Bernie Kilkelly

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Kilkelly is the publisher of the authoritative LIBeerGuide and a frequent contributor to such publications as Ale Street News and The Gotham Imbiber. Reach him via libeerguide@gmail.com.

Homebrewers Vie for Long Island Bragging Rights

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Award winners at the BEER Brew-off including Chris Bonacorsa (3rd from left), winner of the Brewers Cup

Long Island’s homebrewing community met up for some friendly competition on Saturday at the 23rd annual BEER Brew-off organized by Brewers East End Revival, Long Island’s oldest homebrew club.

More than 230 entries were judged at Great South Bay Brewery in Bay Shore and awards were presented to winners in 27 categories. In addition to 24 different beer styles, ranging from American IPAs to German Wheat Beers to British and Irish Stouts, homebrewers competed for awards in the cider category and two categories of mead, which is fermented with honey and is growing in popularity on Long Island.

In addition to category winners, awards were presented for the homebrews judged Best of Show, with the 1st Place Best of Show prize going to Gregg Kelley for his Mango Bango mead, the winner in the Spiced/Fruit Mead category. Kelley, who also won two other 1st Place awards (one as a co-brewer with Justin Hansen and Mark Williams) along with a 2nd Place and a 3rd Place award, is currently vice president of Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts (LIBME), another homebrew club based in Suffolk County.

The coveted Brewers Cup award was won by Chris Bonacorsa of the Handgrenades Homebrew Club, based in Nassau County. Bonacorsa’s Saison Ale, which was the winner in the Belgian Saison category, was selected by Larry Goldstein, founder and brewmaster at Spider Bite Beer Co. in Holbrook, to be brewed and served at Spider Bite later this year.

The winner of the Pete Algerio Memorial Award, given to the best stout brewed by a BEER club member, was Bill Ports for his Risky Business Imperial Stout. This award is given annually in memory of the late Pete Algerio, who was a founding member of the BEER club and was a multi-year Brew-off award winner in the stout category.

The award was especially poignant for Ports, who said, “This was a bucket list item for me since I knew Pete well and brewed with him many times.”

Ports will now have his name memorialized on the award’s plaque at Karp’s Hardware and Homebrew Shop in East Northport.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

Long Island Summer Beerfest Preview

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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2018 Golden Keg winner of the Brew'd Competition, Long Ireland Beer Co.

With Long Island now home to more than 40 craft breweries, a great way to sample the diversity of locally produced beer without driving all over is to attend a beer festival, which there are plenty of this summer.   

A new beerfest called The Whales, Ales & Salty Tales festival will be held June 8 at the Whaling Museum and Education Center on Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor. It features craft beers from 10 local breweries along with homebrewed beers from Long Island’s three homebrew clubs: Brewer’s East End Revival, Handgrenades Homebrew Club, and Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts. There will also be locally made mead from W.A. Meadwerks in Lindenhurst.  Festivalgoers can tour the museum’s exhibits and enjoy live music including sea shanties from the band Sampawam’s Creek. All proceeds from the festival will benefit the museum’s education programs including summer camp scholarships for families in need.

Great South Bay Brewery will hold its 7th annual Bay Fest on June 1 at the brewery in Bay Shore. Along with tastings of the award-winning beers of GSB, fest-goers will enjoy beers from dozens of other craft breweries from across the Island and the tristate area. Local bands will be rocking out and a variety of food trucks will be on site. VIP tickets are available that provide early access to the festival to meet the brewers.

LI’s largest summer beer festival, the Long Island Craft Classic, will be held on August 10 at Heckscher State Park in East Islip. The new location has allowed festival producer Starfish Junction to expand the offerings beyond craft beer to include a larger selection of wine and hard cider. The festival also features a variety of food from one of the Island’s best barbecue restaurants, Bobbique in Patchogue.

