Great South Bay Brewery

Stopped by on a Sunday it this place was packed and I mean packed. Standing room only. Plastic cups ... no flights or not even 1/2 pours. I HATE places that make you buy 16ozs of beer.

Big open space, not a lot of seats. Not charming, or inviting. The service was attentive though. The selection was all GSB beers, but a decent amount of them, including unusual ones you don’t see anywhere else. The only food is a food truck outside the place, which in fairness is pretty good. A tad expensive, $6 for a 10 oz. serving of their higer end beers, $18 for some growler fills. Not bad overall.

Tucked away in a little industrial park off a couple highways on Long Island. Retail space is huge. Bar that seats maybe 16 with tables for another 50 or so and standing room for several hundred. The brewing space is vast, with maybe six fermenters and additional equipment inhabiting maybe 10% of their available brewing space. You can tell, they want to get big. Food wise, a food truck was physically parked inside the brew space running off their electric. I was told the food was sick, but did not partake. Still cool having a food truck inside. Clientele was very local but that doesn’t bother us. Service was great. Friendly and attentive but not oppressive. You get a flight of four maybe 6oz samples for $5 which is a good deal. Pints are $5, growlers roughly $12. Ten beers on tap, some also available in bottles. I was shocked at how consistent their offerings were. I would definitely swing back by on my way to my in-laws.

Visited May 2012.

Small building and small tasting room on Long Island. Kind of a neat area that I wish I had explored more when I lived on the east coast. The tasting room is kind of home made looking as is the rest of the place. Beers were served in plastic from keggerators made from chest freezers. The server was very nice and gave a bit of a talk on the brewery while serving beers. It helped that there were no other customers there. The beers weren’t all that impressive. Some had a bit of appley flavor but none were real offensive. Most interesting was probably the blood orange pale ale. Blood orange is my least favorite citrus fruit and why waste hops on a fruit beer? Just do a blood orange blonde ale. I wish them well but I’m not sure I’d return. They also bottle some things if you want to find their stuff in the grocery stores.

Visited early evening on a Thursday. My GPS didn’t take me right here, so for other visitors - the brewery is located on the NE corner of Union Blvd and Saxon Ave. They are in the middle of building a new brewery, for the time being they are located in an older building on the property. This place had a great feel of a small brewery rapidly growing. Both of the brewers were present pouring samples, and were very friendly. They pour tastes of each of their beers (6 when I visited) free of charge, and also fill growlers and had two bottles for sale. The crowd seemed pretty local, and were really happy to be there. I had a fun time, and am sure I will visit again when I am on Long Island.