I have never been one to hanker for a beer, but recently, late on a hot, summer afternoon, my boyfriend called me to meet him out for a pint. While Brooklyn has no dearth of spots to grab a drink, finding the right atmosphere, and particularly the right drink, can prove a bit more challenging. In search of something with options a bit more sophisticated than Bud Light (though there is a time and a place for everything), we ventured into a cool, quiet bar, tucked away at the end of Smith Street.
Queue Beer opened in January 2023, just a block from Other Half Brewing. Walking from the Smith-9th Streets subway station, a giant, two-story arrow is visible on the side of the brick building, pointing you towards the door, as welcoming as a Vegas neon, but with none of the tackiness. The bar still smells new, with a clean smooth wooden bar, leather stools, and plenty of tables.
Behind the bar you’ll find over 80 different types of beers, sold in cans that can be drunk on the spot, or taken to go. On tap, 24 beers are available on a rotating basis, apart from the two house beers (“Tools of the Trade”, a hoppy, refreshing choice from Industrial Arts in Beacon, NY and “Canal Champagne”, AKA Miller High Life, so titled because $1 from each purchase is donated to the Gowanus Canal Conservancy). For a bar so focused on providing beer lovers an unbeatable range of craft beer, Queue Beer also stands out in what it offers the beerphobic—eight ciders (shipped from as close as New Paltz and as far as Sweden), or an equally thoughtful menu of wines (who could resist an orange wine from a county in California called Yolo?).
You’ll also likely find Shane Monteiro behind the bar. Monteiro’s family opened Carmine Street Beer in Manhattan 2013, where he was responsible for buying the beer. In 2021, the family began looking for a new location as their lease was up. Deliberating on a new location, Monteiro landed on Carroll Gardens. Close to both the Carroll Street and Smith-9th Streets subway stops, and with new developments popping up throughout the neighborhood, he saw the opportunity for a growing market. But even more clearly, he saw how the area was already becoming a haven for beer lovers.
This proliferation of breweries in the past decade is breathing new life into the city’s formerly anemic beer industry. At the turn of the 20th century, Brooklyn boasted 45 breweries, all of which had closed by 1976. The taps began to flow once more in Kings County in 1996, with the advent of Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg. Now, it seems that South Brooklyn is having its heyday.
The afternoon pint at Queue Beer left me curious to know more about the burgeoning beer scene. Soon, I’d sampled them all, starting with Other Half Brewery. Its Centre Street location, just a few doors down from Queue Beer, is casual, with long, wooden tables and the type of backless stools you might find in a middle school art class. Other Half, known for its hazy IPAs, is the most laid back of the area’s breweries. In Red Hook, Strong Rope Brewery, which opened in 2015, boasts some of the best views in the city and prides itself on malt and hop-forward ales. A few blocks away, Keg & Lantern is sleek, with a marble bar, full menu, and even a couple of frozen alcoholic slushie options. Red Hook is even home to Sixpoint (though you’ll have to head to DeKalb Market Hall for its taproom).
In Gowanus, you can find more places to indulge—like Threes Brewing on Douglass Street and Strong Rope’s taproom on President Street. Wild East Brewing Co., on Sackett Street, offers occasional brewery tours, but all week long they serve the delicious English-style lagers they specialize in (along with a range of other styles) in a setting that is both stylish and familiar, the wood-paneled walls reminiscent of your childhood friend’s basement, but more photogenic. Finback Brewery is equally unique, with a long list of beers, “mixed culture” golden ales (containing both cultivated and wild yeast), and cocktails with their house gin. Its warehouse-y location is decorated with an “underground” artist’s paintings, and, in case the beer needs to be soaked up, Dumpling Up is open Thursday through Sunday at the location, serving dumplings, fries, and other Asian-themed bar food.
During the pandemic, people began to have booze delivered to their homes, with Drizzly and other services finding themselves with unprecedented demand. As regulations loosened, bars with to-go cocktails became a new thrill. Now, as the city lurches back to life, breweries are finding the limelight—drawing people out to taste something delicious and socialize. With the area’s beer scene thriving, the only question is—who will open next?
