EST Brewing: New Venture from Brooklyn Brew Shop

“Beer changed our lives,” says Erica Shea, who owns and runs the Brooklyn Brew Shop alongside Stephen Valand (pictured below). The two started their homebrewing kit business out of their apartment in Brooklyn in 2009. The Brooklyn Brew Shop has become so successful that they now distribute internationally. And now the couple, together with their production manager Tim Evans, are venturing further into the brewing world with EST Brewing Company, which they will launch later this spring. EST will focus on seasonal beers. Their first offering will be a Jalapeño Saison, which they will serve up at Smorgasbar, the beer…

Bierkraft’s Third Annual Oyster Shuck and Cask Festival

We can’t believe Bierkraft is already celebrating its third annual Oyster Shuck and Cask Festival this Saturday. Starting at noon you will be able to taste some fresh local oysters shucked on the patio while enjoying some great local cask beer. Even if you aren’t a fan of oysters the beer will be reason enough to go. So far the list is looking great with more to be announced this week: Brooklyn English Style Bitter KelSo Barrel Aged Brett IPA Peekskill Shotgun Willie Rye IPA Barrier Dunegrass Double IPA (primed with fresh pressed clementines) Carton Digger (a German style Gose…

La Birreria

La Birreria is a beautiful place to eat Italian food and drink top notch beers. The brew pub is a perfect combination of Italian food, Manhattan style, and the creativity of American and Italian craft beer. The rooftop brewpub is covered by a retractable glass roof which gives diners and drinkers an unusual perspective on the city. La Birreria’s brewers craft some of the more unique beers in the city like Gina, a pale ale brewed with Thyme or Wanda, a mild brewed with chestnuts. All the in house brews are served on cask, a traditional way of serving beer either…

Breukelen Bier Merchants Second Anniversary

This Saturday and Sunday from noon to 11 p.m., Breukelen Bier Merchants in Williamsburg will celebrate its second anniversary with specialty drafts and a raffle to purchase specialty bottles. These bottles include: 2011 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout 2011 Goose Island Lolita Cantillon Gambrinus Cantillon Classic 2012 Founders KBS 2011 Dogfish Head 120 Minute 2011 Goose Island King Henry Barleywine 2012 Avery Uncle Jacob’s Stout 2008 Schlafly Barrel Aged Imperial Stout Sunday’s festivities will feature live music. There will be a free gift with minimum purchases of $20, $30, $50.

SlantShack Gift Certificate Giveaway!

As part of our partnership with SlantShack Jerky, today we’ve started a giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to their online store. It will run for two weeks, and to enter, share this Facebook post and comment that you’ve shared it. We’ll pick one winner. That’s it! You can put it toward ready made jerky or customize your own. Delicious. Be sure to read our feature on SlantShack here!

Reinventing the Craft Beer Snack

Fine, well-made craft beer deserves a snack that can stand up to it, one that’s creators put just as much care into as the brewers put into the beer. This is what a group of friends set out to do with their company SlantShack Jerky.  It started small, with the team making homemade jerky in co-founder Josh Kace’s apartment. They brought their product to food markets in New York and decided to expand and make it a real business after they achieved some notoriety. The friends found a family farm in Vermont – Vermond Highland Cattle Company – to partner…

Beginner’s Homebrewing Essentials

A homebrewer’s journal, by John Kleinchester Let’s be honest. Homebrewing is great, but sometimes it can be hard to set aside the time it takes to brew a batch. Three to six hours is a pretty big time commitment, which can be difficult to accomplish on a work night, and it’s a pretty serious dent into a weekend day. This is how it’s been for me lately. I’ve only been able to brew three batches in 2013 thus far and I have not brewed for two months. The thing is, life gets in the way sometimes and you can’t let…

Wheat Beer Risotto

After some discouraging beer cooking experiments, we decided to find and follow a recipe. We looked through the book Cooking With Beer, by Paul Mercurio, that our awesome friends Jackie and Mike gave Giancarlo for Christmas. There are of course some delicious looking recipes in the book, but the tomato and arugula wheat beer risotto caught our attention. We love risotto. Being Italian, making good risotto is practically in Giancarlo’s genetic makeup. He’s pretty amazing at it. Which is lucky for me, because I love eating it. Normally, we follow a family recipe of cooking the rice down in chicken…

Greenflash Pub Crawl in Park Slope

Green Flash Brewing is blitzing the city this weekend with beer pairings and tap takeovers. With arrival of spring we suggest doing some day drinking in Park Slope on Saturday April 13 from 2 to 7 p.m. where the neighborhood’s best bars (many of which have outdoor spaces) are pouring large selections of Green Flash beer. Look for beers like the Grand Cru, Double Stout, 30th Street Pale Ale, East Village Pilsner, Palate Wrecker and of course the West Coast IPA. The first 50 people to complete the Mad Libs style post cards from each bar and submit them at…

Beer Table Closing Brooklyn Location

We learned this week that Beer Table will be closing its Park Slope location, its last day will be Saturday, April 27. “It was a difficult decision,” says Justin Philips, who owns Beer Table and Beer Table Pantry with his wife Tricia. “Ultimately, we knew we couldn’t accomplish everything we wanted to in this space… we’re very excited about the new change.” Beer Table will move on to a bigger space. Philips opened Beer Table in 2008 with the intention to create a great environment to enjoy craft beer. The list is a mixture of rare and commonly found brews,…