DECEMBER 2018 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 85
THE BREWERS COLLECTIVE:
HOLDING THE PARTY LINE
BY BERNIE KILKELLY
Beginning as a homebrew club
and growing into an experiment in
collective brewery ownership, The
Brewers Collective Beer Company
(TBC) tap room debut last year in a
Bay Shore industrial park scored a
coup.
TBC hopes to increase production
while maintaining its unique approach
under the motto “Revolutionary
Brewing.” Several of the original
club’s comrades worked together in
the information technology sector
and enjoyed sampling the homebrew
of their colleague Joe Vella.
“Joe made a really delicious pumpkin
beer,” recalls Tim Dougherty, a
TBC founding co-owner. “I got tired
of having to wait for him to brew,
so I bought equipment and started
brewing myself and then with other
club members.”
The club’s fiercely independent
camaraderie and communal brewing
inspired its name and distinctive logo
featuring a beer bottle in place of a
hammer crossing a sickle — a throwback
to the former Soviet Union flag.
“From the start we wanted to share
the brewing responsibilities and
other work involved in building our
brewery,” says Dougherty.
The club also became known for its
focus on herbal ales, including gruit
ales made without hops, similar to
beers from ancient times.
As the homebrew club became
more active and gained recognition
at local festivals, the idea of going
professional took hold. A core group
of nine club members incorporated
and obtained a New York State farm
brewery license in 2014. The new
brewery also took advantage of the
brewery incubator program at A
Taste of Long Island in Farmingdale,
where several other LI craft breweries
launched.
After perfecting its recipes on a
larger brewing system, Brewers Collective
found space in Bay Shore and
began construction of a three-barrel
brewhouse and a small tasting room,
with almost all the work done by
the owners. The positive response
encouraged them to move to a larger
space in the same complex, which
opened in February.
The expanded tap room has become
a popular stop for L.I. Brew Bus
tours and also features live music on
the weekends. With 24 taps, TBC offers
a wide variety of year-round offerings
and seasonal brews. The five
current co-owners — Tim and Sarah
Rich Dougherty, Michael Stetson,
Terry Gillen and Mike Depietto — all
have their own special recipes and
share brewing of core brews such as
Proletariat Pale Ale and Mattyweizen
wheat beer.
As a farm brewery, TBC uses
locally grown ingredients in its
beers, including herbs such as sage,
lemon balm, heather and hibiscus
flower for its gruit ales like Pitcish
Heather Gruit. For its fall pumpkin
ale, Witchbinder, TBC used roasted
and caramelized Long Island cheese
pumpkins from Corwith Farms in
Water Mill.
According to Dougherty, TBC’s
next stage of growth will involve expanding
to a seven-barrel or 10-barrel
brewing system. This growth will
help satisfy the thirst of TBC’s Skeleton
Army, its mug club playfully
named after an anti-temperance
movement that battled the Salvation
Army in late 1800s England.
Like most armies, the Skeleton
Army marches on its stomach, including
an appetite for tasty craft
beers.
The Brewers Collective Beer Company
is located at 1460 N. Clinton
Ave. in Bay Shore. For more info visit
thebrewerscollective.com.
Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and
publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.
MAIN DISH
(left to right) Bartender Rob Cubbon and Co-Owners Mike Stetson and Tim Dougherty at TBC's Tap Room in
Bay Shore
"We wanted to share the brewing
responsibilities,"
says Tim Dougherty, a TBC founding co-owner.