Month: April 2012

The Norwegians are coming, the Norweigans are coming! Norway brewery Nøgne Ø Beer has taken over the taps at a couple different Good Beer Seal Bars in the East Village. On Friday at Jimmy’s No. 43 representatives from beer importers, Norwegian dignitaries, Nøgne Ø’s Tore Nybø, and the famed (some might say “infamous”) co-founder and brewmaster Kjetil Jikiun were all on hand for an intimate Ultimate Nøgne Ø Night and Dinner. Then, yesterday, it was “Clone Wars” at Swift Hibernian Lounge when a small group of Nøgne Ø Beer lovers gathered to compare the original with a couple clone beers, including an amazingly robust porter clone beer brewed by Tim Stendahl and Tom Tate at Bitter & Esters in Brooklyn. In addition to the Nøgne Ø brews, Swift has more than 20 taps and many unique bottles available, in addition to a full pub menu.

This past Tuesday on Beer Sessions Radio™, Jimmy Carbone welcomed Long Island brewers Mark Burford (Blue Point Brewing Co.), John Liegey and Greg Soroski (Greenport Harbor Brewing Co.), and Paul Dlugokencky from Blind Bat Brewery. Aside from colorful anecdotes, these brewers discuss the long, tortuous (and, occasionally, torturous) path to bringing craft beer to Long Island. In addition, LI beer blogger Niko Krommydos (Super Neat Beer Adventure, Yes!) weighs in on the larger beer scene currently happening in “the sixth borough.”

Also included in this week’s episode is a nod to Earth Day: a discussion about grey water and the green movement among craft breweries. Listen to the whole episode (#111) here.

There’s something very cool about combining Pac-Man and craft beer! At Barcade (in Williamsburg and Jersey City), you can take in arcade favorites, such as Donkey Kong and Tetris, and compete to get your name added to the leader-board that tracks top scores. All this while enjoying craft brews from more than 20 taps. On a recent Friday (okay, yes, it was 4/20), Barcade was tapping Lagunitas’ limited edition Waldo’s Special Ale, among several other exclusive taps.

In even bigger news, the bar’s Jersey City location—which offers a small plate and sandwich menu in addition to an Oyster Bar—will be celebrating its first anniversary on Thursday, April 26th. Sounds like a great excuse to hop on PATH and sample the “other” Barcade! Congrats on the first year!

Episode 110 (listen here) of Beer Sessions Radio™ brought back regular co-host Dave Brodrick (Blind Tiger) to interview Peekskill’s Jeff O’Neill, who gave the surprise announcement that the brewery is “going from Westchester County’s smallest brewpub to Westchester County’s largest brewpub.” The Peekskill Brewery (about an hour away from NYC on the Metro North Hudson Line) is hoping to be a beer tourism draw with the larger facility slated to open early summer, and we’re looking forward to visiting.

The conversation with Jeff segued nicely into a conversation about coffee in beer and coffee and beer, as in coffee shops that sell beer. Ben Sandler and Jen Lim of The Queens Kickshaw have been selling coffee cold-brew coffee through their keg lines (with a nitrogen push). Their bar (coffee and beer) was designed out of love and largely hand-built by the owners.

Finally, it was time for a phone-in with Bradley Latham discussing the upcoming Craft Brewer’s Conference in San Diego from May 2-5 and what beer industry professionals can expect to gain from attending.

 

 

Beer Sessions Radio™ is a proud media sponsor of Brooklyn Wort, a homebrewers’ competition with two tastings on April 28th. The event and its participants were recently featured in The Brooklyn Paper. For details on the who’s among the competition, click here. The event article is below.

War of the worts! Brooklyn’s beer-makers battle at home-brew fest

By Eli Rosenberg

There are drinking games, and there are drinking contests.

