Good Beer Seal

How is craft beer like pornography? Well, according to Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster Garrett Oliver, “You know it when you see it.” Or, “You know it when you taste it,” at any rate. Defining what craft beer is a group of beer rock stars on this episode of Beer Sessions Radio™, including Garrett, host Jimmy Carbone, Blind Tiger’s Dave Brodrick, Heavy Seas‘ Hugh Sisson, and Jeff and Heather Rush of Pine Box Rock Shop.

How do you tell what is truly craft beer as the industry changes and grows? Garrett’s take is that the key “break between craft beer and mass market beer” is to know your brewer. Mass market beer is money-centered, not brewer-centered. Garrett also reports that the big news out of Brooklyn Brewery is that they will be opening a brewery in Sweden by the end of the year (he also tips off the studio guests about Brooklyn Bowl’s big expansion out in Las Vegas), not to mention he has 15 beers currently in development.

As Pine Box Rock Shop has just installed a cask system, the guests discuss the challenges of caring for cask beer, and how the American idea of cask ale is launching a new take on traditional English ales. The goal is to educate publicans in how to serve cask ales, but also to let American drinkers know that U.S. cask ales are not “this warm, flat U.K. beer.” Making cask ale accessible to all craft beer drinkers is key to keeping this historic beer available for centuries to come.

And apparently the session beer has finally arrived. Although Hugh admits Loose Cannon is still his best selling beer, session beers are no longer the last beer on the menu to drink. Many craft beers now weigh in at 3 and 4 percent ABV are full bodied with rich hop profiles minus the high alcohol content.

And, of course, it’s July Good Beer Month, and Garrett has a dynamic and commanding reading of Mayor Bloomberg’s recent Proclamation (at the 30 minute mark). You can listen to the full episode #171 here.

This past weekend, Shmaltz Brewing/Coney Island celebrated its official opening, ending an era of contract brewing. In fact, the event was labeled, “Death of a Contract Brewer,” and Shmaltz staff wore T-shirts with the catch phrase as several hundred visitors weathered 100+ degree temperatures in the pristine brewery. Owner Jeremy Cowan celebrated with specialty beers, arcade games, and a lot of love from area breweries, such as Peekskill Brewing, Keegan Ales, Adirondack Brewery, Empire, Kelso, C.H. Evans Brewing, Medocino, and Brown’s Brewing Co. Several homebrew clubs from upstate were also in attendance.

Brewery tours were headed by Jeremy and brewmaster Paul McErlean, who showed off the 200- and 100-gallon tanks that are creating new (He’)brews, such as the company’s first Black IPA (aptly named, Death of a Contract Brewer), which was available in limited quantities in both draft and bottles. The staff were also tapping rare barrel-aged brews straight from the casks throughout the day. Live music, burlesque acts, and food trucks rounded out the scene.

The new brewery is nestled in the hills just north of Albany (6 Fairchild Square, Clifton Park, NY) and is well worth the trip, if you happen to be in the area.

 

Mayor Bloomberg is just days away from proclaiming (for the fifth year) that July is Good Beer Month! Look for some great events over the 31 days of July, including the expansion of WNYC’s The Greene Space Craft Beer Jam! This year Beer Sessions Radio™ will produce three ticketed events, including:

• The Best Craft Beers You’ve Never Tasted – July 10th at 7 p.m. – An evening of beer-focused conversation, consumption and celebration! Learn the secrets of the most rare and special brews around. Beer Sessions Radio™ host Jimmy Carbone welcomes Dan McGloughlin of Manhattan’s Pony Bar and Ed Berestecki of Brooklyn’s Mug’s Ale House. With music by The Flanks. Tickets here.
• Home Brewer Battle – July 17th at 7 p.m. – Learn the do’s and don’ts of brewing beer at home, along with tips on how to taste beer. Featuring John LaPolla of Bitter & Esters, beer educator Sam Merritt of Civilization of Beer, and Chris Cuzme of 508 Gastrobrewery. With live music by The Bailen Brothers. Tickets here.
• Queens Craft Breweries – July 24th at 7 p.m. – Discover why Queens has become a brewing hot spot. Taste beer fit for a Queen(s county imbiber). Featuring Robby Crafton of Big Alice Brewery, Rich Castagna of Bridge & Tunnel Brewery, Ethan Long of Rockaway Brewing Company and Chris Schonberger of First We Feast. With live music by The Great Apes. Tickets here.

