The Best Brewery Hops in Brooklyn

New York is the city that doesn’t sleep, and in the borough of Brooklyn, they’re not sleeping because they’re busy drinking local craft beer. (At least that’s why we don’t sleep when we’re there.) Brooklyn is the NYC King of Craft, with bars and bottle shops galore and a brewery located nearly every 4 square miles. The beauty of brewery hopping in New York? The subway is your designated driver, and Ubers and Lyfts are in abundance as backups (or if there’s no convenient line to connect your breweries of choice). Also, in Brooklyn, you won’t even need to worry about transport between taprooms— Russell’s three favorite brewery hops in the borough, in which two taprooms are separated by under a half mile of walking, are detailed below. So put on your strolling shoes, don a scarf or horn-rimmed glasses to fit in, and get ready for some brilliant Brooklyn beer.

Strong Rope Brewery —> Threes Brewing

Start at Strong Rope, a tiny taproom in Gowanus. It’s an unostentatious spot— it almost feels like you’ve wandered into someone’s basement. This is not an insult: it’s, in fact, something that feels quintessentially Brooklyn. One can order in food, play games, and waste your day away. I was there mid-week near close, so it was a pretty quiet and unassuming night. No doubt that this isn’t always the case— a taproom so cozy would likely feel packed with twenty more people inside— but I was grateful for the getaway when many of the other restaurants and breweries had been stuffed. My recommendations: you may not find here some of the boldier or more experimental flavors you’d find elsewhere in Brooklyn, but you’ll find well-executed standards that can be consumed with ease all night long. The Wolf Blossom DIPA and the Embrace the Black stout will both give lovers of those styles exactly what they’re looking for.

From there, it’s a .2 mile stroll to the Gowanus location for Threes Brewing. While Threes is a lot of fun, it is *definitely* not the place for a quiet drink, as it was packed wall to wall, and my friend who lives nearby says it’s usually rather crowded. They don’t do flights— which isn’t a surprise considering how busy it tends to get— but you can get a bevy of 5 ounce pours. They also have tasty food available courtesy of The Meat Hook, and while we weren’t able to order because of how packed the spot was, I admit to feelings pangs of jealousy at the people walking by with burgers and brats. My recommendations: Crying on the Inside is a tremendously juicy IPA, citrusy and sharp. However, my favorite was the In Limbo, a foudre-fermented pilsner with a wonderfully crisp flavor— this will likely be one of the best pilsners I have all year.

Folksbier Brauerei —> Other Half Brewing Company

If the crowds at most Brooklyn breweries intimidate you, start in Carroll Gardens and head to Folksbier Brauerei. It is everything you want in a neighborhood brewery: quiet, friendly, laid back, no-frills. The interior is set up like an indoor beer garden, matching the brewery’s German theme. It’s genuinely located between some apartments on a side street— the type of place you could stroll past and never know existed. That’d be a shame, but it’s also a big part of its charm. The name of the brewery may make you expect nothing but lagers and bocks, but Folksbier executes well on nearly every style across the board.

My recommendations: the Recurring Dream #26 was the IPA on tap for my visit, and it’s way better than most neighborhood brewery IPAs across the country— hoppy, citrusy, not overly juicy. The Augury is a milk stout, straight forward with no crazy adjuncts: again, it’s not treading new ground, but when your drink is so smooth and roasty and chocolatey, who cares? Finally, their sour Glow Up series gives Brooklyn the best sours you can find outside of Grimm and Other Half. The server told me the Lime Cherry Glow Up tasted like cherry lime soda from Sonic, and he was not wrong.

Less than half a mile away is Other Half Brewing Company, one of the most renowned craft breweries in America. Beer aficionados from across the nation seek out their IPAs— if you visit on the day of a can release, you may see a line of people stretched around the block. They have a lot of seating, but the weekends will be absolutely packed, so if you don’t love crowds, I suggest a mid-week visit. They’re also impressively kind and informative here: at many of the “elite” breweries we’ve visited, the workers aren’t especially warm, but those at Other Half were happy to offer suggestions, answer questions, and make friendly conversation.

