Posts Tagged ‘New York’

What: Andes Hotel First Annual Oktoberfest
Where: Andes Hotel Summer Shack, Andes NY
When: October 3, 2009
Time: 2 – 6pm
How Much: $20

Ed and Sally over at the Andes Hotel dropped me a line to annouce their first ever Oktoberfest. As the American Craft Beer Fest earlier in the summer was amazing, I’m expecting great things from this fest as well. This is the Andes Hotel last outdoor event of the season in the Summer Shack. They will be highlighting American craft brewed Octoberfest styles from all over. Butternuts will be bringing their amazing Harvest ale, and probably selling 750’s of said flavor. There will also be live music by George Kilby jr. & the Road Dogs (great Blues) and some very tasty german fare (ie. bratwurst, weisswurst, roasted pork & cabbage). $20 gets you a glass to taste all the beers available. Expect myself and Mrs. Ohabeer to be there early and pretty much spending the day eating and drinking in the fine Fall upstate NY weather.

What: FREAKTOBERFEST Boutique Beer & Music Festival
Where: Public Assembly (70 N 6th Street, Williamsburg, NY)
When: October 3, 2009
When: 2 pm – 9 pm
How much: General admission $20 / VIP tickets $75

Shmaltz Brewing Company, Bierkraft, Southpaw, Piquena, and BeertenderBrooklyn present the 2nd Annual FREAKTOBERFEST Boutique Beer & Music Festival happening on Saturday, October 3, 2009 at Public Assembly (70 N 6th Street, Williamsburg, NY). The event will take place from 2 pm – 9 pm. General admission is $20 (5 tasting tickets, access to live performances), and VIP tickets are $75 (unlimited tastings + access to VIP loft featuring rare and vintage beers).

A special session dubbed Geektoberfest will be held from 2 pm – 4 pm, which will include brewery owners pouring specialty beers and conducting educational tastings. Shmaltz Brewing will release a one of a kind beer called Geektoberfest exclusively at this event. Additional tasting tickets can be purchased onsite. For more detailed information and to purchase event tickets, please visit: www.freaktoberfest.com.

The 2nd Annual FREAKTOBERFEST will be MC’d by Donny Vomit, the Human Blockhead and current MC of the Coney Island Sideshow. Featured live performances by Stumblebum Brass Band, Sex Slaves, Workout and others TBA. Participating breweries include Shmaltz Brewing (HE’BREW Beer and Coney Island Craft Lagers(TM)), Lagunitas, Stone, Sixpoint, Bear Republic, Dogfish Head, Flying Dog, Speakeasy, Captain Lawrence, River Horse, Victory, Ithaca, Arcadia, Sly Fox, Harpoon, Smuttynose and many others soon to be announced. Burlesque and Go Go by Legs Malone, Bloody Belle, Lil Miss Lixx, and Rosie 151…

The upcoming 2nd Annual FREAKTOBERFEST marks the national launch of Coney Island Freaktoberfest(TM). Boiled and toiled in our stainless cauldrons with 6 malts, 6 hops, and 6.66% alc, Shmaltz’s bewitching Fall attraction serves up a tasty treat for Octoberfest through Halloween. 22 oz. bottles and a very limited supply of kegs will appear at specialty shops and select bars throughout NYC and nationwide starting now.

To view a list of all Freaktoberfest events happening across the country, please visit shmaltzbrewing.com.

After a rather crazed Labor Day weekend (wherein the Cha Cha Hut made its official commercial debut), we decided to journey to Oliver’s Discount Beverage in Albany to restock a quickly dwindling cellar. I once stated the selection here is much smaller than Half Time in Poughkeepsie, but what is there is truly amazing. I always find a ton of interesting new brews when dropping into Oliver’s So much so, I can’t remember the last time we made the trip to Half Time. Plus – the Oliver’s staff seem to be really excited to be selling something other than the endless stream of BMC we see going out the door.