Other featured events include:

• July 1st – Get Real Craft Beer Passport Kick-off Party at Idle Hands – come out and drink for the night, or just buy the passport, which gets you a pint at 39 different craft beer bars, including many Good Beer Seal bars.
• July 9th – Beer Breakfast for Dinner at The Double Windsor – featuring a “complete” breakfast of: Kuhnhenn Blueberry Pancake Ale, Founders’ Breakfast Stout, Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock (a smoked beer that tastes like bacon), and Against the Grain Citra Ass Down IPA (OJ!).  The kitchen will also be serving a special breakfast sandwich that night and little boxes of cereal (all your good old wholesome sugary favorites) will be available for munching!  The “breakfast” starts at 6 p.m.
• July 17th – Mission Dolores Hosts Pioneers of American Craft.
• July 17th – 2nd Annual Beastie Boys Fund Raiser for Food Bank 4 NYC at Idle Hands.
• July 18th – Duvel/Ommegang Belgian Independence Day Celebration at Sunswick 35/35.
• July 24th – The Rev’s 40th Birthday at Idle Hands
• July 27th – July Good Beer Month Presents NY State Food & Beer Expo at East River Park in Williamsburg.
• July 30th – Prix Fixe dinner featuring Jeff O’Neill of Peekskill Brewing at Jimmy’s No. 43.

​Plus, join Edible’s Good Beer at 82 Mercer on July 31st for the Good Beer Seal Awards announcement (tickets going fast).

And check back often for events updates here!

This week on Beer Sessions Radio™, host Jimmy Cabone takes a “three-hour tour” (okay, only 50 minutes) with a line-up that leads him to boast of having his “best beer night ever.” We cross Europe with four amazing brewers from Germany (Alexander Reiss of Kloster Andechs and Sebastian Sauer of Freigeist), Belgium (Lionel Van De Haegen from Brasserie de Silly), and Czech Republic (Jan Skala from Kout na Sumave). These remarkable guests are joined by Jen Schwertman for a bit of an impromptu going away party (bon voyage, Jen!) with Joel Shelton chiming in on the Festival, which brought these brewers to the States.

Hear how these brewers are continuing hundred-year-old traditions, and updating them with their unique eye for history and dedication (full episode – 169 here). Learn how Kout (pronouced “Coat”) was refounded (from 1736!) in native Czech, and discover how “passion meets quality” among these European brewers. Plus, what makes a great dopplebock, and more!

This week on Beer Sessions Radio™, we’re looking to summer festivals, starting with this weekend’s The Festival in Portland, ME, the annual beer lover’s  pilgrimage featuring beers and brewers from Shelton Brothers and 12 Percent Imports. Host Jimmy Carbone welcomes B.R. Rolya to give her Festival preview. Tim Lynch – friend and recent Portland transplant – weighs in on his favorite Portland hang-outs (making the list: Gritty Mcduff’s, Otto Pizza, Standard Baking Co., and In’finiti Fermentation & Distillation).

Plus, The Happy Hour Guys Jimmy Ludwig and Justin “Squigs” Roberts are dishing on their upcoming Bagger Dave’s BEERmuda Triangle Craft Beer Tour of Michigan, which kicks off this Thursday, June 20th. They’ve recently celebrated their 250th episode!  Find out what breweries and bars The Happy Hour guys plan to visit. Then, White Birch Brewing‘s brewmaster Bill Herlicka calls in to talk about the history of his brewery and the upcoming Southern New Hampshire Brewers Fest, July 26-27 in Hooksett, NH, which also features a cigar tent.

Finally, Brazilian homebrewer and beer sommelier Pedro Paolo Alipezzi comes by to talk about the burgeoning Brazilian craft beer scene and how they deal with making beer in a climate where hops cannot grow.

Listen to the full episode (#168) here.

What does molecular archeology have to do with craft beer? Quite a lot, as it turns out, especially if it turns out you’re in Italy, where more than 300 craft breweries have popped up in the past two decades. Guests Katie Parla (Parla Food) and Jon Lundbom join of B. United host Jimmy Carbone to talk about the evolution of the Italian craft beer scene where no history is good history.

Plus, Jimmy welcomes back Dave Brodrick, whose VT farm adventure has led to mini-destination Worthy Burger and, now, Worthy Kitchen.  Jan Apanich and Jerry Clum of Sierra Nevada are in the studio talking about their brand’s role in the craft beer movement, and how their East Coast expansion will affect their carbon footprint. They’ve also got the inside scoop on what may turn out to be the first Trappist brewery ever established on U.S. soil.

