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This is the 'Cool' New Beer Williamsburg is Drinking Instead of PBR

By Serena Dai | June 12, 2015 2:01pm | Updated on June 15, 2015 8:59am
 Narragansett beer sales are up, partly due to popularity among price-sensitive drinkers in hip Brooklyn, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
Narragansett beer sales are up, partly due to popularity among price-sensitive drinkers in hip Brooklyn, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
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DNAinfo/Katie Honan

Apparently PBR is over — and "'Gansett" is in.

A new report by Bloomberg looks at how sales of the Rhode Island beer Narragansett have skyrocketed in recent years, partly due to popularity as a Pabst Blue Ribbon alternative for "price-sensitve beer drinkers at hip Brooklyn bars."

Narragansett brought in $12 million in revenue in 2014, up from a paltry $100,000 in 2005, according to the report.

The beer company also was the cheapest option out of the four fastest-growing beers in Brooklyn last year, the article said, with most bars selling a 16-ounce can for $4 to $6.

Of course, writer Rebecca Greenfield looked to Williamsburg and Greenpoint bars to track the cool.

A bartender at Greenpoint's Brew Inn, at 924 Manhattan Ave., said many bargoers were asking for the American-style lager, and they didn't want to be "behind the times" by not offering it.

And a bar manager at Williamsburg's Burnside, at 506 Grand St., said they sell "a ton" of the Narragansett.

"When we first opened, nobody knew what [Narragansett] was, and the number of mispronunciations of the name was as many as got it right," bar manager John McWilliams, told Greenfield. "Now people come in and ask for 'Gansett."

How did they do it? The beer's different, a little less watered down now, and they capitalized on their 125-year history to attract the nostalgia-loving Millennials, the report says.

PBR sales, meanwhile, have slowed.

But don't worry Williamsburg — this new "hipster beer" isn't super mainstream yet.

Sales of the beer are going up in places like New York, D.C., Philadelphia and Boston, but most of the country has yet to dump PBR for 'Gansett.

"Narragansett is trendy in the North East," Greenfield writes, "but far from taking PBR’s crown as king of cheap hipster beers across the U.S."