The Bushwick Craft Beer Invasion
Beer shelves at Food Bazaar — photo by Justin Denune
Craft beers are becoming more prevalent in our dining experiences and increasingly are what we drink at home. Chances are you’ve noticed this in bars as staples such as Bass, Yuengling and Stella Artois are replaced by taps of lesser known breweries such as Allagash, Goose Island and Blue Point. This is also apparent in stores, where stacks of Budweiser, Coors and Miller have been replaced by dozens of small label beers. This trend has been progressing in the northeast for over a decade, but is just recently really hitting Brooklyn, and it’s a blessing for those of us who not only enjoy getting our buzz on, but care about quality and selection.
The Food Bazaar near me on Manhattan Avenue has great fresh produce and selection. Keeping up with the times, the supermarket has expanded their beer selection, making shelf-space for craft brews from Harpoon, Brooklyn Brewery, Dogfish Head, Smuttynose, and Rogue among others. They still sell a full selection of south-of-the-border cervezas and lite American lagers, but lately their craft selection has actually become the more prominent beer offering there.
One particular advantage the Food Bazaar holds over smaller markets is buying power. As the economic rule of thumb goes: the more of an item you buy at once, the lower the price becomes. The fact that Food Bazaar buys its produce in large quantities creates savings which can be passed on to the consumer. This is readily apparent in the prices of much of their produce, and is no different in their beer department. Six-packs on average were $3 dollars cheaper than a local bodega, with similar savings on other pack sizes and singles.
Best deals now:
$9.99 Blue Point Brewery 6-packs — Most markets only offer their Toasted Lager, so stocking the Blueberry Ale and Summer Ale as well is very applaudable and a nice show of support to this up-and-coming Long Island Brewery.
$15.99 Harpoon Mixed 12 packs — While Harpoon might not be considered a small microbrewery any longer, they’re definitely not on the level of distribution that fellow-Bostonian rival Sam Adams is.
$7.99 Red Hook ESB 6-packs — If you were unfamiliar with Red Hook beer while visiting the Brooklyn section of the same name, you might think this was yet another beer to come out of the neighborhood, seeing as its offered on tap in nearly every bar down there. Rather, Red Hook was one of the first nationally distributed craft beers to come out of the northeast — Portsmouth, NH, to be precise. I found this particular deal so enticing that while researching for this article, I just couldn’t leave the Bazaar without bringing a sixer home with me! Cheers!
Food Bazaar
21 Manhattan Ave
(between Moore and Varet)
Brooklyn, NY 11206
November 13th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I think there must be someone who works at Food Bazaar who has a particular interest in good beer. I remember going there in early 2003 and they already had an excellent beer selection (and at the time $6 bottles of Lambec. Just don’t buy the meat. . .
November 13th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
All the sudden I’m twice as thirsty and the company water cooler just ain’t cuttin’ it. Damn you 9-5!
November 13th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
THe best part of this invasion: early on at the Associated on Knickerbocker, they just didn’t know how to price these kind of beers. I would get a 6 pack of Dales Pale Ale for $7. Bluepoint and the like would sometimes be $7 as well.
But they wised up a few months back. Now it’s pretty much 9 or 10. Oh well.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I hear you on the how they don’t know how to price these beers - a couple months ago, the Broadway/Myrtle Food Dimensions was selling 51 oz. bottles of Russian beer for only $2 each! It was dark, delicious 8.5% alcoholic content beer, too.
It’s a shame they didn’t restock when the supplies ran out …
November 13th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
You can also explore the bars in Brooklyn that have great beer on a website http:///www.BeerMenus.com This site has updated beer menus from the best beer bars and you can search for a bar carrying your favorite beer by typing in the name, and seeing what places have it. Cheers!
November 13th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
never drank anything but $1 coors when I lived in wick for three years.
Wouldn’t feel right drinking anything else.
November 13th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
The Knickerbocker Associated has an ok selection, but sometimes some of the beers are old as hell. I was in there the the other day and looked at some weird Carlsberg variety and then looked that it was recommended to be sold in August. Not that it would be bad for you but it can taste pretty skunked.
November 13th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I’ve seen Pilsner Urquell in a few stores recently, but have been hoping to find Staropramen in the neighborhood. It’s a great Czech beer that is only starting to get much distribution in the US. A sixer for anyone who spots it for me.
November 13th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
beer! we make sure our basement kegerator is always stocked, usually with a keg from Sixpoint. we’re currently pouring the brownstone brown for fall.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Long Trail Doublebag = best tasting 6 pack that will get you drunk
Harpoon Raspberry UFO = what fruit soda ought to be
November 14th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Just an FYI…but Redhook is a Seattle brewery. They did open up the brewery in Portsmouth a few years back, but they have been brewing in Seattle since the early 80s. I used to work summers there. Wish I could find their Blackhook Porter somewhere around here.
November 17th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Yes, the Associated on Knickerbocker does have a problem with expiration dates in general, but especially on beer. I have seen year old beer in those coolers.