Brooklyn

A breezy, tart, dry hopped sour ale

This is the famous Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, our award-winning rendition of the Imperial Stout style, once made exclusively for Catherine the Great. We use three mashes to brew each batch of this beer, achieving a luscious deep dark chocolate flavor through a blend of specially roasted malts. We brew it every year for the winter season. It is delicious when newly bottled, but also ages beautifully for years.

Barrel-aged in Woodford Reserve bottles. Brooklyn Black Ops does not exist. However, if it did exist, it would be a robust stout concocted by the Brooklyn brewing team under cover of secrecy and hidden from everyone else at the brewery. Supposedly, "Black Ops" was aged for four months in bourbon barrels, bottled flat, and re-fermented with Champagne yeast, creating big chocolate and coffee flavors with a rich underpinning of vanilla-like oak notes. They say it’s vanishingly rare. We have no idea what they’re talking about.

We brew our beer in New York, about halfway between the hop fields of the Pacific Northwest and the hop fields of Kent, England. So we use earthy English hops to build the foundation and bright citrusy American hops to bring the noise in the rambunctious IPA we call BLAST! British Maris Otter and German Pilsner malts lends solidity, balance and bready flavors to brace up a beer that’s beautifully hoppy, strangely quaffable and oddly compelling. Minerally hop bitterness is followed by a shock wave of flavor and aroma. You won’t even know what hit you.

Brooklyn American Ale is brewed exclusively for Finland. It has more crystal malt than Summer Ale and is more heavily dry-hopped. The dry-hopping in Summer Ale is all Amarillo, while Brooklyn American Ale has a blend of Amarillo and Cascade.

Refreshing, light, and brisk, wheat beers have been popular in Bavaria for centuries. Weissbier or hefeweizen (wheat beer with yeast) was once brewed exclusively by the Bavarian royal family. In the 1800’s, they were popular among German immigrants to the United States. Our Brooklyner Weisse is brewed in the classic German style from German wheat and barley malts. Our special Bavarian yeast produces the flavors and aromas that wheat beers are prized for – bananas, cloves, and melon, with a smoky note in the background. This beer is traditionally left unfiltered, so there’s a dusting of yeast still in the beer, adding the hazy appearance and greater depth to the flavors. Pour, admire the big fluffy head, and enjoy sunshine in a glass.

This is the award-winning original American brown ale, first brewed as a holiday specialty, and now one of our most popular beers year-round. Northern English brown ales tend to be strong and dry, while southern English brown ales are milder and sweeter. Brooklyn Brown Ale combines the best of those classic styles and then adds an American accent in the form of a firm hop character and roasty palate. A blend of six malts, some of them roasted, give this beer its deep russet-brown color and complex malt flavor, fruity, smooth and rich, with a caramel, chocolate and coffee background. Generous late hopping brings forward a nice hop aroma to complete the picture. Brooklyn Brown Ale is full-flavored but retains a smoothness and easy drinkability that has made it one of the most popular dark beers in the Northeast.

Remarkable & complex barleywine-style ale aged in Pedro Ximénez & amontillado sherry barrels from House of Lustau

Once a "Ghost Bottle" that we only made for ourselves, Brooklyn Cuvée Noire finally journeys beyond our walls. A stout-like blend of German and British pale and dark malts, this beer fermented with Belgian yeast and then spends more than six months in Kentucky bourbon barrels. Dry, brisk, and complex, showing notes of chocolate, coffee, citrus, vanilla and coconut, Cuvée Noire is refermented in this bottle of Champagne yeast. It is a most excellent accompaniment means to dinner.

For now we bring you Cuvée La Boîte, a Belgian-inspired beer in the “Grand Cru” style, subtly infused with Lior’s unique blend of Mishmish N.33 (lemon, saffron, crystalized honey), fresh kaffir lime leaves, and rare Espe- lette peppers from the French Pyrénées. In his book The Art of Blending, Lior compares making a spice blend to organizing a party. He asks “whom do you invite?” Well, we invite you, of course!

