68 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • APRIL 2018
OYSTER BAY BREWING:
SOFT BEERS, BIG FLAVOR
By BERNIE KILKELLY
Just a few miles away from Theodore
Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill home, in
the heart of downtown Oyster Bay,
is a brewery that would satisfy the
thirst of Teddy’s Rough Riders.
Oyster Bay Brewing Co. was
founded in 2012 by longtime friends
Gabe Haim and Ryan Schlotter,
who bonded over their shared
love of beer. After home-brewing
many batches, they followed their
dream and opened a brewery. At
the time, Nassau County had only
one brewery: Barrier Brewing in
Oceanside.
The brewery opened for business in
June 2013 in a 1,400-square-foot space
on South Street that barely housed a
3-barrel brewing system and small
tasting area. Word quickly spread and
the tasting area started to overflow
with visitors. But the brewery reached
a tipping point after the founders,
both lifelong Islanders fans, brewed a
special beer in 2015 for the Islanders’
last season at the Nassau Coliseum.
“We named it ‘Barn Rocker’ after
the nickname for the coliseum and
we couldn’t keep up with demand,”
said Haim.
The crisp, lightly hopped ale
helped make Oyster Bay Brewing
a household name among Islander
fans and craft beer fans across Long
Island. It proved so popular that the
Islanders requested it the next year
at their new home at Brooklyn’s
Barclays Center and the Mets
requested it at Citi Field
Haim and Schlotter needed to
expand but they didn’t have to look
far for a new space. In late 2015, the
brewery closed for a short time and
reopened the following year around
the corner in a 6,000-square-foot
space on Audrey Avenue.
The new space, located next door to an
Oyster Bay institution, Canterbury’s
Oyster Bar & Grill, had ample room
for a 15-barrel brewing system and a
spacious tasting room.
Around this time, the founders hired
a new brewmaster who could fully
utilize the new system. Oyster Bay
brought in Ivan Dedek, a graduate
of Oregon State University with a
degree in Fermentation Science, who
apprenticed at Brewery Ommegang
in Cooperstown, near where he grew
up. He had also been a research and
development brewer at Sam Adams
in Boston and a supervising brewer at
Schmaltz Brewing.
Last year, Oyster Bay made a major
investment in canning equipment
and new fermentation tanks that
increased production by more than
half. According to Dedek, the brewery
should be at an annual production
level close to 2,500 barrels by the end
of the year. The new canning line
makes both 12-ounce and 16-ounce
cans, which will come in handy this
summer for supplying expected
orders from Citi Field.
In addition to pumping out
Barn Rocker, Dedek has been
experimenting with beer styles
ranging from pilsners and Germanstyle
Helles lagers to porters and
stouts, including an Imperial Stout
aged in bourbon barrels and pinot
noir wine barrels. Oyster Bay
recently brewed a collaboration beer
with KCBC (Kings County Brewers
Collective) from Brooklyn. The beer,
cheekily named The Adventures
of Troutman and Oysterboy
Downunder, was brewed using only
hops from the Southern Hemisphere
such as Motueka and Vic Secret.
Dedek is experimenting with other
recipes, including a Gose made
with Ethiopian coffee beans from
neighboring coffee shop Southdown
Coffee, and Baymen’s Oyster Stout
brewed with two dozen Oyster Bay
oysters added to the boil in the last
five minutes.
Oyster Bay Brewing began
distributing its beers through
Manhattan Beer in 2015, focusing
primarily on Long Island and
NYC. Distribution expanded to
Connecticut last year and, according
to Haim, will focus on the current
locations this year.
“We want to control our growth as
much as possible,” says Haim.
Both Haim and Schlotter quit their
day jobs to focus full time on the
brewery.
“Ryan is heading up marketing
and sales, spending a lot of time
on the road,” says Haim, “and I’m
overseeing our brewery operations.”
This commitment is clearly paying off
as Oyster Bay Brewing was recently
voted the 2018 Bethpage Best of Long
Island winner for Best Craft Beer
Brewery. The brewery is celebrating
its fifth anniversary in early June, and
as it has done for each anniversary,
will brew a special beer to mark the
occasion. Haim says the weekendlong
celebration will include special
collaboration beers and a party with
food from local restaurants.
The celebration will surely include a
few pints.
Oyster Bay Brewing Co. is located
at 36 Audrey Avenue in Oyster Bay.
They can be reached at 516-802-5546
or www.oysterbaybrewing.com/.
Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and
publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.
PRESS MAIN DISH
Oyster Bay Brewing Co. is best known for its Barn Rocker ale, but it has
a deep bench of other offerings.
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