Tag Archives: Barrier Brewing

April 28, 2015 · 6:11 pm

Long Island breweries, bars to celebrate Craft Beer Week May 6-17

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By Alan J. Wax

Long Island: get ready for Craft Beer Week.

Long Island’s craft beer industry and its supporters in the hospitality and retail trade are readying a week-plus long celebration of the region’s breweries and beers. It runs from May 6 to May 17, which of course, is more than a week.

Breweries, bars and restaurants will be running special events to mark the celebration. So far, 21 breweries have signed on along with 20 restaurants and bars, three retailers and two wholesalers.

David Schultzer, owner of Bellport Cold Beer & Soda and the lead organizer of Long Island Craft Beer Week, says the celebration is designed to create awareness of Long Island breweries and beers and to attract mainstream beer drinkers to craft beer. “While the focus is Long Island beer and breweries, we need to get more people into craft beer.”

Nevertheless, he said, other states, such as Oregon and California, sell a far greater proportion of locally produced beers than New York.

“We don’t do a good job of letting people know we exist,” he says. Moreover, he said, with the growing number of small breweries opening in the region, brewers will be fighting for the same piece of the pie—and survival, unless they attract legions of new imbibers. “If you don’t expand that customer base, how can you survive?”

The first big event of Long Island Craft Beer week is the May 6 kickoff, Long Island Craft Beer Cares, a charity beer and food tasting at the Melville Marriott Hotel to benefit the Long Island Cares food bank; the Lustgarten Foundation, which raises funds to fight pancreatic cancer, and the New York Bully Crew, a pet-rescue organization.

A collaboration brew — Long Island Craft Cares — developed and brewed by Great South Bay Brewery, of Bay Shore; Port Jeff Brewing, 1940’s Brewing Co., of Farmingdale; Barrage Brewing Co. of East Farmingdale, Blue Point Brewing Co. of Patchogue, and BrickHouse Brewery, also of Patchogue, will debut at the charity event.

Breweries represented at the Long Island Craft Beer Care event include: Blue Point; Great South Bay; Barrage; 1940’s ; Port Jeff; BrickHouse Brewery; Brooklyn Brewery; Sixpoint Brewery, Brooklyn; Spider Bite Beer Co., Holbrook; Blind Bat Brewery, Centerport; Destination Unknown Beer Co., Bay Shore; The Brewers Collective, Farmingdale; Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, Bronx Brewery and Southern Tier Brewing Co., Lakewood, New York.

Beers, Burgers Desserts of Rocky Point, The Tap Room of Patchogue, Noodles & Co., of Garden City, Verde Wine Bar of Deer Park, The Trattoria, St. James will be among area eateries serving up delicious food to accompany the local craft beer at the Craft Beer Cares event. Tickets are $55 and can be purchased online at Eventbrite.

Free Long Island Craft Beer pint glasses will be available and can be ordered online and picked up on May 7 at these locations: The Tap Room, Patchogue; Savoy Tavern, Merrick; Beers Burgers Desserts, Rocky Point; Brewology, Speonk; Lil’ Left Coast, Bellmore; Bobbique, Patchogue and Eat Gastropub, Island Park.

The celebration’s other big event is Bay Fest, a beer festival featuring dozens of breweries at Great South Bay Brewery, i25 Drexel Ave., Bay Shore on May 16. Twenty-seven  breweries — at last count — and several home brew clubs will be pouring samples of their wares. There’s a general session from 1:30 to 5:30 pm with tickets $40 online and $15 for designated drivers. A VIP session, which starts at 12:45 p.m. $55 per person and $15 for designated drivers. Tickets are available at Ticketfly.

In addition to the host brewery, participating brewers include Port Jeff Brewing, BrickHouse Brewery, Blue Point Brewing, Barrage Brewing, 1940’s Brewing, Montauk Brewing Co., Oyster Bay Brewing, Barrier Brewing of Island Park, Southampton Publick House, Riverhead’s Crooked Ladder Brewing, Goose Island Beer Co. of Chicago, Two Roads Brewing of Stratford, Connecticut, Brooklyn Brewery, Ommergang, Greenport Harbor Brewing, Long Ireland Beer Co. of Riverhead, Adirondack Pub and Brewery of Lake George, Third Rail Beer Co. of Manhattan, Southern Tier, Samuel Adams, Destination Unknown, and Lithology Brewing, Farmingdale.