The Craft Classic will again feature the Brew’d Competition, a unique brewing competition for Long Island’s craft breweries. All of the competitors must use a special ingredient in their beer, which is preselected through an online vote. The winning beer is then picked through a popular vote of festivalgoers. The winning breweries get bragging rights and a Golden Keg that can be displayed at their brewery for a year.

Just before the official end of summer, the 4th annual Fresh Hop Festival will be held on Sept. 21 at Jamesport Farm Brewery on the North Fork. Jamesport Farm Brewery is located on a 43-acre farm, L.I. Hops, which grows hops and barley for its own craft beers. Fest-goers are able to sample beers made with fresh, or wet, hops, which are picked in the peak season of September and used immediately.  The festival will feature live music from local musician Andy Putnam and food from Christopher Michael Catering.

The Fresh Hop Festival will also feature selections of pumpkin beers, signaling the end of summer beer season and the coming of the fall beer season, including the start of Oktoberfest.        

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

CRAFT BEER AT SUMMER STREET FESTS

Bay Shore Alive by the Bay
Third annual event will be held on Main Street in Bay Shore on July 2, 16, and 30, and Aug. 13, with a rain date of Aug. 20 if one festival gets cancelled due to weather. The street fair, organized by the restaurant committee of the Bay Shore Chamber of Commerce, will feature live music, arts and crafts vendors, activities for children and more. Sponsors include Destination Unknown Beer Co. and Blue Point Brewing.

Farmingdale Music on Main
July 11 and 25, and Aug. 8 and 22, with rain date of Aug. 29.  There will be live music on Main Street in Farmingdale Village with food and craft beer from sponsors including Croxley Ales, Lithology Brewing, Dark Horse Tavern, Library Café, That Meetball Place, Nutty Irishman and more.

Patchogue Alive After Five
18th annual event on June 27, July 11, July 25 and Aug. 8 with a rain date of Aug. 22.  The street fair features six stages of live music, food trucks, craft vendors, activities for children and more. Sponsors include Blue Point Brewing, BrickHouse Brewery, Patchogue Beer Project, Bobbique and others.

Riverhead Alive on 25
July 3 and 18, and Aug.1 and 15 with a rain date of Aug. 22.  There will be live music on eight stages, food trucks, local wine and craft beer from local breweries including Moustache Brewing, Long Ireland, North Fork, Greenport Harbor and more.

Six Harbors Brewing Company: Huntington Homebrewers Turn Pro

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Beertenders Frank and Joe at Six Harbor's tap room in Huntington.

Pubs in bustling downtown Huntington have for decades served the public’s growing demand for craft beers. Now, thanks to Six Harbors Brewing Company, beer lovers in Huntington can enjoy delicious craft beer brewed right in the community.

Huntington natives Mark and Karen Heuwetter founded Six Harbors in 2016 and opened their tap room in May 2018. Located just a few blocks north of Main Street on New York Avenue, the brewery’s tap room is open seven days a week and has become a popular destination for visitors from across Long Island.   

Mark Heuwetter first homebrewed in college but then took a hiatus as he built a family and a successful career in asset management for 25 years. He took up homebrewing seriously about 10 years ago, joining some of Long Island’s homebrew clubs, including the Handgrenades Homebrew and Craft Beer Club.  

“I learned a lot from the other homebrewers and saw that several of them were making the transition to going pro and opening their own breweries,” says Heuwetter.  

He also gained knowledge of the beer business from a craft brewery owner in his family, brother-in-law Ed Raven, who founded Greenpoint Beer & Ale Co. in Brooklyn after a long career as a salesman for Brooklyn Brewery and his own beer importer, Raven Brands.   

After deciding to start a brewery, Mark and his wife Karen decided they wanted to locate the brewery in their hometown and in 2017 purchased a building just blocks from their home. They settled on a nautical theme for the brewery, naming the brewery and many of their beers after Huntington’s six harbors: Centerport, Cold Spring, Duck Island, Huntington, Lloyd and Northport.

