AAAlbany AleFour centuries of brewing
The bird's-eye view

The Story

Albany's beer history in six eras. Read this page for the whole arc in five minutes, then drill into any era for the full narrative, the people and the sources.

Albany's brewing history follows its geography. Wheat country gave the Dutch their beer. The meeting of the Erie Canal and the Hudson made Albany Ale a national product. Railroads took that advantage away, and Hudson ice made lager practical in its place. And in every era, beer was tangled up with political power: Dutch brewers sat as magistrates, ale brewers became mayors and congressmen, and in the twentieth century the O'Connell machine owned a brewery outright. Inference

  1. 1624–1795

    I. Wheat, Pelts & Wampum

    • Brewing on the upper Hudson begins with Evert Pels, hired in 1643 as the patroon's public brewer. Solid
    • In the 1650s Beverwijck has about a dozen breweries. Beer is priced in silver, beaver pelts and wampum, and tapsters fight Stuyvesant's tax men. Solid
    • The Gansevoorts, Herman Melville's ancestors, brew on Market Street for over a century, until around 1805. Solid
    Read the Dutch era →
  2. 1796–1880

    II. The Albany Ale Empire

    • Scots brewers bring strong barley ale. "Fine Albany Ale" is advertised in New York by 1805. Solid
    • The Erie Canal (1825) makes Albany the junction of western grain and the sea. Albany Ale sells from New Orleans to Newfoundland to Honolulu. Solid
    • John Taylor, brewer and mayor, builds what's called the largest brewery in America in 1851, with 365 fermenting vats. Solid
    Read the Albany Ale era →
  3. 1850–1920

    III. Lager on the Beaver Kill

    • German brewers like Frederick Hinckel set up lager breweries by the Beaver Kill's foaming "Buttermilk Falls," in the ravine that's now Lincoln Park. Solid
    • In 1878 Mayor Michael Nolan builds Beverwyck, an all-lager "model brewery." Solid
    • Albany's output actually peaks in the 1880s, near 358,000 barrels, still mostly ale. Lager takes the lead only after 1900. Solid
    Read the lager era →
  4. 1920–1933

    IV. Dry Years

    • Only three lager houses survive Prohibition, making soda and near-beer. Every ale brewery closes. Solid
    • Bootlegger Legs Diamond is shot dead at 67 Dove Street in December 1931. Solid
    Read the Prohibition era →
  5. 1933–1980

    V. "Hedrick's or the Door"

    • Hedrick Brewing is publicly tied to the O'Connell family by 1943, and bars are remembered as being pressed to pour it. Single source
    • Beverwyck ships beer to troops in WWII, is bought by Schaefer and closes in 1972. For the first time since the 1640s, Albany has no brewery. Solid
    Read the machine era →
  6. 1980–today

    VI. Albany Ale Returns

    • Newman Brewing opens in 1980, one of the first microbreweries in the East. Single source
    • The Albany Ale Project (2010) rediscovers the city's lost beer, and recreations are brewed in 2013 and 2018. Solid
    • Today Albany has taprooms again, from the old Pump Station to Broadway's Warehouse District. Solid
    Read the revival →