Brew York 🗽🚖🌃🏳️‍🌈🍺🇺🇦

19 Nov 2024

One thousand followers? Guess I should formally introduce myself to you all! I’m Chris. I’ve been writing about New York’s beer scene for nearly 15 years. I’ve visited over 3,500 breweries in 33 countries. I document that here and in my weekly newsletter (link in bio).

Hello, friends. Asking for your beer recommendations in Bucharest and Chișinău!

I remain astounded by how many breweries do this shit and actually think it looks good enough to post it in their taproom.

I should’ve expected this. The beer is awful. As I’ve said before, if you’re cutting corners on marketing, what else are you half-assing as a brewery?

brewyork.substack.comEnjoy The Peaceful MomentNew York’s best GABF showing since 2009 and a Singapore brewery with NYC ties

This week’s newsletter is out! In this issue: - A beer bar crawl in Shanghai - A rundown of New York’s GABF winners - A Singaporean brewery with local ties

OMG.

What a fest. Eat your heart out, GABF.

brewyork.substack.comThe Great Beer WallIs the world’s best beer bar in China?

Is the world’s best beer bar is China? This week’s newsletter suggests it very well may be.

One final beer at Mingri Brewing in Shanghai before I head home. Quickly became a regular here and the bartender greeted me with a handshake today and seemed genuinely disappointed that it would be my last visit. Love this spot.

Most of my Shanghai beer exploration has involved going to beer bars frequented by locals, having them ask how I found out about them, resulting in them recommending other beer bars also frequented by locals, and the process repeats. 52hZ is the latest such spot. Having a Chinese brewed Zoiglbier!

I’ve been beating this drum for years. It’s fine to call your Marzen “Oktoberfest,” but don’t you dare call it Festbier.

Matthew Curtis@totalcurtis.bsky.social

I am calling for a moratorium on American breweries making Märzen but calling it Festbier. They are two completely different things!!

I did once come across a Festbier labeled as a Märzen, which was even more baffling.

I remain undefeated in showing up at beer bars in foreign countries and being asked “how did you find out about this place?” Beer Garret in Shanghai is one such place, a 10-seat bar where they have the BJCP categories for each beer listed on the menu.

Found the most preposterous beer bar in the world, 233 Bar in Shanghai. 80 taps, the vast majority American, a lineup of cans that would blow away the biggest hophead, a cellar full of rare gems, and a bold mission statement.

Sure, you can’t buy Tree House cans in New York City, but you can buy them in Shanghai and have you considered all the thirsty Chinese beer nerds?

All but one of these are American beers. One of the American beers is from Evil Twin. It’s not the one you think!

Hello from a touristy beer bar and coffee shop in Tianzifang, where there are as many cat as human customers at the moment.

Hey beer team, would love any beer and food recommendations you have in Shanghai, particularly for this American who is intimidated by Mainland China despite all the preparation I’ve done.

Best view from a brewery in the world?

pelliclemag.comWe’re Going To Be Friends — Café Beermoth in Manchester, England — PellicleToday, Café Beermoth is known and loved as a venue that sources exciting beers from independent breweries. But before Beermoth became a café, it was a shop. In February 2013—when its original location...

I’ve spent a lot of time here, some of it even with @totalcurtis.bsky.social!

Pellicle@pelliclemag.com

An ode to Café Beermoth in Manchester, by @totalcurtis.bsky.social, who reckons (after some soul-searching and a lot of research) it is his favourite bar in the world. www.pelliclemag.com/home/2026/9/...

Banked pours of Doom Bar when?

Craft Beer Newcastle@craftbeerncl.bsky.social

Born of the coast • Hartlepool? Molson Coors has agreed heads of terms with Camerons Brewery as its preferred brewing partner for key Sharp's cask ale brands. (via Propel)

I get there’s probably not huge demand for PBR overseas, but I just assumed that this bottle I drank tonight in Singapore would’ve been brewed under contract somewhere closer than 9,500 miles away.

Made to Ho Chi Minh City and stopped into East West Brewing Company, a stunning space on a busy street with some really inventive beers.

Did the thing and did it with the appropriate beer.

brewyork.substack.comFrom the Other Side of the WorldMissives from Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam

A brief summary of where I’ve been the past two weeks in this week’s newsletter.

