Friday, January 13, 2017

First share of 2017

Me and my friends Evan, Scott & John decided to start 2017 off right with a huge share on New Year's Day. We popped some bottles we had been saving for a special occasion, played Camel Up, and attempted to watch some Week 17 football (sorry about those Lions, Evan & Scott). Here's a ranking, in my opinion, of the beers we had that day.

Graveyard

Just missed:

 16. Sand City Brewing - One

I was very glad to acquire one of these cans as an extra in a trade, as I really wanted to try it. However, this double IPA which was brewed to commemorate Sand City's one year anniversary, was released sometime in October (making it in the 2-3 month range). Definitely fell off as this beer seems to be massively dry-hopped with citra and galaxy. Still quite good for being that old. 



15. Aslin Brewing - DDH Neutrino 

I complained about Aslin enough in my last post. First criticism, 750 mL of a double dry-hopped IPA is way, way too much (even at ~6% ABV). Four of us splitting it thought it was too much. Second criticism, it's really sweet.

Although not a picture from the share, I still challenge someone
 to tell me that murky brown looks like an appetizing DDH IPA. 

14. New Glarus Brewing - R&D Wild Barrel

I haven't tried much of New Glarus, thanks to their Wisconsin-only distribution (and I'm not making a trip to the Badger state anytime soon). The R&D series is something I've been wanting to try thanks to a really rad label. This version, also known as the Bramble Berry Bourbon Barrel, is a spontaneously fermented wild brown ale (aged in bourbon barrels). It was quite an interesting beer with some dark fruit jam notes, some mild tartness, a touch of vanilla & some oak on the finish. Not too many bourbon or barrel notes but it was nice. Very similar to de Garde's Poppy Van Ambre which I also liked but was noticeably more tart.



 13. Tree House Brewing - Super Sap

Whoa I almost left this beer off my ranking which could probably be considered blasphemy in many beer circles. This is a different sort of TH IPA, with a lot of piney notes and sticky hops.



12. Sand City Brewing - Infinity + One

I honestly can't believe this beer is on the just missed list. This is a fantastic, fresh double IPA from Long Island kings Sand City. Juicy and soft, this is probably the best Sand City offering I've had. 



11. Tree House Brewing - Alter Ego

A Tree House IPA missing a top ten list must be against some sort of beer nerd law. Alter Ego, while not my favorite regular TH offering (Haze? Green? It's too difficult to choose...) is still a fantastic beer with that signature juiciness and softness. Always a pleasure to drink something from Monson.




Top Ten!


10. Jester King Brewing - CRU 55

RU55 is a farmhouse red ale aged in oak barrels with souring bacteria and wild yeast. CRU55, is a special version of RU55 aged in a huge puncheon for three years. This was essentially a classic flanders red ale, dark burgundy with touch of tartness/acidity with tons of oak. Quite a treat.



9. Tree House Brewing - Native Four

As I prepared myself to try my first "sour" from Tree House, I was expecting to be underwhelmed. I thought there was no way they could make the best IPAs on the planet and excellent stouts AND nice wild ales. Well, damn. Pouring straw yellow, this bottle-fermented was first aged in oak barrels for 8 months with brettanomyces and lactobacillus. The age on this showed nicely, refreshingly tart without being over sour from the lacto.



8. de Garde Brewing -  Grand Blanc

Some oak with lots of riesling grape notes (must, juice, etc). As tart and pleasant as any de Garde.



7. Odd Side Ales -  Rye Hipster Brunch Stout

The last beer we had at the share, and we definitely went out with a bang and not a whimper. I didn't know what to expect from this barrel-aged stout packed with adjuncts. Essentially an imitation MBCP, this rye stout is brewed with maple syrup and then aged in rye whiskey barrels with coffee and bacon. This blew me away. Great coffee and maple sweetness with smooth whiskey. Note to self: seek out Odd Side.

Drunk me didn't care about the lighting on this one. 

6. OEC Brewing - Vindemia Blanc

Another incredible blended wild ale from OEC. This blend of year old ale aged in oak barrels on vidal blanc grapes and champagne currants was (as you can guess) a fusion of white wine, champagne and wild ale - lots of funk and tartness with subtle white grape must. Some of their blends may seem really out there but these CT blenders are consistently releasing fantastic and interesting ales.



