Coney Island Brewing Company To Open Full Fledged Brewery Actually In Coney Island

Ned Berke -
Coney Island Brewing Co.’s new taps are modeled after the Parachute Jump. (Source: CI Brewing Co.)

My fellow boozies, rejoice! Southern Brooklyn is getting its first full-scale beer brewery in many generations.

Under new ownership, the Coney Island Brewing Company will open a brewery somewhere near the amusement zone, reports Brooklyn Paper, marking the first time since the line’s launch in 2007 that the beer will be made on a large scale within 150 miles of its namesake neighborhood.

A bottle of Mermaid Pilsner donning the old logo next to the Mermaid line’s new logo. (Source: CI Brewing Co.)

According to the report:

A source at craft-brewer Alchemy — a subsidiary of Boston Brewery, which produces Sam Adams — said that plans are underway to start mixing the barley malt and hops at an as-yet undecided spot near the world-famous amusement district. The insider said the fermenting facility should be making suds by summer, in time to quench the crowds thronging the beach and the rides.

The news comes on the heels of an August 2013 sale from the line’s original founders, the San Francisco-based Shmaltz Brewing Company, to Alchemy & Science, the craft beer incubator owned by The Boston Beer Company, which also produces Sam Adams. The sale was reported to be worth $2.9 million.

At the time of the deal, Alchemy’s president Alan Newman said one of his first orders of business would be to build a brick and mortar facility with “at least a 10-barrel brewhouse” in the Coney Island area. But before the dust settled, Newman was telling people he might be forced to consider other neighborhoods.

The entire Coney Island craft beer line got an overhaul after the sale, too. Much of the freak show imagery is now gone, instead focusing on the amusement district as a whole.

“The goal is to broaden out the brand so it represents more than just the freak show and isn’t so scary,” Newman said at the time of the sale. “We want to celebrate the amusement park, the beach, the boardwalk, the hot dogs and all of the things that make Coney Island interesting.”

Thew company’s new logo abandons the freakshow theme for something a little more generic. (Source: CI Brewing Co.)

The new look debuted in November, and the launch was covered extensively by Amusing the Zillion. The company also announced the launch of a new beer – Seas the Day Indie Pale Lager – to hit shelves this month.

While the beer has never been brewed on a large scale in Coney Island, it did operate “the world’s smallest brewery” in a storefront attached to the Coney Island Freak Show. The brewery was wiped out during Superstorm Sandy.

Currently, the beer is still being brewed at Shmaltz’s Clifton Park, New York, facility.