THE DEFENDER is constantly vigilant, standing guard over all those who dare to drink great beer. This bright, juicy, West Coast-style IPA takes on a reddish twist from a dash of roasted malt. Bold, fruity hop bitterness and an intensely resinous nose lead the way into a dry finish that blazes the trail for your next sip. Who is this masked hero? The Defender emerged in an era when gloomy walls and bland beer held our city in a stranglehold. Slowly, murals began to brighten the landscape and flavorful beer flooded the taps. Today the city is alive with fiery art and delicious beer. The Defender maintains constant vigilance to battle back the blandness lurking around the edges. Ours is a world of light, fury, and song. This is it’s Defender! Brooklyn Defender IPA was forged in collaboration with our sidekicks at New York Comic Con as the official beer of the convention. Malts: Pilsner, Crisp, Carared, Crystal Hops: Pilgrim, Willamette, Cascade, Mosaic, Amarillo

The Irish Stout beer style was once produced by dozens of breweries in Ireland. These days it is only produced by three major breweries in Ireland, none of them Irish-owned, though several small breweries and brewpubs make stout as well. People are often surprised to hear that Irish stouts are among the lightest beers on draft, both in alcohol and in calories. These beers were originally designed as “session pints”, a term denoting beers that one can stick with for a long evening. These days, the major producers of Irish Stout dissolve nitrogen into the beer to produce the trademark head, a practice that started in 1960.

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale is inspired by the original East India Pale Ales brewed in England in the early 1800’s for the troops in India. Everyday English ales were spoiling during shipment from London, around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, to Calcutta. Using extra malt and hops, British brewer George Hodgson developed an ale with the bitterness and strength to endure the long sea voyage, giving rise to a great beer style. Our East India Pale Ale is a deep golden beer brewed from British malt and a blend of hops featuring the choice East Kent Golding variety. It is traditionally dry-hopped for a bright aroma of hops, lemongrass, pine and citrus fruit, and has a robust bitterness, a warming malt palate and a clean hoppy finish. We think Hodgson would be rather pleased.

When we decided to call our latest Brewmaster’s Reserve beer Brooklyn "Fiat Lux" ("Let There Be Light"), we weren’t trying to get all god-like on you. What we're really saying is "let there be summer". Let there be beaches, let there be blankets laid out on grass, let there be beer gardens, let there be barbecues, let there be outdoor concerts, let there be good beer everywhere, great people to drink it with, and time to enjoy it. Yeah, we thought you’d be down with that too. What are we drinking this summer? Combining Canadian and American malts with a large proportion of un-malted white winter wheat, Fiat Lux starts with a Belgian witbier inspiration. A blend of Pacific Northwest hops, a little lime peel and a dash of Indian coriander brings a bright blast of citrusy aromatic sunshine, while German Perle hops supply a nice big zap of refreshing bitterness. Brooklyn Fiat Lux is great with everything you're cooking and eating this summer (it's not that great with beef stew… but you’re not eating beef stew) from barbecue to burgers, from crawfish to salmon. And it’s mighty nice with goat cheese. Have a great summer, folks. And yes, we admit it – we really do love walking into places, declaring "Fiat Lux!" and making it so.

Most beer was once smoky and we think smoke is still delicious. Brooklyn Fire & Ice is a robust porter that wraps beechwood smoke around a silky core of oatmeal and roasted malts. Wood is cut in the beechwood forests surrounding Bamberg, Germany, and our maltsters use it to dry their smoked malts, which form the basis of this beer. Together with a blend of roasted malts, it creates a beer that is gently smoky and beguilingly chocolaty, with notes of coffee and caramel.

