Gentlemen, I'm vacationing in Brooklyn for labor day and I'll have about 8 days to kill. Two things: 1. I want to bring some local socal brews to share with BA folks out there. Any suggestions? 2. Any good beer bars/shops I should check out in Brooklyn? I'm going to be staying around Prospect Heights/Crown Heights. Cheers!
Where in Pro-Cro are you going to be staying? Prospect Heights Beer Works is a pretty solid bottle shop (Washington Ave and Bergen St), and they hold on to a lot of stock that flies out the door at other places. Super nice people, too. Not too much to scream about as far as bars go in the neighborhood, but if you're coming to Brooklyn and didn't hit up Torst in Greenpoint, you'd hate yourself in the morning. Park Slope also has some fantastic bars (Mission Dolores, Owl Farm, Double Windsor). If you brought some Pizza Port, Lost Abbey, or taproom-only Firestone Walker, I'm sure you'd be a popular fellow.
Hey, thanks! Thats pretty helpful. I'll make sure to check out Torst and those Park Slope spots. I'll be pretty close to Bedford and Atlantic. I'm starting to stock up on goodies to bring out there already. I've got some pretty nice Lost Abbey/Port beers in my cellar. Should be easy enough to bring some Russian River sours.
Sweet! I'm at Franklin and Park Pl, not too far. If you decide you want to do a meet-up for some locals (phooky comes around this way pretty often too), we should try to make it happen!
When you are in the mood to grab a drink within a few blocks of where you're staying (rather than heading further out to the much discussed great bars in Brooklyn or Manhattan), you can try: - The Fulton Grand - Nostrand Avenue Pub - Catfish Small chance of being dazzled, but a good chance that you'll find a little gem.
Franklin Park on St. John's and Franklin is a lovely place to have a beer as well. The best tap selection in the near vicinity is probably Washington Commons, at Park and Washington.
Are you interested in any particular brewery or style? With 8 days, you should try to hit many of the bigger spots in NYC. Most of them are in Williamsburg or Park Slope Brooklyn and Manhattan (all over, but mainly South-side). Do a search on the threads here for NYC and you'll get tons of info. You'll have trouble limiting yourself. As far as the ones close to where you're at, (in addition to the ones I mentioned above) Bedford Hall is scheduled to open about that time and it should be a place where you can shoot some pool - but the beer options there remain to be seen.
Definitely bring some alpine. There are plenty of places in Brooklyn to go. I say make sure to check out smorgasburg for plenty of food. Go to torst, brooklyn brewery, and spuyten duyvil.
sounds like a good time! I'd love to do a bottle share once I'm out there I'm pretty open when it comes to my taste in beer. Mostly I'm looking for places to explore but also want to have one bar close to where i'm staying where I can set up home base, hahaha. Thanks for all the tips! Seems like there will be enough places to keep me busy the whole trip. Going to be a really fun stay out there. Nice, should be a nice excuse for me to buy some Alpine IPA's
For shops (and some bars) I'd definitely recommend taking the A train to the F train and getting off at 2nd Ave in Manhattan. You can do a loop and hit Whole Foods Bowery (the beer section has it's own entrance from the street), New Beer Distributors, One Mile House, Top Hops (and then Marshall Stack if you aren't carrying lots back to Brooklyn and haven't had much to drink). You can then grab the F train back home on Delancey St. It's a great way to shop for lots of beer in a small area - just make sure you don't buy more than you can carry on the subway. This trip will take you into one of the big clean chain stores, one of the dark dusty warehouses, and one of the smaller boutiques. Blind Tiger, The Ginger Man, and the two Pony Bars are some bars in Manhattan that succeed at separating me from my money. Getting from neighborhood to neighborhood in Brooklyn via the subway is annoying. For bars, Park Slope is a great option in Brooklyn. Mission Dolores, Pacific Standard, Forth Avenue Pub, Uncle Barry's, Bierkraft, The Gate, and The Owl Farm are all in a great big loop more or less. Most places are very good at using beermenus.com. Lots of really great places in Greenpoint and Williamsburg as well, but transportation is trickier there. I definitely recommend Torst (particularly if you are into European breweries), but it's not the be-all and end-all that people make it out to be.
I live in Crown Heights as well -- like 2 blocks from Franklin Park. I'm definitely interested in any meetups that might occur. I can bring some fun stuff if there ends up being a bottle share (and possibly even host, if it's just a few people), and am always up for just meeting other BAs for a drink if that's what ends up happening. Cheers!
Send us a message if you want to do that when you're here. Go to Prospect Heights Beer Works before you go to any of those shops in Manhattan I mentioned in my other post - it will make things easier for you. Bed Stuy Beer Works just opened. They are perhaps a bit too far down Bedford for you and they have very limited hours (and not as good a selection as Prospect Heights BW), but I thought I'd give them a plug and help get the word out.
