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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Tasting Weekend

Bronx and Manhattan, NY

A couple weekends ago I tried a bunch of new beers for me. I started off with Monk's Blood from 21st Amendment and Old Foghorn from Anchor Brewing. Having heard so much about Monk's Blood and about the recent revival of interest in canned beers I made a trip to New Beer Distributor on Chystie St. I enjoyed the packaging which tells a fun tale of a couple of monks. The beer itself is pretty good although I wish that the $9.75 price tag was for six instead of four. It was a little boozy which I don't usually like but it was good this time. The dominant flavor was the malty sweetness and you can definitely taste the vanilla.

Old Foghorn begins my renewed interest in barleywines. I had not had one in over a year and picked this one up for a reasonable $2.90 at New Beer. It was not as big as I remember Barleywines being. The ABV was 8.2% and the hop character was not as pronounced. The only drawback was the particulate matter that came through surprisingly early in the pour. I definitely recommend it for those of you interested in trying out barleywines.

Saturday I followed up with Full Moon barleywine at Heartland Brewery's South Street Sea Port location. This had a more pronounced citrus hop flavor but again not as big as I remember barleywines. After the barleywine we couldn't help ourselves and went for Farmer Jon Oatmeal Stout (I think it is the best thing they have at heartland). Our waitress was kind enough to also give us a tasty sample of the honey porter. The stout was great and really got me excited for oatmeal stout night at Bar Great Harry's in Brooklyn on Tuesday. We finished off the night at Zum Schneider on Avenue C and Seventh Street with a Hacker Pschorr Dunkel.

-Giancarlo

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Rogue Night at The Long Room

Manhattan, NY-

Thursday March 26 was Rogue Night at The Long Room on 44th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue. I found out about the event on beeradvocate.com where the event was incorrectly advertised as featuring 15 different beers from Rogue. In fact, there were only five different beers available. After this initial disappointment the night was quite enjoyable. The Long Room is, as the name suggests, a long room and has comfortable seating with several booths in the back. The prices were not bad considering the location. The Rogue beers were going for $7 a pint or $8 for a flight of four 4-ounce beers. Most beers on the menu ranged from $6.50 to $10. I'm glad that we ate dinner before going since the food was expensive.

My friend Matt and I decided to start with a flight of Rogue. We both chose to have the Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Mogul Madness ale, Yellow Snow IPA, and Juniper Pale ale. Neither of us enjoyed the Juniper Pale ale; I was bothered by the spiciness of the juniper flavor which I thought was a bit overbearing. Although I am not a huge fan of IPAs, I thought the Yellow Snow was a pretty good example of the style. We both enjoyed the Mogul Madness and Hazelnut Brown Nectar. The Hazelnut Brown Nectar stood out for its smooth hazelnut flavor, which was well-balanced by the background malt flavors. We were surprised and skeptical by the claim that Mogul Madness had an aftertaste that lasted 15 seconds but the beer had robust malt character and full-mouth feel.

-Giancarlo

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Brew Day: Brooklyn Brew Shop Black and Tan

Bronx, NY-

Last month Sarah and I took a trip to the Brooklyn Flea to pick up a black and tan kit from the Brooklyn Brew Shop. The kit included equipment (two one-gallon jugs, two airlocks, two rubber stoppers, two blow-off attachments, one thermometer, plastic tubing, a racking cane, sanitizer and a pouring spoon) to have both brews fermenting at the same time and the ingredients for both and cost $70. I recommend bringing a couple of your homebrews if you have them, we got a $5 discount for bringing two of ours. On Sunday we finally got around to brewing the beer.

The kit is as advertised: only a small space commitment. For homebrewers who have limited storage space, the kit is perfect (currently our beer is fermenting under my desk). I personally like the kit for the added reason that I could fit it in my refrigerator. (Sarah and I have been wanting to brew a schwarzbier for some time but we have no way to refrigerate a five-gallon bucket). Brooklyn Brew Shop provides a limited number of recipe kits. They provide milled grain, hops and yeast for each brew. Most are priced between $11-15 (the recipe kits at the Whole Foods Beer Room on Bowery are $11). After the initial expense of approximately $40 for the first batch you are looking at about $1-1.50 per beer. For those of us who are not yet comfortable creating our own recipes it is a nice way to make sure that you can make some decent beer. Another great thing about the kits is that because of their size, if you are experimenting with recipes and you mess one up you only lose one gallon of beer, not five.

The directions provided are decent and give you the basics for setting up your lauter tun. Ours left something to be desired. My original plan was to go to the Arthur Avenue Market, where you can get all kinds of kitchen supplies, and get a brew pot that I could find a matching strainer for. Unfortunately the market was closed and I was forced to get the supplies from assorted stores in our neighborhood, which meant that none of the materials were exactly the correct size for each other. The largest strainer I could find was ten inches, smaller than our brew pot, and could barely hold the grain for the extra special bitter. A few grains slipped through into the wort and I had to fish them out but in the end the setup worked and we were able to get a full gallon from each. For more information on kits, recipes and directions, visit Brooklynbrewshop.com

-Giancarlo

I appreciate the size and appearance of the Brooklyn Brew Shop kits, especially when compared to the five-gallon buckets I'm used to seeing homebrews fermenting in. The jugs fit on our small kitchen counter and brewing wasn't a huge mess. Plus, when they're empty, they're not an eyesore or a pain to store. It's nice to brew in our apartment for a change.

