Good Beer Seal

As a lead up to NYC Beer Week (2/24-3/3), Jimmy’s No. 43 played host to the annual Good Beer Seal bar owners’ luncheon on February 7th. Happily, all five boroughs were represented by 13 GBS bars, the NYC Homebrewers Guild, and Beer Sessions Radio™. Bar representatives discussed the state of being a craft beer bar owner and Good Beer Seal community member. Among the more interesting offerings on the lunch menu was a Samichlaus 1997, provided by Sam Barbieri (Waterfront Ale House). This was the last vintage brewed and bottled by Hürlimann Brewery in Switzerland. Waterfront Ale House has been open since 1989 and has an amazing cellar of vintage beers. For NYC Beer Week, they will be featuring one beer from each of the NY Brewers Guild breweries with food pairings.

We invite the craft beer community to celebrate NYC Beer Week at one (or many) of the 41 GBS bars that will be hosting events, many of which will be listed here on our calendar. Among the featured events will be:

• February 22nd – Craft Beer Mafia Returns at The Stag’s Head
• February 23rd – 2nd Anniversary Party at 61 Local
• February 23rd – Bronx Ale House Presents Rare & Barrel-Aged NY State Breweries Tasting
• February 23rd-26th – 7th Williamsburg Cask Beer Festival at dba Brooklyn
• February 25th – Nano-Beer Vegetarian Nonsense Prix Fixe Dinner at Jimmy’s No. 43
• February 26th – The New Tuesday Tasting with The Bruery at Jimmy’s No. 43
• February 26th – Harpoon Brewing Night with Mark DeLuca at The Stag’s Head
• February 27th – Rockaway Brewing and New Beer Launch at Jimmy’s No. 43
• February 27th – NYC Brewer’s Choice at City Winery – THE MARQUEE EVENT OF NYC BEER WEEK!
• February 27th – Nightmare on 4th Avenue at Mission Dolores
• February 28th – The Manhattan Launch of Bridge & Tunnel at Jimmy’s No. 43
• February 28th – Greenport Harbor Brewing Night with John Liegey and Greg Dorowski The Stag’s Head
• February 28th – Beer for Beasts brewing day at Sixpoint
• March 3rd – Jimmy’s Homebrew Jamboree with Josh Bernstein at Jimmy’s No. 43
• March 2nd-3rd – Split Thy Skull at Mug’s Ale House
• March 3rd – Rare Seasonals with Kelso Brewing at Jimmy’s No. 43

Check back often for updates to events and happenings at all 41 Good Beer Seal bars, and don’t forget to tune in to Beer Sessions Radio™ for all your craft beer news during and beyond NYC Beer Week.

Every year New York City craft beer fans wait for a special weekend event in Williamsburg: Mug’s Ale House’s Split Thy Brooklyn Skull which will take place March 2nd & 3rd.  As usual, Mug’s is pulling out all of the stops with a worth-the-wait list of barleywines, imperial stouts, and strong ales to make your mouth water and your head explode (or split your skull, as it were). Click here for a full list of Skull Splitting Awesomeness and don’t forget to tune in at 5:00 PM EST on February 26th to hear Mug’s Ale House owner, Ed Berestecki on Beer Sessions Radio (TM) on the Heritage Radio Network.

On this week’s 150th episode of Beer Sessions Radio™ (listen here) host Jimmy Carbone welcomes two-fifths of the Kings County Brewers Collective, along with John Kleinchester of Beertography. KCBC members Kyler Serfass and Jason Sahler discuss the evolution from homebrewing to micro/nano brewing, along with giving a breakdown of the annual NYC Homebrewer’s Guild’s competition, Homebrew Alley 7, which has grown from a few dozen entries to almost 800 in 2013. (Spoiler alert… not a single beer won best of show: first place was a mead, second was a cider, third was a gluten-free pale ale.)

Along with John, they also talk about how to continue to grow craft beer among traditional beer drinkers in NYC and beyond, including through education and social media that makes beer drinking a collective activity.

Jimmy finds humor in a serious subject when Rick Lyke, founder of Pints 4 Prostates, calls in to talk about the connection between men and beer (and, not coincidentally, men and prostate cancer). His own early detection led him on a beer crusade to let men know about this disease.

And it’s not just men’s health we’re thinking about. Flying Fish owner Gene Muller calls in to tell us about his Sandy relief beer going online this Saturday (2/16) in New Jersey. Flying Fish is serious about its global footprint, so you’ll have to go to Hoboken or Jersey City if you want to drink his brew, but his solar powered brewery and recycled water (for gardening) shows the brewer puts his money where his beer is!

