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LIC Microbrewery Opens Growler Room

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | October 18, 2012 1:45pm

LONG ISLAND CITY — Hunters Point suds lovers can finally get a fresh locally brewed beer in their neighborhood.

Starting Thursday, Rockaway Brewing Company — which opened in the area in June — will be selling its brew in its new growler room.

Since its opening, the brewery, at 5-01 46th Ave., has been selling its beer in bars around the city, including Jimmy’s No. 43 in the East Village, The Queens Kickshaw in Astoria, The Owl Farm in Park Slope, Great Harry in Carroll Gardens and Caracas in Williamsburg.

Customers coming to the growler room can buy ESB (extra special bitter), an English-style ale and soon the brewery will also offer its honey brew, an ale in which one of the ingredients is local honey.

The owners are also working on developing their first stout.

The brewery fills its growlers using counter pressure, a technique that removes any oxygen to make sure that headspace in the growler contains only CO2.

“A lot of growler rooms don’t have the ability to do counter pressure fills and just fill it from the tap,” said brewery owner Marcus Burnett, 40, who is also an Emmy-nominated cinematographer for National Geographic. “Then [the beer] gets flat very quickly.”

A 64-ounce growler costs $15 and the container — which beer lovers can reuse — is $8. 

“People can also bring their own growlers,” Burnett said.

Burnett and his business partner, Ethan Long, 40, whose other firm, Konduit, builds sets for films and music videos, decided to open their microbrewery when during a cross-country trip from California to New York, they realized that many small towns around the country have numerous breweries while New York City has only a few.

The new growler room will be open Wednesday through Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.