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What: There’s a long tradition of beer-making in New York City (thanks, Germany!), but particularly in Brooklyn, which a century ago was home to at least 48 breweries. The borough’s sudsy good times had dried up by the mid-1970s, but in the last decade, Brooklyn has reasserted itself as a major player in the U.S. craft beer world. Today it’s home to three successful breweries: Williamsburg-based Brooklyn Brewery, born in 1987, is the best known, as its brewmaster is a major spokesperson for U.S. craft beer and its brews—especially the ubiquitous flagship Brooklyn Lager—are found far and wide around the country and beyond. Over in Red Hook is the more grassroots, fast-growing Sixpoint Craft Ales, known for producing innovative, hoppy beers, especially with its extremely limited and experimental Mad Scientist series (think spelt wine, a bock beer mixed with cold-pressed Stumptown Coffee, etc.). Meanwhile, its signature Sweet Action cream ale and Brownstone brown ale, among others, routinely show up all around the city, on tap and in more newly popular 16 oz cans. Out of Clinton Hill comes Kelso of Brooklyn, which takes pride in using local ingredients when possible and has garnered attention for its full-flavored, (relatively) low-alcohol beers; it’s known for its pilsner but frequently experiments with small-batch stuff. And proudly breaking with the all-in-Brooklyn pack is the new Bronx Brewery, currently making the most local of the city’s craft beers: Its first release, The Bronx Pale Ale, is only available in New York City for now.

Good to know: Contract-brewed upstate but all-NYC in spirit is the decade-plus-old Harlem Brewing Company, known for its flagship Sugar Hill Golden Ale, a smooth and medium-bodied American-style ale intending to evoke the jazzy days of the Harlem Renaissance. HBC hopes to open a brewery in Harlem soon.

Where: The wind-powered, rapidly growing Brooklyn Brewery (79 N. 11th St.) on an industrial stretch of Williamsburg—and by industrial, we mean “right around the corner from numerous other hip bars/restaurants,” including a LEED-certified bowling alley—is a cool place to try and buy some of Brooklyn’s beers, including its more interesting bottle-conditioned offerings (depending on stock) like Black Ops (imperial stout), Sorachi Ace (saison), and Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse, the IPA-meets-wheat-beer result of a Brooklyn collaboration with Germany’s Schneider brewery. Flights aren’t offered, but you can try up to four of the eight taps before purchasing a pint ($4; buy tokens at entrance); we liked the flavorful Blast! double IPA of the day’s offerings. (Note: Due to space issues, much of the brewery’s production has been contract-brewed upstate in the past; however, the recent expansion of the Williamsburg facility means Brooklyn will be producing much more on-site in the next few years.)

When: Brooklyn: open Mon-Thurs for reservation-only tours, 5pm-7pm ($8, including tastings); Fri, 6pm-11pm (happy hour); Sat, noon-8pm (free hourly tours from 1pm-5pm); Sun, noon-6pm (free hourly tours from 1pm-4pm). Sixpoint: tours at the brewery (40 Van Dyke St., map) by appointment only; contact info@sixpoint.com. Kelso of Brooklyn: Contact the brewery (info@kelsoofbrooklyn.com; 529 Waverly Ave., map) to inquire about tours, or check out Urban Oyster’s Brooklyn beer tour, which often includes a visit. The Bronx Brewery is not yet open for visitors, but check out its website to see where it distributes.

Alternatively:

Brewpubs & more: Chelsea Brewing Company (Chelsea Piers, Pier 59, map) is a locally distributing microbrewery picturesquely perched on the Hudson River; for $10 you can taste six of the beers on tap—the perfect follow-up to a few hours on Chelsea Piers’ driving range. Manhattan mini-chain Heartland Brewery (seven locations including 35 Union Sq. W. at 17th St., map) is the borough’s most visible (and average) brewpub; its beers, incidentally, are brewed at Greenpoint Beerworks alongside Kelso’s tanks (both share the same brewmaster).

On the roof of Italian-food mecca Eataly, in the Flatiron District, don’t miss Birreria (200 Fifth Ave. betw. 23rd & 24th Sts., map) and its three unfiltered, unpasteurized house-brewed cask ales by (Delaware-based) Dogfish Head’s celebrated brewmaster in collaboration with innovative Italian breweries Baladin and Del Borgo. The bar serves about 10 other good beers on draft and 30-plus in bottles, plenty to keep you occupied for a few boozy hours. Also worth stopping into is West SoHo’s 508 Gastrobrewery (508 Greenwich St. at Spring St., map), a Mediterranean restaurant producing 12 of its own microbrews ripe for food pairing.

And lest we forget the quirkiest microbrewery to open in NYC, there’s the seasonal Coney Island Brewing Company (summers, Thu-Sun only; 3008 W. 12th St., map), next to the Freak Show in Coney Island, Brooklyn. An outpost of upstate’s Shmaltz Brewing Company (creators of the Coney Island Craft Lagers line of beers), the Coney Island storefront brews only fun, experimental, locally-inspired one-gallon batches of beer (think Korndog Kolsch, flavored with actual hot dogs)—hence their self-styled billing as “the world’s smallest commercial production brewery.” Inside the teeny space, you can buy a bottle of whatever is available, dump it into a plastic cup, and take it outside—open-container laws be damned! (They look the other way here.)

Beer bars: Sometimes the best thing to do is hit up a great beer bar to taste as many local and regional (Long Island, Philly, upstate New York) craft beers as possible. In Manhattan, our favorites include midtown’s Rattle N Hum (14 E. 33rd St. betw. Fifth & Madison Aves., map), which carries Bronx Pale Ale, and The Pony Bar (637 Tenth Ave. at 45th St., map), which focuses exclusively on U.S. craft beers; plus the perpetually crowded Blind Tiger Ale House (281 Bleecker St. at Jones, map) in the West Village. And though you’ll see it elsewhere, you gotta drink your Sugar Hill ale in Harlem: Try the shiny new Bier International beer garden (2099 Frederick Douglass Blvd. at 113th St., map), or go old-school at our favorite area jazz club, St. Nick’s Pub (773 Nicholas Ave. nr. 149th St., map), which is actually located in the Sugar Hill district.

In Brooklyn, we like arcade-cum-beer-bar Barcade (388 Union Ave., map) in Williamsburg, The Brazen Head (228 Atlantic Ave., map) in Boerum Hill, Bar Great Harry (280 Smith St., map) in Carroll Gardens, and, from a former Sixpoint brewing engineer, 61 Local (61 Bergen St., map) in Cobble Hill—where, aside from local city drafts, you’ll also find offerings from Oceanside, New York’s Barrier Brewing Company.

Good to know: A gastronomic temple to all the good things in life, Bierkraft (191 Fifth Ave., map) in Park Slope, Brooklyn, is a must for beer fanatics in NYC—1,000-plus bottled beers in stock; gourmet goodies like cheese, chocolate, and charcuterie. But best of all are the 16 (mostly regional) beers on tap, including two casks, that are available for in-house drinking at indoor-outdoor tables or in half-gallon growlers to go. The store also runs various beer tastings and pairings. Similar but smaller is the East Village’s Good Beer NYC shop (422 E. 9th St. betw. First Ave. & Ave. A, map), where you can browse a carefully curated, domestic-focused selection of 600-plus bottles or sample what's on draft via $6 pints, $8 tasting flights, or takeaway growlers.