Bombers
Southern Tier Imperial Pumking Ale
Southern Tier Imperial Mokah (chocolate & coffee stout)
Southern Tier Imperial Cherry Saison
Southern Tier Imperial Heavy Weizen
Dogfish Head Fort (brewed with pureed raspberries)
The Bruery Black Orchard
Brown’s Whiskey Barrel Aged Porter
He’Brew Rejewvenator Harvest Ale
Avery Fifteen Anniversary Ale
Avery Collaboration Not Litigation Ale
Red Hook DB Double Black Stout with Coffee

40 oz.
People’s Pint Tap & Die Malt Liquor

6 Pack
Wolaver’s Certified Organic Will Stevens’ Pumpkin Ale
Brown’s Oatmeal Stout
Sierra Nevada Kellerweis
Atwater Block Brewery Vanilla Java Porter
Boulder Beer Mojo IPA

My favorite alehouse in New York City – Blind Tiger Alehouse – is having another event that makes me regret ever leaving NYC in the first place. (Not that the OAB HQ in the mountains isn’t pleasant and all…)

Sierra Nevada @ Blind Tiger Alehouse NYC
Date: August 26, 2009
Time: 4pm
Location: Blind Tiger, 281 Bleecker St., NY, NY

The List:
Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Scotch Ale (CASK)
Sierra Nevada Torpedo (CASK)
Sierra Nevada Vienna Lager
Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest
Sierra Nevada Brown
Sierra Nevada Belgian Triple
Sierra Nevada Double Debockel Doppelbock
Sierra Nevada Crystal Wheat
Sierra Nevada Stout
Sierra Nevada Blonde
Sierra Nevada Brown Saison
Sierra Nevada Vintage Bigfoot (2006)
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
Sierra Nevada Bitter
Sierra Nevada Porter
Sierra Nevada Kolsch
Sierra Nevada IPA
Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest
Sierra Nevada Celebration 2008
Sierra Nevada Anniversary
Sierra Nevada Summerfest
Sierra Nevada ESB
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (you know, we had to do it)

(If anyone happens to go to this, please drop back by Oh…a beer and leave a review in the comments.)

My favorite alehouse in New York City – Blind Tiger Alehouse – is having another event that makes me regret ever leaving NYC in the first place. (Not that the OAB HQ in the mountains isn’t pleasant and all…)

Sly Fox @ Blind Tiger Alehouse NYC
Date: August 19, 2009
Time: 4pm
Location: Blind Tiger, 281 Bleecker St., NY, NY

The List:
Sly Fox Helles Lager
Sly Fox Pikeland Pilsner
Sly Fox Phoenix Pale Ale
Sly Fox O’Reilly’s Stout
Sly Fox Saison Vos
Sly Fox Royal Weisse
Sly Fox 113 IPA
Sly Fox Incubus Triple
Sly Fox Ichor Quad
Sly Fox Odyssey Imperial IPA
Sly Fox Oatmeal Stout
Sly Fox Christmas Ale
Sly Fox Instigator Doppel Bock
Sly Fox Seamus Irish Red
Sly Fox Prometheus Porter
Sly Fox Gang Aft Agley Scotch Ale
Sly Fox Oktoberfest Lager
Sly Fox Grisette Farmhouse
Sly Fox Dunkel Weisse
Sly Fox Whitehorse Wit
Sly Fox Abbey Xtra
Sly Fox Hop Project WGV
Sly Fox Burn’s Scottish Export Ale (Cask)

(If anyone happens to go to this, please drop back by Oh…a beer and leave a review in the comments.)

I’m calling this the “Western Mass. Edition” due to a weekend OAB roadtrip to the I-91 corridor of Massachusetts. We decided we needed to get out of town for the weekend and decided to use the beer map in Yankee Brew News as our guide. There are many upcoming articles about the trip, but I decided to kick things off with a beerventory update that is now decidedly Massachusetts heavy.

As we were staying in the Northampton area, we THOUGHT we would do the beer run at Spirit Haus in Amherst on our way out. No such luck. We’ve see great reviews for this place, but the selection on a Sunday morning pretty much sucked. Perhaps we missed something other than the weak selection of bombers and 6/12 packs on the floor near the register. Perhaps it had been a heavy Saturday night – though to me most of the shelves looked stocked.