Hammarby Syndrome is the distress or impairment caused by the frenzied anticipation and giddy obsession over the beautiful Hammarby Sjöstad section of Stockholm, Sweden and the New Carnegie Brewery that Brooklyn Brewery will open there in March." Now there’s good news - we can help you! Our new Brewmaster’s Reserve beer is Hammarby Syndrome, a robust ale that will transport you directly to the seaside of old Stockholm. It’s brewed from a large proportion of spelt, an ancient wheat-like grain that was once a mainstay of Scandinavian beers. To the spelt’s distinctively nutty flavor, we’ve added another old Swedish beer ingredient - spruce fronds. They add a tasty citrusy pine note to a full-bodied, lightly fruity strong ale that’ll keep you warm until the spring sunshine comes to the rescue. More importantly, it’s great with hearty cold-weather food, and it’ll make you feel like you’re in Hammarby until you can come visit us there yourself.

In the 20th season of his reign, the year Anno Brooklynius 26, our Brewmaster brought forth a new wonderment for the People. Barleywine-style ale, once the exclusive drink of British nobility, would be produced anew in Brooklyn. Linking together their twin brewhouses, the Brooklyn brewing team toiled a great many hours to create the most robust beer they had ever produced. Then it was set to rest for months in casks of Bourbon oak, and finally refermented in the bottle. The result is one of the richest, tastiest beers to ever emerge from our brewery. The deep flavors of floor-malted Maris Otter barley shine through layers of vanilla, coconut, toast and floral notes given by aging in Four Roses bourbon wood. Hand & Seal is complex without being perfumey, subtly sweet without becoming cloying. Its naturally gentle carbonation suits a contemplative drink. The size of the bottle connotes a spirit of generosity, for it is an ale to be shared with friends and family. At dinner, you will find it a fine partner to pates, game meats and sausages and a wonderful accompaniment to cheese. And if your evening should involve much laughter around a fireplace, all the better. Hand & Seal is ready to enjoy now, yet good things shall also come to those who cellar it. Hereupon witness our Hand and our Seal, both of them demonstrations of our promise that this fine ale shall be worthy of your table and all the brilliant times you bring to it. So say we all.

This unique and exciting beer was the result of the long friendship of Brooklyn brewmaster Garrett Oliver and Schneider brewmaster Hans-Peter Drexler. Garrett had always admired the delicate balance of flavors in Schneider Weisse, while Hans-Peter had long enjoyed the effusive hop character of Brooklyn East India Pale Ale and BLAST! Garrett’s concept for the collaboration was that each brewmaster would brew essentially the same pale, hoppy weissbock in the other’s brewery, but with different hopping to reflect the local hop flavor.

Barrel-aged rye ale with botanicals & bitters

Brooklyn Insulated Lager is your protection against biting wind and soggy weather. German Munich, roasted Carafa, and Pilsner malts create a nimble, racy body, while a helping of American black barley adds just a hint of roast coffee. A light dry hopping of American and German hops pitter-patters across the nose and dives into the dry, warming finish. Try it with dark breads, hearty meats, and sturdy cheddars. If you still feel the chill, just add another layer and enjoy your insulation.

In the late 1800’s Brooklyn was one of the largest brewing centers in the country, home to more than 45 breweries. Lager beer in the “Vienna” style was one of the local favorites. Brooklyn Lager is amber-gold in color and displays a firm malt center supported by a refreshing bitterness and floral hop aroma. Caramel malts show in the finish. The aromatic qualities of the beer are enhanced by “dry-hopping”, the centuries-old practice of steeping the beer with fresh hops as it undergoes a long, cold maturation. The result is a wonderfully flavorful beer, smooth, refreshing and very versatile with food. Dry-hopping is largely a British technique, which we’ve used in a Viennese-style beer to create an American original.

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we forge barley malt and hops from Germany, aromatic raw sugar from Mauritius and yeast from Belgium into our latest beer, Brooklyn Local 1. Behind the full golden color you’ll find an alluring aroma, a dynamic complex of flavors, Belgian flair, Brooklyn fortitude and a dusting of our special yeast. To create this beer, we use the old technique of 100% bottle re-fermentation, a practice now rare even in Europe. It gives this beer a palate of unusual depth. Enjoy it locally or globally, as an aperitif or with your favorite dishes.

Here in Brooklyn we’ve combined European malt and hops, Belgian dark sugar, and raw wildflower honey from a New York family farm to create Brooklyn Local 2. Our special Belgian yeast adds hints of spice to the dark fruit, caramel, and chocolate flavors. After 100% bottle re-fermentation, the beer reveals a marvelous dry complexity, enjoyable by itself or at the dinner table.

A higher alcohol version of the Sorachi Ace. Belgian breweries traditionally brew higher ABV versions of some of their beers to help celebrate the holidays. This is Brooklyn's nod to this tradition.

Real maple syrup tastes great on pancakes and waffles, but it’s awfully good in beer too. Porter is a classic British ale style that traveled to the United States, sustained George Washington during the Revolution, and later built London’s great breweries. Mary’s Maple Porter is a rich, dark ale featuring a large portion of her maple syrup in the kettle. After fermentation by our house ale yeast, the syrup is no longer sweet (yeast likes to eat maple syrup too), but the maple flavor shows through in a complex interplay with caramel, chocolate, and cof fee flavors from our blend of roasted malts. An earthy hop note rounds it all out.

Brooklyn Monster Ale is a classic barley wine, a style of ale originally brewed by the butlers to the English and American aristocracy. It is brewed from three mashes of heirloom British malt and spiced with aromatic American Willamette, Cascade and Fuggle hops. After four months of aging, it has a magnificent burnished copper color, an aroma redolent of sherry, citrusy hops and fruit, a soft, warming, complex palate, a spiritous finish, and a strength of 10.3%. It is vivacious when young, but will age gracefully for many years, becoming more complex over time.

When Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria wanted to celebrate his wedding engagement in 1810, he did what any good Bavarian prince would – he threw a beer festival. Both the festival and the special beer served there became known as Oktoberfest. Brewed from the finest German malt and hops, Brooklyn Oktoberfest is true to the original style, fullbodied and malty, with a bready aroma and light, brisk hop bitterness.

As Brooklynites, we revere the memory of the 1955 World Champion Dodgers baseball team, so we had to name a beer in their honor. Brooklyn Pennant Ale is a honey-colored pale ale with a brisk malt palate and finely balanced hop character. Pennant is a traditional English-style pale ale. The pale ale style developed in the early 19th century, and was called “pale” because it appeared so in comparison to the darker ale styles of the day (East India Pale Ale was a stronger, paler, more bitter version of the style). Brooklyn Pennant Ale is brewed from Scottish Maris Otter malt, which is justly prized for its toasty, biscuity flavor and the round smoothness it imparts to beer. Our house ale yeast brings out an appetizing fruitiness and ferments to a dry finish. During 2005, Brooklyn Brewery will donate one dollar from every case of Pennant sold to the funding of the statue of Brooklyn Dodgers greats Jackie Robinson and Pee-Wee Reese planned for the Cyclones ballpark in Coney Island.

Brooklyn Pilsner is a refreshing golden lager beer, brewed in the style favored by New York’s pre-prohibition brewers. In the 1840’s, the pilsner style emerged from central Europe to become the world’s most popular style of beer. Like its ancestors, Brooklyn Pilsner is traditionally brewed from the finest German two-row barley malts. Germangrown Perle and Hallertauer hops provide a crisp, snappy bitterness and fresh, floral aroma. The flavor of the malt comes through in the finish. We ferment Brooklyn Pilsner at cool temperatures, and then give it a long, gentle maturation (lagering), which results in a beer of superior complexity and smoothness. We believe that you will find there to be none finer. Unlike mass-marketed so-called pilsners, Brooklyn Pilsner does not contain cheap fillers such as corn or rice, nor does it contain any preservatives or stabilizers. Brooklyn Pilsner is the real thing.

Early American colonialists, seeking natural ingredients for brewing ales, turned to pumpkins, which were plentiful, flavorful and nutritious. Blended with barley malt, pumpkins became a commonly used beer ingredient. Post Road Pumpkin Ale brings back this tasty tradition. Hundreds of pounds of pumpkins are blended into the mash of each batch, creating a beer with an orange amber color, warm pumpkin aroma, biscuity malt center, and crisp finish.

