Streetlevel: DIY Beer Brewing Store in Gowanus
A business called Brooklyn Homebrew opened in the former martial arts studio space near the corner of 3rd Avenue and 8th Street a couple weeks ago. The store sells hops, yeast, malts and spices, as well as starter kits ($40+) for the beginner brewer. “The city that supposedly has everything has been missing [a homebrew…
A business called Brooklyn Homebrew opened in the former martial arts studio space near the corner of 3rd Avenue and 8th Street a couple weeks ago. The store sells hops, yeast, malts and spices, as well as starter kits ($40+) for the beginner brewer. “The city that supposedly has everything has been missing [a homebrew store] for some time now,” one of Brooklyn Homebrew’s owners, who used to operate out of an apartment in Sunset Park, told the Voice’s Fork in the Road blog.
Brooklyn Homebrew [Official Site] GMAP
Brooklyn Homebrew Opens in Gowanus [Fork in the Road]
It’s about time someone opened a B&M homebrew shop in New York. The nearest one is 35 miles away on long island (Karp’s, http://www.homebrewshop.com/) and that’s just a section of a hardware store.
There are great mailorder options, but shipping cost (many supplies are bulky and heavy) and time (I’m impatient) are a drag.
There’s also the couple at the brooklyn flea (http://www.brooklynbrewshop.com/) but they don’t have a storefront, and really cater to all-grain brewing, which is only apartment-practical in 1-gallon batches, and as noted above I’d rather do 5 gallons (using extract) for the effort it takes.
As to the cost, you’re probably not going to beat the price of grocery store PBR at home (and light lagers like that are paradoxically hard to make well at home anyway). What you will do is brew good microbrew-quality beer for PBR prices (about 50-60 cents a bottle in ingredients).
“Rock climbing, supper club, art galleries, homebrew store, artist studios, bell house…”
And there’s always canoeing…
Rock climbing, supper club, art galleries, homebrew store, artist studios, bell house…
Gowanus has such a great vibe, in my opinion.
Does it pay financially, or is it just for the fun of doing it?
I think most brewers in NYC use the internet for supplies because there hasn’t been a great area supplier since Little Shop of Hops closed many years ago. They had 2 Manhattan locations but got priced out rent-wise, I think. My upstate brewer friends definitely frequents a brick and mortar store for all his bulky supplies because of shipping costs.
Brewing is pretty easy and if you are brewing ales, you don’t even need fridge space. You can make do with a cool, not necessarily cold, area in the cellar big enough for a 5 gallon bucket. We did all our brewing in our apartment but did have cellar access to keep the bucket in for a couple weeks. I do agree about the one gallon kits being a lot of work for the return. It’s pretty much the same work to brew 5 gallons as one but using a one gallon kit would be a way to try it out in a small apartment.
“The city that supposedly has everything has been missing [a homebrew store] for some time now”
Isn’t there one on 5th Avenue somewhere? Close to Atlantic?
But who cares, love the added Gowanus action.
Score another one Gowanus!
It’s a slippery grope.
another reason to slide down the slope into gowanus 🙂