5. de Garde Brewing -  Petit Peche

In my last post I was blown away by how much I liked Petit Nectarine compared to Nectarine Premiere. Unable to compare this to another dG peach beer (I.E. The Peach, Peach Bu, etc.) I thought back to Imperial Stone Bu which I really liked on my birthday share. I was blown away by Petit Peche's aroma of fresh juicy peaches. While I was distracted from playing Camel Up, I remembered a lot of peach juice and tartness from this wild ale. de Garde is just unfair.



4. O'so Brewing / Funk Factory Geuzeria -  Bosbes

Bosbes is a true American lambic, a blend of "lambic style" beer aged in French oak wine barrels for 18-24 months then re-fermented on (2 lbs/gallon of) blueberries for 6 weeks. Firstly, the color is incredible and the best I've seen from a blueberry beer. Mashing those blueberries down in the lambic blend must have been therapeutic. Secondly, it was a mistake to have this after Frampaars.

Comparing fruits is hard, since there are so many inherent biases and taste preferences and differences between two different berries, especially between two as different as the blueberry and raspberry. As I've noted before, I think blueberry is a soft fruit that doesn't bring too much to the table. However, in Bosbes, the blueberry flavor is overwhelming when combined with the funky, tannic, and dry lambic blend. It finishes with a lot of oak and was excellent. I wish I had another bottle to see how this would taste with a bit more age.


3. Hardywood Brewing - Kentucky Christmas Morning (2016)

 On Christmas day, I had Hardywood's Christmas Morning and really enjoyed it. I'm not a big fan of the base GBS thinking it's too sweet, but the coffee beans in CM add a nice level of roast and bitterness that was really pleasant (I found CM to be better than BA GBS too). I came in to KCM with very high expectations thanks to how much I liked CM and I was blown away. Hardywood ages GBS in bourbon barrels and then filters it through roasted coffee beans, leaving a lot of fresh roasted coffee with the impressive bourbon character. Glad I have a second bottle of this.



2. O'So Brewing / Funk Factory Geuzeria -  Frampaars

Levi Funk knows what he's doing. Essentially the same formula as Bosbes, this blend of lambic beer which was aged in French oak wine barrels for 18-24 months was then re-fermented on (again 2 lbs /gallon) of fresh raspberries. Frampaars was like drinking sweet and tart raspberry jam - very funky, it got better as it warmed and the fruit opened up. 



 1. Bottle Logic Brewing - Fundamental Observation (B2, 2016)

The beast of the 2016 beer trading world, FO probably deserves the hype. I came into the night expecting Frampaars to be the best beer of the night given my preference for fruited wild ales over barrel-aged stouts. I was so, so wrong. Though I haven't had the pleasure of trying many vanilla stouts, I knew something was special about FO's vanilla character. Comparing it to the (quite good) Grimm Sumi Ink, the vanilla and bourbon flavors in this blew that away. While drinking it, I compared it to tasting Breyer's basic vanilla ice cream to a high-quality vanilla bean ice cream. There's just another layer there without added sweetness. The barrel and bourbon in this was also great, with a smooth and thick mouthfeel.




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Home for the Holidays - Visiting Aslin & Virginia Share

What's a trip home for the holidays without a share with friends? Everyone deserves to take a night away from family to share some fantastic beers in each other's company. A couple buddies and I decided to do just that - and I got some sweet VA beer from them too.

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We also decided to hit up Aslin Brewing in Herndon for their first ever bottle release (don't get me started on why the brewery was bottling in the first place, even more so at 750mL...).  Aslin is a super-hyped brewery with lines for crowlers of their "juicy & hazy" New England style IPAs. I understand why there's hype - there's a lot of beer drinkers in the northern Virginia area that have been deprived of good beer for a long time. While Bluejacket, Right Proper and 3 Stars are all doing great things, none of them are riding the IPA hype train that's taking over the country right now. Aslin is doing just that and has expanded astronomically since the first time I visited them in June.

Now, maybe it's just me, but Aslin's IPAs are murky messes with no depth beyond being "hazy." In my opinion, if you compare an Aslin IPA, you'll get a thick layer of hops and a lot of sweetness with no back-end to the palate, no softness, no mouthfeel. They're purely taking advantage of a hype trend. Not that they're bad brews, but they don't deserve the extremely high praise they're getting from NoVa beer geeks. Aslin still has a lot to learn, and I'm excited to see what they do with their new facility and expanded production.

/end Aslin rant

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Side note: I won't be including Other Half's Broccoli or Blowin' Up The Spot in my ranking because I've previously had them and had little more than a sip so my friends could have more. As I really enjoy both beers and thought Broccoli was one of OH's best releases of the year, I was shocked by their reaction, they thought both smelled very boozy & like rubbing alcohol. Maybe I'm just used to that OH style?

