That’s a lot of bier, folks!
A Carroll Gardens brewhouse recently completed a massive expansion, allowing it to quadruple its output of beer and experiment with new styles of tasty suds. Folksbier Brauerei has expanded its Luquer Street production facility from three barrels to 10, which will help it to quench the thirst of even more Brooklyn beeristas with its popular German-style lagers, sours, and ales, according to its founder.
“It was a long time coming,” said Travis Kauffman. “We had always intended to get up to a larger scale when we opened.”
The brewer launched the operation in 2014, when he single-handedly started making beers in a restaurant’s storage space. When the eatery closed two years later, he annexed the space and turned it into a tasting room.
Kauffman and his team took advantage of the new, larger tanks to make Folksbier’s first double-hopped India Pale Ale, dubbed Batch 001, which is stronger than the brewery’s usual fare in both taste and alcohol content, and which quickly became a hit among customers.
“We are sold out now. We’re working on another batch and we’ll have one out within a month,” Kauffman said. “The hops are all aromatic and there’s a soft fluffy mouth feel — but it’s well balanced.”
Kauffman and his team are also pumping out larger amounts of their bestseller Old Bavarian Lager, and new versions of their popular sour Glow Up series, to which they add unusual seasonal flavors such as cucumber and lime, raspberry, and blackberry. The brewers also experimented with adding fermented leftover bagels from Black Seed Bagels to the Glow Up series, giving the beverage a bread-like tang.
“It does give it a certain breadiness in a really nice way,” Kauffman said.
A series of these constantly-rotating brews are available on tap in the brewery’s tasting room, which also features a menu of Mexican dishes to pair with your beverage. The brewery also plans to invite guest chefs to host different pop-up foods.
Kauffman is already looking to grow even further. He is setting up a lager-focused brewery in Red Hook, where he plans to make tasty beverages soon, he said.
“We have a building and equipment, so we’re just finishing up our expansion on Luquer Street and it would be great to see it through end of year or early next year,” he said.
Folksbier [101 Luquer St. between Clinton Street and the BQE in Carroll Gardens, www.folks
