Looking for the hottest neighborhood to grab a pint? Grab the 7 train at Grand Central to Long Island City, which will soon get its fourth brewery since 2012.
First came Rockaway Brewing Company, run by co-owner Ethan Long, then Big Alice and Transmitter. The neighborhood continues to be on “a vertical climb,” he says.
Production capacity at Rockaway grew tenfold after a recent expansion, which is “still tight” to meet demand for their beers, which he characterizes as old London with an American twist: “Even our IPAs tend to have a different kind of malty structure, less hop-forward — solid, drinking beers.”
Long and his co-founder, Marcus Burnett, started out in LIC largely out of convenience. But he credits Queens residents with supporting their idea from the beginning and helping to “create a hotbed of brewing.”
RELATED: New York City Beer Week 2015 preview
“[Craft beer] was growing four to five years ago, but now we’re catching full wind in the sails,” he says. “People see what’s been building under the surface with a huge home brew scene, a lot of talent in New York City [and] a lot of appreciation of beer that’s now come into the limelight.”
Homebrewing is how Long and Burnett started out, honing their recipes in a backyard in the Far Rockaways for more than three years before opening the brewery. And it’s sunny days on the boardwalk that Long recalls when asked about what he likes to pair with beer: “At the beach, a good fish taco is always one of our favorites during the summer.”
Something to look forward to.
