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It’s been a while since a new, splashy, noteworthy beer bar opening has happened in Manhattan. The Grand Delancey was worth that wait. The new beer bar opened this weekend in a food market beneath the newly-relocated Essex Market called The Market Line, bringing a lineup of sought-after beers from around the world to a flashy corner of the market.
Randolph Williamsburg has expanded into a neighboring space and added an on-premise brewery, the second in the chainlet’s history, complementing their existing brewery at their DUMBO location. The one-barrel brewhouse, helmed by brewer Flint Whistler, who previously brewed in DUMBO and at Rockaway Brewing, is already churning out a variety of small-batch beers across a wide spectrum of styles.
Crowds prepare for the beginning of the first session of Great American Beer Festival in Denver on Thursday, October 3rd (Photo: Chris O’Leary)
The kegs have been kicked and they’ve packed up the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, but we’re still basking in the glow of another Great American Beer Festival. With breweries serving from nearly even state in the country (sorry, West Virginia), it’s easy to see what trends are taking shape in the beer industry at a festival this big. Here are some of our takeaways from this year’s festival.
A packed Bellco Theater in Denver for the awards ceremony at Great American Beer Festival on Saturday (Photo: Chris O’Leary)
Seven New York state breweries, including one in New York City, took home medals at this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver this weekend. Barrage Brewing Co. in Farmingdale, Community Beer Works in Buffalo, Great South Bay Brewery in Bay Shore, Gun Hill Brewing Co. in the Bronx, Heritage Hill Brewhouse & Kitchen in Pompey, King’s Court Brewing Co. in Poughkeepsie, and West Kill Brewing in West Kill all scored wins in the 33rd annual edition of the competition, which featured nearly 9,500 beers from nearly 2,300 breweries across the country in 107 categories. This was New York’s best showing at the festival since 2013, when the state’s breweries also won seven medals.
Evil Twin Brewing has opened their new brewery and taproom in Ridgewood, Queens, offering a bar and retail space off the Halsey Street L stop.
The brewery marks the first brick-and-mortar location for longtime brewer Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, who started his Evil Twin brand in Denmark in 2010 before moving to New York City in 2012. He opened the Greenpoint bar Tørst in 2013, which gave him a place to feature his gypsy-brewed beers on tap alongside other well-respected breweries (Jarnit-Bjergsø divested from Tørst in 2017 to open the brewery, as New York tied-house laws prohibit a brewery owner from owning a bar). For the past nine months, the brewery location has been used for can and merch sales, while a pop-up taproom operated at nearby bar Nowadays. The locally-brewed beers had already gained a cult following, identified by some long and locally-relevant beer names.
Kegs in storage, waiting to be tapped at the nation’s largest beer festival (Photo © Brewers Association)
The kegs have shipped, and they’re ready to tap. Starting Thursday, brewers from across the country will descend upon Denver, Colorado for the Great American Beer Festival, the nation’s largest celebration of American beer. The event has been held since 1982, and has grown over the years from a small hotel ballroom to a convention center floor with 584,000 square feet of space – the size of ten football fields. GABF is expected to welcome 62,000 attendees, over 800 breweries, and 4,000 different beers poured over four sessions on three days. And it’s also a competition – one of the most prestigious in the world, with over 8,000 beers vying for over 300 medals in 102 different categories. Quite simply, GABF is a big deal.
