Tag Archives: Spider Bite Beer

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

LI Craft logo

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.

 

Leave a Comment

Filed under Taps - Beer

Picks for Long Island Craft Beer Week

LI CBW logLong Island’s beer community celebrates itself during Long Island Craft Beer Week (LICBW) May 10-19 with a dizzying collection of festivals, special tastings, tap takeovers and more.

LICBW, which actually runs 10 days, is a collaborative venture created by brewers, bar owners and beer event promoter Starfish Junction Productions to raise awareness of the thriving local craft beer scene and promote patronage at local establishments.

This third annual event appears to be bigger than in the past. And with good cause.

The craft beer scene on Long Island has exploded with the opening of new breweries and new places to imbibe.

In the past 12 months brewers Spider Bite Beer Co., Rocky Point Artisan Brewers and Montauk Brewing swelled the industry ranks in Nassau and Suffolk Counties to 15, for now. At least four more are planning to open their doors in the months ahead.

Among new taverns specializing in craft beers include the Black Sheep Ale House in Mineola, the Tap Room in Patchogue and Croxley’s in Smithtown.

What’s more beer distributors and retailers are adding new brands to their portfolios and shelves, respectively, and on the retail level, an increasing number of growler filling stations. Moreover, many dining spots, such as Jackson’s in Commack and Roots Bistro Gourmand in West Islip have embraced craft beer, providing additional locations for beer aficionados to please their palates.

Homebrewers, too, will be participating with a competition sponsored by the Brewers East End Revival home brew club on May 18 in St. James. And, Long Island Beer and Malt Enthusiasts is sponsoring the Golden Tap Awards.

The week’s organizers are dispensing free pint classes across Long Island on May 9 and Untappd, the mobile beer-logging app, will offer badges for those who make it to at least two of the venues participating in Long Island Craft Beer Week.

All told, there will some 80-plus events taking place over the 10 days—11 if you count the kickoff events of May 9. While many of these events will feature fine beers, not all will be Long Island focused.  Troublesome for some Long Island purists, perhaps. But for enthusiasts who want to sample interesting beers, these days ahead offer nothing but excitement.

With so many events on the calendar, what do you do?  Here are my top 10 plus 1 recommendations.

May 9, 6-11 p.m. Croxley’s, Farmingdale, hosts an Official Pre-Party Cask tasting that features a mix of local and domestic cask-conditioned crafts and food, too.  Get there early as these casks often are drained quite quickly. $24.95.

May 10, 6 p.m. TJ Finley’s Public Housewww.tjfinleys.com, Bay Shore. Long Island Craft Beer Week Kickoff Party featuring a PAYG Blue Point Brewery tap takeover as well as a special offering from the Patchogue brewery.

May 11, 1 p.m.- 5 p.m.  Bay Fest at Great South Bay Brewery in Bay Shore. A tented beer fest featuring 20-plus mostly local breweries. Tickets are $40 in advance, $50 at the gate.

May 12,  7 p.m. to 4 a.m. If you can leave mom for a while—or take her with you—get over to the Black Sheep in Mineola for special tapping of Keegan Ales Super Kitty, an American strong ale with honey and plenty of hops conditioned for six months with oak chips

May 13, 6 p.m-2 a.m.  The Tap Room in Patchogue is offering a Dogfish Head tap takeover with 12 lines devoted to such rare brews as 120 Minute IPA and World Wide Stout. PAYG.

May 14, 6 p.m. Golden Tap Awards Gala
 at
 89 North, Patchogue. Long Island’s beer Oscars, Emmys and People’s Choice Awards rolled into one to honor Long Island’s beer innovators and pioneers. Awards will be presented to winners in all aspects of the craft beer industry including bars and breweries, based on online polling and an official panel judging. Tickets include the awards show as well as a cocktail hour before the show with light fare. $55.

May 15, 7:15pm – Midnight. Barrier Brewingwww.barrierbrewing.com beer dinner at Press 195www.press195.comin Rockville Centre, featuring five Jewish-Latin inspired dishes paired with five electric brews from Barrier. Tickets are limited and purchase in advance at bar. $70 including tax and tip.