The Graveyard


A new category in the ranking this week...Plain old missed:

15. Lickinghole Creek - Supreme Leader

Curious as to why this is so highly rated and hyped. This beer had way, way too much going on (bourbon barrel aged, Mexican peepers, vanilla, cinnamon, cocoa) and was super thin. Got some good spice on the nose, but the mouth feel was off and it had no barrel character. Was surprised to learn it was aged in bourbon barrels considering how bland it was.

14. Aslin - All Eyez On Me

Aslin has been one of the hottest breweries in the Mid-Atlantic (north of Richmond) and is super hyped by DC-area people for their hazy New England style IPAs. All Eyez on Me is a collaboration by Aslin with Dominion Wine and Beer, a nice bottle shop in Falls Church, VA. It's a double IPA brewed with Waimea, Vic Secret & Amarillo hops and was limited to ~100 crowlers (selling out within the hour). Unfortunately, the crowler was canned on 11/11 so this DIPA was ~6 weeks old when I got to try it and had considerably fallen off.

 13. Fonta Flora - Urban Monk

The only beers I had drank from Fonta Flora previous to this were two really nice wild ales, Need A Hug (blueberries & elderberries) and Meemaw (cherries), and they were great (even beat out Wicked Weed blueberry & cherry sours in a blind tasting). Urban Monk was disappointing. Aged on whisky soaked oak spirals, it smelled like a bit of whisky but tasted like nothing. With reports of infected bottles, glad this one wasn't. It still wasn't good though.


Just missed: 

 12. 3 Stars Brewing -  Starsky & Dutch

 I first had this beer at Galaxy Hut in Arlington last Thanksgiving and I was impressed. I was really glad to find out 3 Stars canned it and get some from my friend. The nose on this is all cocoa, has a great thicker mouth feel and is super chocolaty. Perfect non-BA dessert stout.

By the way, who doesn't love a good canned stout?
 Breweries need to do it more often!

11. Deschutes Brewery - The Abyss (2015)

First time trying this highly acclaimed barrel aged stout. Got some bourbon barrel & a lot of molasses but not much other depth or complexity.


Top Ten:

 10. Jackie O's - Oro Negro

Jackie O's continues to impress me with their stouts. This is the "worst" one I've had from them but it was still really nice, I bet the bourbon barrel version is even better.



9. Jackie O's - Bourbon Barrel Dark Apparition with Brown Sugar

Regular Dark Apparition was really good, one of the better Russian Imperial Stouts I had last year and it was the first Jackie O's beers I tried. I still rate BBA Champion Ground higher than this, but it was quite nice.

Didn't get too much brown sugar, but maybe
 it's because of having it after adjunct-heavy Oro Negro. 

8. 3 Stars Brewing / Other Half Brewing - Ricky Rosé

 Ever since I learned about this collaboration last summer I wanted to try this beer. An ale aged in chardonnay barrels with blackberries sounds just lovely. It was. Very clean & tart with great blackberry - one of the best collabs Other Half has done. 


7. Interboro - Mad Fat! Fluid 

This might be one of the best local IPAs of 2016. I think I might slightly prefer Premiere, but this was absurdly good. 
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6. Cigar City Brewing -  Kalevipoeg At the Gates of Hell (Rum Barrel)

 Went into this beer with low expectations thinking I wouldn't enjoy it because it's a baltic porter aged in rum barrels (not my style) and comes in at a whopping 13.5%. It was great. Lots of rum and sweetness, not too much spice. Really well made. Rum barrel fanatics (looking at you Pirate Noir fans) should seek this out.

 5. Goose Island - Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout (2015)

 I reviewed this one last post when I had it at my last bottle share. Since I tasted it just a few weeks prior, I opted for a smaller pour to let me friends try more. This time, I didn't get as much barrel character but it was still great.

4. The Rare Barrel - Afterlight

Rare Barrel continues to kill the sour game in my opinion. I haven't had a disappointing beer from them. While this isn't the best I've had, this dark sour aged in French Bordeaux wine barrels was a delight. Got a lot of dark fruit and vanilla notes on this and it wasn't super tart.


