Franklin Park. All photos by Emily Paup.

If you live within two subway stops of Tom’s Diner, you may have gotten into a long, whiskey-breathed argument about where Prospect Heights actually is. At the very least, you’ve likely cringed at the phrase “ProCro.” Smartphone lookups only blur the boundaries—Google Maps includes the Barclay’s Center in the postage stamp-sized area, and an old NY Magazine article suggests that that a block-wide sliver on Prospect Park west is part of the neighborhood. I object vehemently to both assertions, and I’m not even drunk right now. One thing’s for certain: there are some really solid happy hours in the region arguably known as Prospect Heights. Here’s a list of places where you can get tipsy and then try to figure out where the hell you are.

Laying the foundations
There are two types of drinkers: people who think you should eat a decent meal before downing seven beers, and people who think that doing so is a waste of money (these types can also get into high altitude weddings and post-blood donation binging). I pass no judgment, and neither does Soda Bar, which offers a $6 hamburger/Rolling Rock combo along with plain old $2 Rolling Rock. They’re not fooling around with the burger, by the way. It’s modestly sized, but there’s a high-quality bun, a heap of baby greens, and enough culinary commitment to ask you how you’d like it cooked. Pull up a stool, lounge on one of Soda Bar’s comfy couches, or lie on the floor, pound several Rolling Rocks, and go Hasselhoff on your burger. Like I said, I’m not here to judge.

Soda Bar, 629 Vanderbilt Ave., 718-230-8393
Noon-7pm Mon-Fri, $2 Rolling Rock, $6 Rolling Rock/hamburger combo

So many choices: The Way Station.

Getting time travel tipsy
The Way Station is one of Prospect Heights’ more carefully-decorated bars. Studded leather booths and ornate wallpaper line the south wall, a bathroom masquerades as a phone booth at the end of the bar, and wall-mounted ray guns point mercifully towards the back. A fellow drinker described the steampunky bar’s clientele as “socially functional nerds,” and, yes, there’s a geek streak to the bar that offers a “choose your own adventure” cocktail (this priceless $8 experience, in which the bartender mixes a drink based on your answers to a few questions, is a total ripoff, by the way). Assuming you bring a few friends, though, the crowd could just as easily be described as “people who like cheap drinks.”

The Way Station, 683 Washington Ave, 347-627-4949
4pm-8pm, $2 PBR, $4 shot-and-a-beer, $4 drafts, $8 ‘choose your own adventure,’ $1 off everything else.

Staying classy
Despite the low prices and lengthy happy hour, Washington Commons is a swell place. Their friendly bartenders will answer questions about barley for you, and they take the trouble to pour pilsners into pilsner glasses, etc. The gargantuan beer list can sometimes daunt, but with what they’re charging, you can taste your way through the bar’s microbrew selection in a matter of (drunk) days. During warmer times, Washington Commons’ back yard is a great place to spend several hours. Bonus: there are sometimes dogs at this bar.

Washington Commons, 748 Washington Ave., 718-230-3666
3-8pm Mon-Fri; $2 off everything; most beer is $3-6 after discount. Also, $4 bloody Marys from 1-4pm Sat-Sun.

Prospect Heights? Crown Heights? "ProCro"?

Two plausible arguments that Prospect Heights now extends to Franklin Avenue
The gentrifying hordes are pushing eastward from Washington Avenue at an alarming pace (a street often cited as Prospect Heights’ edge), but the way that people talk about the Franklin Avenue stop in Crown Heights, you don’t expect a place like The Crown Inn. It’s downright posh: there’s a wood-trimmed marble bar, craft liquors, house cocktails, and the kind of wine that doesn’t involve a plastic spigot. At one point, the bartender replaced my gross, saturated napkin with a crisp new one. Like I said—posh. The sophistication announces itself in your tab, but my fancy-pants cocktail was delicious enough to make me want to be rich.

The Crown Inn, 724 Franklin Avenue, no phone
5pm-8pm Mon-Thurs,2pm-8pm Fri; $4 drafts, $6 selected cocktails, $7 wine on tap

Franklin Park—the bar best known for its outdoor seating, excellent weekend DJ sets, and being the place where you lost your coat on Friday—also has a beat the clock happy hour. Drink as many $3 drafts as you can from 4-5pm, because they’re $4 from 5-7. On Mondays, the drafts stay put at $4 all night, and on Tuesdays, you can get two-fers on well drinks and beer until close. If you can’t take the pressure of escalating prices (or if you become disoriented for some reason), remember that $3 cans of Bud are available every day of the week at any hour.

