Coney Island Craft Lager's Freaky New Beer - NYC

This fall, Coney Island Craft Lagers isn't letting summer's fun go without a fight.

Devoted to making good beers but committed to merriment, this brewery has just debuted its blood-red beer, Freaktoberfest (a four-pack of 12 oz. bottles; $10).

Owner Jeremy Cowan felt that there was no need for another Oktoberfest beer. But a true-red lager? That was another matter. Playing off the "oddities and freak shows" of Coney Island boardwalk Americana, he's created a craft beer as unusual as it is food-friendly and refreshing.

Six different malts and six different hops go into Freaktoberfest, which has a head like a black cherry soda. In its fourth year of production, the beer uses a different recipe each autumn, and this year's is hoppier and more bewitching than ever.

More fun: Cowan informs us that Shmaltz Brewing Company (which encompasses both He'brew Beers and Coney Island Craft Lagers) will launch a seven-barrel brewery and tasting room this year in Brooklyn "somewhere between Gowanus and Bushwick."

Hop to it.

Find Coney Island Freaktoberfest on draft at The Pony Bar, Fourth Avenue Pub, Mission Dolores and Barcade, and bottled at Fairway, Bierkraft and New Beer Distributors through Halloween.