It’s shameless self-promotion, but tonight at 8pm, we’re sponsoring trivia (hosted by your dear editor) at Destination(210 Avenue A, at 13th St., East Village). S.K.I. Beer is our co-sponsor, offering up tons of fun prizes like beer glassware and real, actual beer to take home.
And while not a craft beer bar, Destination will be pouring Peak Organic Nut Brown Ale - a great brown ale to keep you warm on a chilly December night.
So, bring yourself, bring a team, and bring your thinking caps. We’ll see you tonight at 8!
Sixpoint Craft Ales has been teasing us for months on Facebook with pictures of some of the ingredients they’ve been experimenting with for their new Mad Scientists Series. Beginning this month, and every two months thereafter, they’ll release a new beer with some pretty cool ingredients.
Tonight at Blind Tiger Ale House(281 Bleecker St., at Jones St., West Village), you’ll be able to be one of the first to try Mad Scientists #1: a Spelt Barleywine. Spelt is an ancient species of wheat with roots in Biblical times. The grain was popular during medieval times and has recently seen a revival, especially in organic farming. While it’s unusual to see spelt used in place of barley in beer, it’s not entirely unheard of.
Along with the Spelt Barleywine, there’s a whole bunch of Sixpoint beers going on tap today at 4pm at Blind Tiger. If they’ve made it, there’s a pretty good chance they’re serving it tonight. If you’ve missed out on some of their one-off beers from this year, this is a good chance to sample them.
Earlier this year, New Jersey Beer Co. in North Bergen sent its first keg out from the brewery. A small operation has grown to distribution from Wayne to Atlantic City, Haddonfield to Ridgefield Park, and soon to New York City. They released their first seasonal beer - the Weehawken Wee Heavy earlier this fall, and will soon be brewing up a new seasonal four times a year. And, since that’s not nearly enough variety for the team at NJBC, they’re going to brew two small-batch releases next year, too.
With that in mind, the brewery has started a Founders’ Reserve Club - a chance for boosters and locals to reap the benefits of having a brewery nearby. For $100 (which last two years if you buy before December 31st), you’ll be entitled to a slew of cool stuff:
A free growler fill of each of the brewery’s four seasonals, available before the beer goes to market
20% off all Tasting Room and Merchandise purchases
Guaranteed opportunity to purchase all special small-batch releases (the brewery says there are two planned for 2011, including one in the spring)
A Reserve Club t-shirt
Invites to exclusive brewery events
Reserve Club hands-on brew days, where members get to watch and participate in the brewing process
Another great gift for the beer geek in your life. Information on how to purchase a membership is available on the brewery’s site.
First, at Mugs Alehouse(125 Bedford Ave., at N. 11th St., Williamsburg), there’s more Belgian beer to be had, as the fifth annual Belgium 2 Brooklyn runs all weekend. They’ll be pouring a mix of true unpronounceable Belgians, like St. Feuillien Cuvee De Noel and Noël Des Géants. Then, there’s the American-brewed Belgian beers, like Captain Lawrence St. Vincent’s Dubbel and Pretty Things Fluffy White Rabbits. Tomorrow, they’ll even have a 1999 batch of Dogfish Head Au Courant, a Belgian Strong Ale.
Then, today and tomorrow, Shaun Hill of Greensboro, Vermont’s Hill Farmstead Brewery and his bevy of unique and delicious beers visit two bars in New York. Hill Farmstead is an up-and-coming operation that very well may be making some of the best beers I’ve ever had from such a young brewery. First, they’ll be at Spuyten Duyvil (350 Metropolitan Ave., at Havermeyer St., Williamsburg) starting at 1pm today, pouring Twilight of the Idols (a porter with coffee and cinnamon aged on vanilla beans in collaboration with sister brewery Grassroots Brewing in Denmark), James (a black ale), Dorothy (a saison brewed with rye and oat), and several others.
The show goes to Blind Tiger Ale House(281 Bleecker St., at Jones St., West Village) all day on Sunday, with those beers and others, including the incomparable Emphraim (an imperial IPA), Arthur (a saison with Brettanomyces yeast), and a Citra Single Hop IPA. Hey, if you’re a Jets fan, you don’t have a game to watch tomorrow, so why not spend your Sunday with these great beers?
With cold weather comes winter beers, and The Double Windsor(210 Prospect Park West, at 16th St., Windsor Terrace) is ringing in December with a selection of winter warmers starting today at 3pm. Already on tap is the Anderson Valley Winter Solstice, Sly Fox Christmas, and Penn St. Nikolaus Bock. They’ll dedicate most of their taps (and occasional casks) to winter beers through January.
Victory takes over the taps at Brouwerij Lane(78 Greenpoint Ave., at Franklin St., Greenpoint) tonight starting at 7pm. They’ll have some usual favorites from the Pennsylvania-based brewery, and some rarities, like Summa - a blend of the Sunrise Summer Weissbier and Mad King. They’ll also be pouring some of the last of their refreshing Summer Love, and the rauchbier Scarlet Sunset.
For the fifth year in a row, The Gate(321 5th Ave., at 3rd St., Park Slope) pays homage to California’s Lagunitas Brewing Company and the one and only Frank Zappa with Lagunitas/Zappa Night starting at 7pm. They’ll have some hard-to-find beers on tap including ‘09 versions of Brown Shugga and Cappuccino Stout, plus Sonoma Farmhouse and a cask of Ruben and the Jets.
And because there’s simply too much going on tonight, here’s a quick roundup of the rest: Shmaltz/Hebrew are at The Pony Bar starting at 6pm, Pretty Things and Two Brothers pair up tonight at 7pm at Bronx Ale House, Harpoon takes over Dive 75 on the Upper West Side tonight at 7pm with free cheese plates, it’s Allagash night at Staten Island’s The Wild Goose starting at 8pm, and Captain Lawrence is pouring two casks and pairing with finger food at Lucy’s Lounge up in Pleasantville at 8pm.
Two years ago, at the Vermont Brewers Festival, I stumbled upon the tent with the longest line at the end of the afternoon session and asked someone in line what the buzz was all about.
“Some French-Canadian brewery,” they said. “Their beer got stuck at the border last night.”
We lined up and tried a couple of their beers. We enjoyed them so much, we went to the back of the line so we could try more. I knew very little of Dieu de Ciel! back then, but they’ve made quite an impact since.
Yesterday, the guys from the Quebec-based brewery were guests on Heritage Radio Network’s Beer Sessions yesterday, talking about beer culture in Montreal, the awful customs process to get their beer across the border, and the great food to pair with beer in French Canada.
Starting tonight at Blind Tiger Ale House(281 Bleecker St., at Jones St., West Village), you can sample a bunch of their beers - in fact, Dieu de Ciel’s brewers said that there will be more beers at Blind Tiger this week than at their own brewpub in Montreal.
Check out the full list of beers they’ll be pouring tonight and tomorrow after the jump:
