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The 11 Best Breweries in Brooklyn, NY
Best beer from one of the best boroughs.
For several years, the Hop Culture team called New York City home. We still miss venturing out to the bodega in the morning (or late at night) for a two-dollar cup of coffee and egg and cheese on a bagel. Plus, we can’t forget all of the incredible Brooklyn breweries.
“Brooklyn is massive, but if you’re in a tight-knit beer community, even the largest city in the country can feel like a small neighborhood,” Hop Culture Founder Kenny Gould once said.
I lived in Brooklyn for three and a half years and couldn’t agree more! On weekends you’d often find me hanging out in the back garden at Threes Brewing with a pilsner or playing Scrabble at Kings County Brewers Collective (KCBC) with a hazy IPA by my side.
But since I’ve moved away, the picture has already changed.
If you know New York at all, you know that you never truly know New York. Like yeast, this city is a living, breathing organism that constantly changes. So, every now and then, we like to check in on one of our favorite places in the world, keeping tabs on the Brooklyn breweries we love and checking out ones new to us.
From a female-, veteran-owned stunner making crazy-good hazies to a funky little spot making the most of mixed fermentation to a newcomer putting her mother’s famous dessert recipes into cans, these breweries are blowing up Brooklyn’s craft beer scene.
Here are our picks for the fourteen best breweries in Brooklyn.
Hop Culture’s 14 Best Breweries in Brooklyn, NY
TEST
302 Metropolitan Ave Floor 1, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Photography provided by The Test Brewery
Our fans on Instagram turned us on to one of our “Best New Breweries of 2024,” TEST. When we put out a call on IG asking for your favorite new breweries of the year, this Brooklyn-based brewery garnered five mentions with about forty likes. Currently the nineteenth highest-rated brewery in the country on Untappd, TEST is a Brooklyn-based test-kitchen-esque brewery that opened a pop-up beer garden over the summer.
“Quality, invention, collaboration, and delicious design are the things we hold dear,” writes the brewery on its website. “It’s a think tank of sorts. We’ve set out to create a home for good ideas, whether they’re new, partially excavated, or simply unexplored.”
With only 35 beers released on Untappd and 8,271 ratings, TEST already holds a coveted 4.37 average rating.
Top-of-the-line beers include A Finite View of the Infinite, a 4.51-rated imperial hazy with barley, wheat, and oats and Nelson and Motueka from Freestyle hops.
And the recently released Lotus Bearer, a DNEIPA with an astounding 4.48 rating on Untappd. Brewed with barley, wheat, oats, and Citra and Motueka hops.
From the complex to the insane, TEST seems to be tapping into that other ninety percent of our brains we never use.
At this brewery, things are no longer just a test.
Brown Girl’s Brew
No taproom, but you can buy beer here.
Photography courtesy of Brown Girl’s Brew and New York Wins
Again, we have our fans on Instagram to thank for pointing us to Brown Girl’s Brew. After you all told us that this brand made some of your favorite beers of the year, we decided to learn more.
We haven’t seen any other brewery like Brown Girl’s Brew. I think all of you will agree that in today’s industry, with just a whisker shy of 10,000 breweries in the country, that is very, very hard to do.
Started by Christina Thomas, Brown Girl’s Brew transforms cherished pastries into crushable beers. These aren’t just any old recipes.
“I grew up in quite a large family,” says Thomas, the youngest of eight. “My mom was always baking. … She made sure we had desserts all the time.”
With a dream to open a bakery, Thomas’ mother eventually converted a family-owned house in Chicago into a makeshift bakery—Allie’s Cakes & Bakery.
The place became a delicious haven.
“Most of her customers were neighbors, people from her religious community, [and folks who came] from word of mouth,” says Thomas.
Vibrantly spiced carrot cake and crowd-pleaser lemon pound cake were always on the menu, along with specials around the holidays, such as German chocolate cake.
In 2009, Thomas, who first got into craft beer after drinking a Fat Tire, had a brilliant idea.
She wanted to transform her mother’s recipes into beer.
Now known as the Brew Mistress, Thomas has introduced five beers to Brown Girl’s Brew including Carrot Cake Amber Ale, Lemon Pound Cake Lager, Key Lime Pie American Ale, Banana Pudding Hefeweizen, and German Chocolate Cake Stout.
