Finback Brewery runs out of a low warehouse at 78-01 77th Avenue in Glendale, on the Ridgewood line in central Queens, and it is the brewery that taught a lot of New Yorkers what a hazy IPA tastes like fresh. Co-founders Basil Lee and Kevin Stafford opened the production brewery in 2011 and added the Glendale taproom in 2014, and the room still pours the beer a few feet from the tanks that made it.
Who would love it: a beer drinker who wants the IPAs at peak freshness, away from the crowds, with board games on the table and a food pop-up in the corner. Who would not: anyone after a polished cocktail lounge, since this is a working brewery taproom with garage energy rather than a design statement.
The space is a brewery floor first and a bar second, concrete and steel with a long counter, communal tables and a roll-up door that opens in warm weather. Hop Culture, in a founders interview, called Lee and Stafford "masters of the quiet brewery," and that reads in the room, which lets the beer do the talking rather than the branding. Finback keeps things loose with a bring-your-own-food policy and a stack of board games, so a session here runs long.
The order is the hazy IPA. Finback IPA is the flagship, an American hazy that BeerAdvocate logs as the brewery's most-rated beer, and the taproom usually has several rotating IPAs alongside it. The barrel program is the other reason to come, with barrel-aged stouts that the brewery has built a national following on, plus ready-to-drink cocktails from HALFTONE Spirits for anyone off the beer. Pours are available to stay or to take home in cans and growlers.
The crowd is local and beer-led, neighbourhood regulars and Queens beer travelers who make the trip out for the fresh stuff, with weekends busier when the food pop-ups run. This is a destination taproom rather than a walk-by, so plan the trip around it. Finback later added a second, larger taproom in Long Island City inside the Sven tower, per New York YIMBY, which is the easier stop for anyone who wants the beer closer to the subway.
Best time to go: a weekend afternoon at the Glendale brewery when a food pop-up is on and the IPAs have just been canned. Finback sits among the city's best beer rooms, so build a day around it. See where it lands in our guide to the best craft beer bars in New York, read the wider craft beer bars by city pillar, then plan the rest through the New York bar guide.
Getting to Glendale takes planning, since the brewery sits between Ridgewood and Middle Village rather than on a main subway line, so most visitors come by the M train to Fresh Pond Road and walk, or drive. That distance is the point, since it keeps the taproom local and the beer fresh, and it rewards anyone who makes the trip with first pours straight off the line. For a closer option, the Long Island City taproom puts the same beer near Queens Plaza.
What regulars flag, across BeerAdvocate and Google Maps reviews, is consistency: the IPAs land soft and fresh, the barrel-aged stouts are worth a special trip, and the no-frills room is a feature rather than a flaw. The Infatuation, reviewing the Glendale brewery, framed it as a serious beer destination that does not bother dressing the part, and the reviews back that up with steady marks for the core lineup. The honest read is to come for the liquid and not the decor, to check the can list before going so a sold-out release does not surprise the trip, and to leave time for a second round.
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For another Brooklyn-and-Queens beer pilgrimage, compare Threes Brewing in New York. For a Scandi-leaning draft list, try Tørst in New York. And for an East Village bottle-and-draft stop, Alphabet City Beer Co. in New York makes the next round.
Sources
Finback Brewery official site · BeerAdvocate: Finback · Hop Culture: founders interview · NY YIMBY: LIC taproom · Google Maps reviews (accessed 2026-06)
Reviewed by Marcus Webb, barsforKings. Published Dec 30, 2025
