The best beer gardens and beer halls in NYC

Grimm is among the most inventive brewers in the business. You'll find unique flavors like "Butterfly Door," a double IPA with gummy bear hops and notes of pineapple, guava, lime, coconut, orange blossoms, mango, gumdrops, and creamsicle inside its Bushwick brewery. Sours also abound, and a rotating roster of artists design the cans. Snacks are available to pair with your suds. 

After years spent manning the tanks at Greenpoint Beerworks, head brewer Sam Richardson built his own IPA-driven brewery. The 4,000-square-foot operation produces hops-forward beers, including a West Coast–style IPA, a cask-conditioned Motueka pale ale and a black ale brewed with winter barley. Heavier selections include an imperial stout and sour beers. The factory is open for hops-head visits on weekends, and the tap room next door—with a cherrywood bar and exposed lightbulbs—pours pints and offers mix-and-match six-packs to go.

This woman-owned brewery opened its first taproom in Williamsburg in March of 2021, serving up its refreshing, summer-like, fruit-forward beer as well as cocktails, wine, and snacks in the evenings and coffee and tea in the mornings. It has both indoor and outdoor seating as well as draft and canned beer to go. Talea opened a second, lovely operation in Cobble Hill this summer. 

Open seasonally, this beer garden is a great stop to sip local Brooklyn brews like Coney Island, Five Borough, Kings County Brewers Collective and Brooklyn Cider House, and admire the colorful murals by local artists that adorn the space. 

With its top-flight sound system, sophisticated menu and deeply chill vibes, Nowadays is a slice of Neverland for club kids. Opened by Mister Saturday Night cofounders Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter, Nowadays’ ample outdoor space is the home of its day-party incarnation Mister Sunday and the Ridgewood Market as well as a regular slate of readings and discussions. Inside, DJs spin into the wee hours.

Pop by the grill for a kielbasa with kraut, and steer your brood toward a wood table in this rustic hall. Imaginative visitors just might believe they’re in Bavaria by way of Brooklyn. 

This authentic Czech beer garden offers plenty of mingle-friendly picnic tables, where you can sit while you sample cheap platters of sausage and a solid lineup of European and domestic beers. Though the huge, tree-canopied garden is open year-round, summer is the prime time to soak up some rays over a pint. Prost!

After three and a half years of home-brewing in their Rockaway Beach bungalows, Ethan Long and Marcus Burnett—a set designer and an Emmy-nominated cinematographer, respectively—decided to go pro. Their first beer, the mellow English ale ESB, got a bump from the community when Rockaway Taco and Caracas Arepa Bar started pouring the easy-drinking sipper to shaggy-haired day-trippers at their boardwalk stands. 

This theme park-sized venue seats 350 and boasts dozens of different beers. Gather your crew for a guzzling session around the umbrella-shaded tables on the patio or at one of the communal wood tables inside. Both beer nerds and casual drinkers will find quaffs to their liking among the local suds , everyday bottles and international selections. 

In the late 1800s, Bushwick was known as Brewer’s Row, thanks to its 14 local breweries and thriving beer scene. Kings County Brewers Collective hopes to bring that back. The first to set up shop in the neighborhood since Schaefer closed in 1976, this brewery, warehouse and taproom brews all its suds on the premises. 

One hundred taps dispense craft brews at this massive Greenpoint gastropub, from owner Robert Shamlian (Spitzer's Corner, Fat Baby). The 6,000-square-foot beer hall features a wood-burning oven and a marble bar. Hopped-up drinkers can line their bellies with salty snacks, like sausages and pretzels, from a German-focused menu.

Although this bi-level bar is only a few blocks from Brooklyn Brewery, the suds here are decidedly overseas-centric. Opt for a half-liter of the refreshing German pilsners and lagers; both pair well with a sausage platter and other beer-hall fare.

Located across the street from the Green-Wood cemetery, this beer spot may or not may not be haunted. The team behind this 13,000-square-foot juggernaut didn’t search far for inspiration, using cinder blocks, a car lift and other discards from the previous tenant—an auto repair shop—to decorate the space. A similarly local bent appears in the suds selection: The 60 taps and 20 bottles and cans span domestic and international makers.

There’s no shortage of options for food or drink in the East Village, but this is the only place to get the traditional German biergarten experience, i.e. schnitzel, pretzels, picnic tables, an ample selection of imported teutonic tonics to keep things interesting. This is an outdoor affair, but not to worry–the space is tented and heated.

The rotating list of more than 100 mostly European quaffs here could confound even the nerdiest of microbrew mavens. Flag down a bartender to help you navigate the menu, then take your brew—and a charcuterie snack—to the lush back garden.

Fort Greene’s first German beer garden has the essentials in order. There are 18 brews on tap (crisp Krombacher Pilsner, easygoing Hofbräu Lager) and many more by the bottle. There are plenty of affordable, satisfying small plates to soak it all up, like Berlin’s classic currywurst, plus sidewalk seating.

Don’t let the Standard Hotel’s erstwhile appearance of exclusivity fool you. It presently has a wing and beer bucket happy hour, ping pong tournaments and beer stein holding contests. Nab a picnic table and get casual. 

Not only is Threes serving up some of NYC’s finest craft beers, it’s playing host to good times at its large, inviting, beautifully-designed space in Gowanus. With a menu of tasty gastropub food, this is the kind of place you can build an entire evening around. Plus, there’s an intimate little venue where Threes hosts shows like comedy and music.

Add stainless steel fermentation tanks to Edison bulbs, salumi pizza, grilled cauliflower steak and a shuffleboard table, and you’re in Brooklyn’s industrial version of a German biergarten. It makes for a bar that’s, well, wunderbar. 

A stone's throw from its 19th-century namesake, this Battery Park beer hall spans 4,000-square-feet. Twenty taps rotate selections of hard-to-find brews at the marble bar: Erdinger Hefe Weizen, Urban Chestnut Dorfbier and Pipeworks Blood of the Unicorn Strong Ale, available in pints, half pints or third pints. 

This rustic, 200-seat tavern is fitted with the requisite communal tables, a roaring fireplace and brick-painted murals by Colombian artist Brian Boerner. A rotating selection of 20 beers is tapped through an on-site flux capacitor to balance the ratio of nitrogen and carbon dioxide in each pour. Throw back drafts both local and far-flung.