Over the past days, Brookfield Place became a battle ground for a subway (and ferry) series of New York City’s best breweries and beer makers.
The four night long competition featured 15 breweries scattered throughout the five boroughs, pouring out a “competition beer” served in a flight along side four opposing breweries during one of the three ‘opening round’ sessions. Each evening’s voted winner advanced to the fourth and final round along with two popular ‘wild card’ beers.
(Alex Mitchell)
The first rounds were broken down as:
Night one
- Circa Brewing Co. — Tazzy IPA (7.1%)
- Flagship Brewery – Blood Orange IPA (6.9%)
- Gun Hill Brewing Company — Homebrew Hero: Ralph Brutus (6.5%)
- LIC Beer Project — Coded Tiles Pale Ale (5.0%)
- TALEA-Cherryberry — Tart Deco (7.5%)
Night Two
- Bronx Brewery — Blockbuster Cross-Country (8.5%)
- Coney Island Brewing Co. — Merman NY IPA (5.8%)
- Finback Brewery — Land Lines Pilsner (4.7%)
- KCBC Brewery — Superhero Sidekicks IPA (6.9%)
- Sixpoint Brewery — Trail Haze (4.0%)
Night Three
- Big aLIce Brewing Co. — Date Night, Bro? (6.3%)
- Bridge and Tunnel Brewery — Urban Styles (Milkshake IPA) (6.2%)
- Fifth Hammer Brewing Company — SourVision: Plum (5.5%)
- Greenpoint Beer & Ale Co. — Greenpoint Lekker (4.9%)
- Torch & Crown Brewing Company — Intersect Hazy Session IPA (5.1%)
Out of those rounds, it was Talea, Bronx Brewery, Torch & Crown Brewing Company that won their divisions while Finback and KCBC took two wildcard spots in the finals on Feb. 13th.
Talea, which holds proud roots in being female and veteran owned swept the finals by reserving its Cherryberry Tart Deco beer — a natural crowd pleaser down by Wall Street. That brewery also plans on opening a Williamsburg taproom in upcoming months.
The Bronx Brewery’s co-founder Damian Brown was pouring beers behind the stand on the night of the finals, brining along an old school boombox and plenty of brews, such as his City Island sour IPA.
KCBC had its detail oriented designed cans on display, which are 3-D compatible if the proper eye ware is worn.
Torch & Crown brought along a coffee, chocolatey stout that will be served up in its anticipated SoHo taproom, a one-of-a-kind spot for Manhattan.
Finback represented Queens while serving a very intense, triple IPA brew as well.
One beer that didn’t reach the finals but was the talk of round one’s guests was Flagship’s “Pizza Rat Pilsner,” a collaboration with the brewery’s neighboring minor league baseball club, the Staten Island Yankees.
(Alex Mitchell)
