Threes Brewing is a Brooklyn institution. Since opening in 2014, the brewery/bar/restaurant/coffee shop has perfected the modern beer garden aesthetic, drawing crowds to its chill, beautifully designed indoor-outdoor space throughout the year.
A rotating list of 20-odd beers is constantly on tap. Half are guest brews, and half are brewed on site. Local and legendary Brooklyn butcher shop the Meat Hook provides sustenance year-round. There is a coffee bar from East Village favorite Ninth Street Espresso, and a retail arm offers beers like Constant Disappointment and Are We There Yet for takeaway.
We caught up with James Case, the beverage operations manager at Threes Brewing, to ask what he’s drinking, his first beer love, and which beers he would kill if given the chance.
1. What’s your desert island beer?
This has always been a rotating question on my mind between the beer I would want to drink the most, and the beer I would probably miss drinking the most. For the prior, it would be Suarez Family Palatine Pils. For the latter, it would be BFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien.
2. What’s the beer that made you fall in love with beer?
I was living in Olympia, Washington, and a friend of mine dragged me to a beer bar. I had a West Coast IPA through a Randall (basically a beer flavor enhancer). My conception of what beer could be just opened up within 10 seconds. I started brewing, and this terrible beer-laden road of the last 10 years began.
3. FMK three beer types: IPA, pilsner, sour
F: IPA. I’m constantly tempted and desire hops, and I’m thinking about IPAs when I drink other beer, but it’s not a stable, longterm partner. M: Pilsner. A good solid consistent relationship that is healthy and where we can both comfortably discuss sex and money. K: Sour. I never want more than an ounce of it, so why even have one?
4. You’re on death row. What’s your last supper beer?
If I was innocent, Firestone Walker Sucaba. Since I am probably guilty, I would be probably be shotgunning cans of Threes Brewing’s Vliet Pils until I was taken away.
5. You can only drink at one bar for the rest of your life. What is it?
Bar Great Harry, that’s not even a question.
6. What’s the best and worst beer in your fridge right now?
Oh, man, I really went on a burn last night, so let me think. Probably the worst beer is an incredibly over-hopped DIPA someone mailed me that just hurts my mouth, and the “best” is probably a 2012 bottle of Olde School someone gave me for my birthday last year that I am sitting on for an emergency barley wine situation.
7. If you could no longer drink beer, what would be your beverage of choice?
Water.
