Crown Finish Caves

Thirty feet below the street, Crown Finish Caves’ facility was originally designed for fermenting beer. They have taken over the former lagering tunnels of the Nassau Brewery in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and turned it into a cheese aging facility and NYS licensed dairy plant. With an average year-round temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the caves also happened to provide the perfect environment for aging cheese! This is a centuries old practice called "affinage," a prominent industry throughout Europe. They receive "green cheese", or young cheese that hasn't developed a rind yet, coming from local artisan producers (as well as from one as far away as Italy,) then it is aged to perfection. The main tunnel is almost full and holds a whopping 28,000 pounds of cheese.

PROVENANCE