And filmmaker John R. Richards calls in to talk about Beer Hunter the Movie,  talk about what made beer writer Michael Jackson so special. Recently premiered in New York City, Beer Hunter will have repeat screenings next weekend (June 21-22) at Jimmy’s No. 43! Find out how “Michael Jackson invented the role of ‘beer writer.’ There is the career… because of Michael Jackson.”

Listen to the full episode (#167) here.

UPDATED: TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR FOR $12.

Next Tuesday, June 11th, the Good Beer Seal and Beer Sessions Radio™ will be hosting the NYC premiere of Beer Hunter (the movie) at Anthology Film Archives. For those who are unaware, Beer Hunter is a documentary on the life of Michael Jackson (not to be confused with the singer), who is largely credited with being the first true craft beer aficionado. His book, The World Guide to Beer, was the first ever to categorize every beer style, and his travels were well documented prior to his untimely death in 2007. His books on beer and whiskey have sold millions of copies, and his 1993 Discovery Channel television series, “The Beer Hunter,” inspired countless brewers and beer enthusiasts and literally helped shape the course of the craft brewing revolution sweeping the world.

Those clips have now been assembled in this documentary, which we’ll be celebrating alongside Jimmy Carbone, host of Beer Sessions Radio™, Seth Wright of Beer Nation, Director/Producer John Richards, John Holl (editor, All About Beer), Tom Acitelli (author, The Audacity of Hops), Steve Hindy of Brooklyn Brewery, and others, TBA.

Tom Acitelli writes about Jackson in his book:

“As McAuliffe built beer history in Sonoma, California, Michael Jackson was giving it a lexicon seven thousand miles away. Born and raised in a working-class household near Leeds in West Yorkshire in northern England, he had his first beer, a lower-alcohol mild, at fifteen at the Castle Hill Hotel in Huddersfield. He dropped out of high school a year later, in 1958, to support his family, working newspaper and magazine jobs into the late 1960s, when he also worked as a program editor for British TV host David Frost and as a documentary producer. In 1969, he was covering a carnival near the Dutch-Belgian border as part of a long gig in the Netherlands that took him away from his London home. There he tasted an ale brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery in Belgium and found it was nothing like the English beers he had been drinking since his teens. Struck by its complexity and intrigued by its history, the next day he took the bus less than a mile and a half, and, as beer writer Jay Brooks put it, “crossed the border—his Rubicon—and began exploring Belgium’s beers and culture.”

“What Germany and the Czech Republic are to lagers, Belgium is to ales. For a variety of reasons, including a sixteenth-century German dictate that beer be made only with water, hops, and barley (they didn’t know about yeast’s role then), the Maryland-sized kingdom has long boasted a rich, complex tableau of ales, from those dark as the chocolate they taste like to ones as effervescent and fruity as any sparkling wine. Brewers there, unlike in Germany, felt free to experiment boldly, often using the hops indigenous to Belgium, especially its northern region of Flanders. Belgium indisputably made the world’s most interesting ales. So it was no surprise that Jackson was smitten by Belgian beer. That the experience propelled him to become the most famous and influential beer writer ever—perhaps the most influential food writer on any one subject of the twentieth century—was almost as improbable as Jack McAuliffe birthing a brewery by hand in the hinterlands of a small town on the western fringe of the American empire. But that’s what happened.”

We hope you can join us for the premiere of this amazing film. Doors open at 7 p.m. with complimentary beer and snacks. All About Beer Magazine will help moderate a Q&A panel after the screening, as well. Tickets are available in advance; a limited number of tickets will be $12 at the door.

The Good Beer Seal is happy to welcome Savor: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience to NYC, June 14th-15th. Several Good Beer Seal bars will be hosting special events, including a $1 off draughts Savor weekend (6/14-16) with the Craft Beer NY ap designed and curated by Josh Bernstein.

As a lead-up to the event, several brewers and bar folk (including Jimmy Carbone, owner of Jimmy’s No. 43 and host of Beer Sessions Radio™, Steve Hindy of Brooklyn Brewery and Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head) gathered together for a pre-Savor party at Brooklyn Brewery.