The big events sandwich a multitude of smaller, but no-less exciting events. You’ll find them listed at the Long Island Craft Beer week website.

Hope to see you at one them.

 

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January 29, 2014 · 2:36 pm

Barrage Brewing, ending a 2-year haul, opens its doors in East Farmingdale

Owner-brewer Steve Pominksi inside the new Barrage brewery

Owner-brewer Steve Pominksi inside the new Barrage brewery

Stephen Pominski Jr. has been working on the railroad. Now, he’s also working in a brewery — his own.

Pominski, 52, who works full-time as a trackside tower operator for the Long Island Railroad, has just opened the doors to Long Island’s newest microbrewery, Barrage Brewing Co.,  in East Farmingdale.  He’s been making beer commercially since mid-December after two years of planning and construction.   He’s at the brewery between his LIRR job and time at home, often aided by his son, Adam, 25.

“Now, it’s for real,” said Pominski.  “But it’s still very daunting. It’s still intimidating.”

Barrage is marking the occasion of its opening with launch parties on Jan. 31 at Morrison’s Restaurant in Plainview and on Feb. 1 at Dave Schultzer’s Bellport Cold Soda and Beer.

In addition to these two outlets, Barrage’s beers will be available by the growler ($13 each) at the brewery – on Sundays only, and, eventually at a growing number of bars, among them The Good Life in Massapequa Park , the Black Sheep Ale House in Mineola, and Hoptron Brewtique in Patchogue, and beer distributors with growler taps around Long Island. He plans to self distribute and eventually get his beers into New York City. “Right now, we want to take care of our close area.

The Barrage brewery consists of a 1-bbl. gas-fired stainless steel brewing system. By doing step infusions, Pominski says he can brew twice a day. There also are 10 42-gallon conical fermenters, some of them housed inside two 8×8 walk-in cold rooms. Bags of malt from German, English and American maltsters are stacked on pallets and bins of specialty malts line a wall.

BarrageBrewingLogo smallFinanced with savings and investments by relatives and a successful $18,000 Kickstarter campaign, Pominski’s brewery has its roots in craft beer’s first go-round in the New York area, the early 1990’s. That’s when he discovered the flavorful beers available at Mr. Fadely’s Deli Pub in Patchogue, where he also got to know Blue Point Brewery co-founder Peter Cotter. A homebrewer for 15 years, Steve and his wife, Diana, in 2009 converted a small existing room in their home and their garage into a family room, equipped with a 16-foot bar with two taps for his homebrews. Friends raved about his beer and encouraged him to sell it Soon, the family room became a regular stop for friends and the bar in the garage became known as “The Barrage.” In June 2010, stirred by the opening of nano brewery Barrier in Oceanside, Pominski founded his brewery.

But forming a company and getting to the point where you could sell beer are a formidable challenge. After trying to open in Freeport, N.Y. – zoning issues prevented this from occurring— the search was on for a new location. Landlords didn’t want fumes or sewering was inadequate.  In March 2012, Pominski found his current location. But other obstacles got in the way. The installation of a gas line was delayed six months as National Grid focused on Hurricane Sandy repairs and then Suffolk County decided his sewer lines weren’t up to code and ordered him to dig them up and replace them at a cost of $17,000.

“It’s been anxiety ridden and overwhelming,” Pominski said,. “Now, it’s a relief. But,  he noted, adding that after giving away brews at festivals, now “people are paying for this beer and I have to make sure it’s worth it.”

Pominski is targeting novice craft beer drinkers as well as beer aficionados. His first offering, Fairytale Red Ale, an Irish-style red, “is right down the middle.” Also now on tap are Blackspot, a black rye IPA; Citralization, an all Citra hop American pale ale, and Mclaughlin’s Folly, an oatmeal stout brewed with raisins and vanilla. Other brews, mostly dark and in an Old English vein, will follow, Pominski said. “I really like dark beer.”