With by far and away the most comments from our fans pointing us to Brown Girl’s Brew as making their favorite beers of the year, we clearly see the impact Thomas is making on her community.
But you don’t have to take our word for it either.
During the 2024 Untappd Community Awards (which celebrated the thousands of great breweries and beers rated as best-in-class by Untappd’s 11 million users last year!), Brown Girl’s Brew won gold for the highest-rated American Amber / Red Ale in New York with its Carrot Cake Amber Ale.
It’s the beer Thomas is most proud of because she believes it truly embodies Brown Girl’s Brew. “It is bringing unique, culturally inspired flavors to the craft beer scene,” says Thomas. “We took the warm spices and rich flavors of a classic carrot cake and balanced them with the malty base of an amber ale. It was a bold experiment, but the response has been incredible. Not only does it resonate with people who love the flavors, but it also showcases how craft beer can honor tradition and tell a story. This amber ale represents our creativity, our roots, and our dedication to creating something distinct in the industry.”
Thomas’ mother’s recipes didn’t just feed a community; they fed a community’s soul. Thomas wants to do the same with Brown Girl’s Brew.
“Some of us think that it’s just the liquid that is the main component, and it’s really not,” she told us. “Brown Girl’s Brew is on a mission to make sure we push the needle for diversity, not only in the brewing space but just the entire ecosystem around the beer industry.”
When Thomas first had the idea for Brown Girl’s Brew in 2009, she asked herself, “Who was I going to call?” The list was small or, more honestly, non-existent because the representation didn’t exist.
Which is why it took Thomas many more years to bring Brown Girl’s Brew to life.
But now that she’s here, inspired by her mother’s tenacity, strength, love, and delicious recipes, Thomas and Brown Girl’s Brew are kicking down doors, walls, and barriers.
Finback Brewery
545 President St, Brooklyn, NY 11215 | (347) 227-8008
Photography courtesy of Rocketfuel
Photography courtesy of Rocketfuel
Founded in 2011, with their beer first coming off the line in Queens in 2014, Finback is the brainchild of Basil Lee and Kevin Stafford. For the past eight years, the brewery has grown to be one of the highest-rated in not only New York but also the entire East Coast. Mostly thanks to Finback’s approach to brewing with creativity (a direct result of Lee and Stafford’s artistic backgrounds—Lee is a former architect, and Stafford is a former graphic artist).
Some might not know that Lee and Stafford originally wanted to open in Brooklyn but couldn’t find a space that worked at the time. In 2020, the duo changed that, opening Finback’s second location in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Affectionately called “the studio,” Finback’s Brooklyn taproom is considered more of a creative space.
“We think of our Queens location as a factory, definitely about doing hazies, IPAs, and large-scale batches and really producing beer in that more traditional brewery sense,” says Lee. “And Brooklyn we think of as a studio, where we’re doing small batches, but also focusing on more of our takes on classic styles and drinkability, more low ABV, milds, traditional styles, and saisons.”
Accordingly, not only are they making fantastic English milds, saisons, mixed-ferm, and all-around-drinking beers, but also coffee, distilled spirits, both (they’re working on a canned coffee cocktail), and even dumplings.
Yes, Lee tapped his mom to make homemade dumplings in the kitchen.
I mean, c’mon people, if you aren’t stopping by Finback while you’re in Brooklyn, what are you even doing in Brooklyn?
This brewery truly evokes the spirit of the borough.
Wild East Brewing Co.
623 Sackett St, Brooklyn, NY 11217 | (718) 797-5135
Photography courtesy of Wild East Brewing
Founded by Lindsay Steen, Tyler March, and Brett Taylor, Wild East Brewing Company opened its doors in February 2020. The brewery specializes in mixed-fermentation, wild, and sour beers such as saisons, pale ales, Berliner weisses, and elegant lagers.
In a former restaurant supply warehouse on Sackett Street, just a short jaunt from Threes Brewing, Wild East’s taproom is a place where you can enjoy the fruits of the trio’s experimentation.
Beers like Temperance, a dope dark mild, Patience & Fortitude Czech-style pilsner, or L’Ultima Moda, a perfect Italian pilsner, prove that Wild East is at the vanguard of beer in Brooklyn.
Editor’s Tip: Wild East has plans to open a new taproom upstate in Canandaigua, NY, in 2025. Keep your eyes out!