Thankfully, we had gone to Greenfield, MA on Saturday and looked around in Ryan and Casey Liquors. So after the Spirit Haus disappointment, we hit the highway, headed up to Greenfield and stocked up before heading back to OAB HQ. Looking forward to the coming weeks and drinking these. (Also looking forward to another beer run to Massachusetts.

Bombers
Berkshire Brewing Hefeweizen Ale
Berkshire Brewing Coffeehouse Porter
People’s Pint Pied pIPA
People’s Pint shWheat Ale
People’s Pint Natural Blonde
High & Mighty Two-Headed Beast Chocolate Stout
High & Mighty St. Hubbins Abbey
High & Mighty Purity Of Essence Lager
High & Mighty Beer of the Gods
Pretty Things Baby Tree Quad with Dried Plums
Pretty Things St. Botoisph’s Town Rustic Dark Ale
McNeill’s Ruby Ale
Southern Tier Mokah Stout
Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Amber Ale
Arcadia Ales Cocoa Loco
Arcadia Ales Cereal Killer
Southern Tier Jah-Va Imperial Coffee Stout
Ommegang Biere de Mars
Flying Dog Wild Dog Weizenbock

40 oz.
People’s Pint Tap & Die Malt Liquor

12 Pack
Opa Opa Sampler featuring Opa Opa Light, Red Rock Amber Ale and Opa Opa IPA

6 packs : cans
21st Amendment Brew Free! or Die IPA
21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon Wheat

6 packs : bottle
Saranac Summer Brew

My favorite alehouse in New York City – Blind Tiger Alehouse – is having another event that makes me regret ever leaving NYC in the first place. (Not that the OAB HQ in the mountains isn’t pleasant and all…)

Two Brothers @ Blind Tiger
Date: July 29, 2009
Time: 4pm
Location: Blind Tiger, 281 Bleecker St., NY, NY

Two Brothers Outlaw IPA
Two Brothers Oh Brother Triple
Two Brothers Northwind Russian Imperial Stout
Two Brothers Domaine DuPage Biere de Garde
Two Brothers Bitter End Pale Ale
Two Brothers Ebel’s Weiss Beer
Two Brothers Prairie Path Belgian Pale Ale
Two Brothers Heavy Handed IPA
Two Brothers Dog Days Lager
Two Brothers Cane And Ebel Rye Beer
Two Brothers Bare Tree 2008 (Wheat Wine)
Two Brothers Red Eye Coffee Porter
Two Brothers White Rye Ale
Two Brothers Flemish Ale
Two Brothers Philospher’s Stone Saison
Two Brothers Hop Juice Imperial IPA
Two Brothers Cane And Ebel (Gravity Keg)
Two Brothers Oak Aged Imp Stout NW (Gravity Keg)

(If anyone happens to go to this, please drop back by Oh…a beer and leave a review in the comments.)

My favorite alehouse in New York City – Blind Tiger Alehouse – is having another event that makes me regret ever leaving NYC in the first place. (Not that the OAB HQ in the mountains isn’t pleasant and all…)

From the Blind Tiger newsletter:

As you might of heard around the ol’Tiger, Christmas in July is at hand. For you new-comers, this is a celebration of the winter holidays in true Blind Tiger fashion – BEER!!! What sounds better than enjoying all those big chewy spicy holiday brews in the middle of the summer? What is so great about the holidays in the winter, anyway? Now there are no heavy jackets to lug around; angry shoppers with their angry children bumping in to you; unwanted relatives – sucking every nickel out of you for gifts; sitting at home alone with a plastic tree wondering where it all went wrong and how you could – Uh, sorry about that… Lets talk about holiday beer!!!

This Wednesday July 22nd at 4:00PM, the Blind Tiger will be rolling out some of the rarest and tastiest holiday brews around (with a few non-holiday gifts) in celebration of our 10th Annual Christmas in July. This is a list of some of the beers we are expecting – an up-dated and final list will follow on Tuesday.

