Weekend Beer Events in NYC

FRIDAY

5-9pm - Chelsea Brewing Company Tasting at Whole Foods Beer Room - Bowery

Stop by Whole Foods Market Bowery Beer Room when Manhattan’s only brewery stops by to sample a selection of their craft beers. Once you’ve tasted each of Chelsea’s greatest, saddle up to the growler station to fill your 64oz or 32oz growler with one of their craft brews to take home. Traveling only as far as Pier 59, you can only imagine how fresh their beer truly is.

SATURDAY

11:45am - Brewed in Brooklyn Walking Tour at Williamsburg, Brooklyn ($45.00)

Discover how the rise and fall and rise again of the beer brewing industry tells a larger story about the neighborhood of Williamsburg, the borough of Brooklyn, and even the country as a whole. On this walking tour, we’ll begin at the Brooklyn Brewery with a private tour and then we’ll head over to East Williamsburg to check out some of the last remaining 19th century brewery buildings; explore the diverse cultures and mom and pop businesses that make the neighborhood what it is today; learn about what happened to local beer producers; and discover how beer brewing has returned to Brooklyn. Along the way, we’ll also visit a couple of restaurants and merchants, hear the stories of residents past and present, and, of course, sample some of the finest beer Brooklyn has to offer today.

Tour Highlights:

A private tour of the Brooklyn Brewery, plus a taste of various selected beers on tap.

A look at two remaining 19th century brewery buildings that were once part of the old Brewers Row.

More Brooklyn beer and a slice of pizza because what’s beer without a slice?.

Stories of brewing, bottling, and even bootlegging.

A beautiful cathedral that was built by the German immigrants in the neighborhood.

A visit to ABC Beverage Distributors to learn about how beer gets to customers today versus in the past.

Tastings of traditional German beer and Brooklyn beer with gourmet small plates at Huckleberry Bar.

1-6pm - North Fork Craft Beer, BBQ & Wine Festival at Martha Clara Vineyards. ($54.00)

Join us for the 3rd Annual
Award-Winning
North Fork Craft Beer, BBQ, & Wine Festival
50 Brewers/120 Brews

Voted North Fork Event of the Year in 2007, the North Fork Craft Beer, BBQ & Wine Festival returns to the picturesque Martha Clara Vineyard on August 8, 2009. Martha Clara Vineyard is located at 6025 Sound Ave. Riverhead, NY 11901. Attendees are asked to follow the event signs and enter through the Herricks Lane entrance only.

The event will showcase the finest craft breweries – 50 in all – from across the country and will pair them with outstanding BBQ prepared by Maple Tree BBQ and award-winning wines from Martha Clara Vineyards and other local wineries.

The event is sponsored by and will feature the award-winning beer from Blue Point Brewery and Southampton Ales & Lagers. In addition to local favorites, you’ll also have the opportunity to sample high-quality craft beer from national craft breweries such Boulder Beer Co., Brooklyn Brewery, Cape Ann Brewing Co., Dogfish Head, Harlem Brewing Co., Kona Brewing Co., Long Trail, Oscar Blues, Peak Organic, Sam Adams, Ramstein, Sly Fox, and many others. Attendees at the North Fork Craft Beer, BBQ & Wine Festival will have the opportunity to sample over 100 of the nation’s finest micro-brews.

The event will take place rain or shine (no refunds). The fields will have multiple tents to house the attendees, breweries, wineries, special vendors, cooking demos, and event programming. Weather permitting; the middle of the field will have tables and chairs for your comfort and enjoyment.

4-6pm - Weyerbacher Event at New Beer Distributors

Beers available on tap for growler fills.

SUNDAY

11:45am - Brewed in Brooklyn Walking Tour at Williamsburg, Brooklyn ($45.00)

Description above.

12pm - Brett Fest Oh Nine! at Spuyten Duyvil

On Tap:
1. Cantillon Cuvee Des Champions
2. Cantillon St. Lamvinus
3. Cantillon Vigneronne
4. Boon Oude Gueuze Mariage Parfait Cask #52
5. Oude Beersel Lambik
6. Ithaca Brute (Ithaca, NY)

In Cask:
Hanssen’s Oude Gueuze (In Cask)

Is there a better Kölsch?

