Beer festivals

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Fifth Annual Blue Point Cask Festival

January 26, 2009 in Beer festivals, Events, NY Brews | No comments

My first beer festival video! It’s not perfect, but I hope it captures the feel of the fest and the fun everyone was having.

This was my first time attending the cask fest and I was quite impressed. There were over forty casks pouring, with representation from every Long Island brewery as well as several regional brewers and two local homebrew clubs. The Fest is held annually at Blue Point Brewery in Patchogue, easily accessible from NYC via the Long Island Rail Road. We arrived just after the opening and although there was a line, it moved quickly. The Fest is held in a series of heated tents attached to the brewery. Although it was quite cold on Saturday, I was quite comfortable in a coat. The main tent was crowded, but not uncomfortably – there were always gaps to stand in around the periphery. Fest admission included a half-pint glass and six tasting tickets. The pours were generous and I usually saw full glasses handed back – and there were virtually no lines to get your beer. Live music was performed, port-a-potties were clean and accessible (again, no lines), and food was available for purchase in the back tent.

I had a terrible head cold and was able to try only a few beers, but the ones I did try were quality. Some of the stand-outs were Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Ops (the first cask to kick), Black Forest Brew Haus Chocolate Doppelbock and Captain Lawrence Brewing Company’s Captain’s Reserve Imperial IPA dry-hopped with Simcoe. I wish I had been able to taste more beer but there are more cask fests in my future.

This was a well-run festival that I would recommend to anyone in the NYC/Long Island area. It’s a great chance to try a large variety of locally-produced real ale.

If you missed the Blue Point Cask Festival, there are several upcoming cask fests in the area:

  • This Wednesday, Rattle N Hum will have four casks of the Harviestoun ‘Ola Dubh’ beginning at noon. This is a rare opportunity to try 12, 18, 30 and 40-year firkins of this renowned beer. Downloadable tasting notes can be found here.
  • The 17th Brooklyn “Cask Head” Cask Festival takes place at Brazen Head on February 6-8.
  • March 20-22 sees the return of the 3rd Manhattan Cask Festival at Chelsea Brewing Company

More information about cask ale can be found on Alex Hall’s site.

Southern Road Trip, day 3: World Beer Festival

April 27, 2008 in Beer festivals, Southern Road Trip, Travel | No comments

VIP food plateTwenty minutes of yoga on Vic’s back deck got my day off to a great start. We walked down to Moore Square for the World Beer Festival, arriving a little after noon. It was a beautiful day, around 80° and sunny, an easy entrance for VIP ticket holders (yeah, I splurged). We had a few tastes, Duck Rabbit being the most notable, and were off to the VIP tent to get some lunch. VIP tickets included entrance to the VIP tent with “special beers” and music, air-conditioned bathrooms with running water, a plate of food, and a commemorative nonic pint glass. Was it worth it? Yeah, in my opinion, I enjoyed the bottled water, clean bathrooms and being able to wash my hands afterward, the food was phenomenal, and not having to wait in line to get in was a bonus. Plus, there were some great beers that I only saw in the VIP tent: Firestone Double Barrel Ale, Lost Abbey Serpentine Stout, Oskar Blues Ten Fidy, and Saranac Imperial Stout. What’d we eat? Durham Catering prepared the food, which, as I mentioned, was absolutely delicious. I loaded my plate with garlic, cheddar & Stone Ruination IPA soup, salad of celery hearts, pancetta, tart apples, The crowdhazelnuts, & blue cheese, Troeg’s Troegenator braised pork shoulder, grilled brautwurst with Brezel rolls, peppers, onions & country mustard, spicy lentil salad, & Deschutes Obsidian Stout chocolate tiramisu. My favorite was the braised pork shoulder, YUM! After filling up and hydrating, we headed back out to the beer tents. I focused solely on North Carolina and regional beers that I don’t see in NYC. I tasted beer from these breweries:

  • Azalea Coast Brewing Co, Wilmington, NC
  • Blue Ridge Brewing Co, Greenville, SC – enjoyed their pale ale
  • Capitol City Brewing Co, Arlington, VA – liked their Amber Waves Ale
  • Carolina Brewery, Chapel Hill, NC – Alter Ego Altbier and Oatmeal Porter were the faves here
  • Carolina Brewing Co, Holly Springs, NC – the English-style IPA and Imperial Stout were tasty
  • Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery, Farmville, NC – the Milk Stout and Porter were yummy
  • Foothills Brewing, Winston-Salem, NC – dug the Pilot Mtn Pale Ale, Hoppyum IPA, and Seeing Double IPA
  • French Broad Brewing Co, Asheville, NC – the Gateway Kolsch was quite nice
  • Highland Brewing Com, Asheville, NC – the Shining Rock Lager was an amber style and very good
  • Mash House Restaurant & Brewery, Fayetteville, NC – fond of the hefeweizen and brown porter
  • Moon River Brewing Co, Savannah, GA – the Savannah Fest Bier was a clean, easy drink
  • Natty Greene’s Brewing Co, Greensboro, NC – offered the only cask I saw, their Old Town Brown, also treated to a mix of the Southern Pale Ale and Buckshot Amber Ale
  • New South Brewing Co, Myrtle Beach, SC – liked the White Ale here
  • Outer Banks Brewing Co, Kill Devil Hills, NC – keep reading, details below
  • Red Oak Brewery, Greensboro, NC – the Battlefield was a roasty, easy drinking bock
  • Triangle Brewing Co, Durham, NC – keep reading, details below
  • Weeping Radish Brewery, Manteo, NC

Outer Banks Brewing Company My favorite breweries were Foothills Brewing with their Hoppyum IPA randallized through Cascade hops, Triangle Brewing Company with their White Ale and Belgian Golden Ale, and Outer Banks Brewings’ Lemongrass Wheat and Compass Rose. The Compass Rose was my favorite beer of the fest – a Belgian Brown Ale spiced with rosemary! I absolutely love rosemary and this beer was pure pleasure to drink.Gregg Glaser giving his Beers in the News talk

I briefly checked out Gregg Glaser’s “Brews in the News” talk at 1:00 and sat in on Julie Bradford’s “Pairing Beer and Chocolate” at 3:00. These were both lively and informative and well-attended, always nice at a large festival like this one.

This is a great beer festival, one of my favorites that I have attended in the last couple of years. The pros:

  • there was a huge amount of beer, both in variety and quantity, and breweries brought seasonal offerings and well as the regular brews
  • the food available for purchase was also varied and good, as reported by friends
  • although crowded the first 15 minutes or so, the tents cleared out considerably and we never really waited in line for anything
  • Lots of shady spots to sit and relax during the fest
  • Great music
  • Beautiful location – Moore Square is the perfect park for a beer fest
  • I enjoyed meeting and chatting with the brewers and other brewery employees/owners
  • talks offered were entertaining and informative, with special beers poured

The only con was not enough pour buckets and rinse water. There were carboys of water at entrances to the tents but these ran out quickly, a few of the breweries offered water but not many. This would be an easy fix for the festival organizers.

World Beer Fest Panorama
Lilly's Pizza We chilled on the back deck for the afternoon and then headed to Lilly’s Pizza. The beer list is small, but has some solid local offerings, I opted for a Highland Gaelic, JB went with the Duck Rabbit Milk Stout. I ordered the Pigs in a Blanket to share, a small house salad, and the Big Star pizza, with pesto, mozzarella, parmesan, gorgonzola, fontina, roasted red peppers, & pistachios, all were very tasty. The leftovers will be consume shortly. Lilly’s is a super place, very eclectic atmosphere with local art and an assortment of vintage signs and other interesting stuff to gaze out while you’re waiting for your pies. Another fantastic end to a fun and fulfilling day!

