Mikkeller NYC closed, in part because of the pandemic and no fans at Citi Field. That was sad, it was a great place to get great beer attached to Citi Field, and they had some baseball themed beers. It was neat! All, perhaps, is not lost. Hat tip to Metspolice for ‘scooping’ me on this.
The brewery is dead, long live the brewery. It didn’t take long for someone to announce they were moving into that space. Fountain Beverages owned EBBS Brewery, just opened up in Brooklyn, will be brewing in that location. Who are they? Let’s see, they’re owned by Bruce Wilpon and..wait, yes. That Bruce Wilpon, of you know, the Wilpons. The one that owned part of Mikkeller NYC. He’s taking a lot, if not all, of the people that worked on Mikkeller with him to EBBS. If you peep their LinkedIn pages, most of them have already been working there! KGRLogic on Twitter noted the obvious inference to Ebbets Field that I missed, which makes me roll my eyes but maybe it’s the perfect name for a ‘Brooklyn’ brewery that is actually in Queens?
There is no brewer listed there yet. Richard Saunders, who was listed as the Head Brewer at Mikkeller from Dec 2017 through October of 2020 is in the role of Director of Strategy & Product Innovation for both Fountain and EBBS. He’s been there five months now, which is roughly when they launched. I suspect this is a very similar position, and I imagine the brewers are the same. In fact, I’d wager a ton that all of EBBS beers were brewed in Mikkeller NYC.
I have no idea what these means for baseball-themed beers, presence INSIDE Citi Field, or the selection of beers that will change at the location. I don’t know if this was actually a “woe is us, pandemic is hard on business” story, or if it’s a small part of a branding change around the Wilpons specifically. Worth remembering who has the rights (Wilpon) to develop the area around Citi Field, from which this brewery will be directly adjacent too, and likely immensely profitable as a result of. I’m not sure Mikkel Borg Bjergsø was even ever officially part of the ownership group of the NYC location, and I’m wondering if this was some sort of licensing agreement expiration. Mikkel also has a twin brother named Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø who owns Evil Twin, and there’s some narrative around a feud between them and both wanting to open NYC locations. Evil Twin is opening a second taproom in Dumbo next year.
So, the beers. Well, Fountain has a line of hard seltzer and CBD water. It’s hard not to imagine that stuff flooding Citi Field. EBBS beers are..plain. They’re described as beers you want to drink, and
They are what they are.
With names to match.
Only a style and recipe number.
Sure, I guess. They’re plain white cans with black lettering. Throwback to 70s/80s era generic brands. Things like IPA #7. Some of the beers on their site do have small pictures on them, which seem to be simple and reminiscent of Mikkeller’s style. Are these re-branded Mikkeller beers? One, a Watermelon Gose, is also a beer that Mikkeller makes, though I’m not sure they did in NY. They’re hardly the only one, it’s a common pairing.
They’ve only got basic styles now, IPA, Stout, Gose, Lager, etc. I don’t know if that’s intentional, or just a start. Mikkeller certainly did plenty of weird experimental stuff, like this 4% session IPA called ‘It Was Professor Plum’ with blueberries, plum, and hibiscus. It feels weird to go from getting creative, to just nailing basics, but let’s see how it goes now that the whole space is officially theirs.
I’m sure there’s more drama to come here. I don’t know Fountain’s lease situation, the ownership of the building is changing hands as we know. Is Steve Cohen going to keep Aramark? Is he going to change the agreements in place? Does he like beer? Will he do construction so there’s an entrance/exit to the brewery from inside the stadium? Will he commission Mets beers and actually let them all into the park? I’m not hopeful on most of those, but it’ll be interesting to see. The limited social media that exists from them has a small undertone of sarcasm and levity to it that I think is promising at least.
Now, wear your masks, get your shots, and let’s kick this pandemic to the curb so we can actually GO to the brewery and the park.
