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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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High on the hog at Craft Beer and Pork Festival at the Topping Rose House

Bacon and chicharrones

Bacon and chicharrones

Executive chef Ty Kotz slices porchetta.

Executive chef Ty Kotz slices porchetta.

The boys of Crooked Ladder Brewing.

The boys of Crooked Ladder Brewing.

Sausages

Sausages

So full.

That’s how I felt as I left the Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton, Long Island, having sampled just more than two dozen local brews and an eye-popping buffet of pork dishes.

It had been a very pleasurable, sunny May 3 afternoon at the Craft Beer and Pork Fest put on by the Topping Rose, a small luxury hotel and restaurant operated by celebrity chef Tom Colicchio.

There was not a bad beer among those poured by a coterie of area brewers—Crooked Ladder, Great South Bay, Greenport Harbor, Montauk, Moustache and Southampton Publick House. In fact, every beer worked incredibly well with the Topping Rose’s chow. And, it was also my first opportunity to sip the brews of Crooked Ladder, a nine-month-old microbrewery in Downtown Riverhead.

But, there was no doubt that the food was the star of the event.

Indeed, chef de cuisine Kyle Koenig, who instigated the event with his beverage director wife, Jessica, remarked that attendees, about a hundred by my guess, were focused more on the food rather than the beer.

It was hard not to.

On each table, a bowl of house-made chicharrones and a vase with crisp strips of bacon tempted sippers as sweet smoke drifted into the Topping Rose’s catering space from the pool deck, where executive chef Ty Kotz was overseeing the grilling of four kinds of house-made sausages, split pork shoulder and pork shawarma—all bursting with flavor.

I was completely enthralled by the spicy, roasted porchetta, which Koenig said was spiced after a walk through the kitchen’s spice closet, pork belly marinated in Indian spices and a zesty French garlic sausage.  A house-made pate, meanwhile, matched delightfully with Greenport Harbor’s Curvaison, a bottled brew made with 2011 Martha Clara Vineyards sauvignon blanc grapes.

And the only non-pork edibles — Montauk pearl oysters from the Montauk Shellfish Co.— were a big wet French kiss from the sea, deliciously cold, briny and fresh and a perfect foil for any of a number of IPAs available.

Besides Greenport’s Curvaison, I found several other brews particularity noteworthy, among them Moustache Brewing’s easy drinking Milk and Honey Brown Ale, Crooked Ladder’s well-balanced 70 West IPA, Southampton’s Maibock and Great South Bay’s reformulated summer sipper Blonde Ambition.

And I had another unexpected find, the locally produced, hand-crafted Miss Lady Root Beer, produced in Amagansett by Rowdy Hall manager Theo Foscolo using sarsaparilla, licorice root, anise, honey, brown sugar and raw sugar, and molasses. Very different and, after all that beer, refreshing.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a May Saturday afternoon. Let’s hope Topping Rose does it again next year.

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Long Island craft beer and pork in all its glory at a Bridgehampton fest on May 3

 

Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton, NY

Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton, NY

Topping Rose House, the small, but tony Bridgehampton hotel and restaurant built in 1842 and now overseen by celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, is joining forces with a handful of Long Island breweries May 3 for a Pork & Craft Beer Festival.

Colicchio’s 75-seat farm-to-table restaurant features produce grown on the property’s one-acre Topping Rose Farm as well ingredients from other local farmers and fishermen.

We’re not just talking about pork BBQ and sausages, though there’ll be five kinds of house-made sausages available. Food offerings will include sliders; chicharrones and bacon; charcuterie, terrines and rillettes including prosciutto Americana from La Quercia, an Iowa producer that uses heritage breeds; hand-carved pork belly schwarma, Montauk pearl oysters, potato rolls and pretzels, along with local vegetables. DeBragga, the well-known New York City meat wholesaler, is supplying the event with Niman Ranch pork.

Beers will be poured by Southampton Publick House, Great South Bay Brewery, of Bay Shore; Moustache Brewing Co., Long Ireland Brewing and, Crooked Ladder, all of Riverhead; Port Jeff Brewing Co. and Montauk Brewing Co.

The event is the brainchild of Topping Rose House chef de cuisine Kyle Koenig and his wife, Jessica, the restaurant’s beverage director, who’ve spent time sampling the local brews.

The event opens to VIP ticketholders at Noon and at 1 p.m. for those with general admission tickets and goes until 4 p.m.

