What you missed on Beer Sessions Radio™: Our Final Stop in the On the Road Series

Photo by Miguel Rivas
Photo by Miguel Rivas

This week on Beer Sessions Radio™, its our final episode of our acclaimed series, On the Road with Beer Sessions Radio™.  This week, host Jimmy Carbone travels to the Finger Lakes to visit The Farmhouse Brewery in Owego, NY, the first malting house in New York State in over a decade and one of only a handful that also brews in-house. You’ll hear from a top grains farmer about the challenges he faces to produce and distribute unique, artisanal grains to brewers. You’ll also meet the experts who support him in his work.

Next up, Jimmy visits Blackduck Cidery in Ovid, NY, and meets the whole family behind some of the best cider in the state. Plus, meet the community behind New York cider at Finger Lakes Cider House.

Listen to the full episode here.

Cider Week Brings Tastings, Radio Shows & Cider Salon

Beer Sessions Radio™ and The Good Beer Seal welcome Cider Week NYC with some great meet-ups at Jimmy’s No. 43 with cider makers from around the region. Over the years, we’ve recorded many cider episodes on Beer Sessions Radio™ on the Heritage Radio Network, and the station’s staff recently chose their favorite shows (of which we made the list several times!) in celebration of all things cider.

We’re celebrating ourselves this week, with visits from cider makers and the Second Annual Cider Salon. Among the features this week (all at Jimmy’s No. 43):

  • Guided Cider Tasting with Indian Ladder Farmstead Ciders’ Dietrich Gehring and Stuart Morrison Tuesday, October 25th
  • A casual late afternoon hang out on Thursday, October 27th, with Andy Brennan of Aaron Burr Ciders
  • very special cask from Eden Cidery at 5PM Friday, October 28th, with Eleanor Leger also hanging out with us
  • 2nd Annual Cider Salon from 12-4PM Saturday, October 29th with various panels, tastings and cider experts

More details on Saturday’s Cider Salon, which runs from 12-3PM at Jimmy’s No. 43:

Session 1 – Heritage Apples @1PM

Gidon Coll of Original Sin Cider will be teaching us about heritage apples used in cider making, and participants can see and taste these apples. Several single apple ciders will be presented allowing comparison of the apple taste to the fermented apple cider. We will also be tasting some of these apples in pastry tarts allowing comparisons of cooked apples.

Discussion of taste will proceed with the presentation ofDarlene Garvey, author of Cider Cocktails – Another Bite of the Apple, and her extensive knowledge of cider apples grown in California.

Session 2 – Cider Fermentation

We’ll welcome Eli Cayer of Urban Farm Fermentory  (Portland, Maine), who will share his expertise in approaches to fermentation, focusing on adding flavors during conditioning of his ciders.  We hope to taste ciders conditioned on sumac and on seaweed; the latter is expected to be a potentially unique pairing for Japanese food.  An overview of fermentation with tasting will be provided by Ryan Burk from his position heading the experimental arm of Angry Orchard Ciders which is doing small batch fermentation at its Innovation Cidery in Walden, NY.

A ticket ($15) is required for admission (buy here); includes limited samples with additional food/drink available for purchase including ciders from Farnum Hill, South Hill, Eden, Black Duck, Original Sin,  Embark, Urban Farm Fermentory, more…

We hope to see you during Cider Week, and be sure to tune in to Beer Sessions Radio every Tuesday at 5PM!

What you missed on Beer Sessions Radio™: Danish Cherry Wine

CherryWineThis week on Beer Sessions Radio™, host Jimmy Carbone welcomes a great panel of experts and a bit of cherry wine (is it sweet and rare?)! It’s a robust discussion on terroir (Danish cherries have a larger pit with more concentrated flavors… it’s not a cherry you would eat) and a reinvention of wine tradition in Denmark. Fellow Heritage Radio Network host Damon Boelte (The Speakeasy), Agern Restaurant sommelier Chad Walsh, Chris Ball from Grand Army are chatting about wine alongside B.R. Royla of Shelton Brothers, who introduces Anne-Marie Skriver and Michael Moeller, the winemakers of the Frederiksdal Kirsebærvin winery in Denmark.

At Frederiksdal, rather than producing wine working against the Danish climate, they use the advantages offered by nature and the Danish weather. The basis is the unique ingredient, the Stevnsbær cherry, which has the very best conditions for growth in Denmark. They use the cherry’s high levels of sugar, acid and antioxidants, allowing the berries to ferment naturally for a few days following harvest to create a complex fortified wine.

So raise a glass, and enjoy this episode of Beer (and Wine) Sessions!

What you missed on Beer Sessions Radio™: Belgian’s Picobrouwerij Alvinne

AlvinneIt may be hot as Hades out there, but we’re cooling things off a bit with this pre-record of Beer Sessions Radio™ featuring the Belgian brewing team from Picobrouwerij Alvinne. Back in April, host Jimmy Carbone gathered with Alvinne Barrel Manager Glenn Castelein, Brewmaster Davy Spiessens and Marc De Keukeleire , “the yeast whisperer,” who clutivated the brewery’s house yeast strain called “Morpheus.”

Also in the room is George Flickinger from B. United, who is helping to bring their beers to NYC.

So pour yourself a cold one and imagine it’s spring again and listen to the full episode here.

Beer Sessions Radio™ Reaches a Milestone

Podcast5We’re very excited that our On the Road with  Beer Sessions Radio™ episodes (two of which have already aired) are reaching major milestones. Our first episode (episode 335 – listen here) which featured “The New Primitives” of the Hudson Valley Region, has been downloaded more than 55,000 times in six weeks, making it the most downloaded episode of Beer Sessions Radio™ ever! Places we visited:

  • From the Ground Brewery, Red Hook, NY
  • Hudson Valley Malt, Germantown, NY
  • Plan Bee Farm Brewery, Poughkeepsie, NY
  • Suarez Family Brewery, Livingston, NY

And now our second episode, “Edge of the Wild,” is trending on iTunes. This latest episode ranking 5th in food-related podcasts as of time of writing found us in the Catskills region of New York State, where we hang out with Beer Sessions Radio™ favorite Andy Brennan of Aaron Burr Cidery and he reflects on the text written about apples in the 1800s that give him inspiration. Listen in and meet Andy along with a former racetrack veterinarian who uses his chemistry background to distill unique buckwheat liquor and whole wheat vodka, a brewery owner who was part of saving New York City’s water through anti-fracking advocacy, and one of the first (legal) absinthe producers in the United States.

Thank you for being a huge part of this successful series. Our third episode airs soon!

Eighth Annual July Good Beer Month™ Celebrates Good Beer Seal Awards with 15 New Entries

GoodBeerSeal2016Beer Sessions Radio™ and The Good Beer Seal are delighted to announce the recipients of the Eighth Annual Good Beer Seal Awards. This year’s inductees will join 64 of their peers from NYC, northeastern New Jersey and Long Island. This year The Good Beer Seal expands to Westchester County, in recognition of great beer venues that stand out from the competition in terms of superior beer quality and selection as well as commitment to their communities. The Awards are the culmination of July Good Beer Month, which features specialty events across the city with a focus on craft beer, the brewers who make them, and the local establishments that sell craft beer. The Good Beer Seal nominees are gathered by a select group of beer journalists, industry professionals and existing Good Beer Seal bar owners.

This year’s 15 inductees are:

For eight years, July has been declared “Good Beer Month,” and we celebrate the dedicated, community-oriented bars and bar owners who are on the front lines of the country’s continuing craft beer revolution.

Congratulations to the class of 2016!

“The New Primitives” to debut today, 5PM, with On the Road with Beer Sessions Radio™

PlanBeeHeritage Radio Network and Beer Sessions Radio™ today (Tuesday, 6/21) will launch a special four-part series, On the Road with Beer Sessions Radio.  In each episode, Beer Sessions Radio™ host Jimmy Carbone goes behind the scenes to learn about the creative production process of the best craft beer, cider, and spirits from the ground to the glass.  This series will support the promotion of over thirty craft beverage businesses across five regions of New York State.

The first episode, “The New Primitives,” featuring Suarez Family Brewery, Hudson Valley Malt, Plan Bee Farm Brewery, From the Ground Brewery, Migliorelli Farm, and Daughters Fare & Ale, will debut today, Tuesday June 21st at 5PM, on Heritage Radio Network.  Listeners can tune in to the live stream, or find the podcasts on iTunes.