The 2,500-square-foot building, which formerly housed a dry cleaner, now has a 10-barrel fermenting system, with four of the steel fermenting tanks forming the backdrop for the tap room’s bar.  

“We don’t have a full mash brewing system because of restrictions from the town,” says Heuwetter. “So instead we have a small pilot brewing system that we use to perfect our recipes.”  

Heuwetter sends his recipes to a friend in New Zealand who does the mashing and other brewing steps to make a concentrated wort, which is then shipped to Huntington for the addition of water, other ingredients, and the fermenting process.

“This is a unique arrangement that is working well for us now,” says Heuwetter. “But in the near future we would like to have our own full mash brewing system so we can ramp up production more easily.”  

Heuwetter said he is talking with the Town of Huntington about building a new brewery and restaurant in a development planned for Huntington Station.  

“We’ve seen the success of craft breweries on Long Island like Greenport Harbor, which expanded from its original brewery to a larger second location in Peconic with a restaurant, and we’d like to follow that model,” says Heuwetter.

Six Harbor’s tap room has a cozy lounge area with a fireplace and a private event room that holds 40 people.  

“We’ve had corporate events where we do beer tastings, birthday parties and some weddings,” says Heuwetter. “We also offer the room to community groups for events, and for fundraisers we donate the cost of the room.”  

The tap room is kid friendly and dog friendly, and in the summer garage-style doors open up to a patio with communal seating.  

The tap room typically has 10 beers on tap, with a full range of styles ranging from lighter wheat beers and pilsners to more robust IPAs and stouts. One of the most popular beers is Bay Hill Blues, a blueberry wheat beer that started out as a seasonal but has become a year-round favorite.  Beers can be taken away in cans, which are canned fresh at the bar.

More than 90 percent of Six Harbor’s production is currently sold at the tap room, but beers are also available at select local pubs, restaurants and beer stores, including Old Fields Barbecue, Babalu, Bin 56 and Shoreline Beverage in Huntington and The Lark Pub & Grub in East Northport.  

That means it’s a good time to come to port and try a taste of the harbor.

Six Harbors Brewing Company is located at 243 New York Avenue in Huntington. For more info visit sixharborsbrewingcompany.com

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com

Massapequa Offers Fresh Take on Burger and a Beer

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Mary Abrams serves a burger and a beer at New York Burger Bar

Massapequa’s best-known burger joint, the iconic All American Hamburger Drive-In, has been serving up delicious burgers at reasonable prices since 1963. Today, Massapequa is still a go-to destination for burgers, but for a different reason.

Over the past decade, a host of gastropubs and upscale burger joints have opened in Massapequa that not only serve tasty burgers but enhance the experience with great craft beer. The start of the community’s gastropub boom can began with The Good Life on Park Boulevard in Massapequa Park in 2010.

The British-themed pub, with a red phone booth serving as its front door, blazed a trail with 22 beers on tap and 70 more craft and imported beers in bottles. Even more noteworthy was the inventive take on pub food including British staples like fish and chips and shepherd’s pie, along with tasty wings, mac and cheese, and sandwiches, also called butties as in England.  

The Good Life’s burger menu has more than 10 different varieties including its flagship burger topped with Gruyere cheese, blue cheese fondue, and bacon jam. For burger lovers looking for alternatives to beef, The Good Life has turkey, black bean veggie and vegan burgers.  

In 2016, the gastropub trend continued on the main drag with the opening of The Tap Room, an offshoot of the popular Patchogue pub that opened in 2011. The Tap Room upped the craft beer game with 36 taps focused on Long Island craft breweries, including a tap tower dedicated to Blue Point Brewing Company beers.  

The Tap Room’s menu includes pub favorites like wings, tacos, and mussels pots, and features seven different burgers that can be made as beef, turkey or veggie patties, including a whiskey burger with Jameson-infused bacon. The menu also features sliders including slow-braised short-rib sliders with melted Gruyere cheese and horseradish sauce.

