Alcoholics Anonymous Unofficial Beer Club: Brooklyn Brewery Tour

Last Saturday, a few members visited the Brooklyn Brewery, yes, in Brooklyn, NY, and got out of the heat and enjoyed some of their brews. The brewery is located about 5 blocks from the Bedford Ave station right off of the L train. If you're driving in from NJ, here's a good tip from one of our members, Steve, which I also took: Park in Chelsea, around 18th St between 8th and 9th Avenues, and take the L train to Brooklyn. There were some empty street parking that were free for the whole day. Parking in Brooklyn seems to be a nightmare.

BB is open from noon-6pm on Saturdays, and offer tours every half hour from 1pm. You must get in line an hour before the tour you want. Although they have limited tickets (40) per tour, you can just stand in line for the next available one. I got in line at noon, but counted 45+ people in front of me, and when I got to the guy who gave out tickets, I ended up getting the 1:30pm tour, no biggie.

The facility is quite large and clean, compared to some of the other breweries I've been to. As you enter the building, you face three large copper fermenters. The office and the way to the bar is to the left. They don't have free tastings, so you'll have to get tokens: $5/token or $20/5 tokens.

They have a nice, AC'd open bar area where you can get a drink and wait for the next tour. There are picnic tables that line the wall and modern alternative music playing through the speakers. Once people start piling in, though, the noise level really goes up, and you could barely hear what your friends are saying.

On tap, they have a number of IPAs, Saisons, a smoky porter, a Weiss, and lager. My favorite was the Ridgy-Didge, which is a Saison made with Australian hops. I also liked their Weisse. One of their favorites that will get you drunk quick is the "Blast" at 8.5% ABV. It tasted good, but I ran out of tokens before I could get one.

We started the tour with our guide, Tim, at the mashing room. Tim talked about the owner, who had an interesting life as an AP reporter stationed in the Middle East back in the mid-90s, and often had good craft beer in Ex-pat bar hangouts. After leaving his post to pursue life in other ways, his friends gave him a parting gift - his own homebrew kit. So, after arriving to NYC, he started making his own beers. One thing led to another, especially meeting an investment banker, he opened the brewery (I left out a lot of the story...can't remember). Close to 15 years later, Brooklyn Brewery became the 7th largest craft brewer in the US and produces 85k barrels per year. Very impressive!

Here are a couple of other pictures: