Local beer is coming to the Greenmarkets! Diner's Journal reports today that this Friday, 25-year-old Mark VanGlad will start selling beer from his small Tundra Brewing operation at the Union Square Greenmarket. He's only bringing in about 50 cases of his "mild and hoppy" Ma-Pale ale, so get your sluggish post-Cinco de Mayo butt to the market early if you want to impress your locavore friends.
While there are certainly plenty of homegrown operations in the city (see: Brooklyn Brewery, Sixpoint Craft Ales, Heartland Brewery, et al), VanGlad's beer will be the first to be sold in the city's Greenmarkets. And while Brooklyn Brewery, etc. have local manufacturing addresses, Tundra is the only one to use locally-grown hops in its batches, therefore making it eligible under Greenmarket's strict sourcing guidelines. It also probably doesn't hurt that VanGlad's family has been a part of the markets for over 20 years, selling maple syrup under the name Wood Homestead, and Mark grew up working at his dad's stand.
VanGlad will be at the market on Fridays (in a booth separate from his family), and hopes to bring in two different kinds of beer later this summer.
