Educational Media Reviews Online

Brewed in Brooklyn is a fun blend of informative historical reflection, current contextual information, and enthusiastic prognostication for the future of beer-making in Brooklyn. In the early to mid-1800s a wave of German immigration to Brooklyn prompts development of one of the U.S.’s first commercial brewing industries. The growth of the industry and the economic and cultural impact on Brooklyn and the surrounding areas is both significant and lengthy, lasting several generations. The film traces that impact through Prohibition, right up to the disastrous industry strike of 1949, through subsequent decline and stagnancy of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The re-emergence of industrial brewing started in part by the Brooklyn Brewery, along with a gradual gentrification of Brooklyn, reignites interest in local breweries and microbreweries. A new and growing interest in homebrewing also contributes to a brewing Renaissance in the borough.

Recommended for college students through general adult audiences interested in the history of a once-formidable and resurgent industry in Brooklyn.