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Beer-Flavored Cookie Company Hopes to Expand

By Janet Upadhye | August 10, 2012 8:53am | Updated on August 13, 2012 2:33pm

FORT GREENE — The Cookie Guild, known for its signature beer cookies, has quickly become a staple at the Brooklyn Flea Market in Fort Greene.

With flavors like coconut cardamom, blueberry vanilla, and sea salted chocolate chip, part of their draw is the uniqueness of flavors and ingredients.

But their most sought-after cookies are made with beer, namely the hefeweizen citrus and coffee stout. They take beer, reduce it to syrup, and then whip it into the butter as if it were honey or molasses. The butter is then used to make their brewski-flavored cookies.

"Customers love them, especially the new beer cookie," said Eric Demby, co-founder of the Brooklyn Flea. "We're not surprised, since they're baking some d-lish stuff."

Founded by two guys from Maryland, Kurt Schewe and Brian Matheron, The Cookie Guild is just three months old. Schewe moved to New York and graduated to study at the French Culinary Institute and Matheron has worked in sales since he graduated from high school. But upon hearing  that he would be able to eat unlimited amounts of Schewe's cookies, Matheron decided to give the baking business a shot.

And unlike to the bakeries they saw growing up, they believe the outdoor market scene is a great place to start a business.

"Where we grew up people never sold their baked goods from carts and trucks," Matheron said. "So we see a lot of value in tryign something new, in particular selling from markets that are not attached to a storefront."

But eventually they would like to have their own space. Schewe looks forward to baking in a brick-and-mortar bakery where he can also bake biscuits, baguettes, and bread.

Fueled by their success at the Flea, they have started a Kickstarter campaign, seeking help with funding for a bakery. Kickstarter is a website that allows fledgling businesses to seek money from individual investors. Some Kickstarter users will donate a mere $10 to be a part of a business or idea that they believe in. The Cookie Guild has currently raised $2,121 of their $4,500 goal.

According to their Kickstarter page, Schewe labors in the kitchen while Matheron scoops cookies and complains (and acts as the official cookie tester). So fundraised money would also support more kitchen help for Schewe, enabling them to make more cookies and to also further develop their line of sweet beer syrups.

They are currently developing three syrups; Hefeweizen citrus honey, stout molasses, and the newest, maple cinnamon brown ale.

"Beer gives the cookies and syrups a more balanced flavor," said Schewe. "It cuts down on the sweetness, giving them that salty sweet appeal."

They also have two new cookie flavors in the works. So with any luck, peanut butter Porter with chocolate chips and bacon root beer cookies will be in a nearby market, or bakery, soon.