Harlem Brewery: Homebrewing Inspires a Business

To celebrate our exhibition Beer Here: Brewing New York’s History, the New-York Historical Society is hosting a series of Saturday beer tastings run by local breweries in the exhibit’s Beer Hall. The program will run from May 26 through August 25; half-hour tastings will start at 2pm and 4pm. Not only will visitors get to taste some of these local creations, but there will be hops, whole leaf flowers and other beer ingredients for people to touch, smell and experience. Tickets are $35 unless otherwise noted.

What does beer have to do with soup? More than you may think, according to Celeste Beatty, founder of Harlem Brewing Company. “One tradition in my family is making great soups from dried beans they grew, and they often would put a little of beer into those recipes because they liked the flavor. When I started homebrewing, it was sort of inspired by liking the flavor of what foods taste like when you cook with beer.”

Eventually, Beatty realized that cooking and brewing had even more in common. “It all comes down to quality ingredients, locally sourced if possible,” she said. Those quality ingredients, plus a nod to Harlem’s past, is what inspired their Sugar Hill Golden Ale. Harlem has been a center of beer brewing since the 1600s, through prohibition when brewing beer and liquors went underground, and soon Harlem Brewing Company itself will move brewing from Saratoga Springs, NY right back to Harlem. Mayor Bloomberg’s Create @ Harlem Green development will house the brewery, as well as grow hops on the roof.

“We’re encouraged by the good that beer can do, with supporting so many local institutions, and the support we’ve gotten for the brand,” says Beatty. Harlem Brewery has cultivated partnerships with everyone from Lincoln Center to the Apollo to Sylvia’s soul food restaurant. But Beatty never forgets what first inspired her; Harlem Brewery’s website features a series of recipes incorporating Sugar Hill, from sweet thyme pork chops to hot wings.

Harlem Brewery will be hosting a tasting at the beer hall in Beer Here: Brewing New York’s History on June 23 at 2pm and 4pm.