-Sarah

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Review of Monk's Cafe Flemish Red Ale

I've chosen to review Monk's Cafe, a Flanders red ale. This beer is brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge NV in Ertvelde, Belgium. I purchased this bottle from Publick House Provisions on Beacon St. in Brookline, MA. Flanders red ale is usually characterized by having a moderate to intense sour flavor, imparted by inoculating the beer with bacteria after fermentation is complete. The souring process takes 6 months to 1 year or longer. The most prominent example of a Flanders red that is available in the United States in Rodenbach. However, Rodenbach recently has been increasingly harder to find in my area due to a distribution change. I've since been on a mission to find decent Flanders red ales to fill the hole Rodenbach has left.

I've found that Monk's Cafe in particular has stood out as a great example of the style, and it's a damn fine beer to drink. Like Rodenbach, Monk's Cafe is a blend of "young and old beers." The regular Rodenbach that most people know and love is actually a blend of very sour older beers with younger, less sour ales. My only guess is that the sourness is hard to precisely control and a consistent, mildly sour product can only be achieved by blending.

It's hard to tell from my photo, but I promise that Monk's Cafe is actually red. It pours a deep reddish brown with a slight haze. A frothy light tan head dissipates into the beer and a ring of bubbles remains, clinging and creeping up the sides of the glass.

It smells bright and sweet, like like freshly sliced Granny Smith apples. Notes of other fruit juices, including grapes and pears, are present. There is a faint sugary caramel smell, but it is generally an underlying aroma. There is no hop aroma.

The first sip is makes quite the impression and really sets the tone for what this beer is all about. When it first enters your mouth it is both tart and sweet and the body is very light. Imagine biting into that aforementioned freshly sliced apple, but with some caramel on it. It's tart - that is the foremost and obvious flavor. It's not sour enough to make you pucker, but it is still prominent. I think the underlying actual beer is very simple. If one were to taste this beer before the souring process, I would imagine a very dry, light-bodied ale, with toffee malt flavors and low hop bitterness - like an underhopped pale ale. It is hard to detect these flavors under the sourness, but I'm convinced that they are there. Swallowing unveils some totally different flavors. When it reaches the back of your tongue it begins to taste slightly acidic and metallic, like putting a penny in your mouth. It leaves your mouth a bit sticky - like you just polished off a bag of sour patch kids. This is curious because when then beer initially enters your mouth it tastes crisp, fresh and light bodied.

Overall Monk's Cafe is a quenching and refreshing Flanders Red. I love to toss it in and switch it up at the bar after a flight of hoppy IPAs or roasty stouts. Sometimes something totally different like this resets the palate. Perfect paired with a bowl of carbonade flamande, or by itself, Monk's Cafe is a beer that I will continue to choose when I'm feeling funky.

-Mike

Book Review: Beer School

Bronx, NY-

You might be disappointed reading Steve Hindy and Tom Potter's Beer School if you think you're getting a lesson in actual brewing. You will not be disappointed if you're interested in learning about the actual business behind the craft beer you drink. Hindy and Potter combine to give straightforward advice to those of you out there looking to create a business of similar size and scope. This advice ranges from partner relationships to employee morale and marketing techniques. Perhaps because I read the book so soon after viewing the movie Beer Wars, the distribution struggles and successes were particularly interesting.

The book also gives the reader a distinctly "New York" perspective on recent craft beer history. I doubt very much that many breweries had to specifically prepare for mafia-related issues when starting their businesses. Not only did the brewery need to plan for the mafia when seeking investors but it was actually paid a visit by mafia members during the building of its location in Williamsburg. In such a large market, Brooklyn Brewery had to contend with especially strong efforts from the large brewers to keep them out of New York (out-bidding them to supply beer to events, etc.). Beyond the lessons learned selling their own beer, Hindy and Potter relate what they learned from other brewers and attempts to expand into the New York market through their distribution business. I was amazed to hear of how many breweries and brew pubs were forced to close because of reasons related to attempts to expand.

Each chapter was written by either Steve Hindy or Tom Potter with a response from the other. The writing itself, especially that of Steve Hindy, is quick and fun to read. His backround as a journalist is apparent. The pair's willingness to share many of the issues that they had with each other gives you the sense that they are being honest with the reader.

Beer School is a fun read for those interested in the development of the craft beer industry in New York City and offers many lessons for entrepreneurs. It's worth the read.

-Giancarlo

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On to Bath

From time to time, BeerUnion will post submissions from traveling correspondent Katie Thombs. Here's one from Bath:

Bath, although rather small in comparison to many of our other destinations, had much to offer a beer lover. From Marston's Sweet Chariot (smooth with a slight sweetness that is kept in check), to the Bellringer (a Bath ale with a delicious bite), all tastes can be satisfied. A pub that is most definitely a must is the Olde Green Tree. The various cozy rooms with plenty of tables and benches makes it an ideal location to gather for a pint with friends or even just chat with the locals. Here you should try the Exmoor Gold, a nice golden ale that isn't too heavy but does lave a slight bitterness after a few sips. The Olde Green Tree Ale was a wonderfully refreshing light ale with tons of balanced hoppy flavor and easily drinkable in large quantities.

-Katie

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