 3. Hill Farmstead Brewery -  Earl

Bottled 1/13/16, this was my first time trying Earl, an oatmeal stout with coffee added. The roasted malts played a huge part of this beer's flavor along with the flaked oats giving the stout a really full body. The coffee was not overwhelming or bitter & HF's classic well water always adds a nice touch to the taste. A really impressive non-BA stout that is underrated compared to HF's other offerings.

A beer that deserved a better picture!

2. Great Notion Brewing - Crazy Fingers

Named in homage to The Grateful Dead, this IPA brewed with Vic Secret (Australia) and Motueka (NZ)  hops was really, really nice. Only the second Great Notion beer I've had after Juice Box, this beer was really soft and juicy. Motueka is a great hop (and I love what Other Half does with it) with really unique citrusy aromas. Gonna need some more GN crowlers soon!


 1. de Garde Brewing - Petit Nectarine

Everyone knows by now that de Garde is probably my favorite brewery, so giving this the top ranking probably isn't a surprise. But honestly, every time I have a wild ale from these guys, I'm blown away. I popped this anticipating it wouldn't be as good as Nectarine Premiere which I opened for my birthday share. It was better. I'd like to further understand the difference between "A Wild Farmhouse Ale" (Nectarine Premiere) and "A Tart Farmhouse Ale" (Petit Nectarine). Is one brewed in a coolship (hence wild) and the other inoculated with house cultures? Either way, I really enjoyed this. Despite it having less fruit added to the barrels than NP (I believe), the nectarine/stone fruit flavor was fantastic.

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Friday, December 16, 2016

A whaley good time - Holiday Share Roundup & Ranking

A couple weeks ago, my friends and I started planning a "holiday" beer share, a time where we could share a few (okay a lot) of really good beers and chat before we all went our separate ways for the holidays. The list started to get obscene and all in all, it was a really great time with some killer beers.

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With more than 28 beers sampled that night (over six hours and there were eight of us, don't worry Mom) I'll do a top 20 of what I most enjoyed.

 Just missed:

 Woodfour Brewing - Quercus Reserve Pyrus

Yuck! This was really disappointing. Quercus Reserve Peche was a delightful peach sour, this tasted like apple cider with no carb.

 Arrogant Brewing - Bastard's Midnight Brunch

Night Shift Brewing - Picasso

 The Bruery - Bourbon Barrel Aged 7 Swans-A-Swimming

Deschutes Brewing - Jubel (2015)

 Night Shift Brewing - Darkling (2016)


 Barely missed: 
22. AleSmith Brewing - Speedway Stout Mokasida Coffee

Like all Speedway Stout variants, it's good. It was just a little thin for my liking with a lot of coffee.

21. Monkish Brewing - Spock It

This beer has no place beloning on a "just missed" list. It's an all-galaxy hopped bomb from Monkish. Unfortunately we had a lot of good beers that night...
So without further ado the top twenty, right after I drink some Pedialite...
20. OEC Brewing - Zymatore Maledetta Urwaga Project

While it's the lowest on the top twenty, this brew wins for story of the night. This beer is produced (is that even the right word?) by OEC, master blenders hailing from Connecticut. The base beer is Birra del Borgo's Maldetta which is aged for two years in a Zinfandel wine barrel and matured underground in a fermantation pit known as Urwaga, a Kenyan tradition. It created for some interesting aromas and flavor. While it's nice to try for the story, it was probably the worst OEC beer I've had (which is a high bar).
Well, it definitely "looks" like it's been aged underground!

 19. Tired Hands Brewing - Punge

Punge is a Tired Hands original that I first had way back in April. It's brewed with a lot of oats in typical Tired Hands fashion, and hopped with New Zealand favorites Motueka and Nelson Sauvin. It's great, but compared to the other IPAs we had that evening it seemed average.



18. Wicked Weed Brewing - White Angel

Wait, I thought the angel series was supposed to be superb? Is this just NC-traders hyping up it's value? This barrel-aged sour ale aged with "wild" grapes is good, but it didn't blow me away. It's a bit funky, some grape must in there, but I've had way better grape-d wild ales from other breweries to think that this stands out.



 17. Firestone Walker Brewing - SLOambic (Batch #2)

Maybe it's because I had this right after Jester King's wild ale, Nocturn Chrysalis. Maybe it's because I think Bretta Rose is really damn good. Really funky, just a touch of tart, not as much berry as I'd like. Still really solid and worth seeking out as are all things from Firestone's barrel program.



 16. Trillium Brewing - Blueberry Soak

Another relative disappointment, given how much I've heard about Trillium's Soak series. It's quite good, not funky but also not too acidic. I think blueberry is just a soft fruit my palate can't appreciate.



