New, exciting breweries opened in Brooklyn such as Interboro Spirits & Ales, Kings County Brewers Collective (KCBC) and Strong Rope Brewery (okay technically opened late December 2015). The highly acclaimed Sand City opened in Northport on Long Island, and the upper Hudson Valley saw several new breweries open such as Suarez Family Brewery, Industrial Arts, and Hudson Valley Brewery.
Both new and established breweries (Threes, Greenpoint Beer & Ale, Interboro, KCBC, LIC Beer Project, Singlecut, Gun Hill, Peekskill, Sand City, Barrier, to name a "few"...) joined the canning craze hitting the US craft beer world
Even though there are a couple weeks left in the year, I've decided to go ahead and name my top beers from New York now. These beers are in no particular order (mostly because they were so hard to rank) but they're the ones that stood out to me this year. I've broken it down by brewery and hope this inspired you to #drinklocal in 2017.
Equilibrium Brewing - Mmm...Osa
Slated to open their brewery in Middletown, NY in 2017, Equilibrium is making hop heads around New York giddy. I never got to try MC^2 but I was super impressed with Mmm...Osa, a pale ale conditioned on freshly zested oranges. Really nice, citrusy and light.
Finback Brewery - Oscillation 004
004 was the best Oscillation release of the year for me. Paired with the BQExC bottle release, these cans were incredible and could go head to head with any of the big Northeastern IPAs. Finback did great things in 2016 and I'm looking forward to what they brew in 2017. Unfortunately, they're a bit far out of the way (heading there tonight for my BQE Box Set and dreading the trip) but that should deter NYS folk from popping in and visiting their lovely taproom.
Finback Brewery - Smooth Beats Miami
A controversial beer with mixed opinons, this collaboration with J. Wakefield Brewing was pure coconut in a can.
Finback Brewery - BQExC
A great coffee stout. A little thin, and was more impressed with the 2015 BA BQE I had on tap at the release, but Finback's stout game is still strong.
Greenpoint Beer & Ale - Instant Credibility
I was very hyped when I learned this one was going to be hitting cans. Super aromatic, galaxy-filled double IPA.
Grimm Artisanal Ales - Lumen
Grimm really stepped up their game in 2016 and released a lot beer this year. I thought the first batch and cans of Lumen was their best release of the year.
Grimm Artisanal Ales - Tesseract (first batch)
Grimm Artisanal Ales - Lambo Door (first batch)
Grimm Artisanal Ales - Magnetic Compass
Grimm Artisanal Ales - Super Spruce (the first batch of this gose was really fantastic fresh, a lot of the spruce came through. Haven't opened the second batch bottle just yet but looking forward to it).
Hudson Valley Brewery - Make Believe
HVB is a new brewery opening in Beacon, NY sometime in 2017 (hopefully). These guys were previously at Brewery at Bacchus and make some fantastic beers. You can follow their progress on their website. Make Believe is a sour farmhouse ale aged in oak wine barrels and dry-hopped with Citra and Galaxy. I very much enjoyed it.
Interboro Spirits & Ales - Premiere IPA
Only ~15 minutes from my apartment, Interboro opened up in September and impressed immediately with this first can release. I prefer Premiere to the new, hyped Mad Fat Fluid, but I have a couple more cans of MFF calling my name before the end of 2016.
Interboro Spirits & Ales - Mad Fat! Fluid
Industrial Arts Brewing - Power Tools
Industrial Arts Brewing - State of the Art Series (tried 32 & 40 at the brewery, both really solid IPAs in this rotating series)
LIC Beer Project - Gal Friday (Raspberry)
LIC did a lot of great things this year, unfortunately I missed out on a lot of them. Many regarded their first IPA release, Pile of Crowns, to be the NYC beer of the year (I never got to try it). Backjump was pretty good, Higher Burnin' on tap was excellent (cans reportedly hit or miss). This beer though blew me away. Great fruit, touch of funk, really nice sour. Looking forward to cracking my Breathe (Apricot and Blackberry/Raspberry) bottles and my Dulcinea (spontaneously fermented) bottle.
Now for the train of Other Half....
Other Half Brewing - Fully Frothed
A collaboration with Half Acre, I skipped this release due to work & generally was not too hyped considering I didn't love these guys' previous collab, Rainbow Never Ends. I was dead wrong and wish I had more cans of this. Super soft at 8%, I could only describe this beer as fluffy.
Other Half Brewing - City Slickers
A collaboration with Arizona Wilderness, the first batch of this was another OH standout. Insane color that literally couldn't be replicated with the second batch, really nice different flavor.
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| I miss you City Slickers.. |
Other Half Brewing - No Layups (A collaboration with The Answer)
Other Half Brewing - Double Dry-Hopped Double Mosaic Dream
Other Half Brewing - Oat Overdose (A collaboration with Tired Hands, forget this was in 2016!)
Other Half Brewing - Citra
Other Half Brewing - Galaxy
Other Half Brewing - All Citra Everything & Double Dry-Hopped All Citra Everything
Other Half Brewing - Blowin' Up the Spot (A collaboration with Monkish Brewing)
Plan Bee Farm Brewery - BouQuet
Plan Bee Farm Brewery - BarTlett
Threes Brewing - Eternal Return: Chardonnay
Threes first-ever bottle release might be the NYC-release of the year. This beer was really funky and nice as it warmed up. Lots of grape must. Has had me coming back to Threes for each iteration of the Eternal Return series since.
Threes Brewing - Nothing is Forever
The best stout from NYC this year? Probably. Aged in bourbon & rye barrels, this stout had the most barrel character of any local stout and was really, really awesome. Need this in bottles.
Threes Brewing - Day of the Dead
12 oz cans FTW. Threes first can release was excellent.
Sand City Brewing - Second Wave
Sand City Brewing - Mofosaic
Sloop Brewing - Confliction
Suarez Family Brewery - Hecto
Anything I miss? Disagree with anything? Let me know! Cheers to 2016 and onward to 2017.
Sand city first anniversary was probably my number one beer all year
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