Introducing our NYC Brewery Series

While enjoying a delicious beer at NYC’s newest brewery, Fifth Hammer, I found myself thinking about their co-owner and head brewer (and friend) Chris Cuzme. Chris moved to New York some years back for two things, to make music and to make beer. Chris, along with his wife Mary Izett, have been tireless advocates for the homebrew and beer scene in the five boroughs. I was so happy sitting there, seeing Chris’s hard work finally come to fruition.

But Chris is not alone in this story. In the past five years many people have taken the plunge to open their own brewery. When Bitter & Esters first opened there was only a handful of breweries in the city, but due to changes in the law in 2012, NYC now boasts over 30 breweries! Because of the hard work of many men and women, you are now enjoying some of the best beer in the country in your own backyard - and just about all of them started as homebrewers.

We wanted to honor all of the hard work and creativity of the NYC beer scene by giving homebrewers the chance to celebrate the homebrew origins of their favorite breweries by offering them recipes straight from the source with our NYC Brewery Series. We’ve partnered up with eight different NYC breweries (KCBC, Wartega, Threes Brewing, Strong Rope Brewery, Rockaway Brewing Company, Keg & Lantern, Interboro, and Folksbier) who have provided us with one of their beloved brews. We scaled them down and formatted them for homebrewers so that anyone can try replicating a beer straight from one of their favorite spots.

Our inaugural brew comes from KCBC (Kings County Brewers Collective). KCBC is the first brick-and-mortar brewery to operate in Bushwick in more than 40 years and has been pouring a wide variety of beers at their fantastic taproom. The brewers at KCBC all met through the awesome local homebrew scene before going pro. The recipe they are sharing is an over the top, double dry-hopped IPA called Dangerous Precedent. It builds on a solid base of two-row barley and wheat while splitting the hop bill between classic west coast hops (Cascade & Centennial) and tropical flavor bombs (Mosaic, Citra, and Azacca). All of the NYC Brewery Series recipes will be offered at a 20% discount (use the code DANGEROUS at checkout) for a limited time period.

Being part of the NYC craft and homebrew scene has been a great honor for me and a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone involved for helping it grow and for keeping our cups full of delicious local beer. Think local, drink local!

John