Tickets remain for the food pairing event, and the following Good Beer Seal bars will be participating in the $1 off promotion:

• Bar Great Harry
• Barcade (Brooklyn)
• Bronx Ale House
• Idle Hands
• Jimmy’s No. 43
• Mission Dolores
• Pacific Standard
• Pine Box Rock Shop
• The Double Windsor

Good Beer Seal bars will also be celebrating with the following events (be sure to check back for updates):

June 10^th (ALL WEEK promotions) –

• Long Island beers and brewers at Jimmy’s No. 43
• SAVOR Celebration featuring Brewery Ommegang, Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada and Abita Brewing at Stags Head

June 11^th –

• NYC Premiere of Beer Hunter, the movie, at Anthology Film Archives – UPDATED: TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR FOR $12.

June 12^th –

• Ballast Point takeover at The Double Windsor at 6 p.m.
• Meet the Breweries featuring Brewery Ommegang, Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada and Abita Brewing at Stags Head

June 13^th –

• Pre-Savor Boot Camp Tasting with Cicerone Guides at Jimmy’s No. 43
• Founders Night with Mike Stevens at The Double Windsor at 7 p.m.
• Barcade is hosting Full Sail Beer Night

June 14^th –

• Pre-Savor Party at Jimmy’s No. 43 with the launch of Barrier-Carton collaboration beer: Sav’r for Later Saison
• Friday Post-Savor Party at Jimmy’s No. 43

June 15^th –

• Savor Party at Jimmy’s No. 43
• Blue Point pairing at Idle Hands with the best of rock group System of a Down. 7-9pm. Cost = $10. Reservations necessary.
• Post-Savor After-Party with Port Jeff at Jimmy’s No. 43

June 16^th –

• A Belgian-Style Beer Brunch with Brewery Ommegang at Blind Tiger Ale House
• Post-SAVOR Brunch at Jimmy’s No. 43

 

This week on Beer Sessions Radio™ (listen here), host Jimmy Carbone learns to “Savor the Flavor” in a lively discussion with in-studio guests Jen Schwertman and Josh Bernstein, along with call-ins from Chris Wilson of Weyerbacher Brewing and Adam Dulye, Savor’s Beer and Food Pairing Chef Consultant, as they discuss Philly Beer Week (May 31st – June 9th) and Savor: An American Craft Beer and Food Experience (in NYC, June 14-15).

Jen opens the show with details about her upcoming move to the West Coast (where she’ll still proudly be a bartender), while Josh discusses his Craft Beer NY ap (available for iOS and Android), which he has painstakingly created to take the guess work out of where to drink in NYC (and as an added bonus, will feature $1 off drafts for users who drink at specific Good Beer Seal bars during Savor weekend).

Speaking of Savor, tickets remain for general admission to this event featuring 153 beers paired with 46 menu items. If you’re wondering about the cost, where else can you find Dogfish Head 61 paired with Pigeon Crudo with Olive Oil, Juniper Ice Cream and Smoked Grapes (hint: nowhere else). You can see a list of the incredible pairings that will be offered (many of the beers are unavailable outside the breweries) here.

And if you’re heading down to Philly, you’ll have over 1,000 events to choose from. Also hear about Chris’ journey to brewing: where science meets art.

This week on Beer Sessions Radio™ (listen to episode #164 here), host Jimmy Carbone is celebrating NYC Mead Week with the return of Michael Fairbrother (this time with his real life “honey” Berniece Van Der Berg) of Moonlight Meadery to talk about their adventures in making “the ancestor of fermented beverages.” Hear about Michael’s journey from CEO of a software firm to Meadmaker of the Year (taking “Best in Show” for his Desire Mead).

Also in the studio is Raphael Lyon, whose “farm winery,” Enlightenment Wines, is experimenting with a CSA model for wine while incorporating traditional and unique ingredients to make both mead and wine. As the smallest winery in New York State, Raphael is focused on creating unfiltered dry, esoteric wines in small quantities. He’ll even drop a few hints on how to make a good dandelion wine.

Plus, Chris Cuzme of 508 Gastrobrewery weighs in on the NYC Homebrewer’s Guild annual mead night (this year’s “Best of Show” in Homebrew Alley VII was a ghost chili mead).

Hear about the history of mead making, some folklore on early mead creation, and how mead in the past used to have psychotropic qualities. The guests weigh in on the decline of the bee population and local ingredients in both mead and beer. How has the modern food landscape prepared the way for mead? Join us and find out!