 15. de Garde Brewing - Imperial Cherry Bu

"But Eric, you love de Garde!" Is what everyone said when they saw my rating and my face after trying this. I do love my de Gardes and I will praise them every second I get, I think they make the best wild ales in the country. However, I'm not a kriek/cherry guy, and while this was tart & funky, it's got a little earthiness from cherry pits that I just can't get over. Cherry, a fantastic fruit, but I like my wilds to be soaked in tart berries or stone fruits.



14. Cycle Brewing - 3rd Anniversary BA Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

My first Cycle stout! Better than Mokasida, but also thin. I need to try more from these guys. It was good, but I've had better coffee stouts.


13. Monkish Brewing / Veil Brewing - Haazee Guizz

Ah the first IPA to make an appearance! I was super disappointed by my last Monkish/Veil collab, so I was really hesitant with this guy (sorry *guizz). Hopped with mosaic, nelson and galaxy (and no fruit added!) this was quite good.


12. Schramm's Mead - Ginger

Woo boy. I don't even like ginger. You know those little ginger strips you get with sushi (gari)? I don't eat those, not my favorite. This was really good though and an excellent nightcap. I need more Schramm's in my life.

Black Agnes > Raspberry > Ginger. But this is still incredible.

11. Tree House Brewing - Curiosity Twenty Eight

I haven't had a beer from Tree House's curiosity series since a small sip of C26, and I was looking forward to this one. While I really wanted to try C27 (heard it was fantastic and loaded with Amarillo) this was a nice substitute and had a seasonally-appropriate label.



10. Cycle Brewing - 3rd Anniversary BA Jamaica Blue Mountain (Mavis Bank Estate)

My second Cycle stout ever! And it was better than the first! Really great mouthfeel and coffee in this one.



 9. Monkish Brewing - Bomb Atomically

Probably the best beer I've had from Monkish. This was bomb, enough said.

Hey Scott!

8. Tree House Brewing - Julius

Y'all know enough about this one already.



 7. Jester King Brewing - Nocturn Chrysalis (Blend 3)

I've loved every single Jester King fruited sour I've had (Atrial, Fen Tao, Colour Five, Aurelian Lure, Cerveza de Tempranillo). My first foray into blackberry sours was Tilquin's Oude Mure. Unfortunately, Nocturn didn't live up the the hype of the Tilquin lambic, but it was really great. A sour red ale refermented on blackberries, Nocturn isn't too tart and has some nice fruit in it. While it's not as good as Atrial, and I wasn't expecting it to be, it's really nice. I wonder how good the (really hyped) gin barrel-aged version of this is (particularly because I don't like gin). I need more blackberry beers in my life.



 6. Toppling Goliath / Cycle Brewing - BA Chain Smoker

On a night of many firsts, here's my first ever dark beer from TG. Since I'll probably never even get a whiff of Morning Delight, Assassin or KBBS, I was really looking forward to this. This is a collaboration with equally-hyped Florida kings of stout Cycle, unfortunately, they didn't make a stout. Instead, the brewers opted for something different, a smoked porter aged in bourbon barrels. I was expected a lot more smoke than I got, instead I got subtle smoke, lots of chocolate and molasses and a ton of barrel character. Since it's a porter, I thought the mouthfeel was a little thin for my liking, which made the bourbon stand out. It was really well balanced and layered.



 5. Jackie O's Brewery - Bourbon Barrel Aged Champion Ground

This was the third best stout of the night and probably the best pure coffee stout which is saying a lot considering some of the breweries it was up against. My second beer ever from Jackie O's, this Ohio brewery seems to be killing the stout game. Champion Ground was damn good, thick mouthfeel, nice bourbon character, great coffee without being too thin or roasty.



4. Bottle Logic Brewing - Ground State (2016)

My first Bottle Logic stout! My buddy just landed an FO, so while we wait to crack that we decided to open Ground State, a stout brewed with chocolate and cocoa nibs and aged in bourbon barrels with vanilla and coffee beans. I was blown away by how thick and flavorful this was.



 3. Brasserie Cantillon - Fou Foune (2016)

I went a few years thinking I would never have Fou. I've now had it twice in the last couple months. I reviewed this one back in my birthday roundup post. Check it out there. 
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2. Goose Island - Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout Rare (2015)

You know, I wanted to hate this beer because how Goose Island sold out and the debacle that was the 2015 BCBS release. I wanted to hate this beer because it sells for $100+ in NYC.



