I've spent the last 5 days in New York on a holiday break with some friends. I'd been looking forward to the trip and the beer possibilities it presented since we booked last October. The trip wasn't supposed to be about beer but such is my obsession with beer these days and my love of US beer, that for me at least it was going to be a major part.
It seems that the beery gods had decided to shine on me and decide that New York Craft Beer Week would coincide with our trip. Craft beer week comprises of a number of independent events/tastings and beer/food evenings organised by the brewing community and craft beer bars of New York. There's lots going on for the duration of the week including a major cask festival featuring beers from all over the US a number of food evenings featuring beers paired with food by well known chefs and lots of special evenings where bars hand over their taps to a particular breweries offerings. There were are also a number of educational events lined up notably (for me) a historical bicycle tour of Brooklyn pre-prohibition brewery sites and even an amazing sounding sailboat cruise around Manhattan while Garret Oliver discusses the history of IPA.
What it also meant at the very least was that the city's best beer bars would be upping their games to provide an increased number of beer tourists with the widest selection of beers available. As I was travelling with my wife who can't drink beer and two friends who aren't as obsessed as me I was more than happy to settle for this amazing stroke of luck and shoehorn in a visit to the famous Brooklyn brewery home of the aforementioned charismatic Mr Oliver.
Instead of boring you all with in depth reviews of each and every bar we visited and the beers we drunk, I'm gonna list the 5 bars I liked best and the 5 particular beers which stood out...
Bars
1. Studio Square
2. Brooklyn Brewery
3. Blind Tiger Ale house
4. The Ginger Man
5. Rattle 'n' Hum
I have to pick Studio Square in Queens as the favourite place we visited. I loved the communal German biergarten style of the place with everyone sat together outdoors on long tables sharing pitchers of beers in the sun. The main seating area was a nicely laid out courtyard with lots of room, there were also massive indoor areas with lots of seating, perches, and long bars without queues. The bar regulalry features live music although there wasn't any that Saturday afternoon. To be fair compared with the other bars on the list above the beer choice at Studio Square was small but it was still large by your average bars standard and well thought out with a number of sessionable Oktoberfest beers and pale ales. There was also plenty of carb heavy food on offer to soak up the beer which was definitely needed after our chosen pitcher of Racer 5.
I also really enjoyed our visit to Brooklyn Brewery. On Friday nights and Saturday/Sunday afternoons a large part of the brewery is converted into a bar and (by the look of it when we were there) a studenty/local crowd gather to drink and be merry. The Blast which I believe is fairly rare on draught outside the brewery was delicious and I would have gladly stayed all afternoon if with some beer loving friends its a really laid back, fun place. It was however VERY loud and busy, which limited conversation somewhat. As it was so busy we skipped the tour, which we were told is more of a lecture in one of the hot brew rooms and concentrated on the beer.
Of the other well know beer bars we visited I liked The Ginger Man, it was bigger, cooler (temperature wise) and had more seating and food on offer than Rattle 'n' Hum or The Blind Tiger. I'd guess its generally less raucous than the other two in the evening as well. All these three bars had vast beer lists 40+ taps of draft, 100+ bottles and surprisingly for me at least all had cask offerings, either on hand pull or gravity. They may have had more cask offerings because it was beer week, but I thought it was interesting that the Americans are getting into cask whilst the British in some small way are getting into US style decent keg ale. Its worth reporting though that all the cask I tried was too warm. And varied from the disappointing - Great Divide "Wood Aged Anniversery" (which I've had in a bottle and was fantastic) through weird - Cigar Citys, "Guava Grove" (a sour cloudy Belgian made with guava puree) to the fantastic (Bear Republic "Racer 5").
Beers
1. Bear Republic: Racer 5 (cask & keg)
2. Troegs: Dead Reckoning Porter
3. Avery: The Maharja IIPA
4. Brooklyn: Blast IIPA
5. Unibroue: Ephemere
I enjoyed / had the best beer experience of the trip perhaps predictably with Bear Republics Racer 5. This is probably tied up in my particular enjoyment of the hour or two spent at Studio Square. Its just so dangerously drinkable for its ABV, full of pithy orange and grapefruit hops with just the right bitterness to make it very moreish. It was also really great and fuller in flavour on cask in Rattle 'n' Hum but it was dissapointingly slightly too warm. To be honest though, I found it difficult to order anything else when I saw it on and it remains a firm favourite.
Of the others beers I drank Avery's The Maharaja was a brilliantly balanced tropical, citrusy and slightly sweet double IPA. I also really liked Troegs, Dead Reckoning Porter which going on recent debate would please people not only with its flavour but also with its naming. A fantastic roasty, coffee flavoured porter with great mouth feel and loads of pungent hops, I'd have called it a Black IPA.
I did plenty of online research on where I'd like to visit helped in a large part by the 'places' section of Rate Beer and the amazingly useful and new to me beermenus.com a website which provides up to the minute listings for beer bars, restaurants and shops in a growing number of cities in America. Being able to see what was on and what was available in bottles in advance was a great help in planning where I wanted to spend my limited time and where to find the best bottled beers to bring home with me (Whole Foods Bowery and New Beer Distributors).
Obviously the site is only as good/current as the information added but this site appears to have users updating content diligently in an effort to stay with the pack. Most of the decent bars in New York are making use of beermenus.com or updating their own pages and I'd loved to see more of the same in the UK. The Grove in Huddersfield is one pub locally which knows the value of advertising real-time listings of their beers and I'm also aware of a new business over here called yourround.co.uk which is offering a similar service in the UK, good luck to them. Andy at Beerreviews.co.uk has recently done a blog on the importance of the Internet to pubs/breweries and my recent experience in the US confirms his opinions. Check it our here:
I had a great time in New York and in some way was fairly glad that my time in the great bars I visited was limited. There was a distinct lack of sub 5% beers on offer and the temptation to try the stronger offerings was hard for me to resist. I'd recommend a trip to New York wholeheartedly whether for beery reasons or not, I'll definitely be heading back...
