Brooklyn Lager Enters the Men's Journal Craft Beer Hall of Fame

Men's Journal

We sat down with Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery, to get the lowdown on their iconic Brooklyn Lager—the first beer to be inducted into our Craft Beer Hall of Fame.

Transcript

00:00So I have to say, this is very cool.

00:08Do you mind if I do this with it?

00:10I'm Garrett Oliver. I'm brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery.

00:13This is my hat, known as the Crown Prince.

00:15And together, we rule over this place.

00:26It's kind of funny because after all these years,

00:29you still feel like the snot-nosed kid, the insurgent.

00:32And in a certain way, as craft brewers, all of us still are.

00:37Well, Steve Hinde and Tom Potter started the company.

00:40Steve and I knew each other when we were both home brewers

00:43back in the late 80s and early 90s.

00:45By the time I came on in 94,

00:47I think Brooklyn Lager had started to lose its way flavor-wise a little bit.

00:51So I just kind of tightened things up.

00:54That's pretty good if I do say so myself.

00:56When Brooklyn Lager was introduced,

00:59basically beer was one kind of yellow, fizzy liquid.

01:03That was the stuff that people knew as beer.

01:05When people saw Brooklyn Lager, the first thing they said is,

01:08what's wrong with it?

01:10What do you mean what's wrong with it? It's beautiful. It's dark.

01:13It's like, well, it's amber-colored because it has some caramelized malts.

01:16What's that smell?

01:18It's like, oh, well, we've added some hops,

01:20It's like, oh, well, we've added some hops,

01:22and they would taste it. It's like, my God, it's so bitter.

01:25And then immediately it's like, get out.

01:27I don't want anything from Brooklyn.

01:29This isn't beer. Like, what are you talking about?

01:31And literally, people would freak out, and they would be angry.

01:37Really, the thing that we always had confidence in

01:40was other people's good taste.

01:42Put the beer in front of them, let them drink it,

01:45and let them come around to their own conclusion.

01:47Every cultural event, et cetera, that happened in Brooklyn,

01:50we were always there.

01:52We were among the founding people to support Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival.

01:56And people would taste the beer, and they'd say,

01:58you know what? This is pretty good.

02:02I think today Brooklyn Lager is in 36 or 37 countries.

02:06I've had it everywhere from Shanghai to Australia.

02:11Absolutely worldwide.

02:13What was a strange little beer 25 or 30 years ago

02:18has grown into the everyday beer for so many people all over the world.

02:22But we haven't changed. Everybody else changed.

02:26We stayed exactly where we were, and we waited for them to come to us.

02:30The easy way would have been,

02:32why don't we dumb it down a little bit so that you can be fine with it?

02:36Flavor's too big? We'll dumb it down.

02:38Color's too dark? We'll dumb it down.

02:40Aroma's too big? We'll dumb it down.

02:42And instead, we held firm, and we said,

02:45this beer is exactly the beer we want to drink,

02:47and eventually we think that a lot of people will come to like it.

02:50And they did.

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