The newest addition to the downtown scene is The Dark Horse Tavern, which opened last fall.  The Massapequa Park location is the third for Dark Horse Tavern, joining sister pubs in Rockville Centre and Farmingdale. Dark Horse Tavern offers 17 beers on tap and a pub menu highlighted by 21 different flavors of wings and 10 different burgers. The flagship Tavern Burger is made with sirloin, topped with Cheddar and special Dark Horse sauce, and served on an English muffin.

On the south side of Massapequa are two burger-focused restaurants that also highlight craft beer. GM Burger Bar, part of the George Martin restaurant group, opened in 2015 in the Southgate Shopping Center on Merrick Road across from Massapequa High School. The family-friendly restaurant greets diners with a bucket of hot popcorn and offers bottled craft sodas and milkshakes for kids. For burger lovers seeking adult beverages, GM Burger Bar has eight beers on tap including Barrier Brewing’s popular Money IPA, and an extensive bottled craft beer selection.

Burgers at GM Burger Bar can be created by the diner with a choice of beef, turkey, chicken or veggie quinoa patties, a variety of cheeses and other toppings, and multiple bun options including gluten-free rolls. There are also 13 specialty burgers, mostly made with beef but some with turkey, chicken and the Ahi Five-0 made with grilled ahi tuna with sweet chili glaze and pineapple on a King’s Hawaiian roll.  

New York Burger Bar, which opened in 2015 just a few blocks from All American Drive-In on Merrick Road, quickly shot to the top of Best Burger lists on Long Island with its Juicy Lucy burger. It’s made with a proprietary blend of prime beef, stuffed with American cheese, and topped with caramelized onion, tomato, pickles, and creamy house sauce on a torta bun. There are 15 other specialty burgers or diners can create a burger by choosing the protein, bun and toppings separately, with protein choices including Kobe beef, aged Prime beef, turkey, ahi tuna and veggie.   

The Juicy Lucy and other delicious burgers at New York Burger Bar can be enjoyed with one of the 20 draft beers on tap, or with homemade milkshakes, bottled craft sodas, or an old-fashioned New York egg cream.   

The “all-American” love for burgers remains strong in Massapequa as new favorites and new traditions are established.      

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

Barrier Brewing Wins Statewide Best Brews Contest

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Oceanside’s Barrier Brewing Co. took home the prize for Best Brew of New York State last week at a competition held at the Brookfield Place shopping, dining and office complex in lower Manhattan.  

Barrier’s Shadows and Dust, a New England-style IPA, received the most votes from attendees at the final round, beating out beers from two New York City breweries (Harlem Brewing and Bronx Brewery) and two from upstate (Syracuse’s Empire Brewing and Captain Lawrence Brewing from Westchester).  

Barrier Brewing reached the final round of the competition by beating out four other Long Island craft breweries in an earlier round on Feb. 28.  Those breweries were Blue Point Brewing, Greenport Harbor Brewing, Oyster Bay Brewing and Montauk Brewing. Preliminary rounds were also held for five breweries from New York City and five from Upstate New York.

All four rounds of the Best Brews of New York competition were held in the Winter Garden of Brookfield Place, which was transformed into a biergarten highlighting the beers from across New York State paired with food from Brookfield Place’s top eateries. All proceeds from beer sales, which totaled over $60,000, will be donated to Habitat for Humanity.

Barrier has won statewide competitions before, including the F.X. Matt Cup for Best Craft Brewery in New York State at the 2011 Tap New York Festival. Barrier’s brewmasters Evan Klein and Craig Frymark started out as homebrewers but honed their craft working together at Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn.

Barrier moved into its current location on New Street in Oceanside near the East Rockaway Long Island Rail Road station in 2013, just a few months before Superstorm Sandy. The brewery sustained huge damage from Sandy’s flood waters but rebounded quickly with the support of other craft breweries from around New York State.

