For continuing Brooklyn bar reviews and beer news, visit my page on Examiner.com: Brooklyn Beer Bars Examiner
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.”
8 months agoBrooklyn Brown is under construction, getting a redesign and settling into its new Tumblr-powered home at brooklyn-brown.com/
In the meantime, you can read past posts below, or at brooklynbrown.wordpress.com/
And you can also enjoy this video…
9 months ago
•February 3, 2009 •
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, including 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 pleasantly 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.
•December 4, 2008 •
No, there is nothing quite like celebrating the holidays in New England. I’ve now had the pleasure of enjoying Christmas, Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving in southern Maine. Each holiday has something different and special to offer. One of those things is beer, compliments of the local pub/brewery/institution Gritty McDuff’s. Gritty’s has a location in Freeport (which we most frequently frequent), Portland and Auburn. Gritty’s offers a small but solid lineup of traditional British-style pub ales, including Original Pub Style, Best Bitter, Best Brown, Black Fly Stout, and seasonals Halloween, Christmas, and Vacationland Summer Ale. I had just missed out on the Halloween Ale, but I was told that the Christmas Ale, which I hit heavily (maybe a little too heavily), is a step above, literally, a stronger version of Halloween. The Christmas Ale, a moderately hopped “robust ESB.” certainly facilitates holiday cheer. Not sure about its ABV, but whatever the %, combined with my the overzealousness with which I approach outings to Gritty’s, put me in a fine mood. Heather had to drive for the rest of the evening.
On a related note, Gritty’s has a mug club, which entitles members to their own mug (somewhat larger than a pint glass) and discounts on all beers. The waiting list to enter the club is approximately two years. I have now been on this list for a year and a half. To make a long story short and to not fuel feuds, I was informed by the manager that they had tried to call me in September, and since they did not hear back I now have to wait longer. Let’s just say that there’s been some mistake, because I did not receive any call, and I certainly did not receive a voicemail if a call had been made (and I would have surely noted a missed call from a “207” area code). But since I live six hours away from the land of Gritty McDuff, and only visit Vacationland a few times a year, there’s no way I could drink the $75 membership fee’s worth of beer, although an attempt at such a feat would be noble and noteworthy. And so the mug club continues to evade me, but at least I can put my $75 to beer less than a half-day drive away.
To the day, an entire month has passed since the last update here. A sad state of affairs, I know. However, an annual songwriter competition (WLSC2008) – taking place live over 8 consecutive nights at the end of November – had me bound and gagged for the month. However, as is fortunately often the case, lemonade was made from lemons, silver linings shone, and really good beer was enjoyed. The principal sponsor of the 5th Annual Live Songwriter Competition was Magic Hat. Hailing from Vermont, Magic Hat is a “mom and pop” operation, made famous for their fruity #9 pale ale. For reasons we don’t need to explore too deeply, a good number of people are turned off by apricot infused beer (and some drinkers believe the flavor of this flagship brew pervades Magic Hat’s other works). But aside from #9, Magic Hat also made available Roxy Rolles, a rather delicious, very drinkable “Hoppy Amber Ale” coming in at a reasonable 5.8% ABV. As the story has it, and as is depicted on the beer’s label, Roxy Rolles is named for a woman who took across the country on her motorcycle one winter, hence Magic Hat’s description of the beer as a “wintry amber ode to the open road.” I’ve been a fan of the open road for many years now, and now I also pledge allegiance to amber odes. Thanks to Magic Hat’s support of the WLSC, Roxy warmed my bones for eight straight chilly nights in November (and a few bottles even wound up coming home with me). All this said, it’s time to move on to other odes, amber or not.
An article in the New York Times last week (with a focus on Sixpoint Craft Ales) touched on the historic relationship between beer and Brooklyn, once, before Prohibition and WWII, a brewing mecca:
Brooklyn produced one-fifth of the nation’s beer as recently as 1960. By 1976, when Rheingold and Schaefer [beers that have more recently re-emerged in mass-produced, watered-down formula] shuttered their Brooklyn plants, the number of local breweries dropped to zero. Now the hops are stirring in Brooklyn once again.
