Bitter and Esters (formerly The City Brewshop)

No this isn't about a Folies Bergère star performer but rather this is about my brother John's new store for all things alcoholic. Or rather for all things about making alcoholic beverages. It used to be called The City Brewshop but they changed it to Bitter and Esters.

700 Washington Ave, in Brooklyn NY.
Phone: 917.596.7261

It's an amazing space. Beautiful! And they crammed it will all the things you will need to make, bottle and enjoy your beer, wine or mead. And take it from me, it's worth making your own bear or mead or even wine. They also have a great space for teaching classes. So, if you aren't a beer, wine or mead maker, you can become one.



John is on the left and Douglas, the other owner, and the mead, cider and wine expert, is on the right. John is the beer expert. Carla, John's main squeeze, is in the middle.

Founders.

They even have a cool basement. I was not allowed to take pictures. Hush, hush, big secret plans for the basement. They have a patio too, which is amazing for Brooklyn.



But I did sneak a picture of their grain storage bin. They're putting in some organic dark chocolate that I brought into the bin for safe keeping.



One reason I went was to visit my brother and Carla as well as to see their new shop. They had a soft opening. The other reason that I went to Brooklyn was to pick up bottling material for bottling my mead.



I listened to Doug and I bought the white champagne caps to go with the champagne bottles I had gotten and I also bought some corks to bottle the still mead and a corker to put the corks in. I also bought baskets for the champagne bottling.



What fun. I tried the mead, this is the high alcoholic, not sweat mead, mine is somewhere around 10% Though it may be as high as 11.5%. I'm hoping that 10% is enough alcohol to keep the mead from turning. We'll see. I may have put in too much water on start up. But even so, the mead tastes pretty good. The Sack Mead, which I'll be bottling soon, is much better.



I was going to try and use my 29mm caps but the capper I have is strictly for beer bottles. If I'm going to make Champagne or sparkling wine, methode Champenoise, or very sparkling mead, I'm going to have to get another capper.