Brooklyn Beer & Soda

Brooklyn Beer & Soda
648 Washington Ave
(between Bergen St & Dean St)
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Brooklyn Beer & Soda is a local, well-kept secret in Prospect Heights.

It's at least a 10-15 minute walk from the nearest subway; suffice to say, this place doesn't get a lot of foot traffic from tourists across the river.

A hybrid between your well-stocked bodega and your specialty craft-beer store, Brooklyn Beer & Soda reminds me of a suburban Costco. Pallets of well-known domestic brands (Coors, Bud, Natural Light) are lined up in pretty little rows on the left hand side of the store; decent East and West Coast domestic brews (Saranac, Smuttynose) guard the center; imports sold by the big multinational beer companies under the guise of craft beer (Grolsch, Stella Artois) flank the right.

But if you're not a frat brother or someone who deludes themselves into having good taste in beer, the good sh*t is in the fridge on the far left and on the shelf behind the front counter. Highlights include the entire range of Unibroue (North America's finest brewery), big bottle formats of Belgium lambics and "Grand Cru" ales (Cantillon, Fantome, Girardin, Oud Beersel), and obscure domestic labels that one would struggle to find in any retail store. They also have a decent selection of 10-12 beers on draft that you can carry out in a 32 or 64 oz. growler format.

I have no problem with the service at Brooklyn Beer & Soda (I know what I want, and how to get it), but I could see someone being frustrated by the lack of beer knowledge among the staff. This is not Bierkraft: the staff doesn't look like it literally eats, sleeps, brews, and drinks beer.

As a side note, they do stock a fine range of obscure carbonated sodas (Ting, Manhattan Espresso Coffee Soda), malt liquors in 40 oz formats, as well as most of the wine (cooler) portfolio of Bartles & James. (Pomegranate is my favorite.)