The Best Craft Beer Bars in New York

Other Half is the brewery most responsible for New York's hazy IPA reputation, and the Carroll Gardens taproom is still the best place to understand what the fuss is about. The rotating tap list changes several times a week, with new small-batch releases that sell out at the walk-up window before noon on Saturdays. All Together IPA is the consistent anchor, but the single-hop DIPA series is where the real technical work happens.

Order: All Together IPA or whatever DIPA was released that week

Threes has built a reputation on clean lagers and accessible ales in a market that rewards complexity above everything else, and the Gowanus taproom is the most welcoming space in Brooklyn's craft beer scene. The Vliet Pilsner is served properly cold and tastes like it was made by someone who has actually studied Czech lager tradition. The kitchen serves until late, and the back space fills with Gowanus locals who treat this as their regular, which it should be.

Order: Vliet Pilsner or the Logical Conclusion Pale Ale

Transmitter operates out of Queens and produces the most technically serious farmhouse ales in New York. Their mixed-culture programme — including a series of barrel-aged saisons and Brettanomyces-driven ales — is as good as anything being made in this style anywhere in the Northeast. The taproom is small and the pours are expensive, but the beers justify the price with the kind of complexity that takes years of fermentation work to achieve.

Order: F4 Saison or the current barrel-aged mixed-culture release

Torst is the most beautiful craft beer bar in New York, designed by artist Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergso with a tap system that maintains every keg at a precise individual serving temperature. The beer list is European-focused and curatorially serious — Danish farmhouse ales, German lagers, Belgian lambics — in a way that requires bartenders who know what they are talking about. This is the bar for drinkers who are curious about European craft brewing and want a knowledgeable guide through it.

Order: Ask the bartender for a Danish recommendation and trust them

Proletariat is East Village's most serious craft beer destination: eighteen rotating taps, a no-TV policy, and a knowledgeable staff that treats a conversation about beer as part of the service rather than an interruption to it. The tap list rotates constantly with a strong emphasis on Northeast breweries, and the narrow, low-lit space keeps things focused on what is in the glass rather than on the surrounding noise. One of the best beer bars in Manhattan, consistently.

Order: Ask for the most recent Northeast release on tap

Brooklyn Brewery's Williamsburg taproom is as close to a mandatory stop as craft beer gets in New York. The Sunday open house format — pours sold by tokens, the full tap list available, a crowd that ranges from first-timers to beer writers — makes for the most democratic craft beer experience in the city. The Sorachi Ace Saison is the most interesting beer they make regularly, though the collaboration releases and seasonal specials give you reasons to return across the year.

Order: Brooklyn Lager for context, Sorachi Ace for pleasure

Fifth Hammer occupies a corner of LIC that most Manhattan-based drinkers never visit, and that distance keeps it exactly the kind of neighbourhood taproom that New York's best brewery scenes are built around. The beers are hop-forward without being single-minded — solid pale ales, well-made stouts, and a rotating seasonal programme that reflects the calendar rather than the trends. The dog-friendly policy and the reasonable prices make it a regular for the surrounding residential neighbourhood.

Order: The rotating IPA or the Blonde Ale

Interboro combines a brewery and distillery in Bushwick and does both well enough that the combination does not feel like a compromise. The IPAs are hop-forward and technically sound, the spirits programme produces whisky and gin that the beer crowd eventually notices when they are between rounds. The taproom is large, the sound level is manageable, and the Bushwick location means the surrounding neighbourhood provides a reliable crowd seven nights a week.

Order: The IPA or the Pale Ale, depending on current rotation

SingleCut names their beers after rock music references and produces them in Astoria with more technical skill than the branding suggests. The 19-33 Queens Lager is one of the better New York-brewed lagers available on tap anywhere in the city, and the seasonal IPA releases hold up against anything coming out of Brooklyn. The Astoria taproom draws a neighbourhood crowd that appreciates both the music references and the fact that a well-made lager is $7.

Order: 19-33 Queens Lager or the Jan Olympic Ales IPA series

Finback is Queens' most serious craft beer operation, producing IPAs and experimental ales from a Glendale location that requires intentional travel rather than happy stumbling. The extra effort is worth making: their hop programme runs consistently through hazy, West Coast, and session variants, and the barrel-aged and mixed-culture releases are properly ambitious in a way that most Queens beer bars are not. One of New York's most underappreciated craft breweries.

Order: Whatever IPA is on the rotating fresh release tap