USA, NY: NYC’s beer scene about to explode

NYC’s beer scene is about to explode this fall, with the New York Times reporting that new breweries, bars, and taprooms are all slated to open soon including, most notably, an official brick-and-mortar location for the cult-followed Evil Twin Brewing that has been years in the making.

Evil Twin’s Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergso has been held up with delays for over two years, but his permanent brewery in Ridgewood is finally on the horizon, scheduled to open at last in November. He’s settling down in Ridgewood in a massive space at 1616 George St., between Wyckoff and Cypress avenues, that includes an indoor bar, a beer garden, and a year-round greenhouse. Popular Williamsburg barbecue restaurant Fette Sau will have a permanent food truck in the space.

Under the Evil Twin banner, Jarnit-Bjergso has been brewing IPAs and other beers since 2010, launching in Denmark and hopping around to 10 breweries from around the world to make the product. But he’s always been a gypsy brewer, and though his wife previously owned the Greenpoint bar Tørst, one of the few places to serve Evil Twin on tap, this will be his first permanent brewery.

To make matters more interesting, Evil Twin comes hot on the heels of the opening of his rival brother Mikkel Borg Bjergsø’s brewery Mikkeller in Queens, prompting the Post to declare their beer battle one of the “most dramatic restaurant wars” right now.

Also on the horizon according to the Times, tiny Williamsburg beer bar Beer Street will open a second, bigger location in Prospect Heights at 550 Vanderbilt Ave., near Pacific Street in December. As with the original, compact bar, this Beer Street will specialize in farmhouse ales, sours, and other small-batch offerings including selections from Other Half in Brooklyn and Kent Falls in Connecticut. There will also be cider on tap, draft wine, cocktails, and sodas flavored with bay leaves. For food, there will be sandwiches from Bushwick’s Foster Sundry.

Torch & Crown Brewing Company is also opening an on-site brewery, event space, and kitchen in the One Soho Square towers — located at 161 Avenue of the Americas, between Spring and Vandam streets — as well as a 2,500-square-foot outdoor beer garden. The company has a brewery in the Bronx, too, and will add a taproom there at the same time. In the Soho taproom, Manhattan beer and charcuterie bar the Cannibal will provide food.

Beer bars and breweries are still going strong in NYC, with Grimm Artisanal Ales recently opening a permanent brewery in East Williamsburg and a Braven Brewing Company brewery in Bushwick set to open soon. Harlem also recently got a beer bar called Harlem Hops that became a quick hit.

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