Local brewery honors Grand Central’s constellation ceiling with new beer
Of all Grand Central‘s amazing architectural feats and quirky secrets, nothing is more iconic than its famously backward celestial ceiling. So when Sunset Park-based Five Boroughs Brewing Co. started thinking about their next brew, they decided to pay homage to this work of art. “We may be biased, but to us, New York City is the Center of the Universe,” Five Boroughs told 6sqft. “This beer pays homage to the beautiful ceiling at Grand Central Terminal and this amazing city we are lucky to call home.”
The label artwork was done by local designer/artist Paulina Ho, who very cleverly made sure to feature Orion fighting Taurus. The reason the ceiling is backward is that when muralist J. Monroe Hewlett, painter Charles Basing, and astronomer Dr. Harold Jacoby were working on it in ahead of the 1913 opening of Grand Central, they put the drawing on the floor and projected it up, which reversed the image when it hit the ceiling. But in a funny twist, Orion is the only “correct” constellation, likely reversed so he could face Taurus.
Center of the Universe is a double dry hopped Double IPA with “significant malt and hop presence” that lends itself to an “assertive stone fruit, piney, and citrusy hop character [that] is balanced out by a bready malt backbone and a touch of bitterness.” Can are available for sale in Five Borough’s taproom, as well as in stores across the city.
RELATED:
