Drink Like A Local In NYC With These 5 Breweries

A couple of years ago, a beer writer friend of mine discovered the New York State Brewers Association (NYSBA) app, which has a sort of passport feature: You could pull up a big map of every brewery in New York, and check off each one you've visited. You could only "stamp" a brewery if the app detected you were there, so there was no cheating. Our progress has been slow, because there's over 400 breweries making their own beer in-house across the entire state, and our goal is avoid nasty hangovers. It's always wise to pace yourself when drinking at a brewery, because goodness knows that craft brewers like to make strong beers. Still, we've been to a healthy (or, at least, debatably healthy) amount of breweries and met plenty of folks at each one.

In New York City, most of the major breweries are based in Brooklyn, but you can find different brewery scenes in locations across the city. There are various niches — if you like fruity sours, there are now several Talea taprooms, while fans of super traditional European-style lagers can hit up Eckhart Beer Co. in Bushwick — but I tried to gather together five breweries with a good mix of easy lagers and burning IPAs, and which are popular with locals and less so with touristy crowds. Contrary to outsider opinion, New York does have quiet neighborhoods, and these can also have very good local breweries.

New York's craft brewery scene is, by and large, contained within Brooklyn's orbit. Choosing one is tough, and the big fish is Brooklyn Brewery with its hoppy magic tricks, but Grimm Artisanal Ales in East Williamsburg is also consistently brewing interesting beers. I'm personally a longtime fan of its Grimm Weisse wheat ale, a refreshing and very fizzy German-style beer. Grimm also experiments quite a bit with pilsners, including a sharp-tasting Oofaloof pilsner aged in oak (pictured above) and a Glittering Image pilsner flavored with fruit and spicy pine needle hops. And, of course, they have lots of IPAs, as is standard for craft beer.

On top of that, the taproom itself is bright and sunny, and its location is an easy trip down the L train subway line. It's not uncommon for bars and breweries to have weekly events, but Grimm is unique in that it also has a local running club where you can drink and jog. Grimm also had a fearless brewery cat named Simcoe who'd hang around the center of the taproom — I could never win her over, and she'd come and say hello only when she felt like it. Due to health issues, Simcoe recently had a retirement party and went to live with one of the bartenders, but she was one of the more famous Brooklyn brewery cats.

If you're willing to go off the beaten path, there are giant sections of Queens which aren't easily accessible by subway, but play host to some solid breweries. Finback's most popular taproom is probably not its original space in Glendale, Queens, which it calls its "OG Factory" — its taproom in Brooklyn's more accessible Gowanus neighborhood is better positioned for foot traffic. It's also one of the few Queens breweries outside of Long Island City, which has several good ones close together. That said, Finback also has a third taproom space in LIC. I don't live especially far from their OG Factory and I've been happy to make the short trip; there's always a good crowd when I've been there.

Finback has plenty of hazy IPAs and double IPAs, which is pretty standard, but a good IPA should have a strong flavor (it's an acquired taste), and Finback's were especially good. I have met more than one person who includes Finback in their top breweries, and some of whom were brewers themselves. Their eponymous Finback IPA might've been my personal favorite.  For beer drinkers who enjoy the burn, a lot of Finback's offerings hover around the 8% alcohol by volume (ABV) mark, and plenty go past it. 

In New York's northernmost borough, there's really just one brewery running, but The Bronx Brewery is no small fish. It sells beer all over New York, and in my experience, plenty of local bars and even supermarkets around the city also carry its beer. Its main space and production happens in the South Bronx near an entrance to the 6 train, and it's got a large backyard area and very good food: There's an empanada business called Empanology built right into the brewery.

Bronx Brewery has a good mix of lagers and lighter ales, and I was a big fan of its American Pale Ale, one of its original, less hoppy beers, although it does have a deceptively high ABV. For lighter fare, you'd want to try its Well-Earned Pilsner, and while I'm on the fence about the fall flavor of pumpkin beers, its Tattooed Pumpkin IPA was strong without being a sensory overload. Besides the main space, they also have a taproom in Manhattan's Hudson Yards, just south of the city's Lincoln Tunnel entrance (my first experience was at its East Village taproom, which is gone now). Brewery spaces can come and go fast.

I'm cheating slightly here, because Manhattan has lots of taprooms for local breweries, but it's very rare for breweries to produce their beer inside the borough. Other Half's main production is also in Brooklyn, but if you're in Rockefeller Center, it's got some of the best beers around. Up until a few years ago, Other Half only had a temporary outdoor space with some tables in the middle of Rockefeller Plaza, which I'd visit when the weather was nice. But they've now got a permanent indoor space in one of the busiest neighborhoods in the city. As such, the space can get crowded quickly, but the beer's worth drinking if you can grab a seat.

Like most of the entries here, Other Half has lagers and some lighter fare, and its bread and butter is a supply of double dry-hopped IPAs, which don't have a high ABV, but do have intensely fruity tastes. Its biggest year-round beers are its Green City IPA and Forever Ever IPA — both have strong peach notes, but Forever Ever had more of a fruit tea-like flavor. The SNAPS lager is what you want if you crave a simple, well-made beer.

Are you willing to brave the Staten Island Ferry for some really good local beer? You should, because the ferry isn't actually that bad, and New York's quietest borough is growing its brewing scene. I've only been to Staten Island a handful of times, but I'm inclined to go back for another trip to Kills Boro Brewery. It recently opened its first official taproom, although it was brewing and distributing for several years prior; visiting Kills Boro feels more like sitting down in a restaurant than at a bar. And it's not far from the ferry, either.

Kills Boro has a good selection of German-style beers, including a fruity Berliner Weisse called Plain Jane Mango, and an IPA with the tongue-in-cheek name of Island Vibes and an ironic, tropical citrus flavor; I was also partial to Shadowboxin', a really dark Czech-style beer. Many of the beers were served in large, hefty mugs to compliment the European aesthetic. If you want to fully explore Staten Island's craft beer scene, its neighbor, the Flagship Brewing Company, is a short drive away — it's the borough's only other active taproom, per the NYSBA. If you're just visiting town, you've probably got a few closer ones you also can try on the way.