Barrier expanded production in 2016 and is currently canning several of its beers for distribution across Long Island and in New York City, including its popular Money IPA.

Long Island beer lovers can taste the winning beer and all of Barrier’s wide range of beers at the brewery’s tap room, open every day except Tuesday. Barrier’s beers, including Shadows and Dust, will also be featured at a Taps and Apps event on April 6 at Heneghan’s Tavern in Point Lookout.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

Harbor Head Brewing Company: Brewing Up A Storm

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Bartender Dave Martin and co-owner Candi Schade in Harbor Head's tasting room.

At the southernmost head of Northport Harbor, the aptly named Harbor Head Brewing Company is producing craft beers that are popular with both boaters and landlubbers.

Located in the Brittania Yachting Center, the brewery was founded by Sosh Andriano, the owner of the Whale’s Tale restaurant situated just steps away in the same marina. He recognized the growing popularity of local craft beers and thought a brewery would be complementary to his restaurant. He recruited a few partners and in 2016 started building a five-barrel brewhouse and tasting room in a 1,100-square-foot former bait and tackle shop.  

“We wanted our customers to get an overall experience where they can enjoy a sunset by the water and have a delicious fish taco with a blonde ale that’s made next door,” says Andriano.  “We also thought customers could enjoy a beer at the brewery either before or after a meal at the restaurant.”

Harbor Head was licensed as a New York State farm brewery and began producing beer to be sold on tap at the Whale’s Tale in summer 2017. As a next step, the brewery opened its tasting room in January 2018 and sold growlers and crowlers for takeaway. In July, Harbor Head received approval from the Village of Northport to sell flights and pints in its tasting room, and opened a small beer garden that was a popular hangout in the summer and fall months.

The brewery quickly developed a loyal following for its wide range of delicious lagers and ales.  William Melvin, who took over as head brewer in June 2018, describes Harbor Head’s approach as wanting to produce “drinkable beers that match the classic beer styles.” A native of the Hudson Valley, Melvin got his start in brewing at several brewpubs in the Adirondacks before studying brewing at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago.  

Harbor Head typically has eight beers on tap, which vary according to the season. According to Melvin, he tries to always have a pale ale and an IPA in the rotation, along with a lighter-tasting beer and a dark beer style. Among the IPAs is NoPoCo, named after the Northport Coast, which is a double hopped New England style hazy IPA brewed with Citra and dry hopped El Dorado hops. Other pale ales include moderately hopped Top Sail Pale Ale and the crisp Whaleback West Coast IPA brewed with Columbus and dry hopped with Mosaic.

In the summer months, popular beers include Blonde Ale and Bahia margarita-style wheat beer with agave, lime peel, sea salt and coriander. Fall offerings include Oktoberfest and Pumpkin ales, and Harbor Head’s Pumpkin Ale won first place in the Pumpkin Ale Contest at the Long Island Fall Beer Festival held last October in Farmingdale.  

On a recent visit in January, robust winter styles were on tap including Vienna Winter Lager, a hearty amber lager, Storm Cloud Oatmeal Stout with rich chocolate and coffee notes, and English Oak Ale, a traditional winter warmer aged in oak wine barrels. During the winter, Harbor Head’s tasting room is open Thursday to Sunday.

In addition to producing beer for its own tasting room and the Whale’s Tale, Harbor Head’s beers can also be enjoyed on tap at several beer bars and gastropubs on the North Shore. These include The Lark Pub & Grub in East Northport, Prato 850 in Commack, Burgerology in Huntington, The Bench Bar & Grill in Stony Brook, and the reopened Gunther’s Tap Room on Main Street in Northport Village.  

All the more reason to drop anchor and belly up for a pint.

