Call this our east meets west episode. Or, perhaps, David walks into a bar with Goliath (but since beer’s involved, no one had to pull out a slingshot). We’ve got breweries big and small, and old and new on this week’s episode of Beer Sessions Radio™ as host Jimmy Carbone welcomes Robbie Crafton, Kyle Hurst, and Scott Berger of Big Alice Brewing, which brewed 53 different beers this year from its 1/3-barrel system in Long Island City. Across the table is one of the world’s largest brewers, Pilsner Urquel, in the form of Václav Berka, Zee Bartos, and Hospoda bartender and Master Bartender Competition winner Frantisek Stastka. Also in the studio is Good Beer Seal bar owner Ben Sandler from The Queens Kickshaw.
Whether discovering the first Pilsner by happenstance (it happened on October 5th, 1842, in case you were wondering) or carefully planning out a micro-micro brewery (and how to keep supply up with demand), pretty much everyone on the show could agree with Václav when he says, “Behind each barrel of beer is the heart of a brewmaster.”
And is NYC at a saturation point for new breweries? Unlikely. Thad Fisco from Portland Kettle Works (a maker of handcrafted professional brewing equipment in Oregon) weighs in on the Portland beer scene. As it turns out, per capita Portland has 40 times the number of breweries that NYC has (mainly because, you know, NYC is 14 times more populous than Portland), but most of these are brewpubs pouring to their own customers.
So, can a small pub in NYC create a brewpub space in the back of their restaurant? It’s legal now, and Thad is happy to talk you through the process. Listen in to here more.