For a variety of reasons, many breweries don’t brew all of their beer where you think they do. Usually, it’s because they simply don’t have the capacity at their main brewery to meet demand, so they farm out some of their brewing to equally capable but much larger breweries. It’s called “contract brewing,” and it’s nothing unusual. In fact, without contract brewing, you’d be hard-pressed to find some of your favorite beers. Here are some of those beers.

Many beer geeks do know this, but the brewery that’s open for tours in Brooklyn doesn’t brew most of the Brooklyn beer you drink. Space is at a premium in New York City, and there simply isn’t enough room for the bottling equipment to meet Brooklyn Brewery’s demand. Any Brooklyn beer sold at retail in a 12-ounce bottle is brewed in Utica. The brewery in Brooklyn does produce quite a bit of beer, though; the Brewmaster’s Reserve series, including Detonation, Blast!, Dark Matter, and the Shackmeister Ale served at Shake Shack, are all brewed there. And, the brewery in Williamsburg is currently in the midst of a multi-million dollar expansion to boost their capacity.

The dirty little secret: there is no brewery on Fire Island. While the concept of the brewery and the beer recipe was conceived at “The Shack” - a general store in Atlantique - all Fire Island beer is brewed upstate. That’s probably a good idea, because with the cost of real estate, the lack of motorized vehicular traffic, and cost to ship materials across the Great South Bay, their beer would be terribly expensive. Lighthouse Ale is contract brewed in the same place where all of the Mendocino, Coney Island, and He'brew lines of beers are brewed.

Sixpoint Sweet Action
Where you think it’s brewed: Red Hook, Brooklyn
Where it’s brewed: The Lion Brewery, Wilkes-Barre, PA

We mentioned this a few weeks ago, but Sixpoint’s huge rise to prominence has left them with their own supply and demand challenge at their brewery in Brooklyn. Some batches of a few of their most popular beers - Bengali Tiger, Sweet Action, Righteous Rye, and Brownstone - are now brewed at a much larger brewery in Pennsylvania that has a successful record of contract brewing. Now, Sixpoint can focus on their smaller, more unique brews and expand the breadth of their beer selection.

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale
Where you think it’s brewed: Portsmouth, NH
Where it’s brewed: F.X. Matt Brewery, Utica, NY 

For the first time in Smuttynose’s history, one of their beers is being brewed outside of the confines of their Portsmouth, New Hampshire brewery. Pumpkin Ale is Smuttynose’s most popular seasonal beer, and contracting the brewing to F.X. Matt helped them meet the demand at the very beginning of the season, instead of having the beer trickle through supply chains throughout the fall. This means there’s no need to go on a wild goose chase to hunt down this delicious fall seasonal this year.

There’s not much on the beer calendar tonight. We’re all nursing our hangovers from drinking too much Founders Nemesis, and we’re all heading out for the long holiday weekend. So, here's one beer-related event after work tonight:

• Over in New Jersey, the Copper Mine Pub (323 Ridge Rd., at Crystal St., North Arlington, NJ) is serving up a bunch of Sierra Nevada tonight, including their new fall seasonal brown ale, Tumbler. Plus, they’ll have the 30th Anniversary Jack and Ken Ale, a barleywine brewed by Sierra founder Ken Grossman and one of the founders of the microbrewing movement, Jack McAuliffe.

Great South Bay has been a brewery in waiting for nearly a year - waiting for all the necessary approvals to open.

The waiting is the hardest part. That’s especially true when opening a brewery.

Before a brewery can open, it has to clear layer upon layer of regulatory approval. Particularly in New York, the State Liquor Authority approval alone can take months. On top of this, breweries need Federal approvals, and often city or town approval as well. Inspections are necessary for equipment to get the brewery up and running, and once the brewery starts brewing, Federal label approval is needed for each and every beer they distribute.

Great South Bay Brewery in Bay Shore, Long Island has been patiently waiting for all these approvals to come together. They were shooting for a June launch date, but licensing from New York State took well over six months to come through. The brewers took that time to build some awareness for their brand - they attended the Spring Craft Beer Festival at Nassau Coliseum and won a bronze medal for their IPA at Tap New York before the summer even came. Then, they poured their beers at the prestigious SAVOR event in Washington, DC, then served to the masses at New York Brewfest and the North Fork Craft Beer Festival.

Finally, on Tuesday, the brewery received Federal label approval on three beers: Massive IPA, Great South Bay Lager, and Snaggletooth Stout. Two others, Blond Ambition and Splashing Pumpkin Ale, should be approved soon. They’re celebrating with a launch party next Saturday, September 11th at 8pm, at T.J. Finley’s Public House (42 E. Main St., 3rd Ave., Bay Shore). It’s only a few blocks from the Bay Shore LIRR stop if you’re making the trip from the city.

We hope Great South Bay’s patience will finally pay off.

More and more, it looks like Gary Vaynerchuk is appreciating craft beer by giving it face time on his online program Wine Library TV. First, it was a visit to Brooklyn Brewery for a tasting with brewmaster Garrett Oliver. Then, it was a tasting of craft beer with Mike Schneider. Now, it’s a two-part episode with Bill Covaleski from Pennsylvania’s Victory Brewing, comparing his brewery’s beers with European beers of similar style. In the first part above, Gary and Bill sample St. Bernardus Tripel and Victory Golden Monkey. In part two, they sample Pilsner Urquell and Victory Prima Pils, then Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen and Victory Festbier.

Take a deep breath. Today is the official release of Michigan’s Founders Brewing Company’s 2010 edition of their Nemesis barleywine. The 2010 version is a true American barleywine, different from last year’s Nemesis, which was a maple bourbon-aged wheatwine. Either way, it’s a big beer (in the alcohol department) that’s well-crafted with lots of flavor. The brewery accidentally leaked some of the beer earlier this summer, much to the chagrin of beer geeks in the Midwest. Is it worth the hype? That’s up to you, but so far, the leaked bottles of Nemesis 2010 have netted a respectable A- on Beer Advocate.

The tasting notes on the Nemesis 2010 from the brewery:

A dark barley wine that pours black with a subtle mahogany hue. Brewed with 5 malts and no shortage of hops for a pleasantly bitter booming flavor. Roasty and toasty with a multitude of tastes that melts on your tongue.

Sounds enjoyable. And at 12.0% ABV, it’s best enjoyed in small quantities.

Quite a few beer bars in New York will be celebrating the Nemesis release today. Here’s a roundup of those releases:

In Manhattan, Rattle-N-Hum (14 E. 33rd St., at 5th Ave., Midtown) and Hop Devil Grill (129 St. Marks Pl., at Ave. A, East Village) will tap their kegs at 4pm and Puck Fair (298 Lafayette St., at Houston St., Soho) will open the floodgates on their one little barrel at 6pm. George Keeley (485 Amsterdam Ave., at 83rd St., Upper West Side) will tap theirs at 6pm, but also offer up Founders' impeccable Kentucky Breakfast Stout - a bourbon-barrel aged stout with coffee and chocolate undertones.

In Brooklyn, 4th Avenue Pub (76 4th Ave., at Bergen St., Boerum Hill) will tap their keg at 3pm, along with Founders’ Black Biscuit - a biscuity and molassesy (I know, not a word) old ale that clocks in at 10.5% ABV. The Double Windsor (215 Prospect Park West, at 16th St., Windsor Terrace) will pour it beginning at 7pm, as will The Gate (321 5th Ave., at 3rd St., Park Slope), which will also pour Cerise, Founders’ delicious summer seasonal, fermented with Michigan cherries. You can also take it home from Bierkraft (191 5th Ave., at Berkeley Pl., Park Slope) starting this afternoon.

Don’t forget Queens! Sunswick 35/35 (35-02 35th St., at 35th Ave., Astoria) will pour Nemesis 2010 beginning at 7pm. And up in Westchester, you get a chance to take your Nemesis home: DeCicco’s Marketplace (21 Center St., at Village Green, Ardsley) is offering growler fills and bottles starting at noon today.

Here are the beer-related goings-on after work tonight:

• Tuesday is Ten Buck Tasting night at Jimmy’s No. 43 (43 E. 7th St., at 2nd Ave., East Village. Usually, there’s a theme, but this week, it’s literally random. The $10 tasting menu includes Grando Plato Chocarrubica from Italy, De Ranke Guldenberg from Belgium, and Southen Tier Oak Aged Unearthly from upstate. The tasting starts at 7:30pm.
• As summer winds down, Rattle-N-Hum (14 E. 33rd St., at 5th Ave., Midtown) is paying homage to the beers that make summer great by tapping ten summer beers today at 4pm, including Geary’s Summer Ale, Pretty Things American Darling, and Nebraska Brewing Co. Summertime Rye. You’ll have to be in a summer mood for this event, although the weather is certainly cooperating.

Side note: for tips on beer spots all over New York, follow Brew York, New York on Foursquare.