Last week in the blog, I briefly touched on the fact that Chelsea Market Baskets is now carrying a carefully curated selection of beers and hard ciders. We received our New York State Liquor Authority license and brought in a special buyer, Dale West Englebert, to consult on the new addition to the store.
Craft beers have been steadily increasing in popularity in the New York City hospitality landscape – restaurants are offering more sophisticated beers to complement dishes, and beer at a dinner out is as acceptable as ordering a glass of wine. Breweries have long been part of the New York City tradition, but like everything have waxed and waned in number due to influence from arriving cultures, availability of resources and public opinion (or law!). From 1850-1900, New York was the largest producer of hops, and to use all of the upstate growth, brewers of all nationalities, but especially German, tapped into the fresh water that was being funneled into city. When Prohibition shut the doors of the bigger breweries, the general interest in beer waned because it was easier to distill hard liquor than homebrew. Post-Prohibition beer consumption was marked by big brand distribution- names like Rheingold, Anheuser-Busch, Pabst, Miller, and Coors absolutely dominated the market.
Now, I did a good bit of reading for this post, and couldn’t find a pivotal moment when all of a sudden craft beers took off, but several current brewers, including Sal Pennacchio of Yankee Brewing Company, cited Michael Jackson’s book The World Guide To Beer to opening their eyes to the depth that beer can have!
Whatever the catalyst, New York, both city and state, is now home to a flourishing industry of beer makers, and CMB proudly carries the most unique, interesting, and quaffable varieties.
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