The new brewer says he hopes to produce about 300 to 400 barrels of beer during his first year, but admits, “I’ll have to brew a lot.”

You’ll find Barrage Brewing at 32 Allen Boulevard, Unit E. Located behind TJA Auto Collision, less than a block off Route 110. Pull into the driveway along the east side the body shop and count a half dozen or so garage doors. You’ll see Barrage’s name on the window.  Call before you go (516) 986-8066.

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January 22, 2013 · 10:19 am

Hurricane Sandy collaborative relief beer, Surge Protector IPA, makes debut

Surge labelThe culmination of 13 weeks of effort involving a group of Long Island brewers has come to fruition.

The group’s collaborative beer, Surge Protector IPA, makes its debut today (Jan. 22). Proceeds from sales of the beer will go to help victims of Hurricane Sandy and Barrier Brewing Co., whose Oceanside, Long Island, brewery was decimated by the storm surge.

After six weeks of emails, meetings and brainstorming, the group on Dec. 4 produced a collaboration brew at Blue Point Brewing Co. in Patchogue.  Each of the breweries — Barrier Brewing Co., Blind Bat Brewery, Blue Point Brewing Co., Great South Bay Brewery, Greenport Harbor Brewing Co., and Long Ireland Beer Company – donated an ingredient.

Surge Protector IPA initially will be released in six locations on Long Island and in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens. They are:

Beginning Jan. 23 the beer, bottled by Blue Point, will become available across the Long Island.  Clare Rose is distributing the beer. The group also is selling commemorative T-shirts.

Sandy Relief Beer started as a video project by photographer Matt Furman and freelance journalist Niko Krommydas, but evolved into a collaborative relief effort involving the eight local breweries.

Long Island Cares, Inc. will receive one-half of all proceeds from Sandy Relief Beer.

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November 14, 2012 · 5:06 pm

The Good Life pub raises $22,000-plus for Hurricane Sandy relief

 

The Good Life owner Pete Mangouranes during Hurricane Sandy relief benefit.

The Good Life has a good heart.

The Massapequa Park, Long Island, gastro pub, was packed to overflowing Tuesday evening due to the promotional efforts of owner Pete Mangouranes, who promised to donate every penny spent at the pub that evening to Hurricane Sandy Relief. Indeed, by the time The Good Life closed its doors Mangouranes had collected $22,090.

The monies, including purchases by The Good Life’s patrons, servers tips and more will be split among local churches and the Tunnel to Towers Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund, said Mangouranes, who put every penny of his night’s sales into the pot.

The Good Life owner Pete Mangouranes, left, looks at the scene at his bar.

The scene was a testament to Mangouranes’ social media outreach campaign.

The crowd was five deep at the bar, where the servers included Massapequa Park Mayor James Altadonna Jr., the wait for a table in the dining room ranged up to three hour. Meanwhile, dozens more imbibed drafts from a trailer on loan from Manhattan Beer Distributors on the sidewalk in a heated tent donated by Top Notch Tent Rental.

Captain Lawrence, Saranac, Great South Bay Brewery, and Ithaca Beer Co.  donated kegs of beer and Roberto Bobby Rodriquez, an award-winning homebrewer, contributed a keg of his Zombification, a hard cider made with molasses and Belgian ale yeast. A local bakery, Sugar Rush, sold cupcakes and cookies and donated rolls for sausage and pepper sandwiches sold on the sidewalk. The publishers of “Question of the Day” books pitched in too, selling their books for the charity event.  Mangouranes also raffled off a surfboard and took in donations of gift cards, clothing and other items.

Other beer-related charity events are on the calendar. On Nov. 14 The Loyal Dog Ale House in Lindenhurst, is holding an open bar from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. for those who contribute $20 to the Red Cross. And Tap & Barrel in Smithtown on Nov. 25 holds a $50 per person benefit to aid Oceanside-based Barrier Brewing, which was effectively wiped out by the storm.

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October 4, 2012 · 9:11 pm

Teutonic beer and sausage on the menu at Prost Grill & Garten in Garden City

24 taps at Prost, half of them German

Jim McCartney acquired his love of beer as a teenager drinking along the waterfront in Breezy Point, Queens. His interest in German food was cultivated by the meals he shared with his dad, a banker, at the German restaurants of Glendale.

Now, McCartney, a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney and Manhattan Catholic high school theology teacher, is embarking on a third career that combines his two early loves. He’s become a restaurateur and bar owner with a long-time friend Bill Daly, with the recently opened Prost Grill & Garten in Garden City, Long Island.

Modeled on a modern Berlin-style bistro and inspired by a Wurstküche, an exotic sausage bar in downtown Los Angeles, Prost offers 24 beers on tap, half of them German, and a menu filled with sausages and more.

Opened since August in a Franklin Avenue storefront next to the LIRR tracks that once housed a dry cleaning shop, Prost brings something different to a main street where the nearest beer destination is the Belgian-flavored Waterzooi.

Daly and McCartney, who had the idea of creating a bar and grill, last year flew out to Los Angeles to check out Wurstküche. “We loved it,” said McCartney. For more ideas, they flew to Munich and Berlin, where they discovered the “modern clean look” of bistros there. They incorporate some of those elements into the design of Prost, though it’s unlikely bar tops and tables in Germany were not made from the reclaimed wood of three bowling alleys as they are at Prost.

Prost owner Jim McCartney

McCartney said he went the German route, because he felt the community needed something different. “There’s nothing like this here except Plattdeutsche Park,” he said referring the sprawling, venerable Franklin Square bastion of Teutonic cuisine.

Prost’s draft beer list, not surprisingly is strong with German beers, including Franziskaner, Radeberger, Spaten, Hofbräuhaus, Warsteiner, Weihenstephaner, Tucher and Gaffel Kolsch on draft; as well the local Barrier Brewing kolsch and rauch beer. But three’s also Brooklyn IPA and Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA and Sam Adams Boston Lager, to name a few. Bud and Coors drinkers will find their brews served in bottles.

“We’re constantly exploring diffident beers to be on tap,” McCartney said, noting his surprise that brews from Germany have been out selling the American craft beers on tap. His top sellers, so far, he says, are Hofbräu, Spaten Oktoberfest, Gaffel Kolsch and Weihenstefaner. Glassware, too, matches the brands, for the most part.

The menu, devised by McCartney and Daly with chef Thomas Rockensies, a Culinary Institute of Americagraduate who is McCartney’s cousin by marriage, leans heavily, of course, on sausage offerings. These include traditional German (includes bockwurst, bratwurst and knockwurst), Italian sweet and hot, Moroccan lamb merguez, a variety of chicken sausages, and a variety of exotic meat sausages including venison, alligator and buffalo. There’s even a soy-based vegetarian offering. Toppings include sautéed onions, mushrooms, sauerkraut, onions and peppers, cheese sauce, chili, jalapeno or red cabbage. There’s also a Bavarian pretzel the size of a dinner plate and an Alsatian flame cake, burgersand a handful of German entrees, not to mention Buffalo chicken wings. Sauerbraten is a weekend special.

Grilled bockwurst with onion topping, fries and Hofbrauhaus Oktoberfest at Prost

Sausages, which start at $7, are served on a baker’s roll with a choice of two toppings.  A large side of very good fries with dipping sauce adds $5 to your tab. Half-liters of brew start at $7. Full liters are available, too.

Prost Grill & Garten, 652 Franklin Ave., Garden City; 516-427-5215, is open from noon to midnight Monday through Wednesday, and Thursday through Saturday from noon to 1 a.m.

All that’s missing, thankfully, is an oompah band for that we’ll bend an elbow and toast “prost!”

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August 25, 2012 · 2:45 pm

Croxley’s Smithtown location opens with 80 taps and something different

 

Croxley’s partners, from left: Ed Davis, Joe Mendolia, Chris Werleand Jeff Piciullo inside the new Smithtown location.

Croxley’s Ales, the mini chain of craft beer bars, has opened the doors to its fifth location in Smithtown, Long Island.

