Every few months Garrett and our heady team of brewers conjures up a new recipe for our Brewmaster’s Reserve program. Brewmaster’s Reserve is a draft only selection of beers that really allow the creativity of Garrett and Co. to really shine. The recipes aren’t based on market research or brewing trends. But they are brewed with passion — a passion that we think translates to delicious new beers for you to enjoy.  Below is a nice, if not flowery,  review of our current release, Backbreaker Ale. And be on the lookout for a new recipe, in the next two weeks, at your favorite beer bar: Brooklyn Cookie Jar Porter.

From Life is Beer – Beer is Life

Beer was and for a growing number of artisanal brewers, old and new, is still backbreaking work. Don’t believe me? Ask Garrett Oliver. For the latest Brewmaster’s Reserve, he traveled all the way to the Crisp Maltings in rural Great Ryburgh, England to personally malt his own barley on their 150 years old malting floor which was then transported back to New York to use in his Backbreaker Ale, a quintessential classic English Ale. When you drink this beer, it is very easy to imagine yourself perched at the local pub, pint in hand, making merry, basking in the ambiance, making merry with friends, and enjoying a damn good English ale. The problem with imported English ales is that unless they are bottle-conditioned, more often than not they arrive stale/skunked/damaged. The best way outside bottle-conditioned examples to taste fresh English ale in the USofA is to find a properly brewed craft example of English ale for which you need look no further than the Brooklyn Brewmaster’s Reserve Backbreaker Ale.

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