The New York City locale that beer built
“I bet you’re wondering why you’re in church,” Father Timothy says.
We were wondering that very thing. We thought we were on a Brooklyn beer tour before this detour into Most Holy Trinity–St. Mary Church that dates back to 1841. Turns out the German immigrant breweries that flourished here in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn helped establish and support this massive Catholic Church throughout the 19th century. At the time, the area boasted nearly 50 independent breweries, all with German roots.
Father Timothy, splendid in his Franciscan robes and sandals and with a truly beatific smile, recounts how suds and foam formed the area’s economic foundation. And what an exotic New York City neighbourhood that New Germany was!
“People used to take the ferry over from Manhattan to visit the brewery beer gardens,” he tells us. “They had never seen people drinking in such a comfortable outdoors setting before, especially with women and children as part of the scene. That just wasn’t done.”
Earlier, our tour began at one of America’s most popular craft breweries, Brooklyn Brewery. About 30 people are lined up outside before the doors open at noon, eager to sample the more than a dozen specialty beers brewed at this former warehouse. For our part, the seven of us receive a private 30-minute tour of the new facilities, recently expanded to double output to 120,000 barrels annually. Afterward, we sample eight of the brewery’s offerings, many of which are available in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. There’s Brooklyner Weisse, a refreshing wheat beer; the award-winning Brooklyn Brown Ale; and East India Pale Ale, based on a 19th-century formula with extra malt and hops to last the eight-month sea voyage from England to India.
Looking at the half-empty glasses in front of him, Riyad Abu-Sharr, who lives in Manhattan and is here with his daughter, proclaims: “To drink these beers like this is just fabulous.”
Our Brewed in Brooklyn guide is David Naczycz, cofounder of Urban Oyster, one of New York City’s most creative walking tour companies. For Naczycz, a city is all about neighbourhoods, and his tours connect visitors to the “history, places and people that make New York special.”
For Williamsburg, with its trendy boutiques, vintage clothing stores and hipster-filled coffee shops, the neighbourhood’s past — and now present — is linked to immigrants and beer. We are standing before a three-storey building that once housed one of Brooklyn’s flourishing breweries.
“At one point, there were 11 breweries in 12 blocks of this street,” Naczycz says, describing today’s Meserole Street. “They called it Brewer’s Row.” He adds: “Before the Germans came, the people drank mostly ales and porters. But the Germans brought lagers that quickly became very popular because they were much more refreshing in the summer heat.”
Some of the original buildings remain, but all have lost their connection to the beer industry, and are now home to music studios and a Chinese food factory. Naczycz explains how the large number of 19th-century breweries was a function of the times. “Refrigeration, mass production and transportation were all relatively primitive,” he says. “Beer had to be consumed locally, so you needed a lot of breweries to meet demand.”
From a peak of 3,500 breweries throughout the United States in 1870, the number of beer makers dwindled to just 80 by 1983. Then, the downward trend reversed itself with a vengeance. Fuelled by the legalization of homebrew, which unleashed beer-making creativity, and a growing appreciation of specialty beers, microbreweries began to sprout up across the continent. This year, the brewery count is expected to top 3,000.
It’s time for lunch, and we stop at a local institution, Danny’s Pizzeria & Cafe Ristorante for pizza and — what else? — beer. This time it’s Brooklyn Brewery lager, which we had not tasted before. This lighter beer matches perfectly with the pizza. Indeed, Naczycz maintains that when early 20th-century Italian immigration mixed with the Germany community in Williamsburg, the beer-pizza combination was born. “It began right here, in this area when the two groups got together to socialize,” he says.
Refreshed, we walk by some more former breweries, historical homes and take our sojourn at Most Holy Trinity.
Our tour ends at another neighbourhood institution, Barcade, dedicated to craft beer and arcade games. It prints a daily beer menu, listing some two dozen offerings on tap that come from as far away as Alaska and as near as Brooklyn Brewery. Six dollars for a 10-ounce pour. Naczycz gives each of us a quarter so we can play Barcade’s classic video arcade games such as Frogger, Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers. Then, before departing, he buys us each a beer at the bar. A perfect ending to our tour.