Rattle 'N' Hum Cask Festival

Manhattan NY,

Late on Friday afternoon Sarah and I headed down to Rattle 'N' Hum on 33rd Street for its cask ale festival. The festival began on Wednesday, April 14 and will end on Sunday, April 18. It was our first time at Rattle 'N' Hum and we were impressed. First we were struck by the huge lineup of cask ales that were displayed immediately inside the door. Besides the many casks available for the festival and the varied beers on tap, there was an enormous bottle list on one wall. It took us a good fifteen to twenty minutes to get through the list.

Our first cask beer was Brooklyn Brewery Black Ops. Wow. The color was inky black with some dark redness on the edges. The aroma was mostly vanilla and oak with some bourbon. It was only a little boozy which surprised me as a beer at 11.6% ABV. In the sweetness you could taste some chocolate along with the vanilla, oak and bourbon.

Our next beer was Fuller's London Pride. London Pride was almost a default after finding out that my next pick, Blue Point Oatmeal Stout, and even my back up, Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire, were not available. Still having never tried it I thought cask would be the perfect way to have London Pride. Still it turned out to be less flavorful than I had hoped.

-Giancarlo

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LI Spring Craft Beer Festival

Uniondale, NY

BeerUnion convened a few weeks ago for the Long Island Spring Craft Beer Festival at Nassau Coloseum. We went to the first session which lasted from 1230-4 p.m. The number of beers were at times overwhelming and hard to keep track of. While the majority of beers were delicious, there were a few that really stood out among the group. Most noticeable were the Founder's Brewery beers. Founder's was offering one of the larger selections and a banner above their booth proclaimed that the festival was the brewery's debut in New York. I tried the Dirty Bastard ale which I found delicious but when we returned at 2 p.m. for the pouring of the Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS) we were blown away. The KBS was the only beer that we went back for more. You can taste that the beer had aged in bourbon barrels and different levels of flavor, chocolate, coffee and vanilla to name a few.

Several of the beers that impressed me were local. Heartland Brewery's Sumatra Stout tasted exactly like Sumatra coffee — I love coffee so this was great for me. Brooklyn Brewery impressed us with Local 2 and their Black Chocolate Stout. Of the non-local beers, I enjoyed The Bruery's Saison Rue, Stone's Levitation and Black IPA, and Goose Island's Matilda.

-Giancarlo

That's Ashley, Mike, Sarah and Giancarlo above, enjoying the first round of KBS.

Photo by Robin Stevenson

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