Harbor Head Brewing Company is located at 81 Fort Salonga Rd. in Northport. For more info visit www.harborheadbrew.com.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

Waterzooi Celebrates 20th Anniversary and Owner’s Knighthood

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Jeff Piciullo, Sir Chris Werle and Chef Ed Davis of Waterzooi, Dan Leeman of Global Beer Network

Waterzooi Belgian Bistro in Garden City toasted its 20th anniversary with a festive six-course dinner on January 28 billed as the Knights of the Round Table Beer Dinner. The packed event also celebrated the Knighthood of Waterzooi co-founder Chris Werle, who was knighted by the Belgian Brewers Guild at a ceremony in Brussels last fall.

Werle, who is also a co-founder of the five Croxley Ales beer bars on Long Island and Brooklyn, was honored for his contributions to promoting Belgian food, beer and culture over the last 25 years. Longtime friends Werle and Jeff Piciullo opened the first Croxley Ale House in their hometown of Franklin Square in 1993 and were on a mission to bring great beer to LI. They opened a second Croxley location in Rockville Centre in 1996 but after a trip to Belgium with their friend, chef Ed Davis, the idea for Waterzooi was born.

“The trip to Belgian really opened our eyes to the variety and quality of Belgian beer,” said Werle. “We were blown away by the culture around beer and food and decided to open a traditional Belgian bistro to bring that culture to Long Island.”

Twenty  years later, Waterzooi is recognized as one of the top Belgian restaurants in the country and has the Island’s largest Belgian beer selection, with 23 Belgian brews on tap. One of the sponsors of the Knights of the Round Table dinner, sales director Dan Leeman of Belgian beer distributor Global Beer Network, said Waterzooi was a pioneer in spreading appreciation of Belgian beer on Long Island and beyond.

“Without Waterzooi we would not have the market for Belgian beer in the U.S. that we have today,” said Leeman.

The dinner featured items from Chef Davis’ original menu at Waterzooi, including griddled wild boar sausages with a sun-dried cherry kriek sauce and salmon wellington topped with fois gras and lobster demi. Of course the menu included Waterzooi’s calling card and Belgium’s national passion, moules frites.

Among the beers that accompanied the courses were a special 20th Anniversary Ale, a robust amber tripel ale, brewed by the Brasserie de Silly artisanal brewery in Belgium. The sumptuous dinner was capped off with warm Belgian chocolate cake paired perfectly with rich Gulden Draak Imperial Stout.

For more information on Waterzooi Belgian Bistro see waterzooi.com.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

New Long Island Craft Brews on Tap in 2019

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Father and son team of Brad and Dave Jordan, owners and brewers at SquareHead Brewing in Holbrook.

The craft beer industry continued to expand across Long Island in 2018, with six new breweries opening taprooms, bringing the total number of brewpubs and breweries with taprooms to 35, compared to just nine at the end of 2012.  

Growth on Long Island is part of a statewide trend, with New York State now having 418 craft breweries, more than double the number in 2012. The main driver of that increase was the farm brewery law that went into effect on January 1, 2013, with more than 200 farm brewery licenses issued, including 27 on Long Island. Even more growth is expected on LI in 2019, with eight more breweries planning to open new taprooms.

“This growth wouldn’t happen without the unprecedented support from Governor Cuomo and state legislators who continue to cut red tape and pass meaningful legislation for the brewing industry,” said Paul Leone, executive director of the New York State Brewers Association.

LI’s newest brewery is SquareHead Brewing Company in Holbrook, which was founded by father-and-son team Dave and Brad Jordan and is licensed as a New York State farm brewery.  The name comes from a slang term for a Scandinavian, according to Dave Jordan, who is half Swedish. 

The founders live a few blocks from the brewery and built most of the brewery themselves.  Getting permits for the taproom took years, but the Jordans took advantage of the long wait to perfect recipes, including unusual beers such as Pistachio Pilsner and more traditional IPAs and stouts. They also barrel aged several beers, which were served at the grand opening and are available at the taproom, which is initially open on the weekends.   

Other brewery taprooms that opened in 2018 include Harbor Head Brewing in Northport (January), Small Craft Brewing in Amityville (March), North Fork Brewing in Riverhead and Six Harbors Brewing in Huntington (June) and Westhampton Beach Brewing Co. (July).  

In addition to new breweries, many older breweries expanded their production and taprooms in 2018 to keep up with demand, most notably Blue Point Brewing in Patchogue. LI’s largest craft brewery began production last July at its new 60,000-square-foot facility on West Main Street and plans to open a new tasting room and outdoor beer garden in 2019.  

Other craft breweries that expanded last year include Garvies Point Craft Brewing in Glen Cove, which went from a 3.5-barrel system to a 10-barrel system; Destination Unknown Beer Company (DUBCO) in Bay Shore which expanded from 3 barrels to 10 barrels; BrewSA Brewing in Freeport which installed two new 7-barrel Unitanks; and Moustache Brewing in Riverhead, which quadrupled the size of its brewhouse and taproom.   

Looking ahead to 2019, several breweries are producing beer and just waiting on permits to open their taprooms. These include Eastern Front Brewing in Mattituck, Patchogue Beer Project, Secatogue Brewing in West Islip, and HopWins Brewery in Bay Shore. Blind Bat Brewery, which has been brewing small batches of beer since 2008, is close to opening a bistro in Centerport that will serve locally sourced food along with Blind Bat beers. Bellport Brewing has changed its name to Sunrise Ales & Lagers and plans to open its new brewery and tasting room on Sunrise Highway in Bohemia in early 2019.

In Nassau County, Long Beach Brewing and Flying Belgian Brewery have started construction on the new brewery and tap room that they will share in Oceanside, with plans to open in early 2019. Bright Eye Beer Company, formerly Point Lookout Brewing, has signed a lease for a 5,000-square-foot space on Park Avenue in Long Beach across from the LIRR station. The new brewery will feature a 15-barrel brewhouse and a taproom, with plans to open in late summer 2019.

While there seems to be no limit to craft beer’s growth, the market has become more competitive. Two breweries closed in 2018, including Tweaking Frog Brewing, which most recently had been sharing the brewing facilities at Jamesport Farm Brewery. Fire Island Beer Co., which was founded in 2009 and moved in 2016 to space in Bay Shore shared with Great South Bay Brewery, unexpectedly shut down in the fall. However, these situations seem isolated and the rising tide of craft beer seems destined to lift more craft breweries to success in the new year.  

For a complete list of Long Island breweries with taprooms, check out libeergude.com/brewery-tap-rooms.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

The Brewers Collective: Holding The Party Line

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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(left to right) Bartender Rob Cubbon and Co-Owners Mike Stetson and Tim Dougherty at TBC's Tap Room in Bay Shore

Beginning as a homebrew club and growing into an experiment in collective brewery ownership, The Brewers Collective Beer Company (TBC) tap room debut last year in a Bay Shore industrial park scored a coup.

TBC hopes to increase production while maintaining its unique approach under the motto “Revolutionary Brewing.” Several of the original club’s comrades worked together in the information technology sector and enjoyed sampling the homebrew of their colleague Joe Vella.  

“Joe made a really delicious pumpkin beer,” recalls Tim Dougherty, a TBC founding co-owner.  “I got tired of having to wait for him to brew, so I bought equipment and started brewing myself and then with other club members.”

The club’s fiercely independent camaraderie and communal brewing inspired its name and distinctive logo featuring a beer bottle in place of a hammer crossing a sickle — a throwback to the former Soviet Union flag.

“From the start we wanted to share the brewing responsibilities and other work involved in building our brewery,” says Dougherty.  

The club also became known for its focus on herbal ales, including gruit ales made without hops, similar to beers from ancient times.

As the homebrew club became more active and gained recognition at local festivals, the idea of going professional took hold. A core group of nine club members incorporated and obtained a New York State farm brewery license in 2014. The new brewery also took advantage of the brewery incubator program at A Taste of Long Island in Farmingdale, where several other LI craft breweries launched.   

