What You Missed Beer Sessions Radio™: Ron Pattinson

HomeBrewersGuideThis week on Beer Sessions Radio™, host Jimmy Carbone bids farewell to a friend: We learned that Dennis Zentek of d.b.a. had passed away on Sunday. Our condolences go out to both his and the entire d.b.a. family. The craft beer world mourns with you.

This week’s episode (#206, listen here) was pre-recorded when Ron Pattison, author of The Home Brewer’s Guide to Vintage Beer and blogger of infamy, was in town on his book tour. He’s joined by Pretty Things owner/brewer Dann Paquette, who has brewed traditional beers with Ron since they met up in Amsterdam back in 2007. It’s a brewer’s (and historian’s) episode, as Ron delves into the history of brewing in 19th Century Britain (fact: the East India Porter was more popular and predates the better known IPA).

Later All About Beer editor John Holl joins the conversation, applauding Ron for “challenging us about what we think about beer.”

Is there an American future for cask ales? Ron claims, “The real beauty of cask beer is that it continues to develop.” However John thinks that until there’s brewer-led education, it will be hard to convince Americans that cask ale is anything but “flat and warm.”

Find out what are the UK’s best contributions to beer, plus the various styles of beers and how they changed between the mid-1800s and WWI. And you can geek out on a discussion that ranges from gravity to heavy hops and extinct beer styles.

Good Beer Seal Bars Compete in #BARchmadness

GoodBeerSealWe’re often asked, “What makes a Good Beer Seal bar?” Well, there’s a long answer and a short answer. The latter is “a bar committed to great craft beer and community.” But what really makes a Good Beer Seal bar is when the public recognizes its presence in the greater NYC bar/restaurant community. This past week, we saw just what a difference being a Good Beer Seal bar makes, when Brew York New York‘s Chris O’Leary set up a #BARchmadness bracket, pairing off 64 of the city’s best bars in a fight for bragging rights. Modeled on the NCAA’s March Madness, this bracket competition invited the public to vote for their favorite bars.

Amongst those 64 pairings were 32 Good Beer Seal bars. Let’s do the math: There are approximately 1700 bars in the city, of which 45 are GBS bars (while there are 50 GBS bars total, some are in New Jersey or on Long Island… the non-Brooklyn part). Thus, fewer than three percent of the city’s bars have been awarded the Good Beer Seal, yet 50 percent of the bars chosen to compete are GBS bars. That’s what makes a GBS bar special. And, what’s more, the second round has just begun, revealing 19 GBS bars advancing. In other words, GBS bars now make up almost 60 percent of the bars in #BARchmadness!

In the first round, the following GBS bars were paired off (sadly, many against each other):

In Manhattan In Brooklyn
124 Old Rabbit Club

Blind Tiger

Burp Castle

Dive Bar

George Keeley’s

Idle Hands

Jimmy’s No. 43

Rattle-N-Hum

Proletariat

The Pony Bar

The Pony Bar UES

The Stag’s Head

4th Avenue Pub

61 Local

Barcade

Bierkraft

Mission Dolores

Mugs Alehouse

Pacific Standard

Pine Box Rock Shop

Spuyten Duyvil

The Diamond

The Double Windsor

The Gate

The Owl Farm

 

In Queens In Staten Island In The Bronx
Alewife

Sunswick 35/35

The Queens Kickshaw

Adobe Blues

Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria

Bronx Ale House

Moving on to Round 2, we hope you’ll support the following GBS bars with your vote:

  • 4th Avenue Pub
  • Barcade
  • Bronx Alehouse
  • Idle Hands
  • Jimmy’s No. 43
  • Mission Dolores
  • The Double Windsor

These GBS bars are facing off against each other, so go with your favorite:

  • Blind Tiger v. Mugs Alehouse
  • The Owl Farm v. The Pony Bar
  • Alewife v. The Gate
  • Rattle-N-Hum v. Bierkraft
  • 124 Old Rabbit Club v. Proletariat
  • The Pony Bar UES v. Dive Bar

 

What You Missed Beer Sessions Radio™: Ladies Night and Wild Beer Co.

EmpireSweetFireThis week on Beer Sessions Radio™ on the Heritage Radio Network, host Jimmy Carbone is hanging out with the ladies as he welcomes Anne Bescerra (of Anne Likes Beer and Gingerman) and Sweet Fire, a collaboration beer made at Empire Brewing. The women brewers included Empire’s Brand Manager Olivia Cerio, Hayley Jensen (Beer Sommelier at Taproom 307), Blind Tiger GM Katherine Kyle, and Spring Lounge GM Jen Torriero. They discuss how they came up with the name of their beer made with chilis.

Plus, the brewer from Wild Beer Company from Somerset England, Andrew Cooper, and importer Jon Lundbom (of B. United) discuss Cheddar Cheese and the resurgence of craft beer in the U.K.  Tune in and catch some infectious energy from a room full of beer pros. Listen to the full episode here.

What You Missed Beer Sessions Radio™: Beer Writers, Young Turks of Brewing, and “Blame it on the Grain”

Bunker Brewing in the, well, bunker! During Josh's Lagering Caves NYC Beer Week Tour.
Bunker Brewing in the, well, bunker! During Josh’s Lagering Caves NYC Beer Week Tour.

This week on Beer Sessions Radio™ on the Heritage Radio Network, host Jimmy Carbone welcomes back some of our favorite beer writers, as Josh Bernstein and Niko Krommydas join new authors Giancarlo and Sarah Annese (Beer Lover’s New York: The Empire State’s Best Breweries, Brewpubs & Beer Bars). Together they do a recap of one of Jimmy’s favorite NYC Beer Week events, Josh’s tour of the old Nassau Brewing lagering caves. Josh discusses the rich history of beer in Brooklyn, noting that he likes to conduct tours where “you drink and think at the same time.”

Among the brewers that were serving up—what else?—lagers during the event was Chresten Sorensen from Bunker Brewing Co. in Portland, ME. Chresten discusses the challenges of opening a new brewery plus breaks down the beer scene in Portland. By phone, Luke and Walt Dickson of Wicked Weed Brewing discuss how large established breweries are helping small up-and-coming brewers via collaboration (Wicked Weed, based in Asheville, brewed their Brett IPA with now-neighbor New Belgium).

Giancarlo and Sarah discuss their travels through NY State and the many small breweries that surprised them with quality beers. Jimmy segues into a wrap-up of Brewer’s Choice, where more than 6,000 pounds of local grains were incorporated into this year’s brews. A major concern for small brewers is getting local ingredients, and NY has a long way to go to keep up with demand. The panel agrees that “grains are the new hops” and that anyone opening a malthouse in the northeast will be inundated with orders.

Both looking back and ahead on this week’s episode (listen here).