Brooklyn Brewery

Brooklyn Brewery poured its last pint at 79 North 11th Street on 29 August 2026, after 30 years in that warehouse.2 The brewery is not gone. It is moving four blocks to 1 Wythe Avenue, into a building nearly four times the size. The grand opening is announced for this fall.1

Why go

Garrett Oliver has been brewmaster here since the tasting room opened in 1996. His own account of the block back then is the best short history of what changed around it. Back in 1996, the Williamsburg/Greenpoint borderlands was a place where lots of fun stuff was happening ... but it was a very different neighborhood then, and taxis weren't exactly lining up to take you there.1 The company calls him its James Beard Award-winning brewmaster. It says the beer now reaches more than half the United States and over thirty countries.4

The 41,000 square feet at Wythe Avenue run over three levels. A ground-floor Main Hall anchors it and its walls of doors open onto the street. A terrace bar sits on the roof.1 3 It carries the first full kitchen the brewery has ever had. Michael Ayoub, who founded the Brooklyn pizzeria Fornino, built the menu around Neapolitan pies.2 A second kitchen goes in for demos, wired to livestream.6

The plant downstairs becomes the company's global research and development centre. Oliver's brewers will run the small batches and the experiments there. The tours and the guided tastings are meant to come back once it runs.3 I haven't found anyone writing about what is in the glass.

What locals & experts say

Eric Ottaway, the brewery's CEO, on why they moved (Brooklyn Paper, 18 August 2026): We've spent thirty years building something special on North 11th Street, and now we have the chance to take everything we've learned. All of it goes into a space worthy of what the brewery has become.1
Laura Ratliff, at Time Out New York, on what the new site is meant to be (15 May 2026): The brewery that helped define Williamsburg's beer scene is now building the kind of all-day destination Williamsburg eventually became.3
Brooklyn Brewery, on the reason it exists at all: the company was started with a dream to return brewing to Brooklyn, once a powerhouse of American beer production.4

Good to know

Status: the North 11th Street tasting room is shut. The company's own hours block reads closed on every day of the week.4
Where it is going: 1 Wythe Avenue, four blocks away, inside the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Industrial Business Zone.1
What moved with it: the stained-glass B sign went over to Wythe Avenue during the summer.2
Beyond beer: the new bar pours wine and cocktails, which is a first here.2

Verdict

could-visit — Buy the Stonewall Inn IPA off a shelf while you wait; the brewery makes it in support of the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative.

Brooklyn Brewery.