If bagels and beer don’t sound like a classic pairing to you, you’re either not from New York, or not paying attention. Brooklyn’s Folksbier Brauerei recently teamed up with Black Seed Bagels to brew a beer with the bagel chain’s leftover goods. Called Black Seed Glow Up, the bagel beer joins a short list of food-waste-friendly brews that have launched in NYC in recent years.
Black Seed, a New York City bagel chain, recently opened its first Brooklyn location in Folksbier’s neighborhood, Carroll Gardens. To celebrate and repurpose some stale bagels (sorry, pigeons, not this time), the two brands brewed a Berliner-style weisse made with bagels and honey used in Black Seed bagel production. The beer will launch as part of Folksbier’s Glow Up series.
This bagel-beer mashup is no stunt: A dollar from each bottle sold will be donated to No Kid Hungry, and the partnership “focuses on sustainability and food waste reduction,” Folksbier wrote in a Facebook announcement.
Black Seed Glow Up isn’t New York’s first bagel beer. Toast Ale, a U.K.-based brand founded in 2016, launched its U.S. arm in New York in 2017. Its beers are brewed using surplus bread from partner bakeries.
Also in 2017, Long Island breweries Barrage Brewing Company, Blind Bat Brewery, the Brewers Collective, Greenport Harbor Brewing, Spider Bite Beer Co., Sand City Brewing Co., and SquareHead Brewing announced plans to produce beers using leftover bagels from Long Island Bagel Café.
Black Seed Glow Up launched at Folksbier Brauerei and other select locations on Saturday, April 27, 2019.
