With more than 1,100 beers to its name (many of them IPAs), Other Half Brewing is the perfect example of how far craft brewing has come in recent years.
Only about a decade ago, breweries were defined by their ‘core beers’. The Samuel Adams brand had its Boston Lager. Sierra Nevada had its Pale Ale. Genny had its Cream Ale. Also, craft breweries had to focus on putting out a range of beer styles, the thinking went, from crisp pilsners to hefty stouts.
Breweries like Other Half changed all that. Even though they focused on cranking out hoppy IPA after hoppy IPA, the Brooklyn-based brewery became known for lines of customers waiting for the latest beer release that stretched around city blocks.
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Like most things New York City, it took a while for Other Half to get to Buffalo. Now that it has, the brewery is slowly expanding operations of an indoor beer garden at the Seneca One Tower that it opened last summer. The brewery recently announced it had video games you can play and the Instagram account has been regularly dropping details about new beer garden features.
As it stands now, the Buffalo location feels like a bottle shop that exclusively sells Other Half. Located in a large glass atrium at the foot of the Seneca One tower, the new beer garden has a small bar, tables for seating. Vintage arcade games and pinball machines are located at one end. Outside, there’s plenty of seating and cornhole games are set up during nice weather.
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On our recent visit, 18 beers were available as to-go only, as either four-packs or large format bottles. For on-premise drinking, there were four different 16-ounce cans available, four different bottle pours, one cider and seven taps were pouring four different IPAs, two stouts and a hard seltzer. We found the bottle of Field Studies, a sour farmhouse ale, to be tangy and refreshing. Signature beers like Green City and All Green Everything features strong hop flavors, yes, but also a depth and complexity that many breweries just can’t achieve.
Being a pretty minimalist experience, the beer garden best functions as an add-on or essential craft beer pit stop. If you’re going to the Bisons game and want to start (or end) your gameday experience with a premier beer, Other Half is a great stop. If you work downtown and need to decompress before heading home, you can pop in for a pint and a 4-pack to go. Other Half also regularly stages releases of new beers on Saturday mornings, and lines for some new beers have been pretty long.
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There are plans for Other Half to switch to a different location in the Seneca One complex. Until then, Other Half is looking to engage with a cornhole league and events like Silent Disco. Keep an eye on that Instagram account to stay on top of the latest.
Hours at time of publishing (Subject to change): Tuesday to Friday 2 p.m. – 9 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. – 9 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. – 7 p.m., Monday CLOSED
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