But damn, this is a fine stout. Probably the best barrel character I've ever had in a beer. The Heaven Hill barrels really go along nice with the base BCBS (2013 since this aged for two years before 2015). It was a little hot still, but not boozy. Great mouthfeel and flavor. In fact, it made me want to buy one to age for a couple more years since I know it's probably the last pre-buyout BCBS you can find on the market. I might go do that now...

1. Schramm's Mead - Black Agnes (Batch 6)

It's so good to have friends from Michigan, my friend visiting home picked this up over Thanksgiving. At $32 per 375mL bottle, this ain't cheap. It's worth it though.

I was throughly impressed with Schramm's Raspberry I had just two weeks prior to this. Sure, it was a little sweet, but it was unlike anything I ever tasted. While I couldn't point out to you what a currant is, all I know is that adding it to fermented honey is an excellent idea and it tastes amazing. Not sweet, not tart, just really pleasant mead. I need more Schramm's.



Happy Holidays all! Will get back to you around Christmas when I go home for a share with DC-area friends.
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Drink local - A day in the Hudson Valley


With a plethora of local craft beer options in the city, it's sometimes easy to forget what the rest of New York State has to offer. I've been meaning to explore the lower Hudson Valley for a while and finally got the chance to the week of November 16th. I was blown away by the solid craft beer options throughout the area and the scenery in general was incredible. 

It was a crisp autumn Wednesday, and after a few hours at Storm King, my friend and I were thirsty and eager to check out the local scene. Despite knowing that since Dia:Beacon was closed, we drove towards the sleepy town of Beacon, knowing it would be a bit less crowded and our options would be limited. 

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are like weekends in Beacon, several local places are closed knowing there won't be as much foot traffic visiting the small town. We were bummed to find out renowned bar Draught Industries and 2 Way Brewing were closed Wednesdays, but were happy to find Stock Up, a small deli/restaurant/beer shop located on a residential corner. I was really impressed with what Stock Up had in their beer fridges, a lot of beers that fly off the shelves in the city including a couple Grimm options. To pair with my "Big Bird" fried chicken sandwich, I ordered an Equilibrium Brewing Mmm...Osa, a pale ale that came highly recommended to me by my friend who visited Beacon with his wife the weekend before. Equilibrium is a new brewery opening up in Middletown, NY early next year and has been making hop heads around New York giddy, whenever someone brings them up you hear "Tree House this, or Tree House that." I haven't tried the renowned MC^2 just yet, but Mmm...Osa was a really nice, light and citrusy pale ale. 

Equilibrium's Mmm...Osa on the left and Suarez Family's Squeaker
 on the right on Stock Up's back porch. 
Sitting on Stock Up's back porch and not ready to leave, I ordered a Suarez Family Brewing Squeaker Pale Ale next. Suarez Family Brewery is a new "mom and pop" operation that just opened in Livingston, NY, about an hour north of Beacon. Suarez is a brewery I've been following the progress of for a little under a year every since I heard about Dan's story (here's a really nice recent publication in Good Beer Hunting about Suarez Family). I really wanted to drive up to Suarez for a visit and get a couple growlers, but they were a bit too far and only opened at 5PM on Wednesday, meaning we wouldn't get back to the city until 9PM or so at the earliest and that wasn't an option with our rental car situation. 

Anyway, Suarez Family Brewing makes really nice beers. Ever since I had Hecto Pale Ale on tap in the city, I knew I should seek out their beers. A brewery focusing on "crispy little beers" is exactly what New York needed, we don't need to be sipping on 12% imperial stouts or 8+% IPAs all the time. Squeaker was just what I was looking for, a refreshing, light pale (~4%). 

After a bit of walking around Beacon (and upset that The Hop closed down), I showed my friend the site for the upcoming Hudson Valley Brewery which will soon be right on East Main Street in the heart of Beacon, next to this lovely creek. 


Hudson Valley Brewery is a major construction project and will hopefully open sometime in 2017. They have been brewing and barreling beer and recently distributed their first to bars across New York - Amulet is a sour farmhouse ale aged in oak wine barrels with blueberries, hibiscus and rose hips and then dry-hopped with Citra and Mosaic. If it's anything like Make Believe, a sour farmhouse ale aged in oak wine barrels and also dry-hopped with Citra and Galaxy which I enjoyed very much back in May, then it's worth seeking out. Half Serious, HVB's collaboration with Threes Brewing was a slightly tart, light Berliner Weisse and also a sign of good things to come. This past summer, HVB also won best beer during the Hudson Valley Craft Beer Week's annual event. 

