Locals lapping up new Bronck’s Beer

Bronxites must have been thirsty for a beer all their own. 

It took only a week for three kegs of Jonas Bronck’s Beer Company’s Woodlawn Weiss to empty at the Bronx Ale House in Kingsbridge. 

“The bottom line is the beer is good and people ordered it more than once, so it wasn’t just out of loyalty,” bartender Brian Duffy said. 

The brewery’s founder, Steve Nallen, began planning Jonas Bronck’s Beer in 2010, after his Jonas Bronck Facebook page began to amass followers. The popularity of the page, which featured historical Bronx photos and trivia, spurred Mr. Nallen to start thinking of a Bronck’s beer brand, he said. 

In April, he premiered his brew at a Bronx Ale House tasting event and then served up beer at events related to Bronx Week.

Mr. Nallen said he has been working with Butternuts Beer and Ale brewer Chuck Williamson, in Garretsville, N.Y., and is determined to make sure the beer named for his neighborhood is true to its roots.

“It’s a traditional German weiss beer, so it’s brewed with traditional ingredients, German hops, Bavarian yeast,” Mr. Nallen said, adding that the beer was distributed to about 20 bars recently. 

Included among the initial shipments was a delivery to the famous Yankee Tavern on East 161st Street, just a couple of days before Derek Jeter’s quest for 3,000 hits jammed the bar full of people.

“It was the perfect weekend to release it there, the bars were packed with the Yankee crowd,” Mr. Nallen said on Tuesday. “We’re shipping down the next order to the distributor today or tomorrow.”

Working with a distributor from Brooklyn and Mr. Williamson’s upstate brewery, Mr. Nallen said he plans to widen the beer’s distribution while he shops for a Bronx location to build a brewery of his own.

“Overall everyone is going more local in the choices they make, so it’s going to be a really positive presence. It’ll bring jobs to the community,” Mr. Nallen said.