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For three decades, Brooklyn Brewery’s big green “B” has been practically synonymous with Williamsburg. Now, the brewery is preparing to pour its last pint at the North 11th Street tasting room it has called home since 1996.
Brooklyn Brewery will close its longtime location at 79 North 11th Street after service on Saturday, August 29, ending a 30-year run at the warehouse that watched Williamsburg transform dramatically around it. But no need to start panic-buying Brooklyn Lager six-packs: the brewery itself isn’t closing. It’s moving just four blocks away.
The brewery’s new headquarters at 1 Wythe Avenue is nearly four times the size of its current home and is expected to begin a soft opening later this summer, followed by a grand opening celebration this fall. The sprawling new space will include a rooftop terrace bar, expanded brewing facilities, event spaces and a full kitchen—a first for Brooklyn Brewery.
Before North 11th Street goes dark, though, the brewery is giving its original tasting room a proper send-off. On August 29, it will host “Farewell Party: One Last Night at 79 N 11th,” starting at 9 pm. The event is free with an RSVP, giving longtime regulars one final chance to raise a glass inside the space.
The new brewery will have a full food menu developed with chef Michael Ayoub, founder of popular Brooklyn pizza spot Fornino, focused on Neapolitan-style pizzas and other dishes designed to pair with beer. The bar will also venture beyond brews for the first time, adding wine, cocktails and other drinks.
The much larger facility will also serve as Brooklyn Brewery’s global R&D center, enabling more small-batch and experimental brewing. Brewery tours and guided tastings, both longtime favorites at the old location, are also expected to return once the new digs are fully operational.
Brooklyn Brewery has already started physically carrying some of its history into the next chapter: its stained-glass “B” sign made the trip from North 11th Street to Wythe Avenue earlier this summer.
The old tasting room may be disappearing, but Brooklyn Brewery is hardly leaving the neighborhood. If anything, after 30 years in Williamsburg, it just needed a little more elbow room—and apparently a rooftop and a pizza oven.