Lucky for us, places like the Brooklyn Brewery, Sixpoint Craft Ales, and Greenpoint Beer Works (Kelso of Brooklyn) have started a “creative renaissance” for beer in Brooklyn.
For [Shane] Welch, [the 29-year old founder/owner/brewmaster of Sixpoint,] who moved to New York from Wisconsin, situating Sixpoint in Brooklyn was a deliberate choice. “We weren’t able to identify any other place in the country that we thought would be as receptive to the type of beers we wanted to make,” he said. “Brooklyn had a history of producing beautiful handcrafted stuff, and it was having a creative renaissance.’”
Also lucky for us, people are developing finer tastes and drinking better beer regularly:
Sixpoint’s growth in the borough has been the most rapid. Its sales have doubled every year since it started in 2004 with a dozen customers. (It even contracts out some brewing to Greenpoint.) Some 300 bars and restaurants in New York now pour beers from the Sixpoint lineup: Sweet Action, Brownstone Ale, Righteous Rye.
As a result, Brooklyn brewers are looking to expand:
Brooklyn Brewery re-established the association between the borough and beer when it opened in 1988, though it has the vast majority of its production in Utica. But for the past few years it has been trying to find a location in the borough so it can triple its local production, bottling beer as well as brewing draft beer, which it has been doing at a plant in Williamsburg since 1996…Steve Hindy, the company’s president, so far has been unable to find affordable property but said he has been offered spaces outside the city by “every real estate broker east of the Mississippi.”
And to answer a question posed in a previous post, regarding when (for the betterment of lives everywhere) Sixpoint will offer its craft in bottles:
Sixpoint Craft Ales, which has been brewing an increasingly popular range of beers in a small brew house in Red Hook for four years, just bought a bottling line and a brewing system that will let it increase production tenfold — to about 60,000 barrels a year…They’re hoping to close a deal on a property in Williamsburg to install their new equipment soon.
Good news for lovers of good (bottled) brews!
In line with how we can assume NYC’s political views will shape up on election day (today!), in March, Brooklyn’s Sixpoint Craft Ales released its “Hop Obama” Ale. “In keeping with the Illinois senator’s unifying theme,” says the brewery’s website, “the Hop Obama is an entirely unique ale that doesn’t adhere to traditional style guidelines.” The beer is available on tap at select bars in New York and Massachusetts, and drafts are being sold at Southpaw tonight for a special Election Night event where participants can drink in (literally) the new presidency.
“Although we do not intend this beer to be a direct Sixpoint endorsement of Obama,” further states the brewery website, “we believe the delicious and refreshing quality it represents reminds us of the Senator’s successful grassroots campaign that positively blossoms each and every day.” Shane Welch (Sixpoint founder and president) plays it safe.
I can’t help but wonder if Sixpoint will continue to make Hop Obama for the duration of (what we imagine to be) Barack Obama’s presidency? I also can’t help but wonder when Sixpoint will begin to offer their delicious, fiercely independent beer in bottles? And furthermore, if this move will help or somehow hurt their image and ever-growing business?
“Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
Homer Simpson is not quite the luminary Benjamin Franklin was, but he does have some memorable (and equally overused) quotes about beer. Most notably, “All right, brain. You don’t like me and I don’t like you, but let’s just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer.” Here’s a full list.
At the risk of dismantling the humor of my (all-time, hands down) favorite TV show, Homer and his beloved Duff don’t exactly leave the best impression of a beer lover, so much as paint a portrait of a drunk. We can only imagine that in real life, Duff is essentially Budweiser, and that if Homer were to actually exist, he would epitomize the target market for producers of beer-related “conversation T-shirts.” In case you don’t already know:
PEOPLE…
ARE…
THE…
WORST.
Aside from being two of NYC’s more reputable small-sized indie music venues, Union Hall and Union Pool have little in common. Park Slope’s Union Hall has a lounge/den/British-reading-room atmosphere, a somewhat extensive tap lineup, two bocce lanes, an impressive food menu, and top indie acts on a nightly basis. Williamsburg’s Union Pool is a borderline dive-bar with a psuedo-50’s feel (if you use your imagination and/or pay attention to the DJ), a very spacious outdoor area (with a nice fire pit during the winter), a newly-added taco truck (=awesome), and regular top indie acts.
