New York’s next new brewery is now open. Wartega Brewery, the product of Merlin Ward and Mimi Ortega, is making beer in Industry City, Brooklyn, and shares a taproom space with Industry City Distillery. They’re ramping up operations and will have a full slate of beers for their Grand Opening event on March 31st (which is full, but there’s a waiting list if you’re still interested). In the meantime, their taproom is open for business Fridays and Saturdays from 4-10pm at 33 35th Street, #6A in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Brooklyn’s Interboro Spirits & Ales debuted their Stay Gold IPA last week, at a unique venue that’s not exactly known for selling good beer: Terminal 5. That’s because it was served as Brooklyn-based hip-hop group Run The Jewels played dates of their Run the World Tour at the venue… and the group collaborated on the beer. It’s an oated IPA with Mosaic and Citra hops, dry-hopped with Mosaic hop dust. Cans of the beer will be available Thursday at 5pm at the brewery, along with a fresh batch of cans of Mad Fat Fluid, for $16/4-pack.
You’ll see some of these beers in New York starting next week (graphic courtesy Upland Brewing Co.)
We’re knee-deep in NYC Beer Week stuff, but that’s not all that’s going on in the world of beer in the five boroughs. So here’s some other news that you might have missed this week…
NYC Beer Week starts Friday! Here’s the rundown of everything you need to know — the events, the happenings, the beers, and more — to get you ready for the citywide ten-day celebration of everything beer! There are still tickets for the biggest events of Beer Week, so mark these on your calendar!
Kelly Taylor of KelSo Beer Company and Duffy Griffiths of Greenport Harbor pour their New York Craft Malt into the mill to make their SMaSH Beer (Photo via KelSoBeer on Instagram)
For the third year in a row, the organizers of NYC Beer Week have gathered brewers from across the city to make batches of beer with hops and malted barley from New York State. They’re called SMaSH Beers (State Malt and State Hops), and this year, they source malt from New York Craft Malt in Batavia, and Cascade Hops from Willet Farms in Cortland County. All of the SMaSH Beers use those same two ingredients, but brewers are free to use different yeasts and conditioning techniques to create distinct beers, which means that no two will taste the same.
Common Roots is one of two Upstate breweries to pour in the five boroughs this winter (Photo via Common Roots Brewing on Facebook)
Upstate Comes Downstate
You might be noticing a couple unfamiliar breweries on tap and in cans around the city, but they don’t come from very far away. Common Roots Brewing out of South Glen Falls (about 50 miles north of Albany, for those who think even Westchester might as well be Canada) started dropping cans and kegs of their beer at shops and bars around the five boroughs late last month – their first foray into NYC since opening in 2014. Their Ultra Modern American Pale Ale and Last Light IPA both score exceptionally high marks on beer rating sites and are available at select venues in the city.
Meanwhile, award-winning Prison City Brewing out of Auburn (that’s just outside of Syracuse) will hold its first-ever tap takeover in the city during NYC Beer Week at Tørst on Tuesday, February 28th starting at noon. Out of the gate, Prison City made a mark on the state’s beer scene by winning a Great American Beer Festival medal for their Bleek Worden Belgian Pale Ale in 2015, just months after opening. They continue to churn out new, interesting beers that woo crowds to their brewpub.
