Month: May 2013

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!

This past Sunday, the Good Beer Seal traveled to B. United International in Oxford, CT, for their Nepenthia open house, which offered the opportunity for 400+ industry insiders to meet a dozen of the world’s most interesting artisanal brewers, three of whom join Beer Sessions Radio™ host Jimmy Carbone for this week’s episode (listen here). In the studio are Jon Lundbom from B. United, Paolo Fontana of Birra Baladin,  Michael Brogaard of Dansk Mjod in Denmark, and Rob Lovatt of Thornbridge Brewery in the United Kingdom. Hear about the very cool things B. United has planned (a dedicated Viking Blod tanker? yes!) in a myriad of even cooler accents.

Among the many offerings and workshops at Nepenthia was a Beer Spirits workshop and tours around B. United’s bucolic country setting. The world scope of the breweries stretches from Japan to Europe to Kenya (Dansk Mjod is working to harvest honey from Africa). Interest in international artisanal craft brews has propelled B. United, which is more interested in delivering “quality liquid” than carrying as many brands as possible.

Next, Jimmy looks to his back yard and the craft beer scene that is growing in Bed-Stuy when Michael Brooks and Bryan Lindner from Bed-Vyne Brews talk about starting a beer retail outlet in June. Their list includes affordable offerings to the newly gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood, which doesn’t really have a proper retail craft beer shop.

Plus, Greg Engert and Megan Parisi of Bluejacket Brewery in Washington, D.C., which has its own laws and unique challenges of being able to import directly from around the world.

Listen in and learn what these amazing brewers are offering and what they’ll have coming up in the next few months.

They’re a match made in heaven: Cheese and beer! And with so many cheeses and beers to choose from, this week’s episode of Beer Sessions Radio™ tries to come up with the best mating of all time (garnering the most votes? truffle cheese with a Saison Dupont). Host Jimmy Carbone is joined by Kevin Heald of Malt & Mold, which will be celebrating its first anniversary in the LES with a party this Saturday, May 4th, plus Anne Likes Beer and Wandering Star’s Alex Hall.

What’s the best way to serve and preserve cask ales? How do you pour the perfect growler? What’s the history of the cask? And how can you score seats to the Glastonwick Cask Ale and Music Festival? Our guests have the answers.

In addition, Steve Wildy, beverage director for Vetri Family Restaurants, calls in to talk about Philly Beer Week and his Italian beer bar, Alla Spina. There are multiple festivals and beer outings for May, plus Beer Sessions Radio™ is gearing up for Savor in June. Catch the entire episode (#161) here.