Top LI beer maker opens Rites Brewing in Bay Shore warehouse

With only five beers on tap, an off-the-beaten-track warehouse brewery has quickly become a destination spot for New York beer lovers. Owned by a former head brewer from Sand City and Barrier, the new Rites Brewing has gone into the space previously occupied by The Brewers Collective, which closed in May. 

Chris Dougherty, who owns the business with his cousin Tim Irwin, took over the lease from the former owners and spent four months renovating the Bay Shore space. His first brewery opened Sept. 26 and has just started to pop up on social media feeds with its vibrantly-hued beers. (The Onion Tree, a Newsday Top 50 restaurant, is also doing pop-ups here.) 

Dougherty has been a professional brewer for 12 years and started Rites as a side project while at Sand City, where he was head brewer from 2020 to 2023, he said. While Sand City's tap list relies heavily on IPAs, Rites delves into classic styles from Germany, France and Belgium. 

"The focus is hyperlocal ingredients and old-world styles of beer," he says. "But it’s really about what ingredients are good right now, and how can we utilize them and how can we make our customers interested."

Despite the small selection, he had some interesting styles on tap during a recent afternoon, like a crisp kellerbier, which is a German lager that's typically unfiltered. There was also a sour Berliner Weisse made completely from New York State grains and hops. Dougherty added a dash of sweet syrup made from a perennial called woodruff, a typical ingredient in German bars, which turned the whole thing a light shade of green.

But his Coronation saison was worth the trip by itself. The farmhouse brew saison is a difficult beer to get right, but his was fantastic, with a subtle melon and white pepper flavor. Much of this is due to the open air fermenters he has in the back, which allow the yeasts to interact naturally with the atmosphere. Rites is one of the few breweries in New York that uses this process, and Dougherty traveled to Arkansas to get his tanks, driving them back himself.  

"It makes for a much more ester-forward product. It’s flavor that’s produced during fermentation, flavor produced by the yeast," he says. "In a Belgian-style saison, that would give you more pepper and clove notes that are synonymous with Belgian styles." 

Rites is certified as a New York State Farm brewery, which means that 60% of the hops and other ingredients must be grown here. 

"A lot of people look at that as a hindrance, but for me, I think we have some of the best grain grown right in upstate New York. We have the right terroir for hard winter wheats, rye, einkorn, all sorts of things that we use in baked goods every day," he says. "We’re putting grain in beer that a lot of breweries weren’t thinking about putting in, and we’re loving the results."

Dougherty doesn't do beer flights, but brews are available in 5-ounce pours for $4 each. He plans to expand his selection to 10 beers soon, and will also sell to a small number of bars and restaurants. 

Rites Brewing, 1460 N. Clinton Ave., Unit O, Bay Shore. instagram.com/ritesbrewing/?hl=en. Open 3 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon to 7 p.m. Sunday.