Everyone always asks us what our favorite beer style is, and we tell them the truth - we don't have a favorite beer style, because beer is situational, like music and food. Sometimes we're in the mood for stuffed quail and Mozart. And sometimes we're in the mood for pizza and the Ramones. But the truth is that although we love all of our beers, our desert-island beer style just might be saison, the farmhouse style from Belgium. And if we were on a desert island, we'd need a beer we could drink all the time.

A spiced saison with Australian hops.

Scorcher is a golden light-bodied ale carrying a big stick of bitterness and big American hop aroma.

The Brooklyn Brewery is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. We are fortunate to be a part of the incredible cultural renaissance Brooklyn has enjoyed during the last quarter century. Four great Brooklyn artists whom we met along the way—Fred Tomaselli, Roxy Paine, Joe Amhrein and Elizabeth Crawford—have created special labels for our Silver Anniversary Lager beer. We are saluting our beginnings with a special doppelbock version of the Brooklyn Lager we introduced in 1988. This beer is re-fermented in the bottle and will taste great today or years from now. The original was inspired by the beers of 19th Century New York and Vienna.

Most Brooklyn beers are made with a blend of hop varietals. As a chef does with spices, we look to get the best qualities of each hop and create a harmony of flavors and aromas. However, a few years ago, our brewmaster ran into a hop unique enough to deserve its own moment in the sun. A large Japanese brewery first developed the hop variety “Sorachi Ace” in 1988. A cross between the British “Brewer’s Gold” and the Czech “Saaz” varieties, it exhibited a quality that was unexpected – it smelled really lemony.

Brooklyn Summer Ale is a modern rendition of the "Light Dinner Ales" brewed in England throughout the 1800's right up until the 1940's. They were also called "luncheon ales" or even "family ales", because they were refreshing and flavorful without being too heavy. We brew our Brooklyn Summer Ale from premium English barley malt, which gives this light-bodied golden beer a fresh bready flavor. German and American hops lend a light crisp bitterness and a citrus/floral aroma, resulting in a beer with a very sunny disposition.

Thomas created special new floor malts for The Companion, which is brewed in an old style called “wheat wine”, a wheat-based equivalent to barley wine. The floor malts give this beer a juicy malt character of considerable depth, 55% malted wheat gives it a surprising lightness on the palate, while our house ale yeast lends a gentle fruitiness. The Oxford Companion to Beer will impart knowledge, while The Companion imparts conviviality. Maybe you really can have it all?

There Will Be Black builds a hoppy dark tower on a foundation of solid British pale and crystal malts, constructs a midsection of American and German black malts and then sends a spire of New Zealand hops vaulting into the low-hanging clouds. Sharp and snappy, full-bodied but dry, There Will Be Black has a core of black bread and dark chocolate, wrapped in a bright coat of orangey, minty hops. This beer knows the night. This beer will be awesome with your burger, revelatory with your chicken molé, and intends to marry your lamb vindaloo. We think you’ll approve.

A classic rich, roasty and robust Porter fermented exclusively with Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Drei.

There was a time when all beers were aged in wood and yeasts ran wild and converted together. Modern brewing is wonderful, but sometimes a little converting is a fine thing. Brooklyn Wild Streak is our barrel-aged Belgian-inspired golden ale enlivened by the earthy funk of wild yeast called Brettanomyces. It’s particurly great with cheeses and game meats. Oh, go ahead. You know you want to.

When the days grow short and the beach recedes into our dreams, we need a very nice beer to get us through the long winter. Based on the satisfying malty ales of blustery Scotland, Brooklyn Winter Ale will have you looking on the bright side of things. Rich Scottish malts bring deep bready flavors to a beer with a full copper color, a round, smooth palate, and brisk hopping that pulls the sweet malts into balance. See - things are looking up already!

Schwarzbier-inspired lager layers notes of chocolate, roasted barley, and dark bread that finishes surprisingly light and pleasantly dry.