the NY Times wrote about the growth of high-end coffee shops in the city, where cappuccinos are works of art. Well, turns out Brooklyn can boast just as much about brewing beer as it can coffee. In 1960, they write, we produced one-fifth of the nation's beer. After Rheingold and Schaefer closed in the 70s, we produced none. Now, though, with Brooklyn Brewery and newcomers like Sixpoint Craft Ales in Red Hook and Greenpoint Beer Works in Clinton Hill, we're back on the beer map. Why brew here? “We weren’t able to identify any other place in the country that we thought would be as receptive to the type of beers we wanted to make,” said Sixpoint's owner Shane Welch. “Brooklyn had a history of producing beautiful handcrafted stuff, and it was having a creative renaissance.” One obstacle some brewers face: finding adequate commercial space.
Brooklyn Returns to a Heady Time [NY Times]
Photo by landavid.