Brooklyn’s home brewers are emerging from their closets, basements, and garages armed with their finest suds for an April 28 smackdown that will see two beer-makers crowned kings — no small achievement in a borough known for its brew bars and ever-growing community of swill-makers. click here to continue reading…

It was a beautiful and unseasonably warm Saturday, so the Good Beer Seal decided why not take a free ferry ride across the bay to Staten Island. There, they made their way to Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria Inn for a bit of German Biergarten love. As good luck would have it, owner Ken Tirado was on site and happy to pose for a quick picture.

It’s possibly the least appreciated but most important element of beer: Yeast! While few beer drinkers ponder much on the ingredient that allows for fermentation to occur, beer makers know that the kind and amount of yeast in beer affects everything from flavor to the amount of head retention. This week’s episode (#109 – listen to it here) brought together some of Beer Sessions Radio™’s regular contributors—Garrett Oliver (Brooklyn Brewery), Tony Forder (Ale Street News), Jason Rodriguez (Columbia University), B. R. Rolya (The Shelton Brothers), and Charlie Bamforth (UC Davis)—discuss the difference between wild and lab-cultivated yeasts, along with yeasty European brews. And, since it’s Beer Sessions Radio™, they’ve thrown in some poetry for good measure.

Beer Sessions Radio™ was thrilled to welcome back frequent co-host Jen Schwertman fresh off her return from Belgium and an extensive tour of the Brasserie Cantillon Brouwerij in Brussels. This being the time of year when we bring out the sours, Saisons, yeasty beers and Lambics, Jen’s travels unveil the processes the Belgians use to make these unique brews.

From Belgium to the northeastern US, Tim Stendhal of Union Beer, Will Stephens from BeerMenus.com, and Carolyn Pincus from The Stag’s Head in New York City discuss wild beers, sour beers and beer classes from New York to Montreal.

Finally, it’s a phone in with Win Bassett, Executive Director at North Carolina Brewers Guild, who catches us up on beer culture in the Carolinas and the craft beer movement that is taking fire in the south. The full episode can be heard here.

If you want to know how the beer scene has changed in Chicago over the past couple decades, you need go no further than Hopleaf Bar on North Clark Street in the city’s Andersonville neighborhood. Proprietor Michael Roper is celebrating his 20th year in business by expanding; he’s bought the building adjacent to Hopleaf, which will allow for an additional 100 spaces to a bar that already boasts some of the best beer offerings the city has to offer.

“When I opened 20 years ago there were very few craft beer options in Chicago,” Roper explained while showing off his impressive establishment. “There were 3 or 4 bars that carried American craft beers and a half a dozen that carried a lot of imports, mostly German. Now there is a craft beer bar on every corner! Even the ‘old man’ bars in Polish neighborhoods feel that they have to carry some better beers. Nice restaurants with big wine lists are paying attention to their beer menus now.”

There is an explosion of local brewing, too. On any given night, you can find taps pretty much unavailable outside the Windy City’s boundaries: Goose Island, Metropolitan, Half Acre, 5 Rabbit, Revolution, Finch’s, Three Floyds, Two Brothers, and—soon to come—New Chicago. Among the beers offered recently were Three Floyd’s Zombie Dust (a surprising mild taste and low ABV belies the Warrenville, IN, beer’s name), 5 Rabbit Viday Muerte Muertzenbier, and Finch’s Cut Throat American Pale Ale.

Hopleaf embodies what all the Good Beer Seal bars do: a sense of giving back to the community. In addition to sourcing locally for its menu (or hyper-locally—Roper grows herbs and veggies in a back courtyard that offers outdoor seating  in nice weather), Hopleaf hosts fundraisers for its community neighbors. When lack of funding threatened to cut off the art & music program at the local elementary school, Roper spearheaded an effort called “Kegs for Kids” that netted $44,000 and fully underwrote the arts program for the school.

Of course, with the 20th Anniversary expansion, Hopleaf will have even more room for beer dinners, tasting and pairing events, and brewmaster meet & greets. Along with great craft beer options you simply cannot find anywhere else.

As Roper sums it up, “We have quite a great beer scene in Chicago now. I am glad to be in the middle of it.”