The microbrewery revolution continues to pour across Long Island and this past summer, it landed on Main Street in Farmingdale.
Lithology Brewing Co. opened in July at the former home of A Taste of Long Island at 211 Main Street in Farmingdale Village. The brewery is owned by four friends—Kevin Cain, Lee Kaplan, Marc Jackson and Manny Coelho—who decided to take their love of home brewery to the next level and started making craft beer at A Taste of Long Island.
When that business closed, the brothers in beer took over the lease and converted half the storefront into a stylish bar and microbrewery tasting room. The brewery still maintains incubator space for local brewers such as Fine Belgium and Tweaking Frog, which sells the fresh beer from kegs at Lithology and elsewhere.
“The great thing about being in Farmingdale, you don’t have to come here to come here,” said Kaplan. “You might be going some place else here in the village and see the tasting room and decide to stop by. Or you come here and then go out to eat. We have a symbiotic relationship with the village.”
With more than 20 years of combined brewing experience, Kaplan, Coelho, Cain and Jackson perfected recipes and techniques on their way to becoming award-winning craft brewers. In 2014, the Lithology team entered their traditional style English IPA into a competition and won that event. In 2015, they won a bronze medal at the New York International Beer Competition for their Brown Ale and this year, Lithology Brewing Co. returned to the competition with the Brown Ale and took home the silver medal.
Kaplan said individuality is the key to Lithology’s early success. While brewer camaraderie and the sharing of ideas can help jump start a business, a brewers personality must shine through in their beer.
“You’ve got to pay as little attention as possible to what other brewers are doing,” he said. “You need the knowledge and knowhow from others, but you’ve got to be a individual when it comes to your beer.”
Lithology offers beer brewed right at the store in a process that blends science, technology, new and traditional techniques as well as the best available local ingredients. Lithology’s varieties include te White, a Belgian style wheat beer; Lithology Red, a malty and rich traditional style red ale; Designated Hitter, a dry-hopped citrus-tinged pale ale; the award-winning Brown Ale, with chocolate, caramel, nutty and toasted notes; and a few seasonal brews.
The beers are available in the tasting room on tap, as flights, in cans and freshly filled growlers. Lithology beer is also sold at bars and restaurants in Queens, Brooklyn and, of course, Long Island at spots including That Meetball Place across the street from the brewery on Main Street.
Lithology also serves local wine from the east end of Long Island and plans to serve some New York spirits, such as honey liquor and other new concepts. As for munchies, Lithology serves small snacks to go along with the tastings, such as potato chips from the North Fork, along with chocolate and cookies.
Lithology Brewing Co. tasting room hours are 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; 1 to 10 p.m. on Saturday; and from 1 to 6 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, visit www.lithologybrewing.com.