Plus everyone’s favorite beers of the week.

As regular readers are fully aware, the Good Beer Seal now extends to all five boroughs, and on this very special episode of Beer Sessions Radio™ (Episode 148, listen here), host Jimmy Carbone represents Manhattan (Jimmy’s No. 43) as he welcomes bar owners and brewers from the other four boroughs of NYC for a colorful conversation about the state of beer in New York.

Adobe Blues bar manager, Ryan Barker, talks about the unique challenges of running a craft beer bar on Staten Island; husband-and-wife owners of Pine Box Rock Shop, Jeff and Heather Rush, discuss how they landed their Bushwick (Brooklyn) location. Singlecut Beersmiths‘ brewer and owner, Brian Dwyer and Rich Buceta respectively, discuss how they went from being Queens first full-fledge brewery since Prohibition to an Astoria destination for interesting new beers. Finally, Bronx Brewery‘s Sean McCain talks about how Bronx is branching out with new beers and broader distribution.

Whether it’s picking the right music or attracting community support, all these borough reps have faced various challenges in NYC’s burgeoning craft beer scene. Our brewers talk about the evolution from homebrewing to creating eight new beers in a week! And all present discuss (and drink) some of their favorite beers on this week’s episode.

What do veganism and craft beer have to do with one another? Well, at Pine Box Rock Shop (at 12 Gratten Street, Bushwick), they are wed into a unique fabric for a community bar that regularly hosts community events in a sprawling space that, yes, once upon a time was a casket factory (hence the name).

Owners Jeff and Heather Rush are proud vegans who decided to open a craft beer bar that catered to those whose diet—including potent potables—eschews animal products. Many imbibers are simply unaware that many beer, wine and spirits (even the occasional soda) producers use emulsifiers that are made from animal products (everything from fish to beetles to tallow, in fact). Jeff and Heather wanted to create a welcoming space for others who would rather enjoy their drinks than dissect what’s in them.

And carnivores have little to worry about, with pop-up cafes taking place all the time at Pine Box Rock Shop. Frequent guest Bunna Cafe (which will be serving Ethopian goodness this Saturday, February 9th, from noon until 5 p.m.) could be a poster chef for vegan conversion (hint: you won’t miss the meat). In the weeks leading up to the holidays, Jeff and Heather opened their doors to an entire Vegan Marketplace.

Pine Box Rock Shop was awarded the Good Beer Seal at last July’s (2012) induction ceremony, and they have proudly hung their Seal at the bar. They bring the ethics of good bar stewardship to a neighborhood that is juggling old school Brooklyn ways with an influx of gentrification. As the neighborhood changes, the bar wants to be open to all in the community, not just the animal-free zone.

While the Rushes aren’t looking to be political, but they certainly are serving a niche in the NYC market. There are plenty of vegan restaurants and many vegan-friendly bars, but their space appears to be the only strictly vegan bar in the city. They even make their own substitute spirits when a recipe calls for Bailey’s, for example (cream). Most of the neighborhood regulars who aren’t vegan don’t even notice that the place is meat-free.

The beer still tastes great!

For tips on how to drink the vegan way, visit Barnivore. Pine Box Rock Shop is open seven days, starting at 4 p.m. M-F and 2 p.m. on the weekend.

It’s another international edition of Beer Sessions Radio™ this week when Iberian United’s Johnny “Brilliant” Collins and Jessica Agullo along with the “Rowan Brothers” (John and Anthony Belliveau-Flores) join host Jimmy Carbone  to talk about the craft beer and cider scene in Spain. While the latter dates back to pre-Roman times and is strictly regulated (only 22 types of heirloom apples and indigenous yeast goes into Spanish hard cider), the former is just taking hold in the country famous for drinking an incredible amount of “mostly awful” (thanks, Johnny!) beer. Find out how beer in Spain is following the U.S. tradition, with mass-produced lagers slowly giving way to a very cool craft beer scene. In fact, if you happen to be in Barcelona from March 8-10, be sure to check out the second annual Barcelona Beer Festival as it expands from the square into the famed bull-fighting ring (bull fighting is outlawed, but beer drinking is not!).

Also in the studio is Jen Schwertman, who is counting down the days until she moves to San Diego to try new beer adventures near the beach, and another pair of brothers, Joe and Dennis Fisher, who are talking about their new book, Brewing Made Easy. Joe and Dennis hail from Maine and, as luck would have it, we get to check in (by phone) with Allagash Brewing Company’s Jason Perkins to talk about the craft beer scene in Maine. You can listen to the full episode here.