Topping Rose House, 1 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike,  Bridgehampton. (631) 537-0870. For more information or to reserve a space, email: mpoore@craftrestaurant.com

 

 

 

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On the waterfront: Beer finds at the Williamsburg beer fest

Beer on the Williamsburg wateront

More than a thousand beer aficionados and, for sure, a few novices, thronged to the event at the foot of N. 11th Street, the Brooklyn Waterfront Beer Festival, on June 16, where the wares of 86 breweries were available for sampling.

The organizer, the Hand Crafted Tasting Co., a unit of concert promoter Mad Dog Presents, relied on craft beer industry stalwart Jim Pickett to curate beers for the two-session event.

Fesltival’s beer curator Jim Pickett

Pickett, who among other things now markets artisan non-alcoholic beverages at his own company, Gotham Artisanal, has been around craft beer for more than two decades, having started as New York State brand manager for Brooklyn Brewery. He later marketed Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Leffe, Boddingtosn and Bass Ales before jumping into the spirits business. In 2007, he joined Pipeline Brands, a marketer of beer, wine and spirits.

He says he requested that participating brewers present beers appropriate to the summer season and those with limited release.

For the most part, I’d say Pickett did an admirable job.

Tasting at the afternoon session that I attended, however, proved to be somewhat haphazard as there was no printed guide to the beers, just a grouping by distributors. This turned a visitor into a beer explorer. And explore I did.

Still, there was plenty of pleasure to be had in the beers available — both to the masses in the main areas of the fest and for those willing to splurge $125 to sample harder-to-find brews in an indoor connoisseur’s lounge far from the crowds. The latter were brews “not on everyone’s radar,” said Pickett, “We were looking for things that you generally do not see anywhere.”

Sommelier Roz Donagher oversaw the festival’s connoisseur’s lounge

Indeed, in the connoisseur’s lounge a crew led by sommelier Roz Donagher (the wife of beer-bar impresario Patrick Donagher) poured a range of extraordinary brews.

I particularly enjoyed the refreshing Corsendonk Apple White Beer, a bottled conditioned Belgian wit with a touch of apple juice added.  It reminded me of a wit I’d enjoyed years ago with a slice of apply pie. It’s a combination that lingered in my memory and this spicy brew rekindled it.

Onto more fruit. This time the flavors of dried raisins, figs and caramelized sugar, which dominated the palate of Southampton Publick House Abbot 12, a 10.5% abv Belgian-style quadruple–not exactly the kind of beer to start the day with, but what the heck.

There also was the vanilla-accented, malty Innis & Gunn Independence Day, a Scottish ale aged in American whiskey barrels, and the tart, funky and fruity, but oh-so-delicious Kelso Brett IPA. From Uinita Brewing in Utah, there was a rich and chewy, citrus accented Duhbe (doo-bee) and from Wandering Star Craft Brewery there was Bert’s Disqualified Stout with an unmistakable alcoholic bite. Also very good were the whiskeyish Founders Brewing Curmudgeon, and the rich Stone Brewing’s Double Bastard

The main event, too, had plenty of new, exciting brews to sample.

Wit beers were plentiful. Besides the Corsendonk, those that impressed were White Aphro from Kelso of Brooklyn spiced with ginger and lavender. Meanwhile Blue Moon, which so many love to hate because of its Coors parentage, presented its floral Farmhouse Red Ale, a cross between a red ale and a saison-a new year-round release, and Vintage Blonde ale, which is made with Chardonnay grape juice and offered notes of apple on the nose and palate.

And there were pils, helles, hefeweizens and saisons galore.  Among the saisons I enjoyed Unibroue’s Blonde de Chambly with its notes of lemongrass; the spicy, dry Radius from Brooklyn Brewery and the crisp, fruity Open Saison from Ben’s Beers, a small upstate New York brewer.

And while I’m a huge big fan of fruit beers, lambics excepted, I took great pleasure in Tommyknocker’s Tundrabeary Ale, a refreshing light brew with a huge fresh berry character.

Bruton Momus, an abbey dubbel style beer from Birrificio Bruton of Lucca, Italy, with intense sweet malty notes and a hint of coriander, was also a winner. Another Bruton offering, Lilith, was an Italian take on American pale ale with notes of resin and citrus.

All told, a pleasant afternoon spent with mostly extraordinary beers.

Robert Howell, one of the organizers, told me that one of the reasons for undertaking the event was “to put New York City on the map of craft beer festival destinations.” With a few tweaks, I believe, he and his partners could be well be on their way.

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