Good Beer Seal

On Saturday, October 13th, Beer Sessions Radio™ is proud to be co-hosting Harvest Beer & Cider Sessions (with Spirits)! This tasting event features regional ciders (with a few of the world’s best added in to the mix) and includes apple-distilled artisanal spirits curated by Modern Distillery Age along with beer by local craft breweries. For your noshing pleasure, drinks will be paired with cheese and charcuterie. Two general sessions and two featured seminars will take place at Factory on Kent (fka Biba, 110 Kent Avenue at N. 8^th Street, Williamsburg). General admission tickets are now only $20 (also available at the door; including one beer ticket). Key features of the day:

• Ciders—Virtue Ciders (Illinois), Farnum Hill (NY), Dupont (France), Slyboro Ciderhouse at Hicks Orchard (NY), Eden Cider (VT), Steampunk (NY), Applewood Winery (NY), Doc’s Cider (NY), Critz Farms (NY), McKenzie’s Cider (NY), Hudson Valley (NY), along with several Basque ciders and others from the northeastern US (TBA).
• Specialty Beers by Up and Coming Brewers—Award-winning Barrier Brewing will be bringing some of their favorite beers to the event, including some specialty brews made just for the Harvest Beer & Cider Sessions; they will be joined by Rockaway Brewing, Carton and other new small breweries.
• Artisanal Spirits Curated by Modern Distillery Age—Expected to be in attendance are Campo De Encanto Pisco, Boulard Calvados, Virginia Distillery, Caledonia Spirits, Louisville Distilling, The 86 Co, Bardstown Barrel Selections, Harvest Spirits, Beak & Skiff and others TBA.
• Food—From SlantShack Jerky, Martin’s Pretzels, Cabot and Murray’s cheeses, and Jimmy’s No. 43, plus more TBA.
• Live Music—Music by Sistermonk during the afternoon general session; the evening session will have music by Huntronik (6 p.m.), Mattison (7 p.m.), and Eula (8 p.m.).
• Two Sessions—Tickets will be available for two general sessions (now only $20 with beer tickets available for additional purchase), one running noon-3 p.m. and a second evening session from 6-9 p.m.
• Specialty Guided Tasting Seminars With Greg Hall and Steve Wood—Ticketed separately for $25, starting at 3 p.m. Greg Hall of Virtue Cider will premiere his cider during a guided tasting of “Old World and New World Ciders,” which includes ciders from Oliver’s Cider (Herefordshire, U.K.)  and Dupont. Then at 4 p.m., Farnum Hill’s Steve Wood will lead a guided tasting of “Blending, Terroir and Cider Apples of the Northeast,” featuring the renown ciders of Farnum Hill.

In all, more than 20 ciders and 20 specialty craft beers will be available during the general tasting sessions. Get your tickets before they sell out for this key event that will usher in NY Cider Week (October 12-22).

Summary of ticketing options:

Sessions
General Admission Only
Including one beer ticket and limited cider, beer, and spirit sampling, plus food sampling.
Session 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm…………$20.00
Session 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm………….$20.00

VIP
Including unlimited cider, beer, and spirits, plus food sampling.
Session 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm…………$50.00
Session 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm………….$50.00

Seminars
Greg Hall, Virtue Cider
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm………………………….$25.00
Steve Wood, Farnum Hill
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm………………………….$25.00

On Episode #132 (listen here) of Beer Sessions Radio™, host Jimmy Carbone—himself a bar owner (Jimmy’s No. 43) hosts a lively conversation on what it takes to run a bar in NYC and beyond. Triple bar owners (and brothers) Ben and Seth Wiley (Mission Dolores, Bar Great Harry, and their newest venture, The Owl Farm) join Carolyn Pincus (The Stag’s Head), Kirk Struble (Fourth Avenue Pub, Washington Commons) and Marcus Burnett & Ethan Long of Rockaway Brewing Company.

Aside from the logistics of opening a bar, there’s the challenge of stocking it with great craft beer. As Ben Wiley notes in the show, “Finding new beers is 10 percent of the job; making sure (the beer) shows up and it’s the right beer, that’s 90 percent.”

