For continuing Brooklyn bar reviews and beer news, visit my page on Examiner.com:
According to Examiner.com: “Dan D’Ippolito is excited about connecting people with better beer. A NYC resident since 2000, Dan is always on the hunt for good brew and great places to enjoy it.”
To celebrate its fourth year of operation, Sixpoint Craft Ales is hosting a slew of beer-related events in February, all of which feature the Red Hook brewer’s “Fourth Anniversary Beer,” Dubbel Trubbel, “a Belgian Chocolate Dubbel featuring chocolate nibs from the Mast Bros. out of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It’s 9.6% ABV with hints of banana and lots of chocolate.”
Four Course Beer Dinner @ The Farm on Adderley
1108 Cortelyou Road
Tuesday, February 3 | 6:00p–10:00p
$50.00 prix fixe
more info + reservations: 718.287.3101
Third Annual Birthday Party @ Kettle of Fish
53 Christopher Street
Tuesday, February 10 | 7:00p–10:00p
Featuring Sweet Action, Brownstone, Righteous Ale, Dubbel Trubbel and Wisconsin mac & cheese
Raiding the Vault @ Barcade
388 Union Avenue
Tuesday, February 17 | 6:00p
Over 15 hard-to-find beers from the Sixpoint vault
Fat Tuesday Beer Dinner & Mardi Gras Celebration @ Back Forty
190 Avenue B
Tuesday, February 24 | 5:30p
$50.00 prix fixe
more info + reservations: 212.388.1990
On Tuesday January 27, Bar Great Harry in Carroll Gardens is offering a very unique experience for lovers of great beer. Garrett Oliver (pictured) – the abundantly knowledgeable, widely acclaimed brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery – will be sharing a special selection of his limited-edition “brewmaster reserves,” some of which are what one might go as far as calling vintage.
The lineup includes the barleywine Monster Ale (2000), Saison (2001), the epic Black Chocolate Stout (2006), Cuvee D’Achouffe (2006), hop-heavy Blast (2008), Flemish Gold (2008), Grand Cru (2008), Savoir Faire (2008), and “mystery keg/s.”
Complimentary meat and cheese will be provided.
Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster’s Reserve Night @ Bar Great Harry
280 Smith Street, Carroll Gardens
Tuesday, January 27 | 6:00p
[note: Garrett, don’t ask the bar if they’ll play a certain song for you. They don’t take requests.]
Yes, it is almost February, and only now have I decided my favorite beer of December. I do however have an excellent excuse: being terrible at making decisions! Synonymous with winter, December is heavy on barley-centric winter ales (and lagers), as well as other dark, warm beers, many in the barleywine style. I stopped by Barcade a while back and tried two beers, the He’Brew Jewbelation 12 and Dogfish Head Palo Santo. As advertised, the Jewbelation 12’s twelve malts and twelve hops proves a powerful and tasty mix, although I couldn’t help but feel that the beer’s 24 ingredients is more for garnering press than brewing a balanced beverage (as if anyone could pinpoint the distinct varieties of each hop and malt used). Having just read a New Yoker article about Dogfish Head featuring its Palo Santo and the rare wooden barrel used in its production, I had to try it. Only after it was handed to me did I realize the beer clocks in at 14% ABV! Palo Santo is woody, smoky, and seductively sweet, but the alcohol is simply too much, not only for someone interested in having more than three beers before needing to take a nap, but also for someone looking to fully taste their beer.
I did my best to try as many winter beers as possible this season, and found that in general I am not too excited with the style. Southern Tier, Smuttynose, and Pickled Santa (at Portland, ME’s excellent Vignola) were more complex, flavorful and made a better impression than others. Aside from “winter
” brews and barleywines, December is thick with rich, warming porters and stouts, my favorite of which is Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, a very dark, chocolaty imperial stout coming in at 10% ABV. For years now during the holidays, this beer has been by my side (no better companion at a family function than a delicious 10% beverage!) to the point where Christmas can no longer be complete without it. I welcome the day another beer can take its place, and almost saw that day recently when I tried the Smuttynose Imperial Stout. New Hampshire’s Smuttynose is quickly becoming one of my favorite breweries, and their take on an imperial stout, like their take on everything else, is done with a trademark blend of vigor and finesse, full-on flavor and balanced subtlety. Although Smuttynose Imperial Stout is sweeter and has less alcoholic bite (yet the same percentage), Black Chocolate Stout is too behemoth and magnanimous a beer to topple without a considerable variation on the style or leap in flavor. Garrett Oliver’s Stout is in many ways not versatile, being so dark, rich and strong, but if you’re in the mood for a beer as big as they come (or the perfect companion for a chocolate dessert, or simply as dessert itself!) look no further.
