Month: November 2014

It is with great sadness that we bid farewell to one of the founding Good Beer Seal bars: dba Brooklyn is closing today after five years of making Williamsburg more cool and less hip. Sadly, after the death of dba’s partners Ray Deter and Dennis Zentek, the Brooklyn craft beer haven became ripe for tenants looking to take over the space. As of now, there’s no word that dba Brooklyn will re-open in another location. We hope you’ll get a chance to drop by for one last pint today, and say goodbye to this establishment that truly embodied what it means to be a Good Beer Seal bar.

And on a happier note, dba in the East Village did find a new owner who has pledged to keep the bar “as is,” and we hope that we’ll be able to remember Ray and Dennis there.

We’re drinking NY for Thanksgiving, and we’re taking the show on the road as this week’s Beer Sessions Radio™ heads to Westchester County to record at Jon Bloostein’s latest venture, Portchester Hall. Joining the Heartland Brewery owner and host Jimmy Carbone are Joe Ciccidomini of Craftsman Ale House, Tim Reinke of Birdsall House, and Chris and Joe DeCicco of DeCicco Family Markets!

This week’s episode is all about beer outside of NYC – learn about the bar scene, the breweries, the trends and our northern neighbor’s community as the group talks about everything from holiday beer sales to serving up beer at family-friendly establishments. Take a ride on MetroNorth, and discover what we already know: Westchester is up and coming as a craft beer destination!

Listen to the full episode here.

This week on Beer Sessions Radio™, we’re playing degrees of separation, bringing the disparate worlds of Massachusetts and Alaska together by way of Staten Island and Roberta’s in Brooklyn (where we record). And for good measure, we’re bringing along a wine lover to our beer broadcast!

Host Jimmy Carbone is welcoming Mark Zappasodi – former NYC homebrewer – of The Malt Shed, a Massachusetts farm where he’s growing hops (cascade, centennial, nugget). Mark used to grow hops (on a much smaller scale) when he lived on Staten Island. There, he was close friends with Jason Bullen, Master Brewer of 49th State Brewing Company out on the final frontier: Alaska’s Denali Park (owing to weather, the brewpub is only open eight months of the year).

Continuing on our degrees of separation, we’ve got Amy Zavatto, who writes about wine and spirits for Imbibe Magazine, and who was first introduced to craft beer by Matt. Amy is chatting along with Cory Bonfiglio of Proletariat and Beer Street about the differences between wine and beer drinkers. Plus, Josh Richholt of The Well Brooklyn. chimes in on the importance of finding the vocabulary to talk about beer beyond “beer geeks” (Josh: “Wine people have the vocabulary that beer people don’t have”).

Josh also talks about the challenges involved in trying to open a large beer hall in the old Hiddleman Brewery built in 1875 (it took his team almost three years to bring the building up to code). The Meserole Street beer bar opened last week.

And of course, the group is drinking some great beer, including barley wine (the Alaska Barley Wine festival is in January) and wet hopped beers using hops from Matt’s farm. Catch the full episode here.

This week on Beer Sessions Radio™, host Jimmy Carbone welcomes a diverse group of brewers from near (Dave Lopez—owner—and Chris Sheehan—brewmaster—of Gun Hill Brewing Co. in the Bronx) and far (Richard Burhouse of Magic Rock and Colin Strong of Buxton Brewery both from the U.K.). Adding color (pun intended, and read on) is Evil Twin Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø and B.R. Rolya of Shelton Brothers Imports. Among other topics, the brewers are discussion the Rainbow Project, a collaboration event that takes place each year involving British and European brewers who take their inspiration from the colors of the rainbow (ROY G BIV, for those who remember the mnemonic).

B.R. describes the very technical process of how the brewers are matched with each other and their color: Ryan Witter-Merithew of Siren Craft Brew in the U.K. literally draws names from hats and then picks a color at random. The only bar in the U.S. that will have all seven beers on at the same time is Good Beer Seal bar Tørst. The match-ups are as follows:

Magic Rock + Evil Twin (Denmark) – Red
Beavertown + Naparbier (Spain) – Orange
Buxton + Omnipollo (Sweden) – Yellow
Hawkshead + Lervig (Norway) – Green
Partizan + Mikeller (Denmark) – Blue
Wild Beer Co + Toccalmatto (Italy) – Indigo
Siren + De Molen (The Netherlands) – Violet

As B.R. notes, some of the beers are directly related to color (Richard talks about how he and Jeppe chose to make a Flanders Red Ale, for example), whereas others are more obscure. The results, however the brewers came to their beers, are delicious!