The series is funded in part by a $35,296 Craft Beverage Marketing and Promotion Grant from Empire State Development (ESD) and is sponsored by Taste NY.  Listeners can take part in craft beverage tour packages of these regions offered by EscapeMaker.com

“Thanks to generous funding from Empire State Development we can bring these stories to the airwaves like never before. Heritage Radio Network has listeners in over 200 countries and we cannot wait to share the amazing work of our fellow New Yorkers with the world.” said Erin Fairbanks, Executive Director, HRN

What you missed on Beer Sessions Radio™: Tristram Stuart and Toast Ale

ToastPaleAleThis week on Beer Sessions Radio™, host Jimmy Carbone is convening a special Wednesday live show with TED Talk celebrity and food sustainability pioneer Tristram Stuart. Tristram is founder of Feedback (focused on food waste) and Toast Ale, which is making craft beer from bread that otherwise would be wasted. He learned about this brewing innovation via the Brussels Beer Project, when he tasted their Babylon beer made from bread waste. One-hundred percent of the profits of Toast Ale go to increase the recycling of bread waste. He’s creating a classic English ale that is being well received by beer experts as a quality craft ale that also solves the problem of food waste around the world and its delicious solutions.

Tristram’s lifelong mission to bring food waste to the fore (nearly 1/3 of all food on Earth is wasted); it’s a massive environmental problem that people are finally starting to address. As he says, “Let’s have a party, guys… it’s a delicious solution to a serious problem: eating and enjoying food together rather than throwing it away.”

How do you make beer from leftover bread? The basic principle is simple: You replace a percentage of barley in brewing with bread.

Since launching in the UK in January, Toast has rescued more than a ton of bread that would have otherwise gone into landfills. Bread is one of the biggest contributors to food waste; so much is produced that even soup kitchens and feeding programs consistently have more bread than they can distribute. NYC plans to launch its own version of the product in 2017 to be spearheaded by Madi Holtzman and Devin Hardy. Toast’s launch in NYC is just the first step in what will soon become a global, united movement to eliminate bread waste and raise money for charity by brewing quality beer.

Also in the studio are Amy Halloran, author of The New Bread Basket, Pat Green of Chelsea Craft Brewing Company and Rachel Eshner of Eschner Farms.

Amy notes that historically, bread wasn’t wasted because there were recipes that used up all the bread. Today there is a lot of wasted labor and energy in the bread market. Tristram tries to prevent the waste in the first place, with Toast Ale being a secondary solution.

Pat is working with Madi and the Toast NYC team to be the initial brewer of the beer up at his new facility up in the Bronx. He explains the process of adding bread to the mash to create the new beer.  There are brewers all over the world working to come up with new recipes and craft beer brewers are very excited about the effort.

Amy talks about how “grains are this unifying human experience. Grains brought us together oh so long ago and they have this great capacity to bring us together again.”

Listen to the full episode here.

What you missed on Beer Sessions Radio™: Brewed Food

BSR_06072016This week on Beer Sessions Radio™, host Jimmy Carbone and Anne Becerra welcome the creator of Brewed Food, Jensen Cummings, and Brooklyn Brewery Chef extraordinaire Andrew Gerson to talk about innovations in food and beer pairings.

First up, documentary filmmakers and craft beer lovers, Eric Schleyer and Andrew Coury, are making a movie about the NYC beer scene that includes Brooklyn Brewery and Bridge & Tunnel, among others. They’re calling it Beer Boom Movie. “It’s really about the growth of craft beer,” right now. They’ve enjoyed learning the “behind the scenes” stories of the city’s brewers and how the business of brewing is affecting NYC and beyond.

Eric reveals his trade secrets for selling “heavy” and “light” beer from his days hawking at Shea Stadium along with the challenges of finding footage for the film.

Taking inspiration from such renown food and beer pairing events like Savor, Brewed Food is Jensen Cummings’ “full on circus of beer and food.” His traveling food show is “fermenting people’s minds… by taking the idea of brewing and applying it as the core philosophy of cuisine.”

According to Andrew, Jensen is taking beer and food pairings to the next level by fermenting with beer ingredients (e.g. taking beer yeast from various strains to create unique fermentation profiles such as in the Yuzu Kosho used during a recent tasting event at Brooklyn Brewery). Andrew also chats about the evolution of beer dinners and what Brooklyn Brewery is doing both locally and across America.

Jensen explains: “It’s not enough for us to wait until beer is done to interact with it from a culinary perspective.”

We’re also bidding farewell to long-term producer of Beer Sessions Radio™, Jack Inslee. He’ll be missed and we wish him well.

Listen to the full episode here.