At the beach in July, no thanks. But home for the holidays …
It wasn’t so much temptation as curiosity that lead me to purchasing a one pint, nine ounce bottle of Budweiser American Ale. Considering the unwavering consistency with which Budweiser mass-produces their beer, and assuming that in order to optimize this particular offering’s popularity they’d try to make the beverage as straight down the middle and therefore hard to 
dislike as possible, I was surprised, and relieved to find that I did not really enjoy this beverage.
Budweiser American Ale tastes like seltzer water with a packet of beer-esque ingredients mixed in, almost as if it was only halfway-brewed. An undercooked ale! Send it back to the chef. Not surprisingly, the color is pale amber, malt is more present than hops — both are well balanced and on the weak side — and the carbonation is strong, alcohol moderate (5.1% ABV).
Nice try guys! Better luck next time. Stick to what you do best. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Etcetera.
The only good that can come from this beer is that those who regularly drink Budweiser might try the American Ale, which tastes nothing like the usual Bud suspects, and never look back to mass-market brew. Anheuser Busch would be responsible for its own downfall. O, the tragedy!
In a last minute display of holiday graciousness, I was offered and accepted a plane ticket to Vacationland (Maine) to spend the weekend with Heather and family (and a diverse cast of characters I have been privileged to befriend). At Newark Airport (EWR), I was first surprised, and then not at all surprised to see – for an airport – a fairly decent selection of beer. But I can’t give credit to people’s developing tastes for this one. “Credit” can be given to the growing presence of beer marketing and advertising in public places. (Trust me, an airport in Newark NJ is about as public as a place can be.) This is good because it means more quality beer is being made available for those who seek it. But as is always the case when anything is mass marketed, there is the risk of diluting its integrity.
I first ran into the “Heineken Lounge,” a fancy façade that sells Heineken almost exclusively, and a handful of other “premium” beers (of which only one was actually what I’d call premium), all audaciously overpriced. I decided to keep walking and came across a place that almost exclusively sells Sam Adams. Figuring I couldn’t get any better than that in an airport in Newark, I went for the $8.25 Winter Lager. Sorry Sam, but after a slew of other winter ales (including standouts Smuttynose and Southern Tier) your lager didn’t quite cut it. Maybe it was the Miller-logoed glass it was served in that brought back memories of tossing ping pong balls into plastic cups.
But it was then, gazing out at the tarmac from the restaurant window, that I encountered a moment of Zen. I realized that slowly and surely better beer is taking over even the most common of places, and by statistics alone the chances of running into a good brew are increasing daily. Regardless of the market-minded forces at work behind the curtains (and weary as I am of the phrase “nothing gold can stay”), signs of a silver lining are showing behind an endless array of anything-but-cloudy Budweiser.
Cheers, Newark Liberty International Airport Terminal C!
[p.s. I spotted a Shipyard bar in the Portland airport on the way home. Too bad I was running late and had to board before I could spend another eight dollars.]
Hanukkah is upon us (almost) and even though I’m not Jewish, I plan on celebrating the Festival of Lights this year. With a little help from the Shmaltz Brewing Company, at Barcade this Thursday Dec 18 and Barrette this Sunday Dec 21, I’ll “lighten up” with some He’Brew “Jewbelation 12” (pictured), a new release from Shmaltz celebrating the brewery’s 12th year, and brewed using 12 malts and 12 hops.
Aside from Jewbelation, Barcade’s “Winter Beer Night” also features a number of other enticing brews, in
cluding the transcendent Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout (a personal top 10 favorite) and a slew of other top notch winter/holiday brews.
At Barrette, the age old battle between Christmas and Hanukkah will be settled, as three Shmaltz brews — Jewbelation, Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A. and Barrel Aged Messiah Bold — go up against three Christmas ales — Captain Lawrence Nor’easter, Penn Brewing Company St. Nikolaus Bock Bier and the Anchor Steam Christmas Ale. And as if this wasn’t enough, the event is apparently also a burlesque show.
