Month: February 2012

This coming Saturday, March 3, the Beer Sessions Radio™ team will be hosting two seminars during the NYC American Craft Beer Festival being held at the Lexington Armory (tickets still available here). Beer Sessions Radio™ host Jimmy Carbone and esteemed guests from the popular Heritage Radio Network beer show will lead select guests at the fest in:

• A chocolate and beer pairing with Discover Chocolate author Clay Gordon with select brews available for tasting;
• Highlights from the NY International Beer Competition’s award winning beers, presented with Adam Levy, President of All Spirits Events.

To gear up for the weekend, we were talking with Clay Gordon and Garrett Oliver during this week’s show. One of the many points of discussion was the explanation that most “chocolate” beers actually contain no chocolate. The taste comes from roasting the malt to bring out chocolate-ee flavors. If you’re at this weekend’s seminars, you’ll get to taste for yourself. We hope to see you there!

It often seems that the main talk about beer concerns the level of hops, the sourcing of barley, or the ABV of a particular brew. It’s easy to overlook the one thing all beer has in common: water! Last week on Beer Sessions Radio™ we discussed the environmental impact of beer and looked into the water footprint it takes to run a brewery. Regulars Jen Schwertman and Dave Brodrick of The Blind Tiger were there to talk about the world’s best potable with water researcher Kai Olson-Sawyer and sustainability expert Caleb Stratton. You can catch up on last week’s episode to learn how and why water is so important in creating the flavor profile of a good beer.

Last week, we held our annual Good Beer Seal luncheon at Jimmy’s No. 43. It was great to see so many Good Beer Seal bar owners come together to celebrate beer and friendship and talk about our plans for the year. In attendance were:

• Dave Broderick (Blind Tiger)
• Jimmy Carbone (Jimmy’s No. 43)
• Juan Cruz (Sunswick)
• Gary Gillis (Burp Castle/Standings)
• Paul Kermizian(barcade)
• Anthony Malone (Swift)
• Dan McGloughlin (The PNY)
• Caroline Pincus (Stags Head)
• John Rauchenberg (Pac Stand)
• Caitlin Robin (Against the Grain)
• Jon Stan (Pac Stand)
• Dennis Zentek (dba)

Valentine’s Day brought out some serious beer love to Beer Sessions Radio™ last Tuesday, the day before Time Out New York‘s annual beer issue was on newsstands. Jimmy Carbone and Jen Schwertman welcomed guests Chris Schonberger (TONY), Josh Schaffner of NY Craft Beer Week, and Adam Levy (whose dog is named “Garrett Oliver”) of the International Beer Competition. This episode reveals some of the best beer spots for locals and tourists alike, plus a breakdown of the many beer competitions and festivals that will be happening this spring. Be sure to listen to the webcast here and find out why so many Good Beer Seal bars made it into this year’s Beer Issue of TONY.

We are happy to announce that Good Beer Sessions Radio™ broadcasts are now available for download on iTunes. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast and never miss a Good Beer moment!

As part of this year’s Just Food Conference, several food professionals are offering up “A Day in the Life” for auction. You can bid to win a day with Good Beer Seal co-founder and Beer Sessions Radio™ host Jimmy Carbone. Spend a day talking about (and tasting) great craft beer, join Jimmy and the team at a taping, and help out a great cause!

On Saturday, February 11th, the Beer Sessions Radio™ team got together at Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn to create a new beer to honor the late Ray Deter. Deter Tribute London Brown Ale was create via collaboration between Jimmy Carbone and the crew from Beer Sessions (Cathy Erway, Bree O’Connor and Brett Thompson) along with Jeff Cioletti of Beverage World, Jason Bummel of 49th State Brewing, and Pete Dickson of Sixpoint. Members of the Deter family were also there to help Ray’s friends pay homage to their late friend.

The beer, which will be served at next month’s Beer for Beasts event, is a toasty English-style Brown Ale that Ray (former dba owner and co-host of Beer Sessions Radio™) would dig. The beer was made by hardening the water to make it similar to the water in London, as opposed to New York City. It’s made with a combination of English barley malt including “Brown Malt,” a standard brown pub ale malt, and Fuggle hops, an English hop.

Cheers to Ray!

Join us for our 100th episode today, when we will be talking with Vaughan Cutillo, Joe Sullivan and Eric Moss of Montauk Brewing Company. Although Long Island has a rich tradition of brewing beer, Montauk Brewing is relatively new to the scene. We’re looking forward to talking about their new brewery and plans for 2012. We’ll be getting a sneak preview of some of the brews that will be going on sale this spring.

And what’s great beer without some food to go along with it? We’ve got Patrick Donagher of Get Real NY’s aPorkalypse Now and Lina Kulchinsy, owner of Sigmund’s Pretzel Shop. Patrick will be talking about his February 25th food festival (details here), while Lina will discussing her East Village shop that specializes in small batches of hand-made pretzels.

Finally, be sure to mark your calendars for March 21st, when we’ll be celebrating all the shows (including Beer Sessions Radio™) on Heritage Radio Network that have hit the century mark. The party will be held at Santos Party House (96 Lafayette), with details to follow.

Check out the new issue of Ale Street News, just hitting newsstands (February/March issue).  Alex Hall’s column on page 16-B discusses cask ale and mentions the Beer Sessions Radio (Episode 94) with Bruce Williams! Thanks for the shout-out, Alex.