The guys behind Hudson Valley Brewery were formerly at Brewery at Bacchus in New Paltz, which used to be one of the best kept secrets in the NY beer scene. As stated in a nice feature in Hudson Valley Magazine, HVB has been operating on a 30-barrel system and crafting blended sour ales and complex beers. 

Since Sloop Brewing was also closed on Wednesday, and Newburgh Brewery didn't open until 4PM, my friend and I decided to head south to Peekskill to check out Peekskill Brewery. A large spot right off the Metro North station with a big selection of beers, Peekskill was a decent place to hang out, but I can't say I wasn't disappointed with the fact that the only beer they had to go was a 2+ month old Pale Ale, and their brewery taproom was fully stocked with liquor and felt like a sports bar (a personal pet peeve - witnessing people order vodka sodas at a brewery is nauseating). 

Leaving a bit disappointed with Peekskill, my friend and I hurried to Industrial Arts Brewing, a new brewery that opened just a few weeks before in the Garnerville Arts and Industrial Center in Rockland, NY. We were blown away by the space and the beers at Industrial Arts. 



With just a few locals in the taproom, we spoke with the bartenders who explained that the brewery was a huge project by Jeff O'Neil, former brewmaster at Peekskill. The building was massive, built in a pre-Civil War industrial complex (smoke stack and all) it was nicely refurbished with one of the most unique bar setups I've seen in a brewery.


I was really impressed with Power Tools, an IPA (and essentially a double version of their flagship pale Tools of the Trade) that was crisp, clean and dialed-in. After that, I tried both of the IPAs in their State of the Art series, 32 & 40. 32 was running low and definitely the better version, wish I could identify the hop bill on it. As a night cap in anticipation of the drive back to the city, I chugged a Pantry coffee porter, light and thin but it had a nice roast character.

State of the Art 32 and Power Tools from Industrial Arts Brewing
The Hudson Valley will soon be on the map as a craft beer destination in the United States, up there with Portland (Maine) and San Diego. With so many new and exciting breweries all within several miles of each other, the area truly has a blossoming beer scene, supported both by locals who value craft products and a huge craft beer scene to sell to in the city. New York State was home to just 75 craft breweries in 2011, four years later, that number is pushing 210 and growing by the month. If you're looking for a day trip away from the city and to enjoy some great beer, don't feel like you need to drive the 3+ hours to Tree House for 6-12 cans. Support a NY brewery and enjoy the Hudson Valley.



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Thursday, December 15, 2016

Looking back on 2016 - Celebrating craft beer in New York State

I think it's safe to say most of us are ready for 2016 to be over, it's been a tumultuous year to say the least. One great thing about 2016, however, was the exponential growth of the craft beer scene in the state of New York.

New, exciting breweries opened in Brooklyn such as Interboro Spirits & Ales, Kings County Brewers Collective (KCBC) and Strong Rope Brewery (okay technically opened late December 2015). The highly acclaimed Sand City opened in Northport on Long Island, and the upper Hudson Valley  saw several new breweries open such as Suarez Family Brewery, Industrial Arts, and Hudson Valley Brewery.

Both new and established breweries (Threes, Greenpoint Beer & Ale, Interboro, KCBC, LIC Beer Project, Singlecut, Gun Hill, Peekskill, Sand City, Barrier, to name a "few"...) joined the canning craze hitting the US craft beer world

Even though there are a couple weeks left in the year, I've decided to go ahead and name my top beers from New York now. These beers are in no particular order (mostly because they were so hard to rank) but they're the ones that stood out to me this year. I've broken it down by brewery and hope this inspired you to #drinklocal in 2017.


Equilibrium Brewing - Mmm...Osa

Slated to open their brewery in Middletown, NY in 2017, Equilibrium is making hop heads around New York giddy. I never got to try MC^2 but I was super impressed with Mmm...Osa, a pale ale conditioned on freshly zested oranges. Really nice, citrusy and light.

Finback Brewery - Oscillation 004

004 was the best Oscillation release of the year for me. Paired with the BQExC bottle release, these cans were incredible and could go head to head with any of the big Northeastern IPAs. Finback did great things in 2016 and I'm looking forward to what they brew in 2017. Unfortunately, they're a bit far out of the way (heading there tonight for my BQE Box Set and dreading the trip) but that should deter NYS folk from popping in and visiting their lovely taproom.