Franklin Park, 618 Saint Johns Place, 718-975-0196
$3 drafts and $4 wells from 4-5pm, $4 drafts and $5 wells from 5-7pm. $4 drafts all night on Monday; two-for-one wells and beers until close on Tuesday. Cash only.

Other places to drink cheap

Bar Sepia, 234 Underhill, 718-399-6680—4-8pm Mon-Fri, $1 off drafts and wells. $3 Bud during happy hour, better beers will run you about $5 after the discount.

Plan B, 626 Vanderbilt Ave., 347-240-2171 —4-7pm, Mon-Fri, $3 drafts, $4 wells and wine. Guinness is $4. Lots of TVs playing sports.

Branded Saloon, 603 Vanderbilt Ave., 718-484-8704—4pm-7pm, Mon-Fri, $2 Rolling Rock, $3 PBR, $4 drafts, wells, and wine, $6 cosmos, bloody marys, and margaritas. This place has a pool table and arcade games.

Sharlene’s, 353 Flatbush Ave., 347-350-8225—1pm-7pm, EVERY DAY, $3 drafts, $1 off everything else. THESE PEOPLE ARE SAINTS.

This is $25, but that's not the best part.

Pop Chart Lab’s mission is simple: to render all of human experience in chart form. Don’t know why we haven’t heard of, or partied with, this book editor and graphic designer in DUMBO before, (or maybe we have) but their posters are smart, goodlooking and still able to be delivered to Brooklyn tomorrow. Choose from the Titanic Taxonomy of Wrestler Names, the Insanely Great History of Apple or the Periodic Table of Heavy Metals, (from AC/DC to Zyklon), all $25. Or go for “Very Many Varieties of Beer” because it comes with a chance to win 200 beers — one of every brew featured on the poster if you order by Dec. 31. Your only dilemma then will be to give them to the poster recipient or bogart them for yourself. (Your secret is safe with Brokelyn, as long as you invite us.) Order here. Beer giveaway details after the jump.

Sixpoint Craft Ales: They'll be there. Will you?

Missed out on getting tickets to Edible magazine’s Good Beer fest? Or maybe it was the $40 price tag. Yipit.com is selling half-price tickets to the sold-out, intimate uber-tasting at BAMcafé tomorrow evening, Jul. 28. The event, hosted by Edible Brooklyn (& Manhattan) and the Good Beer Seal, will include 12 to 15 varieties of beer, many of which you’ve never tasted before, from breweries around New York. And there’ll be food—plenty of it—from Fette Sau, Luke’s Lobster, Sammy’s Roumanian Steak House, Sigmund’s Pretzels and quite a few others. Yes, still $20, but you do the value math for this one.

On top of the beer and food, there’ll also be a home-brewing demo from Brooklyn Brew Shop… so maybe next year, people will pay to taste what you churn out. The $20 deal expires 1 p.m., Wed. Jul. 28. Buy it here. Find all the food and drink details here.

BAMcafé at Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave., Fort Greene.

via the skint

CEOL
www.ceolpub.com
191 Smith St. between Baltic & Warren, Cobble Hill 347-643-9911

What it is: Ceol, which means Music in Gaelic, is an Irish pub, through and through, from the bartenders to the beer to the food to the green paint.
Why we love it: The accents on the bartenders (and most of the clientele); the fact that “one more round” is never the last.
Who to bring: Friends who can relax and get lost at a pub for an entire afternoon, or til the wee hours…
What to order: Shepherd’s pie, fries with bacon and cheddar with one of 15 beers on draft.
Ceol fun fact: The owners, Loretta and Samantha, hail from Dublin and fashioned the place after Loretta’s pa’s pub in Ireland and her experience working with Smithwicks Brewery.

This is the latest entry in our series on the venues featured in the Brokelyn Beer Book. With its ample outdoor seating, Park Slope’s The Gate was made for 60 degrees and sunny.

THE GATE
www.thegatebrooklyn.blogspot.com
321 Fifth Ave. at 3rd St., Park Slope, 718-768-4329

What it is: An old-world tavern that celebrates beer and your love of it.
Why we love it: The Gate has a sprawling selection of drafts and bottles where you can size up the debate over hops vs. malts. They also carry lots of specialty craft brews and unique casks. The porch scene is one of the finest in Park Slope, and spotting people out there is a sure sign spring is on the way.
Who to bring: The bar advertises a welcome to “young, old, feathered or furred.”
What to order: The selections change all the time, but try a specialty Sierra Nevada or Dogfish Head brew that you won’t find many other places.
The Gate fun fact: The bar’s name is Edgar Allan Poe inspired, and a Poe poem is scrawled on a board in the window that contains this line: “What care I how time advances/ I am drinking ale today.”