My recommendations: look, the 4 ounce pours aren’t cheap, but you should try to drink as many as possible. Many of their IPAs have at least a splash of lactose, giving them a creamier mouthfeel than your usual IPA. The best of the bunch I sampled was the Triple Mylar Daydream, one of the most juicy and pillowy 11+% ABV IPAs I’ve ever encountered. Their sours also have a dash of lactose, so the MMM Fruit Dream was tart but not overly acidic, for those looking for a more tempered sour kick. The best beer I had on my trip, though, was the We’ve Been Out There In Orbit (Coffee Coconut Macadamia Nuts), a boozy dessert stout that will almost certainly make my Best of 2019 list.

Grimm Artisanal Ales —> Interboro Spirits & Ales

There aren’t many cities with multiple breweries that have a ranking of 4 or higher on Untappd, but Brooklyn is the only place we can think of with two 4+ rated breweries within a two-minute walk of one another. Even the laziest brewery hopper can hit two elite breweries with incredible ease in Williamsburg by taking the casual stroll between Grimm Artisan Ales and Interboro Spirits and Ales.

My friend Kim and I started this hop at Grimm— there’s no wrong order here, but with Interboro’s predilection for boozy barrel-aged stouts, I felt ending there may be prudent, as Grimm’s flavors tend to be a little softer and creamier. Grimm’s taproom is sleek, spacious, and well-lit, the type of style you tend to find more frequently in Malibu eateries than in New York brewery taprooms. It’s consistently busy, and anyone looking to do some Williamsburg people-watching would find themselves in hipster heaven here. Still, there’s plenty of space for all, and the bartenders keep the lines moving efficiently so that everyone can enjoy the widest variety of Grimm’s delicious brews.

My recommendations: it’s hard to go wrong, as everything we tried was quite good. The Magnetic Compass is one of the better IPAs to be found on the east coast, a tropical Rakau-hopped IPA that chases a drinkable juiciness with a nice hoppy bite. The Double Negative is a straight-forward roasty chocolate stout, a throwback to the days when 10+% ABV stouts weren’t laced with adjuncts or infused with liquor absorbed through barrels. Finally, Grimm has quite possibly the best sours in the city: the Purple Prose was my favorite, a crisp and fruity raspberry and currant sour with just enough tartness to keep me happy.

From there, it’s a stone’s throw trip to Interboro Spirits & Ales, whose visual style starkly contrasts with Grimm. Those more comfortable in a taproom that is dark, chill, and unassuming will find themselves drawn to Interboro— it gives off a reassuring local neighborhood bar vibe. Those who require food with their beer consumption will find pub fare available here, and those whose friends/significant others don’t prefer beer will also be pleased to find cocktails on the menu. However, to the person reading this post, I assume *you’re* here to hear about the beer— and the beer is quite good.

My recommendations: the Intoxicated Demons is a creamy hop bomb rich with hazy mango juice— fans of Other Half will find themselves in good company here. Devil’s in the Raspberries is a jammy barrel-aged wild ale, my personal favorite in their Devil’s series of sours. Finally, for those looking for stouts, we had a full flight of Tonight at Noon variants that should please any who enjoy Russian imperials with red wine barrel aging… but my personal favorite was the Ambassador Black and White, a marvelously executed black-and-white cookie of a stout.

BEST PLACE FOR IPAS:
Other Half (Runners-up: Grimm, Interboro)

BEST PLACE FOR SOURS:
Grimm (Runners-up: Other Half, Folksbier)

BEST PLACE FOR STOUTS:
Other Half (Runners-up: Grimm, Interboro)

BEST PLACE TO PLAY GAMES:
Strong Rope (Runners-up: Folksbier)

BEST PLACE FOR A LARGE GROUP:
Grimm (Runner-up: Threes, Folksbier)

BEST PLACE FOR A QUIET DRINK:
Folksbier (Runner-up: Interboro, Strong Rope)

BEST PLACE TO EAT:
Threes (Runner-up: Interboro)

Which is your favorite of these brewery hops? Are there any you love that we neglected to mention? Please shout them out in the comments below! Also, please keep an eye out for upcoming brewery hop guides to Boston, Long Beach, and Tokyo— and for a complete list of Brooklyn’s highest-rated breweries, go here. Cheers!