 Finback Brewery - Smooth Beats Miami

A controversial beer with mixed opinons, this collaboration with J. Wakefield Brewing was pure coconut in a can.

Finback Brewery - BQExC

A great coffee stout. A little thin, and was more impressed with the 2015 BA BQE I had on tap at the release, but Finback's stout game is still strong.

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Greenpoint Beer & Ale - Instant Credibility

I was very hyped when I learned this one was going to be hitting cans. Super aromatic, galaxy-filled double IPA.



 Grimm Artisanal Ales - Lumen

Grimm really stepped up their game in 2016 and released a lot beer this year. I thought the first batch and cans of Lumen was their best release of the year.

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Grimm Artisanal Ales - Tesseract (first batch)

Grimm Artisanal Ales - Lambo Door (first batch)

 Grimm Artisanal Ales - Magnetic Compass

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Grimm Artisanal Ales - Super Spruce (the first batch of this gose was really fantastic fresh, a lot of the spruce came through. Haven't opened the second batch bottle just yet but looking forward to it).

Hudson Valley Brewery - Make Believe

HVB is a new brewery opening in Beacon, NY sometime in 2017 (hopefully). These guys were previously at Brewery at Bacchus and make some fantastic beers. You can follow their progress on their website. Make Believe is a sour farmhouse ale aged in oak wine barrels and dry-hopped with Citra and Galaxy. I very much enjoyed it.

Interboro Spirits & Ales - Premiere IPA

Only ~15 minutes from my apartment, Interboro opened up in September and impressed immediately with this first can release. I prefer Premiere to the new, hyped Mad Fat Fluid, but I have a couple more cans of MFF calling my name before the end of 2016.



 Interboro Spirits & Ales - Mad Fat! Fluid

Industrial Arts Brewing - Power Tools

Industrial Arts Brewing - State of the Art Series (tried 32 & 40 at the brewery, both really solid IPAs in this rotating series)



 LIC Beer Project - Gal Friday (Raspberry)

LIC did a lot of great things this year, unfortunately I missed out on a lot of them. Many regarded their first IPA release, Pile of Crowns, to be the NYC beer of the year (I never got to try it). Backjump was pretty good, Higher Burnin' on tap was excellent (cans reportedly hit or miss). This beer though blew me away. Great fruit, touch of funk, really nice sour. Looking forward to cracking my Breathe (Apricot and Blackberry/Raspberry) bottles and my Dulcinea (spontaneously fermented) bottle.

Now for the train of Other Half....

 Other Half Brewing - Fully Frothed

A collaboration with Half Acre, I skipped this release due to work & generally was not too hyped considering I didn't love these guys' previous collab, Rainbow Never Ends. I was dead wrong and wish I had more cans of this. Super soft at 8%, I could only describe this beer as fluffy.



 Other Half Brewing - City Slickers

A collaboration with Arizona Wilderness, the first batch of this was another OH standout. Insane color that literally couldn't be replicated with the second batch, really nice different flavor.

I miss you City Slickers..

Other Half Brewing - No Layups (A collaboration with The Answer)

Other Half Brewing - Double Dry-Hopped Double Mosaic Dream

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Other Half Brewing - Oat Overdose (A collaboration with Tired Hands, forget this was in 2016!)



 Other Half Brewing - Citra



 Other Half Brewing - Galaxy

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Other Half Brewing - All Citra Everything & Double Dry-Hopped All Citra Everything



 Other Half Brewing - Blowin' Up the Spot (A collaboration with Monkish Brewing)

Plan Bee Farm Brewery - BouQuet



 Plan Bee Farm Brewery - BarTlett

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Threes Brewing - Eternal Return: Chardonnay

Threes first-ever bottle release might be the NYC-release of the year. This beer was really funky and nice as it warmed up. Lots of grape must. Has had me coming back to Threes for each iteration of the Eternal Return series since.



 Threes Brewing - Nothing is Forever

The best stout from NYC this year? Probably. Aged in bourbon & rye barrels, this stout had the most barrel character of any local stout and was really, really awesome. Need this in bottles.

Threes Brewing - Day of the Dead

12 oz cans FTW. Threes first can release was excellent.

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Sand City Brewing - Second Wave

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Sand City Brewing - Mofosaic

Sloop Brewing - Confliction

Suarez Family Brewery - Hecto


Anything I miss? Disagree with anything? Let me know! Cheers to 2016 and onward to 2017.
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