Wondering why Brooklyn’s beer scene runs so deep? The history of brewing in Brooklyn is one of German immigrants, spring water and cool lager caves, then a long gap before a 1987 revival.
This short history sits inside the wider story of brooklyn craft beer, and it explains where that story began.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Working breweries in the city at the 1898 annexation | 48 |
| Share of US beer brewed in Brooklyn in 1960 | 10% |
| Breweries in Brooklyn by the 1870s and 1880s | More than 30 |
| Year the last two big Brooklyn breweries closed their Brooklyn plants | 1976 |
| Year Brooklyn Brewery was founded | 1987 |
| Year the Ulmer Brewery became a New York City landmark | 2010 |
These figures come from the Oxford Companion to Beer entry on Brooklyn and the Wikipedia page on the William Ulmer Brewery. Historical counts can be revised, so check the source before you rely on them.
Why did Brooklyn become a brewing town?
Brooklyn did not begin as a beer capital. Brewing was already a major industry in New York City, but early development of breweries in Brooklyn was quite slow, with relatively few commercial brewers, according to Wikipedia’s William Ulmer Brewery page.
Three things changed that:
- People: German immigrants fleeing hard times in Europe poured into the United States, and many settled in the Eastern District.
- Water: German lager brewers were attracted by the crystal waters of natural springs fed by the Brooklyn-Queens aquifer.
- Cool cellars: many breweries had large underground caverns that kept a cool temperature year round, which suited lager fermentation.
The Eastern District had been annexed by the City of Brooklyn in 1855, and it covered the areas now known as Williamsburg and Bushwick. Most of the Brooklyn breweries were clustered there, as the Oxford Companion to Beer describes.
The water advantage did not last. By late in the century, heavy industrialization had polluted the underground springs, and part of the reason voters approved annexation by New York City in 1898 was a desire to connect to the city’s water system, according to the same entry.
Brewers’ Row and the Ulmer Brewery
By the 1870s and 1880s there were more than 30 breweries in Brooklyn, according to Wikipedia. The Oxford Companion to Beer describes an area of Bushwick known as Brewers’ Row, where 11 breweries occupied a 12-block area.
Many of those breweries were run by German families, and the beers carried family names rather than the name of the borough. That helps explain why Brooklyn’s brewing past can feel hidden even though it was huge.
One surviving example is the William Ulmer Brewery in Bushwick. Its buildings were all constructed between 1872 and 1890 in the German round-arch style, and Wikipedia notes it was one of over a dozen German-operated breweries built in Bushwick in that era.
According to Wikipedia, the Ulmer Brewery stopped being an active brewery in 1920 because of Prohibition, which outlawed alcoholic beverage production. It was later named a New York City landmark in 2010, becoming the first brewery in the city to receive that status, and the buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2024.
How big did Brooklyn brewing get?
Very big. When Brooklyn was annexed by the City of New York in 1898, there were 48 working breweries in the city, according to the Oxford Companion to Beer. As late as 1960, Brooklyn still brewed 10% of the beer consumed in the United States.
The last two Brooklyn breweries of that era became household names:
- F. & M. Schaefer Co. was known for Schaefer Beer and sat on the East River, facing Manhattan.
- S. Liebmann & Sons was famous for Rheingold Beer and eventually adopted the name of its most popular brew.
Rheingold was brewed on an 18-acre expanse of land in Bushwick. Both companies sold as much as two million barrels of beer annually in their heyday, and both sponsored the Brooklyn Dodgers and later the New York Mets.
The Rheingold brewery also produced an oddity. The first commercial low-calorie “light” beer, called Gablinger’s, was concocted there in 1967 by brewing chemist and brewmaster Joseph Owades, though the Oxford Companion to Beer says it was a flop.
The decline: Prohibition, a strike and rising costs
The Oxford Companion to Beer points to a long labor strike and rising city costs as the pressures that hurt Brooklyn’s big breweries.
One was labor. Trommer’s Evergreen Brewery was badly hurt by the 81-day brewery workers strike in 1949, and during that strike many New Yorkers were introduced to beers such as Budweiser and Blatz that were shipped in from the Midwest, according to the Oxford Companion to Beer.
The final blow was cost. The demise of brewing in Brooklyn was heralded by Schaefer opening a state-of-the-art plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1972. The rising cost of land, labor and virtually every other expense in New York City made it impossible for Schaefer and Rheingold to keep brewing in the city.
Both closed their Brooklyn facilities in 1976. As of the Oxford Companion’s 2012 text, Schaefer was still produced by the Pabst Brewing Co., and there had been several attempts to revive the Rheingold brand.
The revival that started in 1987
The modern chapter opens with Brooklyn Brewery, which was founded in 1987 and sold its first beer, Brooklyn Lager, in 1988. The Oxford Companion to Beer notes that until recently none of the beers produced in Brooklyn had touted their hometown, which makes that name a clear break with the past.
As of the Oxford Companion’s 2012 edition, there were three breweries in Brooklyn:
- Brooklyn Brewery, which brewed in Williamsburg and under contract in Utica, New York.
- Six Point Brewery, located in the Red Hook neighborhood.
- Greenpoint Beer Works, Inc., brewers for the Heartland Brewery restaurant chain and the Kelso of Brooklyn brands.
That count dates from 2012, so for a fuller picture of who brews there now, read our guide to brooklyn breweries. If you are choosing what to order at those taps, the explainer on ipa vs pale ale covers the difference between two common styles.
Traces of old Brooklyn brewing you can still find
Some of the old brewing world is still visible. According to the Oxford Companion to Beer, many of the old Brooklyn brewery buildings are still standing, and many of the old brewers are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in East New York, across the street from the site of the Trommer’s brewery.
The same entry says the Peter Doelger Brewery owned a bar and restaurant in Williamsburg that still operated under the name Teddy’s as of 2012. It kept a stained glass window promoting “Peter Doelger’s Extra Beer.”
The Ulmer complex is another landmark. Its site is bounded by Belvidere Street, Beaver Street and Locust Street in Bushwick, per Wikipedia. Check current access before you visit, because the source does not say whether the buildings are open to the public.
Frequently asked questions
When did Brooklyn’s brewing boom happen?
Show answer
It built up in the years after German immigrants settled the Eastern District. By the 1870s and 1880s there were more than 30 breweries in Brooklyn, according to Wikipedia’s William Ulmer Brewery page.
How many breweries did old Brooklyn have?
Show answer
The Oxford Companion to Beer counts 48 working breweries in the city when Brooklyn was annexed in 1898. That figure covers the whole city, not only Brooklyn, and the book’s later count of three breweries dates from 2012.
When did the big old Brooklyn breweries close?
Show answer
Schaefer and Rheingold’s maker, S. Liebmann & Sons, both closed their Brooklyn facilities in 1976, per the Oxford Companion to Beer. Schaefer had opened a plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1972.
Why were old Brooklyn beers named after families?
Show answer
The Oxford Companion to Beer says the city’s breweries were mostly named after the German families that founded them. It adds that until recently none of the beers produced in Brooklyn touted their hometown.
