Erik loooves beer. I do not. But every once in a while, I make a valiant effort to develop an appreciation. For Erik’s birthday in September, I booked us two spots on the Fermented NY walking tour through Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We saw a story about the tour in an issue of Edible Brooklyn, and we had both been eyeing it. The tour promised many samples of beer and food, as well as a lesson on the local beer-making history.

We started the tour at Mug’s Ale House, a down-to-earth old school favorite with locals:

We had three samples of beer, including one pumpkin ale (I always get excited for this, even though I end up disappointed when I realize it tastes more like beer than pumpkin), along with nachos and wings.

The food in front of me disappeared. The beer did not.

Lucky Erik pretty much got to have double portions of beer at each stop. No matter how I try, I just cannot like it!

I can, however, pose with it:

Next stop was the famous Brooklyn Brewery.

We discovered that “local” only means so much, however. The beer may be brewed right in Brooklyn, but the malt comes from Germany!

The tour included a full beer from the on-site bar:

As usual, Erik ended up with both of them after I took a few good sport sips:

Our super-hip tour guide gave us an excellent rundown of the brewing process.

We learned about the barrels and vats and tubes and all sorts of technical beer stuff.

I was mostly impressed by the kitty cozying up on top of the barley bags.

Next, we stopped outside of Teddy’s Bar & Grill, which still boasts the original stained glass from its days as Peter Doelger’s Extra Beer brewery in the mid-1800s.

We even saw the remnants of the separate women’s entrance that the bar had back in the day.

After Teddy’s, we moved onto the Spuyten Duyvil Grocery:

Spuyten Duyvil Grocery is a little fancy foods shop that wants to be a beer store. Due to the law that any establishment that sells beer must also sell at least 50% food, the shop is stocked with gourmet pickles and jams and cookies and crackers and other fun treats:

Next was the Sputen Duyvil bar, obviously under the same ownership as the shop.

We went straight to the garden. I love the backyards of Brooklyn restaurants! Each one is such a surprise.

We got a beautifully colorful flight of three beers, along with fresh bread, spicy sorpressata, and a fancy goaty-sheepy cheese.

The garden also had its own fig tree!!! I was so excited about this:

Posing with the fig:

Our last stop was Barcade.

This place is Williamsburg through and through. It’s a super casual yet hip bar, and its walls are lined with …

… actual original arcade games! You can see some in the background here:

We had our many beer samples, and then our guide gave us all quarters so we could go play.

I picked Tetris; Erik played Punch Out.

It was fun to be able to explore a local neighborhood through a new perspective. I would definitely go on another Urban Oyster tour. They even have one for food carts. That is next on my list, of course 🙂 We had a great time but were completely wiped out by the end of this. I fell into bed and napped for three hours when we got home. Yayyy for local history! To me, beer still does not taste good.