Pick of the Weekend: Bierkraft’s Harvest Cask Festival

This Saturday Bierkraft will be celebrating the fall harvest with a cask ale festival that features their own hops. Owner Ben Granger has devoted some of his hop harvest to the special casks that will be on hand. The beers themselves are mostly from the German region of Franconia. These beers on cask are extremely rare in the US (even NERAX wasn’t able to get any German casks for their week long festival in April). Here is the list from Beer Menus so far: Franconians Mahr’s Ungespundet Mahr’s Unfiltered Pilsner Mahr’s Hell Mahr’s Bockbier Weissenohe Monk’s Fest Monchsambacher Unfiltered Lager…

Sixpoint Beer Dinner at The Vanderbilt

Tuesday night we had the pleasure of dining at The Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights for another one of the restaurants beer pairing dinners, this time with Sixpoint Brewery beers, with an Oktoberfest theme. The menu: Kartoffelsuppe, a potato soup made with bacon, radish and bread crumbs Brevity Wit Pretzel Wrapped Weisswurst Sausage with beer mustard Autumnation Beef Short Rib Sauerbraten with herbed spaetzle Signal Smoked Ale Black Forest Cake Gemini Double IPA The first course was our favorite pairing of the night. The soup was velvety and delicious, with some extra texture from the bread crumbs, bacon, and radishes. The…

Let’s Get Duck’d Up

As NY Craft Beer Week draws to a close, we thought it would be appropriate to stop in at one of our favorite places, Cafe D’Alsace, and experience the Duck’d Up beer pairing menu they have been serving up all week. Beer Sommelier Gianni Cavicchi did not disappoint – each pairing was spot on. He started us off with a Petrus Aged Pale, which is was aged in wood barrels for at least a year. It was a great start with a nice sour nose (almost like a Gueze) and a tart finish that prepared the palate nicely. For the…

Brewers’ Choice

Thursday night City Winery hosted a wide variety of breweries for Brewers’ Choice, one of the featured events of New York Craft Beer Week. Brewers were on hand pouring some of their best beers, which were paired with local, artisanal foods. Garrett Oliver was the keynote speaker of the evening. “What you see around the room is a wonderful expression of what’s happened in craft beer,” he said. “What we have in American craft brewing is not a fad or a trend, it’s a return to normality… We once again have the most vibrant beer culture on the face of…

Beer Cocktail Party at Taproom No. 307

Beer and liquor? Mixed together? We were a little skeptical when we heard about the beer cocktail party event at Taproom No. 307 for NY Beer Week, but we thought we’d give it a shot. Turns out, beer and liquor can live together in harmony. Using beers from Ithaca Beer Co. Taproom’s beer sommelier Hayley Jensen created some interesting flavors, with whimsical names. Our favorites were the “Nut N’ Coffee” and the “Fruity Flutey.” The Nut N’ Coffee was a mix of Ithaca Nut Brown, Patron Cafe, and Brooklyn Vodka. It was quite creamy with a hint of coffee, reminding us…

Bringing Brewing Back to the Bronx

It’s no big secret that the Bronx isn’t a beer destination for NYC. You pretty much get your brews from the bodegas, the gas stations and the dive bars. Chris Gallant and Damian Brown are trying to change that. After six months raising funds, they were able to open up the Bronx Brewery in March, and just brewed their first batch of their first beer last month. It was released in bars in NYC a couple of weeks ago. You can find it on tap at Rattle N Hum, Cafe D’Alsace, Amity Hall, and of course in the Bronx at…

The Companion Release Party

This evening’s Brewmaster’s Reserve Release Party at the Brooklyn Brewery was the first one we were invited to attend, and maybe one of the most exciting (we think). This beer, The Companion, coincided with the release of The Oxford Companion to Beer, edited by Garrett Oliver. The Companion is a wheat wine (similar to a barley wine) brewed by the Brooklyn Brewery. The most remarkable thing about the beer is that there is very little that stands out on its own. All of the different flavors of the beer melded together into one harmonious impression. There is a noticeable tartness…

Get Your Freak On: Craft Beer Week Begins

Beer freaks and beer geeks converged on Park Slope’s Southpaw this past Friday for the Fourth Annual Freaktoberfest, the official kick-off party for NY Craft Beer Week. There was a lot of great beer with a few new highlights. Allagash brought Fluxus, their anniversary brew, which this year is a French farmhouse ale. It had great dark fruit flavors of plum and fig with some hop dryness. We were also impressed with the Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Dark Ale which was full of hop bitterness and dark roastiness. We had the opportunity to revisit some of our favorite beers like,…

Opening Weekend of NY Craft Beer Week

Tomorrow kicks off New York Craft Beer Week, one of our favorite weeks of the year (it is dependably awesome). We experienced each of the previous three craft beer weeks and have come to love it as a great way to usher in the fall season with some exciting beer events. This year we are trying to maximize the fun both by using our passports for deals and attending events. We will be keeping you posted throughout the week but here’s our plan for opening weekend: Freaktoberfest: It’s high on the list for most people attending beer week and it’s…

Why we love…The Gate

Since moving to Brooklyn The Gate in Park Slope has been a favorite of ours. The bar always boasts a solid selection of craft beer and frequently has rare specialty beer from some of our favorite breweries. We have found Founders KBS and Nemesis there and we even met Garrett Oliver at an informal Brooklyn Brewery event. Need we say more about the beer? It is also one of the most dog friendly bars we have been to (there is even a water cooler with dishes so the dogs can quench their thirst too). Last week: Why we love… the…