Will Brewing Find Its Way Back to Bushwick?
Bushwick Beer Distribution on Bushwick Avenue, near the intersection with Flushing, is a low-slung warehouse that announces itself with a faded sign that looks ready to tumble to the street below. In the morning, as I drive to work, the warehouse is shuttered. In the afternoon, after a long day of teaching and coaching, when a beer is likely on the mind, no activity suggesting beer distribution is evident inside.
This is, of course, the sad irony of Bushwick today. The neighborhood was once the center of New York’s thriving brewing culture, and, according to the Encyclopedia of New York City, housed as many as fourteen major breweries — including well-known stalwarts like Rheingold and Schaefer. Many of the dilapidated mansions along Bushwick Avenue were the dwellings of German entrepreneurs who made their buck fermenting hops.
Well, that’s all gone now. The Germans, along with most of Bushwick’s white residents, decamped for greener pastures (i.e., Long Island), while the gradual corporate takeover of brewing has all but destroyed the little guy (thank you, Anheuser Busch). Thus we are left with Bushwick Beer Distribution, hemmed in by auto repair shops and housing projects, living out its last, inglorious days. And those days are numbered: men in construction masks can be seen working in the afternoon, and Property Shark shows that a new owner, probably intent on rehabilitating the property, bought the building six years ago.
I wonder, however, if things will ever change. Brooklyn Lager is thriving, and the rise of microbrews has challenged the supremacy of Coors, Miller, and other piss-water behemoths. In addition, as the popular Saturday tours at the Brooklyn Brewery demonstrate, the young and moneyed who’ve made Brooklyn their home have an interest in beer culture. Smaller brewers might one day find their way back to Bushwick. It would be nice if urban renewal took on the deep amber of a well-pulled pint.
August 1st, 2007 at 3:09 pm
i was a little disappointed to find out that Brooklyn Brewery would be moving to Red Hook. it came as little surprise they were getting priced out of their (now) prime location in Williamsburg. i’m all for development in Red Hook, but there would have been some sweet poetic justice happening if they had set up shop here. are any of the old brewery buildings extant?
August 1st, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I would love a mini beer renaisance (sp?) in our neighborhood. Oh and Brooklyn Brew blows. Well, at least I personally have lost any taste for it.
And now I take this moment to pimp out my friend’s beer…
He’Brew. The chosen beer.
http://www.shmaltz.com/
Awesome stuff. Powerful. Favorites are the Lenny Bruce tribute beer, Lenny’s Bittersweet RIPA and the Origin Pomegranate Ale. Also they just launched Coney Island Lager. If you see it on tap anywhere give it a go!
August 1st, 2007 at 3:22 pm
indeed! but one could argue that things are turning around, red hook already has six point craft ales and clinton hill has kelso of brooklyn. if anyone has the energy and resources to start a bushwick brewery, i am standing by to be your biggest fan. provided the beer is good, of course.
beer tip: this distributor is awwwwesome; the scale of their operation truly inspires awe. they have every beer you have ever heard of and then some.
S.K.I. Beer Corp., 169 Gardner Ave., Brooklyn, NY. 11237 (718) 821-7200
August 1st, 2007 at 4:25 pm
hahaha Schmaltz liquor! Is that what Jewish hobos drink?
August 1st, 2007 at 4:27 pm
He’Brew is tasty but isn’t it brewed in San Francisco?
Apparently Brooklyn Brewery won’t be moving to Red Hook now.
August 1st, 2007 at 4:42 pm
is that true - that Brooklyn Brewery is moving to Red Hook? i’ve tried Coney Island Lager - heavy taste but good. Definitely a sipping beer.
August 1st, 2007 at 4:47 pm
hey Matt, i met that He’Brew guy years ago at a party. i asked him if he brought any beer and he gave me some import called Kwak instead of the so-called Chosen Beer. what’s up with that?
it’s good stuff, but i have realized in my old age that my taste in beer is embarrassingly pedestrian. i wouldn’t mind at all if Rheingold set up shop here again! did NYC ever have Wiedemann beer? woo that’s good cheep stuff!
August 1st, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Yeah, according to the Brooklyn Paper.
So much for my embedded link skills (where’s a preview button when you need it)
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/29/30_29longshoremen.html
August 1st, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Who here is Jewish, or even part?
August 1st, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I’m sure it won’t be long before some place brew-related opens up in the area,whether it be a brew-pub or something akin to Beirkraft in Park Slope. You can already see the good beers moving into the local bodegas pretty quickly as the beer snobs move into the neighborhood.
August 1st, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Once a good micro brewery opens the area will improve. But for those that don’t drink how about a coffee shop, or such.
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:09 am
This building is right next door to my old place. It has been used as a woodworking/carpentry business for as long as i lived there.
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:20 am
Ahh, Jimmy met Jeremy? He’s quite a character. Wonder why he wasn’t pimping his own stuff that night. I’m surprised.
And a previous post, no not brewed in San Fran. It’s brewed here, he’s just ‘bicostal’. In fact their Coney Island Lager is brewed in the BK. Can’t recall exactly where but it’s local to the extreme.
August 14th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Too bad about the Brewery moving. They’re within walking distance of where I live in Greenpoint. Beer garden would be nice for them to have, though. Coney Island Lager has a myspace page. in one of their blog posts, they say the lager was created and brewed by a Saratoga Springs brewer and a Greenpoint brewer. If rumor says the beer is local, perhaps it was brewed in Greenpoint? interesting nonetheless. great website and myspace profile they have, too.
August 14th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I correct myself. Greenpoint Beer Works (the aforementioned so-called Greenpoint brewer) is actually in Clinton Hill. The company’s website states that their original plan to set up house in Greenpoint failed and they ended up in Clinton Hill. It was easier to keep the name.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Rheingold setting up shop in Bushwick again? Ummm… I dunno. That’s likely to inspire a lot of mixed feelings. Read the history of how they came to leave in the first place and you’ll understand why.
At any rate, what *would* be very appropriate for any brewery that should set up shop in Bushwick is to bring back this old classic style:
http://brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue2.1/jankowski.html