Okay, sure, let’s call Cold IPA “Steam IPA” now. Words don’t matter anymore, anyway! (In their defense, they literally describe this beer on the can as “blasphemous.”)

This is extremely niche New England-based content, but when I see this brewery in Vietnam, I think: 🎶 We’re beer when you need us, call 1-800-EASTWEST 🎶

A cheeky afternoon pint in Hanoi.

My first beer in Vietnam is Pasteur Street’s Bia Chanh Muôi, a 2.5% ABV stunner with lime and salt that might be my new favorite beer of the trip so far.

It was also the most expensive beer on the menu, at $4.22 US for a pour. The next 7 days in Vietnam are going to be quite kind to my wallet.

I refuse to let my last beer in Thailand be an oxidized Weihenstephan Weizen.

For a country where most things are cheap, beer in Thailand is ridiculously expensive. Just paid $10.81 for a goblet of locally brewed IPA. I know there are reasons, but I’m just astounded that I’ve run up a $20 bar tab already after a $4 taxi ride to the bar.

My dinner entree cost less than half the price of the cheapest draft beer here. Amazing.

When they write my biography, it’ll be titled “Trekking Two Hours Across a Foreign City to Visit a Brewery That’s Unexpectedly Closed: The Chris O’Leary Story”

Lol, now everyone is introducing themselves to me because they saw my IG story from the brewery and say I’m a “beer celebrity” (their words, not mine). The beer is pretty damn great too.

I always say “the beer world is flat.” This could be a brewery anywhere in the world. Patio seating, stainless vessels in view, TVs showing sports, a food cart parked outside, a free popcorn machine… can’t fault a formula that works!

When they write my biography, it’ll be titled “Trekking Two Hours Across a Foreign City to Visit a Brewery That’s Unexpectedly Closed: The Chris O’Leary Story”

This has happened to me more times than I can count. This time it was because there are local elections in Nonthaburi Province today. I did get to peek into the brewery, though!

Nearly had another strikeout, because the brewery was not officially open for the day yet (despite an IG post saying they were open regular hours), but the staff took pity on me and let me stick around.

18 Sept

Weirdly, this Untappd badge looks a lot like my travel plans for the next 12 days.

17 Sept

Welp, it took until my final day, but I finally had a technically flawed craft beer in Korea. They can’t all be winners.

I don’t use Untappd outside of when I travel so I can use it as a reference tool later, but good lord, Koreans must not like Brettanomyces, because this beer was an absolute delight.

Actually, it appears most of the check-ins are from a beer festival in Oslo last weekend, so perhaps it’s the Norwegians that are the problem — or the beer didn’t travel well.

I’m still thinking about the brewery in Seoul that’s charging $88 for an embroidered ball cap with their logo on it. I thought it was a misprint on their mobile ordering page, but then I saw it in their display case for ₩120,000 and my jaw dropped.

Did I mention the brewery’s logo is a man on his hands and knees puking? You’d have to pay *me* to wear that cap in public.

South Korea is now the fourth country where I’ve visited a Goose Island Brewhouse. A-B turned the little Chicago brand into a global craft beer presence. And this is not even the only country where I’ll visit one on this trip. More on that in about two and a half weeks…

15 Sept

As seems to happen anytime I travel internationally, I came across a collaboration beer with a New York City brewery in the wild. This time, it’s Seoul Brewery and Finback Brewery’s Vertical City Hazy IPA.

13 Sept

I may be painfully jet-lagged after 21 hours of travel, but that won’t stop me from getting my first beer in Seoul tonight.

brewyork.substack.comThe Next AdventureA month of beer travel plans and a very balanced brewery

10 Sept

I mention it in this week’s newsletter, but would love your recommendations in Seoul, Bangkok, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore, and Shanghai!

8 Sept

Happy to report that the beer selection at the reopened Ginger Man in Midtown has vastly improved. It is SO back.

brewyork.substack.comThe Green Chile RunA report from a roadtrip through Colorado and New Mexico

3 Sept

New newsletter is out! It recaps the beer highlights of a road trip @kylec.bsky.social and I did to Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico.