BREWERY REVIEW: Evil Twin Brewing NYC

My search for the best beer in New York continues….

Walk into any craft beer shop in the tri-state area and you would most definitely see a number of beer cans from Evil Twin. They became ubiquitous over the last few years. And amazingly, I had barely tasted any of their beers.

When in the city, I have almost exclusively kept my focus on locally made beers. And while many considered Evil Twin a local New York brewery from Day One, I held out until they officially opened a brewery in the five boroughs.

I had visited their popular craft beer bar Tørst and admired their can designs, but up until very recently, the beer production actually happened out in Connecticut. When they opened their brand spanking new facility in Ridgewood, I was finally on board.

Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø is the self-proclaimed evil twin. He and his brother Mikkel have had a boozy rivalry since they entered the craft beer world. Jeppe is also the second of the brothers to open an experimental craft brewery in the city following Mikkeller last year.

I was almost as overwhelmed at Evil Twin as I was by my visit to Mikkeller. There must be something in Danish culture that pushes you to wildly experiment and give way to too many choices.

In a similar vein to Mikkeller, Evil Twin is very ambitious showcasing plenty of high proof beers with crazy names and even crazier ingredients.

Unlike Mikkeller which is inside the sports arena Citi Field, Evil Twin is in a heavily industrial neighborhood and has designed their tasting room to feel more like an open greenhouse. It is a beautiful floral escape from the urban jungle around the corner and it all literally smells brand new.

Beers run across the menu on a ticker tape (actually more appropriate for the other twin’s stadium brewery) but it is very difficult to figure out what anything is.

With a few exceptions, the names of the beers are really random sayings that relate to New York. You won’t find anything called “Hazy IPA” or “Imperial Stour” here. Instead the names are “Is It Me Or Does This Subway Station Smell Like Pee?” or “I Doubt This Bodega Has Any Of the Things on My Grocery Shopping List.”

But as annoying as I found the beer names, they are mostly really good beers. There is a reason why Evil Twin is so popular and it can’t all be blamed on gimmicky ingredients.

Of course, it was those gimmicky (or unusual) ingredients that most intrigued me. I started with a collaboration called Root Beer Beer which is one of the few aptly named beers.

For some reason, this beer was made with the folks at Oddfellows Ice Cream and was as playful as anything from that company’s repertoire. It smelled unmistakably like the soft drink but had a lot more going on when sipped. This was surprisingly a sour and had a tart finish underneath the sweet herbal notes of sarsaparilla. I’m not always a fan of those gimmicky hard root beers but I absolutely loved this. It’s truly a “Root Beer” beer rather than an alcoholic root beer or malt beverage.

Since I give Food Cart tours and love New York street food, I absolutely hated the name of this Hazy Pale. I have no idea why they call it “Sorry, I Don’t Eat Food From A Street Cart”,  but it was a fruity light-bodied hazy pale ale. Maybe the name comes from the fact that both street carts and this beer are very aromatic. The beer (not the street food) has hints of bitterness and a bit of funky must pushing through the tropical fruit notes.

The next beer was not my favorite. It had another ridiculous name but this one at least had some hints as to what it might taste like. It’s called “The Hardest Thing About Parking My Electric Scooter is Double Blackberry Blueberry Raspberry Pancake Lassi Gose.” Imagine ordering three of those!

It pours a deep dark hazy violet.  Surprisingly, it’s not overly sweet despite the addition of multiple berries, maple, vanilla, and milk sugar. It’s one of those sticky sweet pastry beers. Thankfully this one is not a stout but rather a gose which means it is tamed by a generous amount of salt. If you like sweet tart saltiness lingering on your lips, then this beer is for you. It was my least favorite.

I waited a while for the Isolada because they were changing the keg. So in the meantime I tried two of their Double IPAs. The only difference according to the menu was the hop variety. This can sometimes be exciting because it shows the diversity in hops and IPA’s. I asked the bartender to tell me about the flavor profile differences and since they weren’t sure, they poured us a sample and together we decided there was very little difference. Both nice tropical forward IPAs, but doubt I could have told the difference.

The Isolada was something totally different. It had those similar pineapple flavors expected from a juicy IPA, but lots of other stuff going on. This again was a sour beer so the fruit notes of pineapple and coconut actually came from fruit and not hop (at least that’s my guess). There was a bit of funk on the nose – made me think of pickled or fermented pineapple but the tartness is rounded out by the coconut. Of course a piña colada is the influence here but it’s much more tart and the menu lists an addition of sherry powder which I’m not sure what that is or what it did. Regardless, this is a pretty delicious thirst-quenching beer.

There are many super high ABV beers on the menu (one as high as 17.2%!!) so I had to try one of those but only one. The one I picked was possibly the most bizarre beer I tried all afternoon.

The Straight Outta the Marshmallow Laboratory is a collaboration with Equilibrium Brewery upstate. And it’s crazy. I saw marshmallow on the list of ingredients, but I didn’t look closely at the style. I would have expected a dark stout or imperial porter to show up on the bar but instead it had a hazy orange color.

On closer inspection, this marshmallow beer is classified as a Triple IPA and at 10.2% ABV. I could smell the marshmallow from afar like I just opened up a plastic bag of those Jet Puffs. It smelled pretty authentic – not like real marshmallow root, but rather, real processed marshmallows!

The marshmallow flavor was actually so overpowering that I couldn’t taste much in the way of hops (bitter or not) which I expect from anything labelled IPA. It was certainly interesting and I enjoyed trying it but it gets a little too far away from beer for me. It tasted like liquid marshmallows without being overly sweet. The high alcohol percentage is also very well hidden so this could be a dangerous beer.

I also picked up a can of their Who Wants Apple Pie? to enjoy at my Thanksgiving meal dessert with some family members. Perhaps I was expecting something a bit different based on the other things I sampled from this brewery. The can says it contains apples, brown sugar, milk sugar, and cinnamon.

It poured hazy and bright but didn’t have those big apple pie flavors the can promised. It was a sour IPA but reminded me mostly of a sweet cider with a hint of bitterness. This was probably a more drinkable sour than a sweet apple pie beer, but I found it somewhat falsely advertised and missing some of those warming baking spices.

Regardless, Evil Twin is my kind of brewery. Although they don’t yet offer tours, it’s a low key spot with a wide range of beers that taste unlike anything else you’ve had before. When they are doing that kind of crazy experimentation, some will obviously work and others won’t. The point is now that they are brewing in the city limits, you got to come try these out for yourself. Or just go to your local craft beer store. They won’t be hard to find.

Is Evil Twin Brewing NYC the best brewery in NY? It’s been a long time coming but the tap room is beautiful and comfortable. The beers are very cool and mostly really good. It’s a place you can come back to over and over again and be met with surprises each time. So they earn an enthusiastic 8 out of 10.

Is Evil Twin Brewing NYC’s Root Beer Beer the best beer in NY? It’s the best root beer inspired beer I’ve ever tried and gets a  10out of10 for distinguishing itself from hard root beer and keeping the flavors playful and balanced.

Is Evil Twin Brewing NYC’s Sorry, I Don’t Eat Food From A Street Cart the best beer in NY? Despite the silly name, it’s a quenching and aromatic pale ale that has deep notes of fruit, funk, and pleasant bitterness. 9 out of 10.

Is Evil Twin Brewing NYC’s The Hardest Thing About Parking My Electric Scooter is Blackberry Blueberry Raspberry Pancake Lassi Gose the best beer in NY? Sticky and sweet but also salty and sour, it has a lot going on. It was all a bit too much for me but others may really enjoy it. 7 out of 10.

Is Evil Twin Brewing NYCs Isolada the best beer in NY? This is one worth waiting for as it takes a sweet piña colada but flips it on its head with a hint of sourness breaknig up the sweetness. 9 out of 10.

Is Evil Twin Brewing NYC’s Straight Outta the Marshmallow Laboratory the best beer in NY? This 7 out of10 beer is the kind I get truly excited for with some flavor combinations I have never experienced. It was cool to try a liquid marshmallow drink (truly) but I felt like it overwhelmed the hoppy notes I expect in a big Triple IPA.

Is Evil Twin Brewing NYC’s Who Wants Apple Pie the best beer in NY? If you like ciders, this is for you, but if you were hoping for a sweet and sour apple pie IPA as the name and ingredients infer, then you’ll be disappointed. 7 out of 10.