Other Half Brewing Co.
195 Centre Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 | (212) 564-6065
Domino Park: 34 River St, Brooklyn, NY 11249 | (718) 362-6199
Photography courtesy of Other Half D.C.
We can’t write a piece on the best breweries in Brooklyn without mentioning Other Half, especially since the brewery celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2024!
The brewery that arguably made can release lines popular—certainly in New York if not the rest of the country—Other Half continues to roll out the dankest, haughtiest, haziest IPAs on the East Coast.
For all these reasons, our team gave respect where respect is due, naming Other Half one of our “11 Best Breweries of 2024.”
As Next Glass VP of Brewery Product and Experience Dustin Jeffers wrote in his nomination:
Over the past decade, they’ve consistently dominated the hazy IPA scene and have become a benchmark for other breweries. To mark this milestone, they unveiled an impressive lineup of beers.
The Freak Week re-release series, where they brew others’ beers, was highlighted by Special Combo #4 Death by Broccoli collaboration with Veil Brewing, 60 Minute IPA collaboration with Dogfish Head, and Insert Hip Hop Reference Here collaboration with Monkish and Trillium.
They also reintroduced some of their past anniversary beers, adding to the excitement.
But that wasn’t all—they went even further by releasing multiple 10th Anniversary Collaboration Series beers with collaborations from renowned breweries like Side Project, Fidens, Omnipollo, Mortalis, Hoof Hearted, Tripping Animals, North Park, and Green Cheek, among others.
It’s clear that Other Half Brewing has mastered the art of collaborations, and their tenth-anniversary celebration is a testament to their success.
If you’re in Brooklyn, stop by the original Brooklyn brewery in the Gowanus neighborhood or a satellite location in Domino Park in Williamsburg. Although, we’d suggest getting your feet inside the OG because you might as well pay respect to those hallowed grounds.
Grimm Artisanal Ales
990 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211 | (718) 564-9767
Photography courtesy of Grimm Artisanal Ales
For a long time, Grimm Co-Founders Joe and Lauren Grimm brewed nomadically. But in 2018, the duo finally put down roots on Metropolitan Avenue in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The gorgeous taproom specializes in elegant Belgian-style beers, stunning sours, and trendy, turbid IPAs.
Those like Dragonfruit Sunsets, a sour weissbier collab with No Seasons with dragonfruit and yuzu. Or Nothing But Nelson, an American IPA that showcases the very best of New Zealand’s Nelson Sauvin hops.
They are even crushing lagers now, with the brewery’s doppelbock called Prognosticator nabbing the No. 2 spot as the best of its style in New York in the Untappd Community Awards.
Sip your pints among chic wooden tables while bathing in the natural light from large windows. Or peruse shelves filled with art books and vinyl records while basking in the abundance of plants. The 7,500-square-foot space is bright, breezy, and airy, making it the ideal place to spend an afternoon in Brooklyn.
Niteglow
8 Wilson Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Last year, VinePair named Niteglow in a piece called “We Asked 10 Beer Pros What’s the Most Underrated East Coast Brewery (2024).”
I actually stumbled upon this tiny spot off the busy Flushing Ave because my partner and I were staying with a friend who lived down the street. I had heard nothing of Niteglow before my visit (a rarity). But I liked the happy faces of people sitting outside with stanges (tall, thin German-style beer glasses) full of kölsch. And when I peeked my head inside and found a draft system with all LUKR side-pull faucets, I knew I was probably in the right place.
On Niteglow’s taproom menu, you can choose the “style” of pour for your beer— ”Smooth,” “Half/Half,” or “Milk Pour,” which loosely follows three of the popular Czech styles of pouring beer.
Surprisingly, I skipped the kölsch, Czech dark lager, and NY-style pilsner and chose the M02 American pale wheat beer instead. It was delicious.
The space is super clean and refined, contrasting somewhat with the bustling urban chaos outside.
But if you know that area of Bushwick at all, Niteglow is a perfect fit.
I’ve heard rumblings that Niteglow might open up a shop in LA. I’d certainly love to see them here on the West Coast!
Threes Brewing
333 Douglass Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217 | (718) 568-9673
Greenpoint: 113 Franklin St, Brooklyn, NY 11222 | (731) 333-3430
Photography courtesy of @threesbrewing | Threes Brewing
A perennial favorite, Threes Brewing first made our list of the best breweries of 2018. Actually, we named it our best brewery of the year.