Both venues become super-crowded late evening (go figure!), and are filled with arguably equally obnoxious crowds (the borderline frat-boy bocce fanatics and the tattooed, tight-panted, ironically clad hipsters, respectively). But as good and profoundly fitting as the taco truck is, the triple mini-burger at Union Hall takes the cake. The atmosphere at Union Hall, when seating is available, is much more suitable for conversation. The caliber of music at Union Hall is (at least) a step above. And the beer…
About six months ago, Union Pool served Dale’s Pale Ale [Colorado], which is among the very best beers available in a can. When the metal makes contact with your lips you brace for the dull sting of stale Bud Lite, but then, much to your elated surprise, you find that this beer is a sweet and fruity, moderately light, above-average strength ale. And yet, if only to make things harder, Union Pool decided to detract this beer from its offerings. [UPDATE 12.30.08: I met some friends at Union Pool the week before Christmas and was pleasantly surprised to see Dale’s revived!] The only noteworthy brews remaining are Duvel and Schneider-Weiss (otherwise, you can go for Hoegaarden or Guiness) but at $8 that Pabst starts looking pretty good. Perhaps most irritating is that Union Pool does not serve Brooklyn Lager. For a (standard) bar in Brooklyn to not include this local staple is simply not cool.
On the other hand, Union Hall has a strong selection of highly drinkable craft brew and (I believe) a semi-rotating tap line. The lineup has included Sixpoint [Brooklyn] - all of whose beers are delicious (and often taste of fresh grass) - and Chicago’s Goose Island - all of whose beers are also delicious. These two beers alone are enough to carry you through the night. Also available is a nice choice of wines and liquor.
How many $6+ Bud Lites have you purchased at concerts? Thanks to places like Union Hall, we can enjoy both great music and great beer, the combination of which colors me a bright shade of happy.
We can also enjoy bocce ball, if that’s how we roll.
I’m a sucker for rich, dark beer. Even in summer, I’m more than content with a porter or stout on the backporch of a cabin in Downeast Maine, sipping slowly from a coffee cup and strumming my six-string (for instance). But add in the appropriate chilliness of a New York autumn, and a heavenly match is made. Although Oktoberfest is brewed specifically for this month, and most assuredly has a place near and dear to my heart, Smuttynose Robust Porter has found a permanent residency aside my ventrical. It’s full of dark coffee-like flavor but at no time overwhelming. Arrestingly delicious and easy-to-drink. Thank you, New Hampshire! “Live free and drink good beer or die!”
This is an idea so stupid and useless that there’s really nothing to say about it specifically, if only to recall a comparison to Homer Simpson’s similarly daft suggestion of combining nuts with chewing gum. What’s more interesting (/enraging) is that Budweiser has the pretention to refer to their brew as “Bière” in an attempt as transparent and tasteless as their beer to give themselves some class. Nice try, Monsieurs Anheuser et Busch!
If you don’t know already: if a beer has “Imported” written anywhere on it, be suspect. Like many things in this world, the best beers never need to so overtly advertise their personality. Stay away from beers pretending to be classy, and guys wearing t-shirts with statements such as “Beer is the Reason I Get Up Every Afternoon,” “When the Boat’s a Rockin’…,” and (I wish I was joking and didn’t witness a man wearing this as he sauntered through the Museum of Natural History) “I Love Hot Moms.”
As author George Ouzounian has so astutely postulated: “People are the worst.”
Indeed they are.
Can I See Your ID? [click for link]
“It’s not up to me… If it were up to me I would, but it isn’t, so please don’t keep arguing with me.”
From Your Bartender [click for link]
“‘The Microbrew Aficionado’: Usually a pseudo-hippy who can’t tip a quarter but can’t bring himself to drink ’schwag,’ and who has to sample some new berry-wheat-harvest-ale that he heard about at Burning Man. ‘Do you have the new Vernal-Equinox Special Welcome-Fest?’ ‘Does Anyone?’ Here’s your Newcastle. Go.”
