In the first part, I tell you all about the breweries we visited in the beginning of our road trip in the east coast of the US (e.g. Fidens, Trillium, etc).
In this follow up, I’ll share all we got to experience about the craft beer scene in the Big Apple and its surrounding areas.
After dropping off the rental car, it was time for some relaxation. We managed to get a nice hotel with a Manhattan view and a mini fridge: a must to keep our beverages cold.
This was the lovely view from the terrace of our hotel.
Other Half
Next day, we set ourselves to walk around the city and explore a bit, only to be caught in the rain an hour later. That was a pub call right there.
Luckily, we were very close to the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, where Other Half has a tap room.
We did some tasting and had a lovely chat with some people around there.
Once the rain had cleared, we continued our touristy day in NYC.
A few days after, we managed to visit their brewery in Brooklyn.
The beer selection here is much bigger than that of the Rockefeller location, so I highly recommend making your way to Brooklyn.
A lot of merchandise is also unique to this location.
One of the guys behind the bar, Chris, was crazy enough to gift us two mixed 4-packs of their latest releases after finding out about our honeymoon trip, how great is that!? It made our day. You rock, Chris!
Evil Twin
One day we arranged a meeting with some friends at the Dumbo Taproom of Evil Twin. We started out with a flight of beers that also included an IPA from Root+Branch.
Once I picked my favorite (a Hazy Double IPA from Evil Twin), I went for it.
Not without keeping ourselves hydrated with Evil Water!
Finback
Another brewery we visited was Finback, well known in the old continent. We first went to their Brooklyn Taproom.
First thing we got was a flight of beers of their new stuff on tap.
Then we picked one of their cans.
The guy behind the bar was really cool and gave us a lot of recommendations around the area. So that day we went to one of these places, but not without purchasing some merchandise first!
While walking around Manhattan, we also found some more Finback.
A few days later, Finback was celebrating their 8th anniversary, so we headed over to their brewery pub located in Queens.
They were pouring some special brews for the special occasion, including a Triple IPA and Whale Watching, a solid double IPA hopped with Mosaic, Citra, Idaho 7, Strata and Nelson.
The party mood was on that day! Since it was a special day, we decided to visit their Brooklyn Taproom one more time before calling it a night.
As we have tried every new beer, we stayed with Whale Watching, but also had some BA Banana Drip: a Barrel Aged Imperial Stout.
If you’re ever in New York city, I highly recommend visiting their Brooklyn Taproom.
And to finish off this section with a funny anecdote, that night I forgot my debit card behind the bar — too many Whale Watching I guess :D
Fifth Hammer
We went to Fifth Hammer because it was recommended by one of the Finback guys, but also because it was on our way back to the hotel.
It is a great brewery pub, and all their equipment is visible to the public if you go in.
Since it was our first time hearing from them, we sampled many of their IPAs.
Also some Nitro Stouts for a changer.
They are located in Long Island City, definitely recommend checking them out if you’re around the area.
End of the trip
We managed to visit plenty of breweries and pubs, but that wasn’t all! I also managed to successfully trade some beers with a fellow beer guy from California (the whole topic deserves another post).
During my trading adventure, I also went to New Jersey to trade a few more in person with a lovely beer fanatic.
Oh… This was the reason I went to Jersey :)
After 8 nights in NYC, it was time to pack and go back home. The question was: how many cans can we carry in our luggage?
The answer was 13 (all we had). They were all perfectly packed in Ziploc bags (to endure the pressure changes in the air) and bubble wrap, so they successfully made it back home in mint condition.
That was pretty much our honeymoon adventure in the Big Apple. To finish this post, here’s a postcard photo I took from the Top of the Rock, overlooking the Empire State building.
Hope you enjoyed these post series!
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Cheers.