May 16,  8 p.m.-11 p.m. Black Sheep Ale House, Mineola, veers north with a Maine Beer Co. ‎ tap takeover and Organic Cheese Pairing. Maine Beer’s entire line up of beers paired with small batch organic cheeses from Silvery Moon Creamery in Portland, Maine. Mo, Titus, Mean Old Tom, and Peeper will be available on draught. There also will be beer flight/cheese pairings with 5-oz. pours of each draft and pours from Lunch and Zoe bottles. PAYG

May 17, 7 p.m.-4 a.m. Back to the Black Sheep in Mineola for a special cask. This time it’s Port Jeff Brewing’s Wet & Wild Wet-Hopped
Sour Ale, a wet-hopped brett-laced sour ale. PAYG.

May 18, 3-7 p.m.TJ Finley’s Public House, Bay Shore, puts on 10-plus casks of local and regional beers and BBQ. $40 in advance; $55 at the door.

May 19.  2-4:30 p.m. It’s an all-grain home brew tutorial at The Lark in East Northport, NY 11731
with Alan Talman of Karp’s Hardware and Homebrew. $10 donation to benefit a local animal shelter. Reservations required.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Taps - Beer

Signs of spring: New beer standouts at the Long Island Craft Brewers Festival

Katie Joos taps a cask of Great South Bay Brewings' supper dry hopped  Massive IPA with Condzella hops

Katie Joos taps a cask of Great South Bay Brewings’ super dry hopped Massive IPA with Condzella hops, one of several special kegs available.

It was the first sign of the season: the Spring Craft Beer Festival at Long Island’s Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Beer fest logo

After days of rain and cool temperatures, on March 9 the sun shone bright, the sky was blue and the temperatures more moderate. Inside the Coliseum’s sprawling exhibition hall, bright smiles abounded on the faces of brewery reps and volunteers pouring beer and on the hundreds of attendees sampling their wares

And what wares. There were perhaps a hundred beers from more than 50 brewers— some of them familiar, many less so. A few brands were new to the region, among them Dark Horse, Horney Goat and Redd’s Apple Ale. Discovering new breweries and tasting exciting new products makes attending festivals, such as this event, produced by Starfish Productions of Bay Shore, worthwhile.

Volunteer Rich Thatcher of LI Beer & Malt Enthusiasts is all smiles as he pours Pabst Blue Ribbon

Volunteer Rich Thatcher of Long Island Beer and Malt Enthusiasts is all smiles as he pours Pabst Blue Ribbon beer,

And while there were ciders, too, plus jerkies of all sorts, hot sauces, cigars, t-shirts and beer collectibles, beer, of course, was the star of the show. Among the brightest examples, at least for me:

— Reserve Special Black Ale by Dark Horse Brewery of Marshall, Mich., a rich roasty example of the style.

— Crooked Tree IPA, another Dark Horse entry. A big chewy, golden brew that screamed hops with some malt to back the big hop profile and a winey finish.

Euphoria, a 9% abv Belgian-style strong ale from Ruckus Brewing, a Manhattan-based contract brewer that plans to open in Allentown, Penn. Hazy gold in color, this delicious brew was smooth as silk and it’s high alcohol level deceptive.

New Burton IPA by Newburgh Brewing Co.  A balanced, British style brew.

Brown Ale by Newburgh Brewing Co. A deep brown, chewy brew with roasty notes and a bittersweet finish.

Saison by Newburgh Brewing Co, A cloudy golden brew with a spicy nose. Dry and herbal.

Fire Down Below, an Irish red ale by Spider Bite Beer Co.  It’s amber and it’s amply hopped as per the brewery’s trademark style.

Silver Anniversary Lager by Brooklyn Brewery.  A beautiful, well-balance 9% abv doppelbock that was among the best beers I sampled.  It’s an amber, full-bodied brew with sweet, juicy malt and caramel flavors intertwined with hops.

Timmerman’s Strawberry Lambic by Brewery Anthony Martin. Some Belgian Lambics are too sweet or too fruity. This pink-gold hued brew offered up a delicate strawberry nose and on the palate reminded me of strawberries and cream and surprisingly, no cloying sweetness.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Taps - Beer