Started 20 years ago in Franklin Square, Long Island, with an English pub theme, Croxley’s owners have taken a slightly different direction at their newest location. They’ve devoted a draft tower to German brews. Currently on offer are Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest, WarsteinerLager, Warsteiner Dunkel Lager, Warsteiner Oktoberfest and Hacker Pschorr Dunkel Weiss. The German brews are served in half liter and full liter steins, the Weiss beer in a 23 oz. vase.

Beer tower featuring German brews at Croxley’s Smithtown

Moreover, the new Croxley’s is the only one in the group to offer German culinary specialties on the menu, including wursts, sauerbraten, Wiener schnitzel, kessler ripchen, potato pancakes and a pretzel imported from Bavaria.

Behind the Teutonic accent is the newest Croxley’s outdoor beer garden, which is awaiting permitting and completion, co-owner Chris Werle told me as he watched over the filled-to-capacity bar and dining room on Friday night. Tables to be installed in the beer garden formerly were used by Paulaner in the brewery’s Oktoberfest tent in Munich.

The newest Croxley’s opened with little fanfare on Aug. 17. Just a week later patrons faced an hour’s wait to secure a table. The location seats 120.

The bar scene at new Croxley’s in Smithtown

To be sure, not all the draft beers are German. In fact, Werle said, they expect to devote 15 taps to beers from Long Island, from Brooklyn to Montauk.  Currently on tap are brews from Blue Point, Barrier, Long Ireland, Port Jeff, Greenport Harbor, Brooklyn and Sixpoint.

Croxley’s Smithtown came about at the behest of Suffolk County customers who patronized their bars in Nassau County and a query from the owner of Arthur Avenue, the Smithtown bar that Croxley’s replaced, about their interest in the site, Werle said. “It’s a great spot,” he noted.

The bar, tucked into a slope on the north side of West Main Street, adjacent to the railroad trestle, is not easy to spot. The only sign, for now, is one of vinyl facing west.

Meanwhile, there’s more going on in the Croxley group.  The Manhattan outpost, at 28 Ave. B, soon will double in size with addition of a neighboring building. And construction is underway at a sixth site, 63 Grand St., in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

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June 21, 2012 · 2:14 pm

Rocky Point Artisan Brewers gets micro brewery license

From left, Voight, Jenssen and Hall at a recent Long island beer festival

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No. 1260239.  This number means everything to Mike Voight and Donavan Hall, principals of Long Island’s Rocky Point Artisan Brewers.  It’s the serial number on their just-granted New York State micro brewery license.

The brewery submitted its application on Jan. 3 and five months and 20 days later, it became a realty on June 20. The project has been in the works for three years.

“It just took so long,” Hall told Corks, Caps and Taps. “They kept giving us so many problems that we thought for sure we’d never get it. It was kind of a shock when the license arrived.”

Hall added, “Now we’re trying to get some beer out the door.”

The 1.5 bbl.-brewery, built in a converted residential garage four doors down from Hall’s home, has minimal beer on hand and shipping won’t begin until the brewer’s labels get government approval, probably in about a week, Hall said. The first release is likely to be Rocky Point Pilsner, which has been part of the brewery’s repertoire  and received favorable notices at beer festivals.

Rocky Point is using a system similar to that originally used by Barrier Brewing in Oceanside. “He’s been brewing twice a day to keep up with demand,” Hall said of Barrier owner Evan Klein.

Rocky Point’s fermenters hold 300 gallons, just under 10 barrels. A house fronting the brewery remains a residence, but may someday be converted into a tasting room, he noted.

Hall, a writer, and partner Mike Voigt, an electronics repairer, both from Rocky Point, met as home brewers and began brewing in Voigt’s basement in 2006. They were joined in 2009 by Yuri Janssen, a research physicist at Stony Brook University, who for now is one of the brewers.

Rocky Point, Long Island’s tenth commercial brewery, is a “nano” in size. “We’re going to stay small for a while,” Hall said. Nano brewers generally produce under 4 barrels of beer at a time.

Other breweries in Nassau and Suffolk Counties (including brew pubs) are: Barrier, Black Forest Brew Haus, Blind Bat, Blue Point, Brickhouse, Greenport Harbor, Fire Island, John Harvard’s, Long Ireland, Port Jefferson , Southampton Publick House and Spider Bite.

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