Good Beer Seal

Episode 110 (listen here) of Beer Sessions Radio™ brought back regular co-host Dave Brodrick (Blind Tiger) to interview Peekskill’s Jeff O’Neill, who gave the surprise announcement that the brewery is “going from Westchester County’s smallest brewpub to Westchester County’s largest brewpub.” The Peekskill Brewery (about an hour away from NYC on the Metro North Hudson Line) is hoping to be a beer tourism draw with the larger facility slated to open early summer, and we’re looking forward to visiting.

The conversation with Jeff segued nicely into a conversation about coffee in beer and coffee and beer, as in coffee shops that sell beer. Ben Sandler and Jen Lim of The Queens Kickshaw have been selling coffee cold-brew coffee through their keg lines (with a nitrogen push). Their bar (coffee and beer) was designed out of love and largely hand-built by the owners.

Finally, it was time for a phone-in with Bradley Latham discussing the upcoming Craft Brewer’s Conference in San Diego from May 2-5 and what beer industry professionals can expect to gain from attending.

 

 

Beer Sessions Radio™ is a proud media sponsor of Brooklyn Wort, a homebrewers’ competition with two tastings on April 28th. The event and its participants were recently featured in The Brooklyn Paper. For details on the who’s among the competition, click here. The event article is below.

War of the worts! Brooklyn’s beer-makers battle at home-brew fest

By Eli Rosenberg

There are drinking games, and there are drinking contests.

Brooklyn’s home brewers are emerging from their closets, basements, and garages armed with their finest suds for an April 28 smackdown that will see two beer-makers crowned kings — no small achievement in a borough known for its brew bars and ever-growing community of swill-makers. click here to continue reading…

It was a beautiful and unseasonably warm Saturday, so the Good Beer Seal decided why not take a free ferry ride across the bay to Staten Island. There, they made their way to Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria Inn for a bit of German Biergarten love. As good luck would have it, owner Ken Tirado was on site and happy to pose for a quick picture.

It’s possibly the least appreciated but most important element of beer: Yeast! While few beer drinkers ponder much on the ingredient that allows for fermentation to occur, beer makers know that the kind and amount of yeast in beer affects everything from flavor to the amount of head retention. This week’s episode (#109 – listen to it here) brought together some of Beer Sessions Radio™’s regular contributors—Garrett Oliver (Brooklyn Brewery), Tony Forder (Ale Street News), Jason Rodriguez (Columbia University), B. R. Rolya (The Shelton Brothers), and Charlie Bamforth (UC Davis)—discuss the difference between wild and lab-cultivated yeasts, along with yeasty European brews. And, since it’s Beer Sessions Radio™, they’ve thrown in some poetry for good measure.

Beer Sessions Radio™ was thrilled to welcome back frequent co-host Jen Schwertman fresh off her return from Belgium and an extensive tour of the Brasserie Cantillon Brouwerij in Brussels. This being the time of year when we bring out the sours, Saisons, yeasty beers and Lambics, Jen’s travels unveil the processes the Belgians use to make these unique brews.

From Belgium to the northeastern US, Tim Stendhal of Union Beer, Will Stephens from BeerMenus.com, and Carolyn Pincus from The Stag’s Head in New York City discuss wild beers, sour beers and beer classes from New York to Montreal.

Finally, it’s a phone in with Win Bassett, Executive Director at North Carolina Brewers Guild, who catches us up on beer culture in the Carolinas and the craft beer movement that is taking fire in the south. The full episode can be heard here.

If you want to know how the beer scene has changed in Chicago over the past couple decades, you need go no further than Hopleaf Bar on North Clark Street in the city’s Andersonville neighborhood. Proprietor Michael Roper is celebrating his 20th year in business by expanding; he’s bought the building adjacent to Hopleaf, which will allow for an additional 100 spaces to a bar that already boasts some of the best beer offerings the city has to offer.

“When I opened 20 years ago there were very few craft beer options in Chicago,” Roper explained while showing off his impressive establishment. “There were 3 or 4 bars that carried American craft beers and a half a dozen that carried a lot of imports, mostly German. Now there is a craft beer bar on every corner! Even the ‘old man’ bars in Polish neighborhoods feel that they have to carry some better beers. Nice restaurants with big wine lists are paying attention to their beer menus now.”

