When you think of New York’s beer-brewing past, Bushwick—the once German neighborhood home to a dozen breweries in the 19th century—probably comes to mind.
But Staten Island? Yep, the borough had a beer-making industry of its own, thanks to the fresh springs there.
One was the Rubsam & Horrmann Brewing Company, in the town of Stapleton (photo from the NYPL).
Was R&H beer-ale any good? I haven’t found anyone who recalls trying it.
But I did find some history. Launched in 1870 by two German immigrants, R&H switched to near-beer during prohibition before going back to the good stuff in the 1930s.
By 1953, R&H was bought out by the Piels company, which had its own brewery in East New York. Piels closed the R&H plant and the brand entirely a decade later.
Ephemeral New York 