By Tammy Scileppi
If you think Brooklyn when you hear the word brewery, think again.
Queens has more breweries than any other borough, and new ones are popping up all the time.
In honor of this, the second annual Queens Beer Week continues through this weekend with events at dozens of bars, restaurants and breweries, all leading up to the finale May 17 at Finback Brewery in Glendale to mark its one-year anniversary.
“Myself and a few other bar managers and owners came up with Queens Beer Week last year as a way to encourage New York Cityers to come and visit all the great neighborhood bars and breweries here in Queens,” Dan Bronson, Queens Beer Week organizer and manager of Crescent and Vine in Astoria, said. “We have such a storied and personable nightlife scene, and it was time we threw ourselves, and several thousand guests, a party. We believe strongly in local business and our regional economy, and we want QBW to continue to be a non-profit, no-cost week to bolster our amazing borough.”
Although more than 70 breweries are taking part this year, SingleCut Beersmiths (19-33 37th St., Astoria) is once again brewing the official beer of QBW.
But its tap list also includes a new India Pale Ale called “Is This the Real Life?” Cherry Sour Lagrrr and Hibiscus Sour Lagrrr.
Over at Sunswick 35/35 (35-02 35th St., Astoria), beer buyer and manager Tommy Ortega is overseeing the Beer Week events.
“We’ll be turning over just about all of our 24 taps to all the great breweries currently operating in Queens,” Ortega said. “For someone who has sold beer in the borough in some form or another since 2004, it’s amazing how much the craft beer scene has grown.”
The venue’s showcase event will take place Friday, May 15, from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m., when Sunswick 35/25 teams up with Barrier Brewing Co. for its second Taste the Rainbow night.
“We’ll showcase seven different beer styles that aren’t necessarily ones you would see every day, like India pale ales or Belgian-style wheat beers,” he said. “For example, one of the beers we’ll be pouring is Barrier’s Uncle Boon’s Brew, which is a pale lager brewed with chili peppers and lime.”
Several Long Island City-based breweries, like LIC Beer Project and Big Alice Brewing, will be offering tours and beer samples on May 16.
Big Alice (8-08 43rd Road, Long Island City) has been raising the suds bar and luring beer-loving customers with their enticing specialty brews since 2013.
It seems unlikely that a young guy from Little Chute, Wis., would decide to settle in (of all places) Queens, where he’d open up his very own craft brewery. But that’s just what happened back in 2008 when Kyle Hurst, now 40, was introduced to Robby Crafton, a young man who shared his lifelong lust for beer.
Their plan was to experiment with beer recipes that were infused with ingredients that came from available sources that were local, organic, or both.
Fast forward to early 2013 when Hurst and his team put up that odd-looking sign at the entrance and raised frosted beer mugs as a toast to Big Alice.
So, what’s behind the name?
“Big Allis is a local landmark and was my point of reference to family and friends when I moved to New York in 2008,” Hurst said. “I would point out the giant red and white smoke stacks on the Queens skyline as being only a couple blocks from where I worked at the time (Arista Air Conditioning).”
The locals’ nickname for the Ravenswood Generating Station, on Vernon Boulevard and 36th Avenue, Big Allis comes from the name of its builder, Allis-Chalmers Corp.
Hurst and Crafton opted to alter the spelling to Alice because that contains the abbreviation for their neighborhood, LIC.
During beer week, all breweries are getting together and doing a passport. Snag one of these passports at any Queens brewery, then get it stamped for each brewer you visit or try. Complete the set by May 17, and you’re entered to win a prize.
Thanks to Queens Beer Week, beer lovers far and wide will be reminded that there’s plenty of suds action on this side of the Newtown Creek.
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