Eat Drink Local Profile #17: Kelly Taylor of Kelso Brewery
Kelly Taylor makes beer right here. The Brewmaster:
Kelly Taylor, Kelso of Brooklyn
What He Does:
He makes beer. (Jealous much?) But seriously, brewmaster Kelly Taylor got his start homebrewing in a dorm room and worked his way up at gigs with Karl Strauss in California and Whidbey Island Brewing Company in Seattle. With a knack for making fresh, drinkable beers, he now does exactly that in Clinton Hill at Kelso of Brooklyn with his wife, Sonya Giacobbe (It’s Kel + So, get it?). The selection currently includes three year-round brews (a nut brown lager, a pilsner, and St. Gowanus), plus smaller, seasonal batches like their chocolate lager (fall/winter), the Recessionator (a malty rum-toffee-roasted nut blend that hits in tax-time) and a Flemish red ale, which is aged on wood for six months.
Why We Love Him:
For his locally made brews — created just off Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn — especially tasty at Good Beer, our annual craft beer tasting. And true brew enthusiasts may be even more excited about Kelso newest co-venture: the Local Homebrew Hero contest. In conjunction with Whole Foods Market Bowery and the folks at Good Beer Seal, the brewery has signed on to help get your homebrews sold at Whole Foods.
Where to Find His Handiwork:
You can find Kelso brews at numerous fast and fine food places in the city, from 5 Napkin Burger and Shake Shack to Bierkraft and Back Forty. They’ve even been seen upstate at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, where a collaborative program infuses the farm’s harvest into special-made Kelso beer. Or, you may have seen someone walking around with a “Beer Helps” tee? That’d be them, too. And last but not least, check out their site at kelsoofbrooklyn.com.
From September 26th to October 6th Edible Manhattan, Edible East End and Edible Brooklyn — in conjunction with Edibles statewide and GrowNYC — present Eat Drink Local week, our celebration of the local food chain through heirloom vegetable auctions, wine tastings, DIY challenges, lectures, garden tours, farm to table dinners and countless other events. Over the next few weeks we’re highlighting a few of the restaurants, wine shops and wineries, breweries and beer bars, farms and food artisans and cultural institutions that the week is meant to celebrate.
From September 26th to October 6th Edible Manhattan, Edible East End and Edible Brooklyn — in conjunction with Edibles statewide and GrowNYC — present Eat Drink Local week, our celebration of the local food chain through heirloom vegetable auctions, wine tastings, DIY challenges, lectures, garden tours, farm to table dinners and countless other events. Over the next few weeks we’re highlighting a few of the restaurants, wine shops and wineries, breweries and beer bars, farms and food artisans and cultural institutions that the week is meant to celebrate.