After perfecting its recipes on a larger brewing system, Brewers Collective found space in Bay Shore and began construction of a three-barrel brewhouse and a small tasting room, with almost all the work done by the owners. The positive response encouraged them to move to a larger space in the same complex, which opened in February.  

The expanded tap room has become a popular stop for L.I. Brew Bus tours and also features live music on the weekends. With 24 taps, TBC offers a wide variety of year-round offerings and seasonal brews. The five current co-owners — Tim and Sarah Rich Dougherty, Michael Stetson, Terry Gillen and Mike Depietto — all have their own special recipes and share brewing of core brews such as Proletariat Pale Ale and Mattyweizen wheat beer.  

As a farm brewery, TBC uses locally grown ingredients in its beers, including herbs such as sage, lemon balm, heather and hibiscus flower for its gruit ales like Pitcish Heather Gruit. For its fall pumpkin ale, Witchbinder, TBC used roasted and caramelized Long Island cheese pumpkins from Corwith Farms in Water Mill.

According to Dougherty, TBC’s next stage of growth will involve expanding to a seven-barrel or 10-barrel brewing system. This growth will help satisfy the thirst of TBC’s Skeleton Army, its mug club playfully named after an anti-temperance movement that battled the Salvation Army in late 1800s England.  

Like most armies, the Skeleton Army marches on its stomach, including an appetite for tasty craft beers.

The Brewers Collective Beer Company is located at 1460 N. Clinton Ave. in Bay Shore.  For more info visit thebrewerscollective.com.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

BrewSA: Freeport Craft Brewery Donates Proceeds to Veterans Groups

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Head brewer Peter Tripp fills a growler at BrewSA

Freeport’s famed Nautical Mile has become a craft beer destination with the additions of The Craft House, The Beer Garden, the Nautical Mile Craft Brew Fest and a craft brewery, the BrewSA Brewing Company.

Long Islanders Tom Limerick, Steve Walley and Billy McLaughlin — who met while working on Wall Street and bonded over their love of beer — opened the brewery and taproom in 2017.  

“We realized that the most popular lagers in the U.S. are all foreign owned,” says Limerick. “We decided to make a lager with 100-percent American-grown ingredients.”  

The founders also wanted to support veterans, so they donate 25 percent of BrewSA’s profits to veterans’ charities and donate beer to fundraisers for such groups.

BrewSA typically has 12 beers on tap, according to Head Brewer Peter Tripp, who joined the brewery in July after having run Homebrews & Handgrenades, a homebrew supply shop in Baldwin, for the past five years.

The core beers include American Pilsner and Pilsner Light, Wheat and Cherry Wheat, and American Pale Ale and Double IPA. Tripp has begun to introduce his own recipes, such as a New England IPA and a Pumpkin Ale.

BrewSA will soon be installing two seven-barrel Unitanks, which allow brewers to ferment, carbonate and filter a brew all out of the same tank.  

“With the Unitanks we’ll be able to do one-off seasonal beers,” says Tripp, “like a Gingerbread Cookie Brown Ale for the holidays.”  

American Pilsner was their first. After perfecting the recipe and contract brewing the beer in Wisconsin, BrewSA looked to build a brewery on Long Island and quickly settled on Freeport.  

BrewSA took over a large building that housed a boat repair company and installed a 15-barrel brewing system with capacity to produce 10,000 barrels a year. The spacious taproom looks out on Woodcleft Avenue and the canal, with the brewhouse visible behind the bar. Patrons can order food from local restaurants to be delivered to the brewery.

“I knew the Nautical Mile would be perfect for us,” says Limerick. “There are so many great restaurants and people can stop at our taproom before or after a meal.”  

BrewSA Brewing Company is located at 180 Woodcleft Ave., Freeport. They can be reached at 516-721-9332 or BrewSA.com.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

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