The pretzels also served to meet the New York State requirement that food be purchased along with restaurant alcohol sales. It makes for more work for us but it is attracting more talent to both kitchens,вЂќ Brown said. The pretzels were the catalyst to transform the BrownвЂ™s kitchens into places where scratch-made is the norm, not the exception. The pretzels are served with sides of IPA beer cheese dip and pale ale honey mustard. вЂњAs we exposed people to the pretzels, they really began to respond to them,вЂќ Brown said.

Brown said it is a way to ease people into the stronger flavor of her pretzels. The housemade pretzels can be ordered on their own, or as part of a pretzel platter that features more traditional soft pretzels that most other restaurants sell. The pretzels are sold in both brew pub locations on the appetizer menu. It tastes like the smell when the brewers are making the oatmeal stout,вЂќ Brown said.ДЄfter the boil, the pretzels are sprinkled with flaky salt and are baked in a small impingement oven that Garry Brown found and rebuilt for the pretzel project. She experimented with many recipes over the summer before landing on a recipe that relies on the rich, malty flavors of BrownвЂ™s oatmeal stout in the dough and in the water that the pretzels are boiled in. вЂњI thought I was going to have to freeze them, but each week they sell out,вЂќ Brown said. According to data from SuperPretzel, the top-selling soft pretzel company in the U.S., the average American eats 2 pounds of pretzels a year while Philadelphians eat as much as six times that annually thanks to the rich Pennsylvania Dutch community near the city.ДЄpril 26 is National Pretzel Day, and BrownвЂ™s Brewing Company is primed for twisted pleasure for those looking to enjoy the salty snack and a cold pint of beer.Д«rown says she and baker Norine Ellett, who owns Truly Delectable Delights home bakery in Waterford and works part-time in the BrownвЂ™s kitchen, make 400 pretzels a week. The influx of German and Scandinavian immigrants to America in the 1800s brought the pretzel to domestic shores, and ever since Americans have enjoyed pretzels as a bar snack, a lunchtime side or strung on a cord necklace during beer festivals. Either way, pretzels have been a hallmark of German cuisine for hundreds of years, most prominently being featured as a carb-heavy gut sponge to soak up the sudsy beer that revelers enjoy each Oktoberfest. Pretzels and beer have an intricate history dating back to at least medieval Europe, though some sources claim ancient Rome also had pretzels. She used the slower pace to consider ways in which the brew pub might be able connect the ethos of the brewery with the philosophy of the kitchen, and one product seems to link the two halves together perfectly: Pretzels. We are such a high volume restaurant that when we slowed down, we were able to perfect our kitchen,вЂќ Brown said. вЂњDuring COVID things slowed down, and doing takeout only was the perfect time to look at some of our recipes.

National pretzel day