Quantcast

Ridgewood resident starts beer society in neighborhood

beer society
THE COURIER/Photo by Salvatore Licata

He’ll drink to that.

One Ridgewood transplant has such a love for beer that he decided to start a group for its appreciation.

Stephen Calebro, 40, just moved to Ridgewood from Bushwick in July. He has always been fond of the drink and wanted to see whether others in the neighborhood shared his interest.

Out of that idea came the new group, the Ridgewood Beer Society.

“The older I got the more I started to pay less attention to the popular art and music of the times and started to appreciate food and drink more,” Calebro, who works in a beer café in Hell’s Kitchen, said. “So, I decided to throw the idea out there to others and from that came the beer society.”

Started in August, the beer society has more than 130 “likes” on Facebook. Calebro has already put together three events for people in the society to come together, get to know each other and find out more about different types of beers.

Calebro is planning events and meet ups around many of the local bars in Ridgewood as well as breweries in Brooklyn and Queens.

“The local bars and stores here have a great selection of beers that you wouldn’t really find in a lot of places,” he said. “I want to focus the events around this area of Queens in general and then branch out from there.”

Beyond the social events in bars and breweries, Calebro is hoping to expand the group to food appreciation. He even has an idea of doing the first beer and bagel pairing because of the variety of both products.

He also wants to host bottle sharing events, which is when people from the group bring their own cup, a bottle of their favorite type of beer or one that is not mainstream, and share it with the group.

Calebro welcomes all people of Queens and Brooklyn, from beer enthusiasts to those that just enjoy a drink.

“The group is very laissez-faire, if you could make it to an event great, if not, no problem,” Calebro noted. “I just want people to come and hang out with others who want to have fun and drink beer.”

To find out more about the group, visit www.facebook.com/Ridgewoodbeer.

RECOMMENDED STORIES