(Photo: Greenpoint Beer & Ale Co. on Instagram.

Sure, it’s snowing out right now, but day-drinking season is so close we can almost taste the beef-bouillon bloodies on our lips while the sun kisses our pallid, desiccated skin. It’s happening next Sunday, folks: Greenpoint Beer & Ale Co. is celebrating its third anniversary with a party involving two hours of free beer.

Yep, it’s been just about three years since we brought word that Dirck the Norseman had launched its in-house brewery, inspired by the traditions of English, German, and Belgian beer-makers. A lot has changed since Ed Raven, a former Brooklyn Brewery employee and owner of Greenpoint’s Brouwerij Lane beer shop, launched Brooklyn’s first brewery-restaurant. Since then, local endeavors like Kings County Brewers Collective, Interboro Spirits & Ales, Bridge and Tunnel Brewery, Rockaway Brewing Company and Third Rail Beer have gotten off their feet. Oh, and let’s not forget Threes Brewing, which just opened a Greenpoint pop-up. (On the other hand, Greenpoint Beer Works powered down last year.)

Just a couple of days ago, Governor Cuomo congratulated himself for reducing red tape in New York’s brewing and distilling industries. Since it was enacted in 2013, legislation exempting small-time breweries from brand label registration fees has resulted in more than $2.2 million in savings, a press release announced. In addition, a beer-production credit launched in 2012 has saved craft beverage producers $12 million, Cuomo’s office said. Since the State created a Farm Brewery license in 2013, some 150 farm breweries and 28 farm cider businesses have been established.

Greenpoint Beer & Ale Co. has definitely grown in that time. In September, it released its first cans, of Smash Street Extra Pale Ale and the aptly named Instant Credibility Double IPA. Other releases have followed. So go on, celebrate that instant credibility on March 19, at 7 N 15th Street. The free beer will flow from 2pm to 4pm.