Certainly the number of craft beer bars and the number of craft brewers has created a “local revolution” of sorts. Whereas a few years ago, the West Coast breweries really were the only game, now there are many great East Coast breweries, although differences remain between attitudes (west = pretty chill; east = breaking a sweat to make great beer) and styles.

The great group of bar owners and brewers on this episode talk “cool ship,” collaborative brewing and weird beers. Listen in or download at iTunes.

If you can’t wait for next month’s Cider Week (October 12-21), you don’t have to! Tomorrow night (9/18) you can get a preview of Cider Week at Cider Salon 2012, presented by Glynwood and NY Cider Week, at Astor Center’s Main Gallery (399 Lafayette Street). From 6-8 p.m., you can partake of more than a dozen different ciders from some amazing cideries:

• Aaron Burr Cidery, NY
• Beak & Skiff, NY
• Bellwether Hard Cider, NY
• Doc’s Draft Cider, NY
• Eden Ice Cider, VT
• Eve’s Cidery, NY
• Farnum Hill Ciders, NH
• Foggy Ridge Ciders, VA
• Harvest Moon Cidery, VA
• Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider, NY
• Naked Flock Cidery, NY
• Slyboro Ciderhouse, NY
• Steampunk Cider, NY
• West County Cider, MA

Your $30 ticket also gets you plenty of local cheese to nosh on and the knowledge that you’re benefiting Glynwood’s Apple Project. Hope to see you there!

They call it “The Mardi Gras of Beer Festivals.” It’s Freaktoberfest, and it’s coming this Saturday, September 15th. Host Jimmy Carbone welcomes Freaktoberfest founder (and Smuttynose lover and field sales rep) Pat Fondiller, who reveals the origins of New York City’s wildest beer festival. Also weiging in is Albert Antonucci, owner of Greenwood Park, the bar and beer garden that is hosting Freaktoberfest. One of the many breweries at Freaktoberfest (see below) is Founders, represented by Brand Manager Tim Traynor, the Brand Manager for Founders Brewery. He previews the Founders launch of their Breakfast Stout on September 21st. Finally, we hear from Matt Polacheck, the man behind all of Shmaltz Brewing’s crazy designs.

Listen the whole episode here.

Beers that will be available during this year’s Freaktoberfest:

This may turn out to be our annual end-of-summer event, although we cannot promise (nor do we hope for) a tornado every year. A scary weather morning broke just in time for the first (annual?) Barrels & Kegs. The food was amazing (porgy at Rippers, tostadas at Rockaway Taco and arepas at Caracas) and the beer flowed all afternoon, courtesy of the 20+ brewers who showed up to pour their best brews. Like the Beer Sessions Radio page on Facebook, and see all the fun we had in the sun.

Rain or shine, we’ll be there. And there will be tents at the beer concessions area (and the beer is already there). Plus, the weather should be breaking around noon… right when we open! Come out, hang out, bring your swimwear (hey, you’re meant to get wet at the beach!). On site tickets for sale ($28 for 20 pours or $10 for 5). Take the A train (to Far Rockaway not Lefferts/Ozone) and transfer to the S-Shuttle at Broad Channel. Can’t wait!

It’s a day at the beach! With beer! And killer concessions! And we have different options for getting you there and making sure your beer glass runneth over!

Barrels & Kegs: A Rockaway Beach Beer Event, which takes place this Saturday, September 8th, from noon-5 p.m., serves several purposes. Working with the New York City Brewers Guild, we’re spreading the word that New York City Beer Week (f.k.a. NY Craft Beer Week) is moving to February 2013. We’re also celebrating the amazing local beer scene in Brooklyn and Queens. We’ll offer 20 pours (with additional beer tickets available on site) from each of the following brewers who are bringing two different beers:

• Sixpoint
• Greenport Harbor
• Kelso of Brooklyn
• Coney Island/Shmaltz
• Barrier Brewing
• Carton
• Empire Brewing
• Sly Fox
• Brooklyn Brewery
• Bronx Brewery
• Ommegang
• Doc’s Cider
• Narragansett
• Founders
• Blue Point
• Wandering Star
• Butternuts
• And Queens’ latest brewery, Rockaway Brewing!