One of the things we love about craft beer (and a key part to winning the Good Beer Seal) is the community aspect. Whether trying to create a brewery where none exists or rebuild the brewery that no longer exists owing to natural disaster, craft brewers are a tight-knit group!

The beer community came together to help Long Island brewers and residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and you can hear about their latest efforts on the latest episode of Beer Sessions Radio™ (Episode 146, listen here) and get a preview of next week’s debut of Surge Protector IPA (proceeds benefit Barrier Brewing and Long Island Cares). Surge Protector is the collaboration beer being distributed under the Blue Point Brewing label (and available in NYC starting January 22nd). Host Jimmy Carbone talks to Long Island brewers Mike Philporick of Port Jeff Brewing Company, Greg Martin of Long Ireland Brewing, and Curt Potter of Blue Point Brewing Company about how they are recovering and the state of beer on Long Island post-Sandy.

And if you think a hurricane will throw you off your game, try being bombed. In the literal sense. Mazen Hajjar was on his Beirut balcony in July of 2006 watching the bombs rain down on his home city in Lebanon when he decided to do what any sensible craft beer lover would do in a similar situation: He went to the kitchen and started homebrewing! Not only did Mazen not know how to homebrew, he’s from a country with no brewing industry (the automated macrobrewery calls the mothership Heineken when they have a problem on the floor). On a whim, he reached out to Danish brewer Anders Kissmeyer, who showed that beer community goodness by sharing recipes with Mazen. With a focus on locally-sourced Lebanese ingredients and a nod to beer’s birthplace (beer was original brewed in the Middle East starting in 9,000 B.C.), 961 Beer was created as Lebanon’s only craft brewery. The name references the country’s international telephone code, and Mazen’s beer is distributed worldwide, even winning awards in international competition.

Plus, Wendy Littlefield calls in with updates for the rescheduled (also due to Sandy) Vanberg & Dewulf Coast2Coast Toast, which was taking place in bars across NYC. Finally, don’t tune out before Jimmy gets a surprise call from Barrier’s Craig Frymark, who takes a break from brewing (yes, Barrier is back up and running!) to thank everyone for their support the past 10 weeks.

We’re very excited that Heritage Radio Network has put together a “best of” commercial for Beer Sessions Radio™! You can download and listen to it here.

Tomorrow is  the postponed Vanberg & DeWulf Coast to Coast Toast (originally scheduled for November 15th, the Toast was pushed off in NYC owing to Sandy)! Coast to Coast Toast is a celebration of great beer and great food, nationwide and worldwide. Many Good Beer Seal Bars will be celebrating, and Adobe Blues is taking full advantage of the occasion to host their first-ever beer dinner!

They will have three delicious rare beers on tap, all paired with pork dishes:

• Castelain Grand Cru, a French Biere de Garde, paired with pork-basil empanadas.
• Scaldis Peche Mel, a Belgian strong ale brewed with peach juice, paired with stuffed pork tenderloin
• Olvisholt Lava, a smoked imperial stout from Iceland, with bacon chocolate cake

These beers are not found on tap very often (definitely worth the trip to Staten Island!). The Olvisholt is particularly special—it hasn’t been on tap in the US before this event—and was just named one of the 25 best beers of 2012 by Draft Magazine!

Total cost for all three courses, paired with the beer, is $40. Dinner starts at 5:00…should be delicious!

Pork and beans? How about pork and beer? If you think “bacon makes it better,” you’ll love the latest episode (#145, listen here) of Beer Sessions Radio™, the first of the new year. We have some truly cool guests, including Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, the gypsy brewer of Evil Twin who now happily resides in Brooklyn, along with Bierkraft’s Ben Granger, Ryan Barker of Adobe Blues, and author Josh Bernstein.

You’ll hear about Jeppe’s plans for eight new Evil Twin beers, along with the challenges of being a gypsy brewer (hint: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know), why bread beer should be aged, and how host Jimmy Carbone got the Danish Counsel off Budweiser.

As for that pork beer, Alex McDonald of Eagle Earth Brewings and A & G Homebrewing Supplies in Portsmouth (NH) calls in to discuss his experience in brewing gruits: traditional beer that dates back to the 17th Century before hops became a brewer’s mainstay. His brews rely on yarrow, heather tips, and the random pig’s head (!!!) for their flavor.

This is a fascinating episode for homebrewers and beer lovers alike. And vegetarians may want to tune in, as well, just to be safe!