Plus Dave and Chris are discussing their recent gold medal victory at the Great American Beer Festival (Chris is a repeat winner, having previous won both gold and bronze medals with Chelsea Brewing), and how much harder it is to get beers into the world’s largest beer competition.

The brewers discuss the challenges of barrel aging beers and how the U.K. market is changing in terms of a new wave of craft breweries coming online. So, pour yourself a pint, and listen in to this week’s episode here.

It’s another “founding father” moment this week on Beer Sessions Radio™, as host Jimmy Carbone welcomes Lagunitas Brewing Company founder and CEO, Tony Magee, who is on the show promoting his new book, So You Want to Start a Brewery: The Lagunitas Story. His “unintentionally” inspiring story covers the rise of craft beer in California in the 1990s, including how Lagunitas became synonymous with the India Pale Ale.

Also in the studio is one of our favorite co-hosts, Jimmy Ludwig of Happy Hour Guys, who discusses the “intestinal fortitude” needed to launch a brewery. Joe Carroll of Spuyten Duyvil, Fette Sau and St. Anselm chimes in on how Lagunitas helped shape the craft beer scene in NYC. Plus, we’ve got frequent guest Tony Forder of Ale Street News and Mark Sljukic (also of Lagunitas).

Learn about the origins of Lagunitas, which happened almost by accident when a local CA bar got mad at Sierra Nevada’s distributor and decided to swap out their tap with Lagunitas. Tony Magee learned from that experience that if you can “create” a style of beer, then you can influence the consumer who—back in the day, at any rate—would associate a style with a brand (hence, Sierra Nevada “invented” the pale ale; Lagunitas the IPA).

And the panel weighs in on the “full circle” of craft beer now being made in Europe, which is bringing Double IPAs among other beers to a new market. As Lagunitas’ founder notes, “The entire global beer industry is gradually being handed over to another generation of brewers.”

Hear all about it and the beers on this week’s episode.

And that’s a wrap! As the fourth annual Cider Week NYC draws to a close, we’re still looking for great “fancy” ciders, as Beer Sessions Radio™ host Jimmy Carbone prefers to call the ciders that were featured during the annual 10-day festival (and if you’re still seeking ciders, check out the GBS bars in this Time Out NY list). For the past two weeks, Beer Sessions Radio™ could have been renamed “Cider Sessions Radio,” as a bevy of cider experts descended on Roberta’s in Bushwick to talk about the all-mighty apple.

From what to call cider (fine cider? artisanal cider? craft cider?) to how to start a cider apple orchard (Farnum Hill‘s Steve Wood’s advice? “Don’t!” I guess his orchard isn’t called “Poverty Lane” for nothing!),

First up, on episode 236 (listen here), we are talking with an incredible panel of guests about the Kingston Black varietal during a bunker crop year (you cannot always make cider from this finicky apple!). In the studio tasting a bevy of different ciders all made from the Kingston Black varietal are Steve Wood of Farnum Hill Cider; Rowan Jacobsen, author of Apples of Uncommon Character; Dan Wilson of Slyboro Cider House; Gay Howard of United States of Cider; Kay Michaels, cheesemonger at Eataly (listen for the moment when Steve becomes her instant fan!); and Sabine Hrechdakian and Sascha Anderson of Glynwood, founders of Cider Week NYC.  Go beyond the glass and learn about all that goes into producing one of the hottest beverages around these days!

Then, on episode 237 (listen here), Jimmy welcomed two great writers into the studio, frequent guest Josh Bernstein shares interviewing duties as one of the nation’s most accomplished cider writers, Chris Lehault, discusses the massive growth expected in the world of cider making (“We’ve projected that cider making will be 1000 times the size it is now…”) to up-and-coming cider regions (e.g. the area west of Colorado’s mountains). Josh discusses his upcoming tour of the Nassau Brewery lagering caves (this time with cheese and cider!). Also in the studio is Virtue Cider‘s Michael McAvena, who talks about Virtue’s three-year effort in cider making and how forming a cidery is much more challenging than f0rming a brewery (the cider maker at Virtue is Greg Hall, formerly of Goose Island).

And right in between the two episodes, Beer Sessions Radio™ helped co-produce a new event called Ciderfeast that featured more than a dozen cider makers pouring close to three dozen different ciders. It was a great day down at the Seaport, and if you missed it (or didn’t), you can see more photos from Ciderfeast and all our Cider Week NYC fun on our Facebook page.