Brewery Reviews

Table of Contents:

• Other Half Brewing
• LIC Beer Project

Brewery reviews coming soon:

• SingleCut Beersmiths
• Big aLICe Brewing
• Fifth Hammer Brewing
• Rockaway Brewing

Other Half Brewing

Location: 195 Centre St., Brooklyn, NY (Gowanus area)

Favorite beers to try: Any of their amazing 2xIPAs

Dog friendliness: Allows dogs, but very loud and crowded so not much space for dogs

Pro-Tip: If you buy one of their growlers for $5, you can take your beer home and then return the growler to get your $5 back. This is an excellent program, especially for those who live in the city.

The Doctor is in: Let’s start with the best, or at least our favorite. When I moved from Texas to New York in 2018, I was unsure what I was getting into as far as craft breweries go. We had a plethora of local go-to’s in Austin that had some really amazing beers, and I could just get in my car and go. Now, living in Manhattan, we had to get on a train down to Brooklyn or Queens to get any brewery, and I didn’t know what to expect. I had been to the great Russian River Brewing in northern California, so I was quite acquainted with the West Coast IPA as well as the classic Imperial (or Double) IPA, which was invented at Russian River. Additionally, I had made quite a few trips to Philadelphia to sample their local beers, including the alcohol-heavy Weyerbacher and blissful Troeg’s. But New York, and Other Half in particular, is where I fell in love with my favorite style of beer: The New England Style IPA.

This hazy, juicy, fresh off the hop stalk IPA blends the bitterness of a traditional pale ale into a creaminess that leaves you drinking it down like candy any day of the week. Other Half is full of these hazy masterpieces. Even my friends that “don’t like IPAs” have tried these to satisfaction. The brewers at Other Half have a keen sense for hops – I’ve seen their yearly hop smelling party on their Instagram. Many of their beers have their canonical nomenclature such as “All Citra Everything” or “All Mosiac Everything”, which bring out the best of Citra and Mosaic hops respectively. But don’t be fooled: their beer-making prowess does not stop there. I have had a range of amazing beers from them – from chocolatey milk stouts, barleywines, and porters to novel flavors in their imperial sours and delicious berlinerweisses. I have not had a bad beer from them, and I’m not the only one. Amusingly, I recently read this article about how it became a cult following for the “banker bros” of Wall Street: https://punchdrink.com/articles/how-other-half-brewery-become-official-beer-wall-street-finance/.

Regardless of that, I will continue to visit Other Half and all the other beers around the city! As a PhD, I’m not actually allowed to write any prescriptions, but as Dr. Hop, I can do what I want. So here you go: Get thee some Other Half Beer! Doctor’s orders.

Hoppingly,

Dr. Hop

LIC Beer Project

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FAST FACTS

Location: 39-28 23rd St, Long Island City, NY (Northern part of LIC, right off the F)

Beers that we tried: End to End IPA and Unicorn Apocalypse IIPA

Dog friendliness: Allows dogs and lots of space – they sell dog treats and swag too!

Pro-Tip: They have a cured meat meat vending machine (see photo below) and free popcorn. Growler fills are available for select pours 😀

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Dr. Hop here, reporting on what is perhaps the closest brewery to where we live.  Just a short walk from the the 21st St/Queensbridge Station in Long Island City. This place brings me back to Austin. When you stroll up, there’s an open warehouse with a funny chalkboard sign outside that just yells out “Come, Bring your dogs, and get some beer here!”.

For a Saturday evening, the place was lively but not too crowded.  At worst, you’d be waiting 5 minutes to snag a table. On a beautiful day, the big open garage door brings in a light breeze and sunshine.

Now on to the beer. LIC Beer Project has a mix of offerings including two Farmhouse ales, a sour, an amber lager, a Berliner weisse, an Imperial Stout, two IPAs, a pale ale, and an Imperial IPA. It’s impossible for me to resist the siren’s call of a 2XIPA, so I went for the Unicorn Apocalypse.  It was a lovely, balanced IPA without being too much “hops-to-the-face”- really great for a nice warm spring day.

Also on the tasting menu for this visit was the End to End IPA which had just had a can release that day.   This beer had a beautiful haze (IMHO the best beers are those where no light passes through them). Juicy and creamy in the best way- an excellent New England style IPA for any time of day.