It's not five o'clock yet, but let's talk beer anyway. New York City is experiencing a beer-making renaissance: from well-established brands like Brooklyn Brewery and Sixpoint, to outerborough upstarts like Bronx Brewery and Finback, there are more beer-makers operating in the city now than in decades. But once, there were breweries all over the place, with particularly high concentrations in Brooklyn and Queens; many of those sites have since turned residential, as chronicled in a recent New York Times article; Heck, for all you know, you may be living in a place where hops were once king. Curious? Check out this map of some of the bigger breweries that have either become residential developments or are ripe for residential development. Bottoms up!
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Mapping New York City's Breweries Gone Residential

Rheingold Brewery
Also known as the S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewing Co., this brewery was demolished in 1981 and the Bushwick lot has sat vacant since then. As of August, Simon Dushinsky’s Rabsky Group has been working to develop 977 units across 10 buildings on the site, with the centerpiece being a 392-unit ODA-designed structure at 10 Montieth Street.
Rheingold Brewery
While the main brewery was located up at at 10 Montieth Street, this site was also part of Rheingold's Brooklyn empire. Since the early 2000s, it has been the Rheingold Gardens affordable housing complex. [Image via Bluestone]
Nassau Brewing Company
The Nassau Brewing Company made beer on this Crown Heights site until 1914, after which Heinz used the site to produce canned goods. By 1941, it was a used car and auto body shop. By 2001, it belonged to a moving and storage company. As of January, the plan by Crow Hill and architect Formactiv is to convert it into a mixed-use complex with ground-floor retail and 38 apartments. There is even talk of a restaurant in the underground vaults that date back to 1860. [Image via Brownstoner>]
Nassau Brewing Company
Also once part of the Nassau Brewing Company site, this site is being developed by Yael Goldman as a new eight-story, glassy, ODA-designed apartment building for 119 units. [image via New York YIMBY]
F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Co.
After operating at sites in Manhattan on Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and Park Avenue, Schaefer began producing beer at this Williamsburg site in 1916. It did so until the company announced the site’s closure in 1976. By that time, Schaefer had a new brewery running near Allentown, Pennsylvania. In 2006, a new mixed-use building opened on the south end of the site. Called Schaefer Landing, it has two towers jutting up from its base, and houses 350 residential units.
F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Co.
This is the site of two warehouses that served the brewery. The are being demolished so former New York governor turned real estate man Eliot Spitzer can built three 24-story, ODA-designed residential buildings that will hold 856 rental apartments.
William Ulmer Brewery
William Ulmer was a German immigrant who, in 1871, founded his own eponymous brewery. In the 1890s, he constructed the machine house and engine room on this block in Bushwick—and though Prohibition all but ended the brewery's production, the buildings remain. Along with a two-story office building constructed in 1885, they were designated as landmarks by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2010. The machine house and engine room are on the market and ripe for residential conversion while the office is privately owned. [Image via LPC]
Brooklyn Brewery
While the Brooklyn Brewery isn't going anywhere soon—its lease is good through 2025—it’s still worth noting that the space housing the brewery and the Brooklyn Bowl is for sale and expected to fetch $50 million. When it sold for $16 million in 2011, the buyer reportedly had designs on creating a residential development on the site, so what happens next is anyone's guess. But don't worry about the beer: The brewery is in the process of building a larger space on Staten Island. [Image via Google Maps]
F.W. Witte Brewing Company
This small brewery operated from 1874 to 1903. The site is now home to several residential buildings of varying size and age. [Image via Google Maps]
Peter Doelger Brewing Corporation
This brewery opened in 1859, but eventually relocated to 55th Street somewhere between Avenue A and First Avenue. The original Avenue A location is now a residential building that also houses the Pyramid Club. [Image via Google Maps]
Hell Gate Brewery
The Hell Gate Brewery was created by German immigrant George Ehret in 1866, and by 1877, it was the largest brewery in the country. Named for its proximity to the Hell Gate section of the East River, it occupied the entire area stretching between 91st and 94th Streets and Second and Third Avenues. It stayed open after Ehret’s death, but his family eventually sold out to neighboring brewer Jacob Ruppert in 1935. The area is now occupied by several buildings, some of them residential. [Image via Google Maps]
Jacob Ruppert Brewery
This brewery sprouted up on Third Avenue between East 90th Street and East 93rd Street. Eventually, Ruppert bought out the nearby Hell Gate Brewery. Like the Hell Gate site, this site also now includes several residential buildings, including one named in the beer-maker's honor.
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