Getting to Rockaway is easy! You can take the A train (to Far Rockaway – Mott Avenue Branch, not the A to Lefferts/Ozone Park) and exit at Broad Channel; hop on the Shuttle and exit at any of the first three stops (90th, 98th or 105th).

We’ll also have additional (or fewer) beer tickets available at each concessions area (concessions are at 86th, 96th and 106th at the Boardwalk) for only $10 (5 pours)! Note: If you are accompanying friends and don’t drink, you do not have to pay to join the fun! It’s pay-as-you go (or not!). With so many options to choose from, how can you miss this great beer at the beach event?

For a list of vendors for additional food purchase, check out this cool map of the Boardwalk. Get your general admission 20-pour tickets here.

You may have heard that NYC Beer Week is moving to February this year. That doesn’t mean that we won’t be gearing up starting in September, as we present Barrels & Kegs: A Rockaway Beach Beer Event. Rockaway has a tradition of a great beach and boardwalk (“Barrels” refers to surfing), and the concessions along the boardwalk are reason alone to visit the beach.

On Saturday, September 8th, from noon-5 p.m., Beer Sessions Radio and Edible Queens will present 15+ area breweries (with a couple friends from afar thrown in) at three separate concessions areas (86th, 96th, 106th) to offer beer to go along with your Rockaway concessions crawl. Check-in at any of the three concessions, get your wristband, cup and a punch card. You can sip beer and try out the many great food offerings, including Rockaway Taco, Caracas Arepa, or Rippers (the joint venture of Roberta’s and Brooklyn Kitchen). With your ticket you’ll get 20 pours, including beer from:

• Sixpoint
• Greenport Harbor
• Kelso of Brooklyn
• Coney Island/Shmaltz
• Barrier Brewing
• Long Ireland
• Brooklyn Brewery
• Bronx Brewery
• Ommegang
• Founders
• Blue Point
• Wandering Star
• And Queens’ latest brewery, Rockaway Brewing!

Other breweries TBA. Fifteen brewers, 20 beers, only $28 (food available—see below—for separate purchase). $1 from each ticket benefits the Ray Deter Memorial Fund. Get your tickets here.

Even the most well-versed craft beer lover gets a little confused by the “gypsy brewer,” a brewer that uses other people’s facilities, meaning a lot of variety, flexibility and variation in the beer (for better and worse). This past Monday at Good Beer Seal Bar Mission Dolores in Park Slope, it was all for the better as four gypsy brewers had a tap takeover. In the house were 12 Percent brews from Local Option, Omnipollo, Stillwater and Evil Twin, which was debuting its Lil’B, an 11.4% ABV Imperial Porter that was brewed in Mt. Pleasant, SC, at Westbrook Brewing Co. Evil Twin’s owner and brewer Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø was greeting beer lovers and industry professionals alike. Continue reading “Mission Dolores Celebrates Gypsy Brewers”

This weekend was the annual Belgium Comes To Cooperstown at Ommegang, and the Beer Sessions Radio team was there to record their Heritage Radio Network podcast (normally live, but these special pre-recorded BCTC broadcasts will run on 8/14 and 8/21).

Among the many beer, food and music options was the “Hop Chef” competition, which pits regional winners against the previous year’s top “Hop Chef.” The challenge? Create the best food pairings with Ommegang ales. This year’s competition saw Blind Tiger Ale House (a Good Beer Seal bar!) Chef Tommy Harder defend his 2011 title against Chef Jaime Ortiz from NY (Mazzone Hospitality), Jeff Eng of Maryland (Clyde’s), and Philly Chef George Sabation (Stateside), who ended up the 2012 winner.

Jimmy Carbone was among the judges for this year’s competition, and we look forward to hearing all about the festival on the upcoming Beer Sessions Radio™ broadcasts.