Ultimate Belgian Tasting III

April 16, 2008 in Beer festivals, Events, Manhattan | No comments

looking out over the crowdTony Forder and Kelly TaylorLast Thursday night I had the privilege of attending the Ultimate Belgian Tasting III, held by Ale Street News at the Heartland Brewery Empire State Building location. It was a pricey event at $98 a ticket, but well worth it in my opinion. Tons of tasty brews, delicious food, and great company made the night one to remember. I noshed on roasted, smoked buffalo Waterfront Ale House tablesandwiches from Heartland, beer marinated filet mignon from Rod’s Steak & Seafood Grill, creamy mussels from The Oyster House, Indian spiced pork loin with peach Belgian ale au jus from Waterfront Ale House, Augustin’s Waffles, ice cream bars hand dipped in Belgian chocolate from Brothers Desserts, and Belgian chocolates from Leonidas. And that was only part of the goodies; I skipped out on all the cheeses and several other things, as I had to save room for all of the great beer. I started the evening off with a glass of Malheur Brut, the perfect aperitif, and ended with Cuvee Renee, always a favorite of mine. I didn’t have a bad beer the whole night, but especially enjoSmuttynose Brewing Companyyed, in no particular order, Defiant Farmhouse, an extra tart and funky Saison, Stone ’06 Vertical Epic, Dogfish Head aged Raisin d’Extra, Southampton Cuvee deStone Brewing Fleurs, and Smuttynose Abbey Single (an easy drinking Belgian that will replace their Portsmouth Lager). I met quite a few new people and loved hanging out with old friends. I ended the night with a meal at the Spotted Pig with David Yarrington and Tom Briggs of Smuttynose. More pictures from the event are here.

Recent beery highlights

March 5, 2008 in Beer festivals, Brooklyn, Manhattan, NY Brews, NYC restaurants | 2 comments

  • The cask festival at the Brazen Head in Brooklyn the weekend of February 22-24. Alex Hall always does a spectacular job and this weekend was no exception. Highlights for me included the eye-opening Green Flash ‘West Coast IPA’, the dark & delicious Chelsea ‘Czar’s Revenge’ Imperial Stout, the traditional Stoudt’s Scarlet Lady ESB, and the delicious in every way Allagash Curieaux. I’ll confess, the Curieaux was my very favorite and only the high alcohol content prevented me from drinking more. The fest was not as crowded as usual, perhaps due to the 6″ of snow that fell on Friday, our first real snowfall of the season. The next NYC cask festival will take place on March 28-30, noon to midnight each day, at Chelsea Brewing Company in Manhattan. Information can be found here. I hope to see you there.
  • A visit to Seymour Burton, a new restaurant in the East Village. I went for the burger, fries and house-made ice cream, but the limited beer offerings are exclusively craft. No draft beer, but cans of Pork Slap and six varieties of Ommegang are offered: the Witte, Rare VOS, 3 Philosophers, Hennepin, Ommegang, & Ommegeddon. I’m an advocate of drinking locally and visiting a restaurant exclusively featuring New York craft beers warms my heart. The burger & fries are fantastic here, particularly if you’re a burger purist as this one is all about the meat. The fries were perfectly done, crispy with nice potato flavor, and the ice cream was phenomenal, chocolate bourbon being my favorite flavor. I’d love to see them offer a local porter or brown ale, my favorite beer to drink with a burger, but the Rare VOS paired quite nicely. I’ve read favorable reviews of other menu offerings and recommend a visit if you’re craving a burger and craft ale in the East Village.
  • The Black Flip at PDT in the East Village. Whoa, I’d read about this historic drink but never had one. PDT mixes a great version, using Cruzan blackstrap rum, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, and an egg. This is a BEAUTIFUL drink and combines two of my passions, craft beer and old-school cocktails. Although primarily a cocktail place, PDT offers four local craft beers on draft and is a great place to take a date. Get there early as seating is limited and order one of their specialty hot dogs if you get hungry. I recommend the Chang Dog, the bacon wrapped deep fried Crif Dog topped with Momofuku kimchee. PDT is one of my favorite joints at the moment.
  • Canadian Cousins night at Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg. Last Wednesday night Joe Carroll of Spuyten featured beer from two Canadian breweries, Dieu Du Ciel and Hopfenstark. It was a real treat to meet the guys and drink their beer. Seven beers were offered, Hopfenstark’s Ostalgia Blonde, Saison 55, and Kamarad Friedrich and Dieu du Ciel’s Rigor Mortis, Aphrodisiac, Péché Mortel, and Corpus Cristi, the latter being on cask. My favorites were the Ostalgia, Saison 55, Rigor Mortis, Aphrodisiac & Péché Mortel. A trip to Montreal is definitely in order.
  • California Night at The Gate in Brooklyn. I enjoyed Green Flash ‘Le Freak’ and ‘Grand Mantis’ while listening to the Grateful Dead bootleg, nice.
  • Two trips to Dram Shop in Brooklyn. Another delicious burger & fries can be found here, very different from Seymour Burton’s but just as good. Twelve taps are offered, most of which are craft. I enjoyed a Sixpoint Brownstone with my burger, a possible perfect combination. Dram Shop’s burger features two patties and is fully dressed and the fries are medium cut and crisp. My only complaint is all beer is served in frosty mugs, ugh. Be sure to ask for a room temperature glass when you go. It’s a cool place and I’ll be visiting again soon.

