This past weekend I decided to meet a friend of mine in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn for some delicious beer and shenanigans. We met at the Lorimer stop on the L train and walked down to Barcade. For those unfamiliar with Barcade, it is a bar with arcade videogames (bar-cade, get it?) all along the outer walls and a beer bar with a row of 25 taps in the middle. Most of the beers are local and they have a great beer menu that includes the ABV. My friend and I decided we were looking for strong beers to start the night off right so we ordered a couple double IPAs that were 8% ABV. After that, we played their game Tapper, which is a game made by Budweiser where you are a bartender and you have to slide mugs of beer along several bars to thirsty customers all while catching their empty glasses that they throw back at you. This all controlled by joysticks that are shaped and move like tap handles. That was fun and then while finishing up our last beer we checked out the flyers and newspapers by the door. Here we found Yankee Brew News and Ale Street Times, which are both fantastic newspapers with listings of local beer events and happenings.
After Barcade, we walked to the popular Union Pool, a place nearby that has a pretty good selection of bottled beers. I started out with a Coopers Sparkling Ale in bottle, which the bartender rolled on the bar to apparently distribute the sediment evenly. Apparently the sediment gives it a characteristic taste. You learn something new every day! Coopers Sparking Ale, from Australia, was a nice lighter beer to drink after all of the strong beers we had earlier on in the night. Union Pool was a fun place to go to enjoy their dual DJs in two separate areas and check out the dance floors as well as to learn about sediment distribution in Coopers beers.