Flights: Threes Brewing in Brooklyn, New York

(Photo by Bo McMillan)

Swing music was roaring on a cool and candlelit evening the Monday I visited Threes Brewing (333 Douglass St.), a brewery located in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. Inside, patrons filled the psychedelically orange-hued tap room, while outside, the wire-lit courtyard was cordoned off for a variety show on reproductive rights. Talk mostly consumed the bar space and light wood booths, occasionally interrupted by orders from an in-house outpost of the Meat Hook (Ninth Street Espresso is also available on premise). As my tasting glasses fell to empty, the radio segued into Sharon Jones and Chuck Berry and two fellows talked show production in the adjacent stools. It’s a hangout: get the flight, and stay after for a full pour. Five ounce pours are $3-4.–Bo McMillan

Table Beer
4.2% | Saison

Melon, soft carbonation, and a farmy backbone of crackers and hay. A lawnmower beer, but one decaled in light funk.

Vliet
5.2% | Pilsner

Honey comes first in this pilsner, rounding out a body that’s grassy and herbaceous. It finishes on a clean and crackery snap that comes with a hint of black pepper.

The World Is Flat
5.4% | Extra Special Bitter

More orange-colored than your standard, nutty copper ESB, this beer has a biscuity profile laced with flavors of white raisins and orange peel. Mostly on the sweet side, it cleans up with a close that is gently bitter.

Barrel-Aged Bad Faith
5.2% | American Wild Ale

Tasting of a tart peach, this beer is ticklingly acidic and with a fuzzy funkiness that segues into a finish redolent of a bold white wine (Chardonnay feels an apt comparison).

Good On Paper
4.8% | Belgian Pale Ale

Chiclets meet pineapple rind and grapefruit pith, in a beer that starts bracingly bitter then fades to a gentler, dry finish.

There You Are *
6.0% | IPA

The brewery calls this beer “generically tropical,” and it is, indeed, like a more fun, adult version of one of those from-concentrate “tropical mix” or “tropical breeze” drinks the color of old orange juice. Passionfruit, mango and guava form the forefront of this barely bitter IPA, and though I don’t usually favor the style, this one—I’ll take another.

*Order the full pint