Since then, the brewery has continued to wow us with world-class beers. From their pilsners, which landed at the top of our blind tasting, to their juicy hazies, and everything in between, Threes gets three cheers from us.
The taproom in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn is such a great space to hang out. Attached to Ninth Street Espresso, Threes is a spot you can stop by in the morning for a coffee, into the afternoon for a beer, and at night for some excellent drinking food—think loaded crab fries and karaage chicken.
After all that, you can settle into the heated tent in the backyard for another few pints of Vliet or a bottle of Passing Time.
Threes is a one-of-a-kind brewery and, for us, a must-stop if you’re in Brooklyn.
TALEA Beer Co.
87 Richardson St, Brooklyn, NY 11211 | (347) 799-1281
Cobble Hill: 61 Bergen St, Brooklyn, NY 11201 | (716) 466-2126
Photography courtesy of Molly Tavoletti
Another standout, the all-female-owned and veteran-owned TALEA Beer Co. has actually opened up five locations across the boroughs—two in Brooklyn.
Tara Hankinson and LeAnn Darland of TALEA Beer Co. shared a vision to leave their corporate jobs in tech and media and start a craft beer business. The dynamic duo officially met while working together at Hopsy, a beer e-commerce startup. Eventually, they took the plunge together, starting TALEA (a mash-up of their first names, Tara and LeAnn) in 2019.
Hankinson and Darland’s desire to market beer that targets non-craft beer drinkers makes TALEA unique and special. Their hazy IPAs and fruit-forward sours are canned in vibrant, colorful packaging meant to attract all types of consumers regardless of gender.
For that reason, Hankinson and Darland joined us at our women in craft beer festival, Beers With(out) Beards, when we ran it in New York. And we named them one of our 320+ Women-Led Breweries to Drink From Right Now (And Forever).
The pair blew us away with their first dazzling taproom in Brooklyn. And while we haven’t gotten to the other location in Cobble Hill, it’s definitely at the top of our list.
We recommend trying Wheels Up if they have it. The hazy has oats and lactose for a smooth, silky body, along with a double dry-hopping with Motueka, Nelson Sauvin, and Citra hops. Expect big aromas of gooseberry and ripe guava and flavors of papaya and mango.
Kings County Brewers Collective
381 Troutman Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237 | (929) 409-5040
For four decades, the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn remained brewery-less. Ironic since, at the beginning of the 1900s, Brooklyn was considered the brewing capital of the U.S., with at least forty-five breweries. Of course, Prohibition killed that, forcing many to close. Since the last brewery shut its doors in 1976, none called Bushwick home.
Until the trio of Zack Kinney, Tony Bellis, and Pete Lengyel opened King County Brewers Collective (KCBC) in 2016. And they did so with a bang.
Take a gander at KCBC’s Instagram page, splashed with cans showcasing explosive graphics of crazy undersea and mythical creatures. Of course, what’s on the inside counts, and we can guarantee that the beer inside the can is just as incredible as the illustrations outside.
Like Superhero Sidekicks, a gold hazy IPA with hand-selected Citra, Mosaic, Idaho 7, Centennial, and Cascade.
Or Venomous Villains, the New York State silver medal-winning American IPA with Mosaic, Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial, and Cascade.
Or Teenage Mutant Ninja Gerbils, a DNEIPA loaded with Australian-grown Vic Secret, hand-selected Citra, and Yakima Valley-grown Anchovy hops. Cowabunga!
BUY TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA GERBILS
Strong Rope Brewery
Gowanus: 547 President St, Brooklyn, NY 11215 | (929) 337-8699
Red Hook: 185 Van Dyke St, Brooklyn, NY 11231 | (929) 294-9379
Photography courtesy of Strong Rope Brewery
In a world of hazy, West Coast, and American IPAs, Strong Rope has made a name for itself by brewing top-of-the-line British-style ales with 100% New York State hops and malts.
Founded by Jason Sahler and Christina Quintero, Strong Rope stays true to its traditions. And it has paid off. Strong Rope has earned all sorts of local accolades, including SMaSH Beer Competition Winner for Fat Man, Little Stout at NYC Beer Week 2020; a bronze for its Pre-Prohibition Lager, CULLEN, at the Indie Beer Cup 2020; and a gold at TAPNY 2019 for Young Lion of the West Cream Ale, among others.
