Beer Authority, Times Square

We don’t often go to this area of Manhattan. It’s too crazy and doesn’t result in an enjoyable experience. However, after navigating around the commuter/tourist crowd one Monday evening, we found ourselves inside Beer Authority, which is under the same ownership as Manhattan craft beer hotspot Rattle N Hum. The space is enormous, and so is the beer list, categorized by style, and the beer menu has BeerAdvocate‘s “How to Taste a Beer” guide on the back.  As far as the tap and bottle list goes, there’s nothing extremely rare, but some great ones (including Ommegang Three Philosophers, Two Brothers Bitter End and Allagash…

Does Your Dad Like to Brew?

This Father’s Day, our local homebrewing shop Bitter & Esters is offering a special “Brewing Experience,” with their Brewshop 101: Home Brewing Essentials workshop  and a deluxe all-in-one brewing kit which contains everything to brew one full case of beer: all the brewing equipment, ingredients, kettle, bottles and instructions. The kit is available in a variety of styles such as Pale Ale, IPA, Stout and Hefeweizen. The price for the package is $150.00, more information here.

Proletariat, East Village

You walk down St. Marks Street, giddy. “We’re going to a speakeasy!” you may say, way too loudly, to your companion. You approach the block and dont notice until its too late that you’ve passed Jane’s Sweet Buns. You were too excited. Playing it cool(er) this time, you backtrack and find it. You walk in. A tall, blond man sees you and opens the door to the bar, to the right of the counter. You find out when you walk back to the depths that he’s Zach, the bartender. He automatically pours you two waters, which you appreciate, and leaves…

Pick of the Weekend: Czech and Slovak Festival

Despite the recent weather, Memorial Day is still the unofficial start of summer, a great time for enjoying beer gardens (the actual number of real beer gardens in the city is up for debate. See Brew York, New York’s explanation). The Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden in Astoria is one of the true beer gardens and will be hosting its Czech and Slovak Festival Saturday and Sunday to celebrate all things Czech and Slovakian. This includes some great traditional beers to wash down the delicious sausage and dumplings.

“Beer Here” Exhibition at New-York Historical Society

When you imagine an exhibit at a historical society, you might picture some manuscripts, dusty old artifacts, and many many books. With the New-York Historical Society’s “Beer Here: Brewing New York’s History” exhibit, however, you couldn’t be more wrong. Opening tomorrow, the exhibition is an in-depth look at three centuries of the production and consumption of beer in New York City, shown through colorful advertisements, maps, beer cans and bottles, production equipment, water pipes (yikes!) and even a dress worn by Miss Rheingold 1956 (donated by Miss Rheingold herself). The exhibit is split into eight sections (the final section, you’ll be…

New York Beers at the Brooklyn Waterfront Beer Festival

There’s going to be a lot of breweries bringing a lot of beer to the Brooklyn Waterfront Summer Craft & Specialty Beer Festival. You can find the full list here, but for your convenience, we’ve listed most of the beers from the New York City and State breweries that will be in attendance below. 508 Gastrobrewery Saison and Double Black IPA Bluepoint Toasted Lager and White IPA Brooklyn Gold Standard and Radius Captain Lawrence Kolsh and Brown Coney Island Albino Python and Sword Swallower Empire Brewing Company Amber and White Afro Fire Island Beer Co. Red Wagon IPA and Lighthouse Amber…

NYC Brewers Guild Founders Bash

Last night we attended the Founder’s Bash for the New York City Brewers Guild (NYCBG), held at the Brooklyn Brewery. This is an exciting time for craft beer in New York City – the Guild is the first of its kind in New York, because, as Steve Hindy (Brooklyn Brewery co-founder and president) pointed out, only now are there enough breweries in the city to have a guild. The Brooklyn Brewery, The Bronx Brewery, Chelsea Brewing Company, Eataly Birreria, Harlem Brewing Co., Kelso of Brooklyn, Heartland Brewery, Rockaway Brewing Company, Shmaltz Brewing Company, and 508 Gastrobrewery are the 11 members of…

Surprise Visit to the Barley Creek Brewing Company

This past weekend we road-tripped up to Binghamton University to see our brother/brother-in-law graduate from college. Can everyone pause for a minute to appreciate the coolness of that sentence? He graduated from college! Ahem. So on the way back, while driving through Pennsylvania looking for a place to eat dinner, we happened upon the Barley Creek Brewing Company. We enjoyed a flight of beers, which included a Copper Top Ale, Rescue IPA, Cocoa Porter, and Spring Hop IPL (India Pale Lager). The Spring Hop IPL was our favorite of the bunch with a bright snappy hop character that was quite…

Brooklyn Waterfront Summer Craft & Specialty Beer Festival, June 16

The Hand Crafted Tasting Company, the people who brought you the NYC American Craft Beer Festival (now called the NYC Craft Beer Festival) in March, next month will present its first Brooklyn Waterfront Summer Craft & Specialty Beer Festival. The event will be on June 16 at 5 North 11th St in Williamsburg. Similar to the first event, this one will have two sessions, one from 12:30 to 4 p.m. and the second from 6 to 9:30 p.m., featuring 150 beers from a reported 90 breweries. Here‘s the list of featured breweries. We’re happy to see many of our local favorites…

Pick of the Weekend: End of LI Craft Beer Week Bash

This past week’s Long Island Craft Beer Week celebrations will close out this Sunday at the Black Sheep Ale House in Mineola with brews from every Long Island brewery that distributes. In recent years Long Island has become a hot-bed of brewing activity with new small brewers popping up every few months, it seems. Breweries like Greenport Harbor Brewing, Barrier Brewing, and Southamton Publick House have become well regarded by New York City beer drinkers. If you haven’t had a chance to taste offerings from the smaller brewers like Blind Bat, Spider Bite, and Port Jeff that are difficult to…