NYC Beer Week 2016

Well friends, it’s that time of year again. When we spend one glorious week (plus two bonus days) celebrating the best that New York City beer has to offer. Coming up this Friday, February 19, through February 28 is New York City Beer Week 2016! Beer Week is hosted by the New York City Brewers Guild, an organization made up of the breweries in New York City to advocate for and celebrate each other. Beer Week was founded in the fall of 2008 by Josh Schaffner. The Brewers Guild took the helm a few years ago. In the end of January we…

Building a Brewery From Scratch

“People want to see hard work, they don’t want to see a new brewery show up. They want to see something that grew from a seed,” says Rich Castagna, founder, owner and brewer of Bridge and Tunnel Brewery in Queens. This philosophy could not be more true in his case. Castagna and his family have…

Thoughts On the Big Beer Merger

Well, it happened. AB InBev and SAB Miller have come to a merger deal. So now, pending regulatory approvals, the two big beer companies look to join forces to become one giant beer company. But what does this mean for craft beer? Not much, or it could even be a blessing, according to a story in Business Insider. BeerUnion caught up with Paul Leone, Executive Director of the New York State Brewers Association. He doesn’t think it will affect craft brewers too much. “The beauty of craft beer is that it’s all about the beer, and it’s all about what goes…

A Return to Homebrewing

This weekend we homebrewed for the first time in about two years. Homebrewing is close to our hearts, and was one of the catalysts for creating this blog. People ask us all the time how we got into beer. Here’s the abridged version. One of Giancarlo’s closest friends from college (he went to Union College,…

Crab Boil at Threes Brewing

Today we ventured over to Threes Brewing, a brewpub in Gowanus, for a crab boil. You read that right. First we got a couple of beers – Mechanical Spring and Vliet Pilsner – and sat down in the backyard patio. The chefs came out. They poured a bucket of crabs on the table, then a…

What’s YOUR Favorite Beer?

I’d like to share an anecdote with you. I recently overheard someone refuse a bottle of beer produced by a well-established, successful New York brewery. “That is the worst beer ever made,” he said to me, when I asked him about it. “No one drinks it.” He chose instead a brand owned by AB-InBev. The beer he didn’t…

September is Brooklyn Sour Beer Fest!

We’ve made it no secret that we LOVE sour beers. We gravitate towards this beer style, like moths to a flame. If sours are on tap, we order them. Berliner Weisse, Gueuze, Gose, Flemish Red… you name it, we drink it. So when we heard that three Brooklyn (Brooklyn!) bars are holding a Sour Beer Fest for the…

Brooklyn Pour 2015

And just like that, summer is almost over. But we won’t cry into our pumpkin beers just yet, because fall means festival season! One of the festivals we would highly recommend this fall (because we all know some of them are more trouble than they’re worth) is Brooklyn Pour. Why? Because it’s always held in a cool venue, it’s…

Rare Form Tap Takeover at The Adirondack

It’s always great when a brewery not widely available in New York City comes down to do a special event or tap takeover. Coming up this Friday, August 21 at 8 p.m., Windsor Terrace watering hole The Adirondack will host Rare Form Brewing Company, out of Troy, NY. Bar Co-Owner Paul Hamill notes that the…

Good Beer Seal Awards 2015

July Good Beer Month in NYC is drawing to a close. Wednesday evening at Jimmy’s No. 43, honors were bestowed on this year’s additions to the roster of Good Beer Seal bars. The Seal is used as a marker to indicate that a bar has great beer. One summer, not too long ago (three years ago) we went to all 42 Good Beer Seal bars during the month of July. At that point the bars were located in the 5 boroughs of NYC. Now they’re also in Westchester, Long Island and Jersey City. And there are over 60. “This is…