I’ll bring my buddies Eric Schwortz and Gabriel Levitt out to Barrette. They’ll enjoy the St. Nik. I’ll enjoy the Jewbelation. We’ll all enjoy the burlesque. And for the briefest of moments, peace will reign over the earth…
Sat at the Barcade bar yesterday evening and enjoyed my first Abita brews. There’s not really anything mindblowing going on here, which is of course not to say there isn’t anything special happening. I had a Turbodog (pictured), Oatmeal Stout, and a taste of the Amber and Andygator. I had no idea what to expect when I ordered the Turbodog (“a dark brown ale”), and was pleasantl
y surprised to see dark brown coming my way. The pleasure continued as I drank the moderately robust, very drinkable dark ale. It was clear from the beer’s evenness and general timidity that Abita is not in the business of shock-rock brew. This was clarified further by the Amber (“a Munich style lager”), which barely tasted like anything other than some sweetness and carbonation. I had only a taste of the Andygator, a Helles Dopplebock coming in at 8%, so I’ll let the brewery do the talking: “Andygator, a creature of the swamp, is a unique high-gravity brew made with pale malt, German lager yeast, and German Perle hops. Unlike other high-gravity brews, Andygator is fermented to a dry finish with a slightly sweet flavor and subtle fruit aroma.”
Lastly, and certainly not least I very much enjoyed the Oatmeal Stout (a style for which I’m a major sucker). Abita’s oatmeal brew was dry, smoky, and very delicious. I could have had many more of these friendly fellows, if only the clock and my wallet hadn’t held me back. I will most certainly be keeping an eye out for this guy in the future.
After having perused their craft and their website, it’s clear that Abita is not made to blow minds/taste buds or win originality contests. But with the exception of the 8% Andygator, these are great beers to stick with throughout a night of good times. And more importantly, as emphasized on Abita’s website, these non-overwhelming, complementary beverages make great companions for meals. I bet that mellow Amber and a few smoked sausages would be a match made in heaven… or Louisiana, rather.
[note: The 6:15p crowd surrounding the bar for this special Abita night appeared as a live advertisement for L.L.Bean...]
Perchance I will see you there? And by there, I mean here, of course.
I must admit to knowing very little, if anything at all about Abita, except that it’s from Louisiana (hence the alligator pictured), and that the South (along with the rest of the country) is experiencing an upsurge of craft brewing.
Fortunately, the good people at Barcade are offering to help me savor the finest Southern suds:
Abita Beer Night @ Barcade
388 Union Ave, b/w Ainslie & Powers, Williamsburg
Thursday, December 4 | 6:00p
Mead is not beer. And Maine Mead Works is not in Brooklyn. But mead is really good – you might remember reading about it in Beowulf – and Maine Mead Works is really cool. Allow me to demonstrate:
While visiting Maine for Thanksgiving, Blake introduced me to his friend/fellow surfer (Surfing in Maine? You bet.) Eli, the brewmaster of HoneyMaker Mead. An ex-beekeeper, Eli learned the ways of making mead from a South African gentleman who developed a highly ergonomic, self-sufficient system for making honey wine. The entire setup consists mostly of honey, Maine tap water and yeast. These ingredients ferment together in a system of five vertical tubes, after which they’re routed into barrels to finish up, and then finally funneled into bottles to be sold. Unlike brewing beer, the system doesn’t involve space-consuming brew-kettles, and once the yeast settles into the bottom of the fermentation tubes, it can be left largely on its own to do the dirty work of turning that honey into an even more delicious form. According to the Maine Mead Works website:
HoneyMaker mead is handcrafted using a state-of-the-art continuous fermentation process and a proprietary yeast strain. It is barrel aged with American oak giving it complexity and depth. After bulk aging, the mead is hand bottled and labeled and stored a few more weeks before leaving the factory.
Admittedly, I have only had mead once before, but I can say honestly that I enjoyed HoneyMaker significantly more than the brand I first tasted. It is far less sweet, and noncarbonated, resulting in a more refined, flavorful and gentler taste. To make a broad comparison, it’s similar to a nice white wine with a honey flavor behind the curtain. I joked that HoneyMaker’s slogan should be “Mead: the other white wine.” Luckily, Eli laughed.
On a serious note, it’s really important to support locally grown/crafted products, HoneyMaker mead being one. As of yet, you can only find HoneyMaker in Maine, at some local shops and also the Portland Whole Foods. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of enjoying mead, I highly recommend you change your wicked ways. And if you happen to be in Maine at a wine/liquor store that doesn’t sell HoneyMaker, put in a good word for Eli and his bees.
