The North Fork is the Napa Valley of the East, a bucolic and bountiful destination for wine, luring New Yorkers to sprawling vineyards throughout the summer and into the fall harvest season. But lately the eastern edge of Long Island is becoming known for more than its cab franc and pinot blanc; it’s earning a reputation for its IPAs, Pilsners, sours, stouts, and more.
What started out with Blue Point Brewery in 1998 has grown exponentially over the past decade to include award-winning craft breweries such as Greenport Harbor, Jamesport Brewery, Eastern Front, übergeek Brewery, Twin Fork, and North Fork Brewing Company. Riding the wave of agrotourism, these breweries are turning out impressive pints that are luring many to step off the wine trail and onto the beer bandwagon.
“The North Fork is a place known for viticulture, so it’s nice to have a brewing oasis in the middle of wine country,” said Sean Galligan, head brewer at the pioneering Greenport Harbor Brewing, which opened its doors in 2009. The brewery has grown over the past 16 years to include a second location a few miles down the Main Road in Peconic, with a state-of-the-art kitchen, a couple of acres with picnic tables, live music, and lawn games such as giant Jenga and cornhole.
Galligan brews several flagships, many with New York State-grown malt, including the citrusy American-style Harbor Ale, the West Coast-style super hoppy Otherside IPA, Lucha Lager made with NYS-grown wheat with added sea salt and key limes, the German-style Haus Pils, and the rich, toasty Black Duck Porter. Seasonal summertime beers still on tap include a hazy New England style IPA called Facing East, brewed with Amarillo, Citra, and Simcoe hops; and a super-fresh Beehave Summer Ale, a moderately hopped golden ale.
The area’s local farmland is a boon during late summer and into September when Galligan puts locally harvested Cascade and Willamette hops from Orient Point to work in Greenport Harbor’s limited release fresh hop beer. “The hops are picked early in the morning and brewed with that same day,” he said.
Something for Everyone
“The North Fork is a craft beer destination,” proclaimed Rob Raffa, owner and brewmaster at übergeek Brewing in Riverhead. “The area is known for wine, but if people in your party want beer or cider or spirits, now they have that too. The breweries came in and are now part of the alcohol trail of the North Fork. It means there’s something for everyone.”
Raffa, who studied physics and astrophysics in college, named übergeek after his home brewery. After many years of experimenting as an amateur brewer, he took a job learning the craft at the former Mustache Brewing in Riverhead. “I don’t regret it,” he said of the left turn his career took. “I love what I do.”
After four years at Moustache, he departed in 2018 and began co-brewing with former co-worker and North Fork Brewing Company founder Peter Barraud, using its production facility to test the waters, leaning into wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales during the pandemic.
When his former employer at Mustache Brewing closed the brewery in February 2021, he took over their space and officially opened the übergeek brewery and taproom the following month. The brewery’s growth has been impressive. Buoyed by the North Fork’s robust agrotourism, übergeek has gone from four fermenters to 16 with eight more on the way and will be doubling the size of the brewhouse this winter, which will mean doubling their output. The brewery’s Tasting Room in a former warehouse space hosts a monthly concert series and a variety of food trucks.
Übergeek’s beers have off-beat names Raffa says are inspired by middle-of-the night musings. There’s A Casualty of Circumstance, a hazy and citrusy East Coast IPA; a Mexican lager called It’s All Gonna be Fine; and a double IPA with notes of mango and pineapple called Space Age Times, Stone Age Minds.
“I tend to wake up in the middle of the night in an existential crisis and the beers are named for my state of mind,” said Raffa. “If anyone wants to psychoanalyze me they can just read the names of the beers.”
Others include Their Morality Has Always Been Subjective, a big 9% ABV beer, and Flirting with Madness Has Its Benefits, a hazy double IPA that’s also high in alcohol with 8.7% ABV. I Thought You Liked a Challenge, an East Coast bright, citrusy, and juice-forward IPA, is their summer ale. “It’s an ode to übergeek and the trials of being a business owner.”
A Symbiotic Relationship
“We are riding the coattails of the wine business,” said Peter Chekijian, who founded Twin Fork Beer Co. with his twin brother (and fellow musician) Dan. Twin Fork began brewing in 2014 and names its beers after symphonies and elements of musical theory; there’s Minuet Session IPA, Crescendo IPA, Prelude Pilsner, Alto IPA, Sonata Kölsch-style Ale, and more. “All that tourism brings people from New York and New Jersey. We get people doing bike tours and buses.”
Breweries don’t see themselves as competing with wineries but rather as complementing them. “It’s a very symbiotic relationship,” said Greenport Harbor’s Galligan. “We have a nice craft wine and beer scene and we coexist really nicely on the North Fork, which is really cool.”
Many wineries carry local beers, appealing to guests who might prefer suds to sauvignon blanc. Greenport Harbor even collaborates with nearby vineyards; it created a beer called Collaborations conditioned on Carménère grapes from Osprey’s Dominion with wild yeast strains. It won silver in the Fruit & Vegetable Beer (Sour) category at the 2024 New York State Craft Beer Competition. “We want to continue to do these sorts of collabs,” said Galligan.
It’s not just wineries that the brewers lean on, it’s the local farms. “We like to team up with farmers and show a true taste of the area,” said North Fork’s Barraud, who uses Peconic River Herb Farm, Herricks Lane Farm, and CJ Van Bourgondien Greenhouses, as well as local licensed foragers, to add local flavor to his beers. “The North Fork is so saturated with farms, it has endless produce and niche small-batch ingredients like herbs and spices such as ancho chile. That way the breweries give you a taste of the terroir and the land out here.”
Barraud rotates 80 beers throughout the year with a core group of three flagships: Run the Juice, a New England-style IPA; Hold Me Closer Tiny Lager, a German Pilsner; and a West Coast IPA called Pierce the Ale. This summer, he created fruited beers using local produce from Lewin Farms on Sound Avenue in Calverton, including a a peach Golden Sour and a passion fruit-infused IPA. There was also a blueberry ale, a strawberry ale, and an ancho chile-infused Pilsner. “It was a fun one, with some heat and sweet smoky flavor.”
Visitors to the North Fork may be coming for the wine, but they’re returning for the experience that offers more than just grapes. “The area is known for wine, but not everyone who’s here drinks wine,” said übergeek’s Raffa. “Some people want beer or cider or spirits. These breweries came in and are now part of the alcohol trail of the North Fork.”
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