This is the fourth in our series on the venues featured in the

BELL HOUSE
www.thebellhouseny.com
149 7th St. between Second and Third Avenues, Gowanus, 718-643-6510

What it is: In the back, a great venue for rock shows and comedy fests, in the front room, comfy couches and 12 taps.
Why we love it: It’s that rare event space that even feels inviting when there’s nothing going on.
Who to bring: An old friend you haven’t seen in eight years—or a new friend you want to see more of.
What to order: Dub pies and Kentucky beer cheese. When you’re done with your beer, trade up to a cocktail.
Bell House fun fact #1: Whoever wrote the drink descriptions is a genius. The bourbon-and-ginger-ale Tighten Up cocktail is “Like a wedding vow whispered only to you under a willow tree … by a stranger … holding a Louisville Slugger.”
Bell House fun fact #2: The world’s largest Connect 4 board was officially documented at this bar. Watch the video here.

Connect 4 Tournament at The Bell House on Vimeo.

Rob Blatt is an independent podcast producer and owner of Blattcave Studios in Brooklyn.

The cinema society, with its very handy film blog, showcases pretty much all movies cult, classic, art or local for communal viewing at venues around the borough (The Dark Knight need never apply, they say). Screenings are outdoors or in cafes, bars or basically any space they can line up.

For Lockdown USA, a film about the Rockefeller Drug Laws and America’s “War on Drugs,” the cinema society has teamed up with Article 19 Films and the Chelsea Brewing Co. (hence the “refreshments”).

Doors open at 7 p.m., dj set at 7:30, movie at 8:30 with discussion to follow. Admission is free with RSVP to lawtonrooftop@gmail.com.

Yes, it can be cheaper to brew your own beer—if you make enough of it. Let’s break down some numbers. According to the guys at Park Slope’s venerable Bierkraft, there are in fact no places in Brooklyn that sell brew equipment. They recommend ordering a kit online at northernbrewer.com; a basic starter kit will set you back $75. You will also need to buy one of their ingredients kits, which range between $20-$40. Finally, you’ll need a brew kettle—any pot 2.5 gallons or greater ($40 at northernbrewer), and 48 to 52 pry-off 12-ounce beer bottles (about $30).

So let’s put the initial investment at $175. That averages about $3.30 per bottle for the first batch. For a subsequent batch—you’ll need to purchase new ingredients kit and bottle caps—the total average (of all the beer made, including the first batch) will be about $2.10. For a third batch, it’ll be about $1.75 a bottle. And so on. I’m roughly estimating, though; the price will fluctuate according to the ingredients you purchase.

Cobble-Hill resident Fritz Fernow has been home-brewing in his kitchen for three years now; he often buys ingredients from the brewers in Red Hook’s Six Point Brewery (Six Point is also on Twitter and Facebook). Six Point doesn’t officially sell hops, through—it’s more of a casual, brewers helping brewers exchange. Once you get to know people, Fernow says, it’s easy to find ingredients “below market price.” Fernow recommends the Brooklyn-based Malted Barley Appreciation Society for getting to know other brewers. They host monthly meetings, with guest speakers, at brewpubs around Brooklyn.

There are also tons of home-brewing blogs out there, including Fourth Avenue Brew, new this year, and Seanywonton’s Brewing Blog, written by Sean White, president of New York City’s Homebrewers Guild. (He lives and brews in Brooklyn.) The Gowanus Brewery,  written by a Carroll Gardens-based brewer, is also worth a look: it’s no longer active, but has good information about growing your own hops—another way to save money.

If the initial investment still seems daunting, look around: I found a “NEW! IN BOX! Never been used!” Mr. Beer Premium Home Microbrewery Kit for $25, which included ingredients, on craigslist (all good things come through craigslist). Location of seller = South Slope.

Another money-saving tip from Fernow: don’t buy new bottles. He finds them at parties, soaks the bottles to scrape off their labels, cleans them, then sanitizes them.

As a quick aside, brewing is not only cool—it’s Brooklyn-cool. A few years ago, the Brooklyn Historical Society ran a history-of-Brooklyn-brewing exhibit called “100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.”  According to the Society, just before Prohibition, Brooklyn had in fact become one of the nation’s main brewing centers, along with Milwaukee and St. Louis; nearly half of brewery founders had come to the U.S. in the mid-1800s from the Bavarian region of Germany. Breweries were located in mostly heavily German neighborhoods: Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Greenpoint.

Also according to the Society, it was apparently common back then to see children carrying pails of beer (called “growlers”) from local taverns to houses and tenements. So for anyone who ever heard “honey get your mother a beer” as a kid—such a request is actually part of Brooklyn tradition.