Reissdorf Kölsch. If there's a better Kölsch, I'd like to try it, because this one is very very good. This was had at Loreley beer garden on the Lower East Side.

Brett Fest '09 Sunday 8/9 at Spuyten Duyvil in Brooklyn

This seems like something that should not be missed by any NYC craft beer lovers:

We had a very busy spring this year, so Brett. Fest had to be pushed back to the dog days of summer. Sunday, August 9th at noon we begin our yearly ode to the funk. Come celebrate the small things, yeast and bacteria.

On Tap:
1. Cantillon Cuvee Des Champions (BA Rating: A-)
2. Cantillon St. Lamvinus (BA Rating: A)
3. Cantillon Vigneronne (BA Rating: A-)
4. Boon Oude Gueuze Mariage Parfait Cask #52 (BA Rating: A with only 5 reviews)
5. Oude Beersel Lambik (BA Rating: A with only 1 review)
6. Ithaca Brute (BA Rating: A)

In Cask:
Hanssen's Oude Gueuze (In Cask) (BA Rating: A-)

In Bottle:
Dri Fonteinen Doesjel, Dri Fonteinen Hommage, Dri Fonteinen Schaerbeekse Kriek, Cantillon Iris 2004 & 2005, Cantillon Cognac Cask, Cantillon Gueuze 1996, Cantillon Cuvee De Monk's Gueuze, Hanssen's Experimental Cassis, Haand Bryggeriet Haandbakk, Panil Barriquee Riserva 2008, De La Senne Saison, Mikkeller It's Alive, Mikkeller US Alive, Mikkeller It's Alright, Captain Lwrence Cuvee De Castelton (Batch 1), Avery Brabant Zinfandel Barrel, Victory Wild Devil, Allagash Interlude 2005, New Belgium La Folie and Heavyweight Ste'-ve

This is just an insane lineup. I've never had any of these on tap outside of the Ithaca Brute, which is outstanding. And a few are incredibly rare Belgian offerings to have on tap in the US.

Rattle'n'Hum Mug Club

Or as they also call it, the "Month of Madness". Well, this should be interesting. In order to become a member of Rattle'n'Hum's Mug Club, one must have 40 different styles of beer over the course of ONE month. So that means that that sheet shown in the photograph above must be full come 9/3. That seems to be a pretty tall order. The pros are that it's relatively close to work and it's delicious beer. The cons are that I have to keep going back and spending tons of money that I shouldn't be spending.

But what's the benefit of the Mug Club that would entice one to take such a sudsy adventure? Well, first of all, you get your own MUG! And you get $1 off all beers for a year. So that's pretty decent. But my real motivation is that Patrick, the friendly owner of the bar, tends to get his hands on some pretty rare stuff. Stuff that's often not even available for distribution in NY. He recently let me purchase an entire growler of a certain Elder beer from California that I've only been able to trade or travel for. So, so good. Anyways, Patrick told me that whenever he gets something very hard to come by, he'll notify the Mug Club to assemble and partake in whatever brewing goodness he's found. I can drink 40 beers for that. I hope.

Hopefully come September 3rd I can post a similar picture as above but with everything filled in. Wish me luck. I'll need it.

How does one get a job in the craft beer industry?

As I continue to immerse myself in the world of craft beer and homebrewing, I realize that my current job working in television is a dead end and not what I want to be doing with my life (not to mention extremely mundane). I have become passionate enough about the world of craft brewing that I realize my career should be aligned with my obsession.

But the question remains, how does one get a job in the brewing industry? Does one go to brewing school at Siebel in Chicago or at UC Davis? Or does one try to find work as a bartender at a beer bar? It seems near impossible to find anything in the entry-level position at any breweries in the region, so more and more I'm thinking that the easiest way to get into the industry is starting your own brewery from scratch. Any by easy I mean very very difficult with tons of money that I don't have. Hopefully a few years from now I can look back at this blog post and laugh heartily while drinking our homebrew turned probrew straight out of a giant fermenter.

end rant.

oh yeah, beertography...Here's one of our very first homebrews. We took an APA recipe kit and hopped it up quite a bit. When it was fresh it was outstanding. And now, 2 years later, although the hop flavors have mellowed a bit, it's still a very good drinkable beer.



Ten Dudes Kinda Hoppy American Pale Ale