Entries from September 2007 ↓

With special guest SAM CALAGIONE, founder and president of Dogfish head brewery.

Details:

Wednesday, October 3rd, 6 PM

@ George Keeley’s

Full description

Please pardon my brief hiatus.  I have been working on a side project for several weeks where I am creating a database of the beer menus of the best beer bars in NYC so that they are completely searchable by beer name, bar name, neighborhood, etc.  It is quite a challenge to both gather beer menus which are often changing daily on chalk boards and it is also a challenge to put them in a format that is easy to view and browse on a website.   My project so far is breaking it down into seasonal/rotational, house beers, draft beers, bottled beers, and canned beers (cask coming soon?).  We are strong proponents of showcasing the ABV (alcohol-by-volume) to show how although craft beers are often more expensive than your run-of-the-mill macro, they are cheaper in terms of ”price per drink.”  In other words, if you buy a beer that is three times as alcoholic and a dollar more than a Bud Light, it is a cheaper inebriation.  In other other words, to hammer my point home, you can get pretty primed drinking a few strong beers that taste magical while it will probably take you, depending on your tolerance, 8-12 Bud Lights to get primed and you will end up waiting in long bathroom lines the whole way. 

To get back to my main point, there are many ways to organize beers.  Many places do it by country primarily, some do it by beer style primarily, some do both.  I am curious what viewers think about organizing beer by flavor profile, similar to the way many wine menus categorize their wine list.  This article discusses the idea.

According to nycbeer.org, on September 15, 2007, there will be an organic beer festival:

“Counter Organic Wine & Martini Bar will host NYC’s first-ever Organic Beer Bash on September 15, 2007 between 12 - 4 pm. Sample 35 organic beers and hard ciders from around the world. Savor finger food made with beer, such as Peak nutbrown beer battered corn fritters, Wolaver’s chocolate stout cake and Pinkus pilsner panisse. If you prefer cocktails, Scarecrow Bloody Beer, Butte Creek Grizzly Beer (whiskey, lemonade, brown ale) and J.K. Scrumpy’s Snake Bite (hard cider, Orlio common ale, organic rum) will hit the spot. The cost of the event is $25. Profits will be donated to Farm Aid, a non-profit group devoted to saving family farms and League of Humane Voters of New York City.”

 Check out the restaurant’s (annoying Flash) website: http://www.counternyc.com/

Meet Market Adventures is a company that organizes events for active singles “who don’t have the time to play as hard as they work.”  I’m not sure what what their events are like, but they are offering a brewery tour.  Check it out…

Singles Brewery & Beer Tasting Tour **Only 8 Spots Left
Starts: Saturday, September 22, 2007 @ 4:45 PM
Cost: $19.99
Location: Chelsea Brewing Company, Manhattan

Other Music presents… 

“FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 - 6 to 8:00 p.m.
Madlib Beat Konducta in India (Vol. 3 & 4) Release Party featuring DJ sets from Egon (Stones Throw) and Mahssa (B-Music), plus free Indian beer and food, and lots of give aways”

Free beer and great music.  You can’t go wrong.

So this past weekend I made a day of going to the Wholefoods Beer Room in the Bowery to check out their selection of New York beers on tap that you can buy in growlers.  They had a deal where you get the first growler (just the container) free.  So I bought a few of them, but I have only tried the Blue Point No Appologies Double IPA.  Blue Point Brewery, which is in Long Island, also makes the Hoptical Illusion IPA, which is one of my personal favorites.  These IPAs have a slight fruit taste to them, but are by no means fruity.  As with all IPAs they are quite hoppy and the No Appologies has a slight earthy taste.  The No Appologies does not taste at all like it is 10% ABV and goes down very smooth with no taste of alcohol the way many barley wines of similar ABV do.  After drinking just one glass, I quickly could validate that it is in indeed 10% and I was happy to have made the effort to go to the Bowery to pick up these growlers. 

The growlers are a great thing to pick up on the way to a friend’s apartment to bring a beer that you can share that is very unique.  It is very economical compared with a six pack in a bodega and the beer is local so you can support craft beer in NYC.    Another benefit of the growlers is that you have to drink them all at once…yes a benefit.  Although it is feasable to drink one on your own, it would be difficult and the growler size instead encourages you to share one with a mate who will most likely be happy to have a great draught beer in their apartment (which will probably be the first time for those people who don’t own keggerators).  Who needs those lame Heineken mini-kegs that taste like uber-carbonated donkey urine when you can have draught local New York strong beers?