This past week, on my way to DC for the Mindful Drinking Fest, I took a brief detour to NYC to visit a friend and attend Third Place Bar’s collaboration NA beer tasting with Talea Beer. It was nothing short of amazing and I barely scratched the surface of the city’s NA scene. I was also there in July, so some reflections from that visit are in this post too. (Talea has 4 locations across NYC and all the breweries in this blog and locations are on my map.)
The first stop on the trip was to drive a bit north to visit Captain Lawrence Brewing, one of the hosts of ABV Technology’s Equalizer Machine. With this, they take their normal beer and remove the alcohol, creating two products: an NA Beer and a base for hard seltzer. Captain Lawrence produces a Clear Creek Pilsener NA from this process and recently began distribution. It is also on draft at both their taprooms. Two pints of this refreshing NA and some six-packs for friends, and we were back on our way to the city. I personally really enjoyed the NA Pilsener which had a full body and flavor.
Back to the city, we had an hour before the NA Beer tasting, so we walked 15 minutes to Keg and Lantern, who have three taprooms in Brooklyn, and just launched multiple of their own NA beer. The beers seem to be doing well and we had a nice pitcher of their NA IPA called “Da Best Thing For U is Me”. This was a good IPA, a little bit thinner than I hoped but still a solid body and a decent hop profile. It sounds like the NA beer did well for them, so hopefully they continue.
A 15-minute walk back and we were at Talea Brewing, where Third Place was hosting the beer tasting. I’d been to Talea in the summer and knew they had tasty NA beers, but was looking forward to trying 4 of them, a hop water, a lager, a sour, and a porter. Unfortunately for us, but good for their business, the porter had sold out already, so Sam at Third Place substituted a dark from Woodland Farms. (Picture by Sam @ Third Place Bar NYC)
The event was amazing. Third Place Bar is an awesome concept and Sam has fun events. Talea’s taproom was incredible, and the beers were excellent. I really liked the Spritzy Sour and its awesome to see them scaling up, canning it, and distributing it locally. I hope to see more breweries lean into their NA beers in a Dry January and it take them to new business horizons like Talea Brewing over the past year. I look forward to attending more Third Place Bar events on NY trips in the future.
There is more, places I’ve been in the past, and places I would go if I had more time. Athletic Brewing is on draft in 20+ places across the city. Good Time Brewing, a new NA beer, is on draft at The Spaniard in Manhattan and has growing distribution across the city. Momentum Brewing, an initiative from the founders of Proof No More and also Great South Bay Brewing is another I would love to visit.
Other Half Brewing has their NA beer on draft, and I was fortunate to visit a different location in DC, but they have 5+ locations with their NA in New York State (all on the map). And Hedlum Brewing is another new local beer, which I didn’t get in NY but was able to try at Mindful Drinking Fest, which is another post for another day. Al’s Lager, Atmosphere 0.0, and Industrial Arts Brewing all call New York home. Brooklyn Brewing is another story.
In short, New York has an exploding NA beer scene, and this is just close to the city. Upstate New York is worth a different feature. I haven’t even covered all the NA bottle shops and bars (go to Zero Proof Nation for that). I also haven’t covered upstate NY which has a growing scene as well. New York is a populated city and state, so one would expect NA options, but being able to get Athletic on draft at many locations, along with NA draft beer at several local breweries, to finding Momentum in the local Bodegas, the city is definitely at the forefront for craft NA Beer.
One can even make the journey to New Jersey and visit Hackensack Brewing for their rotating draft NA beer, I did in the summer and it was worth it.