There is an explosion of local brewing, too. On any given night, you can find taps pretty much unavailable outside the Windy City’s boundaries: Goose Island, Metropolitan, Half Acre, 5 Rabbit, Revolution, Finch’s, Three Floyds, Two Brothers, and—soon to come—New Chicago. Among the beers offered recently were Three Floyd’s Zombie Dust (a surprising mild taste and low ABV belies the Warrenville, IN, beer’s name), 5 Rabbit Viday Muerte Muertzenbier, and Finch’s Cut Throat American Pale Ale.

Hopleaf embodies what all the Good Beer Seal bars do: a sense of giving back to the community. In addition to sourcing locally for its menu (or hyper-locally—Roper grows herbs and veggies in a back courtyard that offers outdoor seating  in nice weather), Hopleaf hosts fundraisers for its community neighbors. When lack of funding threatened to cut off the art & music program at the local elementary school, Roper spearheaded an effort called “Kegs for Kids” that netted $44,000 and fully underwrote the arts program for the school.

Of course, with the 20th Anniversary expansion, Hopleaf will have even more room for beer dinners, tasting and pairing events, and brewmaster meet & greets. Along with great craft beer options you simply cannot find anywhere else.

As Roper sums it up, “We have quite a great beer scene in Chicago now. I am glad to be in the middle of it.”

What’s more fun than drinking local beer? Traveling to drink beer locally! The Great American Ale Trail author Christian DeBenedetti joined Jimmy Carbone and Blind Tiger’s Dave Brodrick this week on Beer Sessions Radio™ to talk about a career of travel-based beer writings, including his favorites from around the country. This segued nicely into a discussion of the Portland (OR) homebrew beer scene as compared with what is happening across Brooklyn these days. That led to tasting some homebrew courtesy of Danielle Cefaro and Benjamin Stutz of Brooklyn Homebrew. Their homebrew competition, The Brooklyn Wort, takes place on April 28th.

Finally, if you’re trying to decide between a great craft beer to go or dropping by the flower shop to pick up something for your special someone (or just to beautify the apartment), worry no more! At Sycamore Flower Shop and Bar, you can do both. Meet Justin Israelson, who talks about his unique shop in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. You can listen to the full episode here.

Back before craft beer was “the next big thing”… heck, back before Manhattan rents went the way of the one percent, there was Blind Tiger. Take a walk back in time with Brew York, New York’s Chris O’Leary, as he reminds us that a great beer bar takes a great deal of craft to make.

“This week, Blind Tiger Ale House (281 Bleecker St., at Jones St., West Village) celebrated its 15th anniversary. Since 1997, they’ve been pouring great craft beer in the West Village. Anyone who’s new to the craft beer scene or new to New York may take for granted that when they saddle up to the bar there, they’ll have the choice of some excellent craft beers.” Click here for full article.

A nice write up by Chris Kopanek over at Huffington Post about last week’s HRN benefit party celebrating Beer Session Radio’s 100th episode:  “There was no shortage of awesome things to eat at the Heritage Radio Network Fundraiser at Santos Wednesday night. Celebrating the 100th episode of Beer Sessions Radio™, the event pulled out all the stops serving a “sugar shack pig” cooked by chef Brendan Corr. He roasted the whole pig in maple syrup before pulling it apart and stewing it in large pot.” For the full article, click here.

It was another great episode on  Beer Sessions Radio™ when we welcomed back author Joshua Bernstein who has been exploring midwest beers and brought some Ohio beers to taste. Other guests included Justin Phillips, who talked about his new “table beer” collaboration with Brian Strumke of Stillwater Brewing, and Jeff Cioletti from Beverage World.

Beer-centric media are making their mark on the airwaves, on television and in film. Seth Wright talks about his Beer Nation TV, and for those of us who would be waking up early on Sundays to attend services at “The Church of Beer,” Jeff talks about his new film Beerituality, which will be shown at Jimmy’s No. 43 on April 25th at 7 p.m. You can check out the Beerituality trailer below.