Brooklyn, New York, now better known as a hotbed of modern urban culture, was once one of the great brewing capitals of the country. In 1898, when Brooklyn was annexed by the City of New York, there were 48 working breweries in the city. As late as 1960, Brooklyn brewed 10% of the beer consumed in the United States. However, until recently none of the beers produced in Brooklyn ever touted their hometown. Instead, the breweries of the city for the most part were named after the German families that founded them.
The last two Brooklyn breweries of that era were F. & M. Schaefer Co., known for Schaefer Beer, and S. Liebmann & Sons, which was famous for Rheingold Beer (and eventually adopted the name of its most popular brew). Both closed their Brooklyn facilities in 1976, ending a tradition of brewing in New York City that began with the founding of a Dutch brewery in lower Manhattan in 1413. Schaefer was located on the East River, facing Manhattan, not far from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a beehive of activity in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Rheingold was brewed on an 18-acre expanse of land in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Both companies sold as much as two million barrels of beer annually in their heyday.
The first commercial low-calorie “light” beer was concocted in 1967 at the Rheingold brewery by the famous brewing chemist and brewmaster Joseph Owades. The beer, unfortunately named “Gablinger’s,” was a flop. Both companies sponsored the Brooklyn Dodgers, Brooklyn’s famous baseball team, and in later years, the New York Mets.
The demise of brewing in Brooklyn was heralded by Schaefer opening a state-of-the-art plant in 1972—in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The rising cost of land, labor, and virtually every other expense in New York City made it impossible for Schaefer and Rheingold to continue to brew beer in the city. Schaefer is still produced by the Pabst Brewing Co.
Most of the Brooklyn breweries were clustered in the Eastern District of Long Island, which had been annexed by the City of Brooklyn in 1855. The Eastern District covered the areas now known as Williamsburg and Bushwick. German immigrants fleeing hard times in Europe poured into the United States in the early 19th century; many settled in the Eastern District. The German lager brewers were attracted by the crystal waters of natural springs fed by the Brooklyn-Queens aquifer. By late in the century, the underground springs had been polluted by the heavy industrialization of Brooklyn. Part of the reason voters approved the annexation by New York City was a desire to connect to the city’s remarkable water system, a network of underground tunnels that brought fresh water from the Delaware River and Catskill Mountains.
There were many lesser-known breweries based in Brooklyn. J.F. Trommer’s Evergreen Brewery was famous for its all-malt lager beer, Trommer’s White Label.
There was an area in Bushwick known as “Brewers’ Row” where 11 breweries occupied a 12-block area. Many had large underground caverns that were ideal for lager fermentation because they maintained a cool temperature year round. Before Prohibition, many New York breweries owned retail outlets in the city.
Some of the better known Brooklyn breweries were the Consumers Brewing Co., the Excelsior Brewing Co., the Federal Brewing Co., India Wharf Brewing Co., Old Dutch Brewing Co., Piel Brothers Brewing Co., Schlitz Brewing Co., and Welz & Zerwick Brewing Co. The Peter Doelger Brewery owned a bar and restaurant in Williamsburg that still operates under the name “Teddy’s.” It still has a stained glass window that promotes “Peter Doelger’s Extra Beer.” Many of the old Brooklyn brewery buildings are still standing and a company called “Urban Oyster” offers tours that begin at the Brooklyn Brewery. Many of the old Brooklyn brewers are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in East New York, across the street from the site of the Trommer’s Brewery.
Today, there are three breweries in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Brewery was founded in 1987 and sold its first beer, Brooklyn Lager, in 1988.
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