13th ‘Cask Head’ Cask Ale Festival

November 3, 2007 in Beer festivals, Brooklyn, Events, NY Brews | 2 comments

alex-and-casks.jpgAh… November in New York City: weather cold enough for a scarf, insane numbers of tourists shop-shop-shopping and stop-stop-stopping up the sidewalks, hot apple cider at the greenmarkets, and the return of the cask ale festivals to Brazen Head. Three times a year, caskrepeneur Alex Hall (shown at left) and Brazen Head co-owner Lou Sones throw a three-day beer event featuring all cask ales. This weekend’s fest features 31 casks, the largest number yet, with 11 tapped at a time. Many of the casks are one-of-a-kinds, almost all are from regional breweries, and there’s a wide range of styles represented. I headed over last night around 5 pm to sample some of the wares. nomad.jpgIt was warm enough to sit in Brazen’s backyard, where I enjoyed my first half pint of Brookyn’s own SixPoint Craft Ales Gran’Dad’s Nerve Tonic, jointly brewed with local band Junk Science. Hoppy and malty with a tinge of chocolate, at 8% ABV this was a nice kick-off for tonight’s cask experience. Next was a Cascade Dry-hopped IPA from Smuttynose Brewery – a clean citrus delight, my second favorite beer of the night. I also tried the Colonial Farmhouse Cider, which was very tasty and similar to the ciders I’ve had in England – sharp, medium-dry, and not too sweet. The Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin was also good, not too spicy and not too sweet. I thought the Ommegang Abbey Ale was a little weird in cask, as this is a beer that works best with high carbonation in my opinion, but many were enjoying it. The Mohawk Trail Pale Ale, the first ever cask ale produced by the new Nomad Brewery was tapped just before 8 pm, with all proceeds being donated to charity. crowd-at-bh.jpg I ended the evening with the SixPoint Belgian Rye-PA, the only cask produced of this beer and my favorite of the evening. I love the Righteous Rye, and the Belgian styling only added to the complexity of this beer – truly delicious! Brazen Head got pretty packed as the evening wore on, with a diverse bunch of craft beer lovers, brewers, the suited after-work crowd, and local Brooklynites all enjoying cask ale – a nice site to see! I had a such a great time drinking real ale and hanging out with friends that I’m headed back as soon as I finish this post. The fests at Brazen Head are a great chance to drink American craft cask ales, I highly recommend checking one out. They’re usually held in November, February, and May and it’s best to go several times over the weekend to be able to sample as many as possible, the earlier in the day the better as the narrow bar gets quite crowded. Hope to see you there!
More pics on Flickr.

Brazen Head
228 Atlantic Ave, b/w Court St & Boerum Place
718-488-0147

closest subway: F train to Bergen St, walk N on Smith, then W on Atlantic