According to Free Williamsburg (and others), d.b.a. is opening a second location in Williamsburg, in the space previously occupied by the recently defunct Laila Lounge in Williamsburg, on North 7th between Berry in Wythe. This is seemingly good news, maybe even great, considering most of the traffic west of Bedford Avenue seems to make its way down North 6th towards Public Assembly and the Music Hall of Williamsburg. However, in my handful of times at Manhattan’s d.b.a, I couldn’t agree more with New York City Beer Guide’s description: “Unfathomably full of loud idiots swilling Amstel and Stella on week-ends.”
Can we put any faith in a bar that broadcasts a live web cam on its website?
•October 21, 2008 •
[Department of Eagles @ the Bell House, 10.6.08 | Photo by Eric Schwortz]
To one unfamiliar with the neighborhood (me), the Bell House in Gowanus seems to be located in the middle of nowhere. Usually seen as a bad thing, this translated into a reasonably small-sized and mellow crowd, until later in the evening when a member of my party vociferously inserted “Mom” into the lyrics of the Rage Against the Machine mega hit “Killing in the Name” after the (epic/unforgettable) “Fuck you!” and before the “I won’t do what you tell me!” breakdown that closes the song. “Would?” by Alice in Chains preceded this track, leading us to believe the Bell House knows the deal (if that’s your cup of tea, granted). Speaking of music, the Bell House, aside from hosting a rather solid line of taps, is a brand new (looking and smelling) music venue opened by the good folks from Park Slope’s Union Hall.
We didn’t see any music that night (in its beginning stages, the place has yet to fully establish a regular performance schedule) but we did drink some beer. I enjoyed the Sixpoint Atlantic Amber [Brooklyn], although/because it reminded me of their Sweet Action (by which I mean, half-seriously: smells like cat pee, tastes like dirt. No! Not a bad thing! A very good thing.) The beer is alive and wild and sparkling with flavor. Very refreshing. Next up was what I couldn’t help but think of as an eye-rolling, Dogfish Head-esque attempt at breaking boundaries and brewing beer with unique and unusual flavors, and essentially becoming the shock-rockers of the beer world: Elysian Avatar Jasmin IPA [Seattle, WA]. In short, it’s an IPA flavored with Jasmin. Surprising and rather delicious. But I couldn’t help but imagine myself bowled over the following morning wishing I was never born, if I had had more than two of these flowery fellows.
About the time I had my second Jasmin IPA, “Killing in the Name” hit the speakers. Moms were cursed. Laughs were laughed. A turkey sandwich was dominated. Another good night was over.
•October 21, 2008 •
[Erdinger Weissbier in Montmartre | Photo by Dan]
Brooklyn Brown is dedicated to the enjoyment of good beer in Brooklyn, and beyond. We are fortunate to live in a time when “real” beer is not reserved for high-end beer bars and connoisseurs. There are many bars, brewers, restaurants, and stores that make available delicious concoctions of barley, hops, yeast and water. Let’s enjoy them.
This site is dedicated to those who want more from their beer; those who refuse to settle on the watered-down, the mass-marketed, the imitations; those who revere the craft of brewing. This site is also dedicated to those beached between oceans of Heineken and Pabst; those who know they can do better than Stella Artois but don’t know where to look; and in small part, to those who wouldn’t mind not having to go to Manhattan ever again.
This site is an homage to those beers that are most drinkable, not to the discovery of the world’s “finest” beer. There will be no decadent descriptions of subtle nuances and intricacies of complex multi-layered flavor.
Most people were born with taste buds. This being the case, there’s no need to precisely outline symphonies of taste and the specific pattern liquids take from the bottle to your throat, no more than there’s a need for a music critic to describe the specific sounds and instrumentation of a song, or a movie reviewer to give away the ending; these services are only useful to those who are without the senses to experience things firsthand.
This site is a guide for those who prefer to taste beer rather than read about it. Those who believe the journey trumps the destination.
[If you’d like to share a beer-related event or news item, or recommend a bar in your neighborhood or favorite beer, email mr.dancy at gmail dot com. Cheers!]
11 months ago