Christmas in July Part 10! @ Blind Tiger
Date: July 22, 2009
Time: 4pm
Location: Blind Tiger, 281 Bleecker St., NY, NY

Anchor Holiday Ale
Avery Old Jubilation
Blue Point Winter Ale
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout ‘07
Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA
Dupont’s Avec les Bons Voeux
Gouden Carolus Noel
Left Hand Snowbound
Stoudt’s Winter Ale
Harvey’s Christmas Ale (Cask)
Grado Plato Kukumerla
St. Bernardus Christmas
Samichlaus Biere
Smuttynose Winter
Great Divide Hibernation
He’brew Jewbalation 12
N’ice Chouffe
Ridgeway Brewing Company’s Bad Elf
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Slyfox Christmas
Weyerbacher Winter Ale

Also, in addition to the free cheeses from our friends at Murray’s, we will also have some dried meats to add to the feast!

(If anyone happens to go to this, please drop back by Oh…a beer and leave a review in the comments.)

Brewery: Saranac Brewing
Location: Utica, NY
Style: Lager

Switching up from the recent run of big beer reviews – but staying in a New York state of mind – I present one of my latest favorite session beers: Saranac Summer Brew. My friend Peter Wohelski first introduced me to the concept of mixing lemonade with lager for a summer drink. Few bars are actually equipped to do this either lacking a decent lager – or more often – lemonade worth mixing. So, finding a brewery putting together in one bottle seemed like kismet.

Let’ get one thing out of the way at the start: I would have preferred this use REAL lemonade and not a flavoring. Of course, that would have introduced a number of issues that I’m sure someone like Dogfish Head might want to overcome, but just don’t make sense for a session brew from Saranac. The end product does suffer a little from the flavoring factor, but not so much to fail the beer.

It should come a no surprise that this pours a clear pale yellow with a frothy bright white head. While the heads falls a bit quickly, it’s not a real issue for me with this beer. It’s not about the head here – it’s the beer. There is a definite lemony scent combined with a simple lager aroma. I wish the lemonade to lager balance of the scent came through in the taste. Unfortunately, the lemon flavor dominates here. I suspect it’s the flavoring versus a real lemonade. I’ve had well made lager and lemonade with fresh lemonade and the beer and citrus balance perfectly. Think Ale and Stout or a proper Snakebite to understand. The lemonade flavor lends a bit of a soda pop edge to this – not quite Zima territory but bordering dangerously close.

Thankfully, it does not enter the dreaded Zima Zone and stays in a very nice utility beer DMZ just outside the ZZ. This is nothing challenging – nothing extreme – nothing more than a simple crisp beer perfect for a summer drinking while kicking back on the deck next to the BBQ or fire pit. The 3.5% ABV keeps this firmly in the “have a few category.” I had the one for this review while eating Cha Cha Hut Fish Tacos and the pairing was brilliant. Clean simple citrus brew with well grilled fish on a nice summer night. I rarely gets better at the OAB HQ.

Brewery: Shmaltz Brewing
Location: Saratoga Springs, NY
Style: American Strong Ale

While writing the Jewbelation Eleven review, I discovered a bottle of Jewbelation Twelve in the cellar. It seemed only fitting to follow the Eleven review with the Twelve. So – as a prelude to Cha Cha Hut Fish Tacos – we opened the He’Brew Jewbelation Twelve while the grill heated.

This time – the number of malt and hops increases to 12 each. That also means the ABV kicks up one point to 12%. I was not really expecting a huge difference from the Eleven and in many ways I was right.

The Twelve pours with the same deep black brown color of the Eleven. The head is still massively thick and creamy, but this time much darker – mild roasted brown. There is that massive malt aroma again – full of chocolate but also coffee in this edition. There is definitely more play between the malt and hop this time. (Note: I did server this a bit warmer initially than the Eleven as this line appears to favor the 55-60 degree range.) It starts with a big sweetness full of roasted malt, chocolate and coffee tones and finishes with a bittersweet punch thanks to the hops. The hops bring a piney edge to the back end.

A small complaint is – unlike the Eleven – the alcohol is more prevalent in the Twelve. There is a definite burning but not quite harshness. That makes this a bit more of a warmer than the Eleven. That definitely puts it into the “Winter Drinking” category for the OAB HQ. It was a fine brew – perhaps not the thing for a summer evening on the deck – that I hope to find a couple more for the cellar. I’m hoping a winter fire and a few months of cellaring will mellow this a bit.