In 2021, Strong Rope expanded, opening a location in Red Hook. By the time the new spot opened, I had already left Brooklyn, so I haven’t made it there yet, but I hear the views are incredible.
In all fairness, the last time I visited Brooklyn, I could have snuck away to Red Hook, but I wanted to go back to the OG spot. That should tell you everything you need to know.
Transmitter Brewing
141 Flushing Ave, Building 77, Brooklyn, NY 11205 | (646) 378-8529
Photography courtesy of John A. Paradiso
Rob Kolb and Anthony Accardi actually started Transmitter Brewing in Queens in 2014 before opening a new taproom in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard Building 77 development in 2019.
With the Queens location closed, the Brooklyn taproom has become the number-one spot to enjoy the duo’s fantastic Belgian- and French-style farmhouse ales.
To understand just how focused these two are on their beers, you should know that they secured over twenty isolated strains of Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus, as well as a brewhouse library of traditional Belgian, French, English, and American yeasts. It’s just that extra attention to detail that has made Transmitter beers the cream of the crop.
These include A4, a Belgian quad with anise, black pepper, and Grains of Paradise, and G2, a Belgian pale ale with Galaxy.
Back Home Beer
Photography courtesy of Back Home Beer
Zahra Tabatabai made waves in Brooklyn. The founder of Iranian- and female-owned Back Home Beer, Tabatabai brings a unique background to craft, focusing on flavors and art from Iran and the Middle East.
Tabatabai, the daughter of Iranian immigrants whose grandfather homebrewed in Iran in the 1950s and ‘60s, started Back Home Beer to share the rich history of brewing in Iran. From the beginning, Tabatabai started homebrewing her grandfather’s old recipes. He used a lot of ingredients from his garden in Shiraz, Iran: sumac, salt, barberries, and dried limes.
In the fall of 2021, Back Home dropped their first cans in New York City. The 4.2% ABV Sumac Gose was cured with sumac, tart cherry, and blue salt. At the time of publication, it held a coveted 4.18 out of 5 on Untappd. Tabatabai chose to release her Sumac Gose first because all those unique ingredients tell a distinct story.
Drinkers have responded to her narrative. Tabatabai’s Sumac Gose debuted to rave fanfare. It sold out from the shelves of many accounts within just a few hours.
Currently contract brewing, Back Home Beer doesn’t quite have a brick-and-mortar to call its own yet, but we’re so impressed with Tabatabai’s dedication to staying true to her roots.
Today, many breweries seem to think that “innovation” involves throwing as many cookies as possible into the mash tun. But thoughtful brewers like Tabatabai find creativity by looking at their heritage. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on what Tabatabai comes up with next.
Honorable Mention
Brooklyn Kura
68 34th St, Brooklyn, NY 11232 | (347) 766-1601
Photography courtesy of Brooklyn Kura
Beer isn’t the only fermented drink on the planet. Take sake, for example, a fermented rice drink with over a thousand years of history in Japan.
Brooklyn Kura brought the traditional Japanese beverage to the East Coast when it opened in 2018. New York State’s first sake brewery found a home in Industry City, a repurposed industrial complex in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park Neighborhood.
There is an incredible amount of work that goes into making sake (I should know; I tried it once at Brooklyn Kura), so you can be sure that when you drink one of Brooklyn Kura’s bottles of sake, you are getting a phenomenal sake.
Stop into Brooklyn Kura if you want to try something adventurous and new.
About The Author
Grace Lee-Weitz
Currently Drinking:
Fort Point Beer Co. KSA
Grace is the Senior Content Editor for Hop Culture and Untappd. She also organizes and produces the largest weeklong women, femme-identifying, and non-binary folx in craft beer festival in the country, Beers With(out) Beards, and the first-ever festival celebrating the colorful, vibrant voices in the queer community in craft beer, Queer Beer. An avid craft beer nerd Grace always found a way to work with beer. After graduating with a journalism degree from Northwestern University, she attended culinary school before working in restaurant management. She moonlighted as a brand ambassador at 3 Sheeps Brewing Co. on the weekends before moving into the beer industry full-time as an account coordinator at 5 Rabbit Cerveceria. Grace holds her Masters degree in the Food Studies program at NYU.
