Sierra Nevada Beer Camp: Stung Honey Rye PA

Sierra Nevada has a beer camp for fans to visit and create their own brew.  Dave from Bellport Beer took the trip out to Chico, California and had the opportunity to get STUNG.  The 40th batch of brew camp beer is STUNG HONEY RYE PA.  This brew is a rye IPA with honey added.  It has an abv of 8.0% and will age nicely.  This is very limited and is being served tonight at Bobbique in Patchogue. The Good Life in Massapequa Park is serving this limited brew on Monday March 7th, 2011.  DEKS in Rocky Point also has a barrel and will be serving it sparingly.  Go to Dave's Bellport Beer, pick up a growler and speak to Dave.  He's a super cool guy and really knows his brew.  Here are some pics of his journey to beer camp.

Theres an article on Dave and his brew at: The Long Island Pulse

Beer From The Bottom Of The Ocean

In summer 2010 one of the oldest preserved beers was found in the Åland archipelago at a depth of 50 metres. Divers found not only several bottles of well-preserved champagne, but also five bottles of beer. One of these beer bottles is now being studied at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.  This information came along with the video found on youtube.  It is interesting to see what style of beer, what ingredients were used and how old the beer really is from this find. 

Brooklyn Brewery's Founder Steve Hindy on CNBC

Along with plenty of politicians, fans and members of the craft beer industry, the media was also at the Brooklyn Brewery ribbon-cutting ceremony to kick-off the brewery expansion.  Amongst the media was CNBC who happened to interview the brewery's founder, Steve Hindy, live on television from the event.  This is the video from that interview which focuses on the success of the craft beer segment:

How to Saber open a bottle of Local 1

The Brooklyn Kitchen located not very far from the Brooklyn Brewery hosts many instructional classes in the demonstration kitchen in back of the store.  They've held classes teaching everything from home brewing, to pumpkin carving to cup-cake making and decorating.  This video shouldn't surprise you coming from these guys.  This video walks you through cutting the cork and top of the bottle off of a champagne bottle and a bottle of the LOCAL 1.  Using a huge saber in the Brooklyn Kitchen this guy literally slices the top portion of the bottle off that still has the cork stuck in it. This seems a little too dangerous for the regular craft beer drinker, especially after drinking a bottle or two of the Local 1 which is about 8% alcohol by volume.

A couple Sierra Nevada Draft Only Releases

There have been a couple draft only releases from Sierra Nevada.  One release is a blended brew that mixes a beligian style quad and a dubbel.  It is actually 60% brandy barrel aged belgian style quad with dates and currants added and 40% belgian style dubbel.  The name for this interesting blend is 2X4 and who knows if there will ever be enough of this liquid to bless Long Island.  The other draft only release from Sierra Nevada isn't as unique but may have a special spin on a common style, the pilsner.  This pilsner is called a "sticke pilsner".  The term "sticke" is from German decent and means "secret".  Usually a brew called a sticke beer is a beer that a brewery doesn't release the recipe for.  Perhaps the only way to truly describe this beer is by tasting it.  As far as we know this beer is limited release and probably wont be available locally.  Check out the barrel collars below.

Sierra Nevada Estate Homegrown Ale Brew Review

In our travels we happened to find a gem on the shelf.  This gem is a 25.4 ounce bottle of the all organic wet hop Sierra Nevada Estate Homegrown Ale.  All the barley and hops were grown on the Sierra Nevada brewery property in Chico, California.  This imperial pale ale weighs in at a 6.7% ABV for the 2010 crop.  The label is a cartoon representation of the brewery and surrounding farms.  The bottle cap is dipped in a green wax that matches the label and cap underneath.

Once you open this beer you instantly smell the wonderful hop aroma.  It smells like you are hopping a home brew while its in the boil. A wonderful smell matches a beautiful clear copperish amber color in the imperial pint glass.  The head of this IPA was a solid two fingers thick and very inviting.  At the first sip you imeadiatly taste the perfect balance between a crisp citrusy hop taste and a biscuity malt character.  This is such a smooth bodied beer with a sessionable alcohol content that you wish there was more of this precious brew available.  This is a must try for a wet hop india pale ale lover.

 

Ribbon Cutting At The New Expanded Brooklyn Brewery

Back on May 28, 1996, Mayor Rudy Giuliani cut the ribbon to open the brand new Brooklyn Brewery, in Williamsburg Brooklyn.  This was actually Mayor Giuliani's birthday.  Nearly 15 years later the Brooklyn Brewery has expanded into a vacant building next door.  On Monday February 14, 2011 Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut the ribbon to officially open the newley expanded brewery.  This happened to be Mayor Bloomberg's birthday as well.  This is just a random coincidence but perhaps this will give the brewery the luck it needs to continue to be one of the leading craft breweries.
This day was filled with camera crews, beer industry members, news reporters, politicians and of course the brewers, owners and opperators of the brewery.  This day is just the next step in the growing Brooklyn Brewery.  The first brew has been brewed at the new brew house and it is scheduled for a release party the following day of the new brewery ribbon cutting ceremony.  The first brew from the new brew tanks is "Main Engine Start" which is a abbey style single that is part of the Brewmasters Reserve series.  The Brewmaster Reserve series is a draft only release of changing beer styles that is in very limited quantities.  We look forward to seeing alot more of these unique brews from Brooklyn in the near future.

For more pictures from this monumental day visit: LIcraftbeer Flickr Brooklyn Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

New Samuel Adams Boston Lager Label Coming Soon

As you should come to expect from the Boston Beer Company keeping things FRESH is part of the business.  The beer labels are no exception.  This is the newest Boston Lager label to hit the market sometime this spring.  The original brewer patriot is still on the label but a brown background makes this label look very sharpe.  You can tell by the freshness dates on the side that this label should be out pretty soon.  Heres a classic reminder of the old logo.  Cheers!

White House Honey Ale

Home brewing has hit the White House.  One of the chefs for President Obama and his staff has made a home brew specially for the White House Superbowl Party.  The Obama family had purchased a set of home brewing equipment for the chefs of the White House.  The result is a Honey Ale.  This batch of beer was made with one pound of real honey that was taken from the White House's own bee hive that yielded 160 pounds of honey this past year. The bee hive is located outside Mrs. Obama's South Lawn Kitchen Garden.  Hopefully there will be more of these home brews coming out of the White House.

Anchor Brekle's Brown Ale

Although this beer beer WILL NOT be available on the East Coast, it does seem like a must try brew for anyone fortunate enough to get a pint of this liquid.  Brekle's Brown Ale is an all malt, single hop, brown ale.  Accoring to Anchor, Gottlieb Brekle was a German immigrant that made California his home during the gold rush.  Gottlieb Brekle and his wife started a bakery and a brewery around this time.  This brewery ended up becoming Anchor Brewing years later.  This beer, Brekle's Brown Ale, is a draft only run to commemorate Mr. Brekle.  There are only 420 barrels of this beer produced and it will be in the San Francisco area during this coming week which is San Francisco's Beer Week for 2011.  This is the logo for this brew:

Long Island Craft Beer Week

So the first meeting went down at the Black Forrest Brew Haus for the first Long Island Craft Beer Week.  This was mainly a meeting for everyone interested in being involved to sign up and share ideas.  This was run by Andy from Starfish Junction. As you would expect from Andy, the meeting was run very smoothly and right to the point. 
The official LICBW is Friday May 13 to Sunday May 22.  There will be alot going on this week and we do our best to keep you informed.  There will be a kick-off "simul-cask" where there will be multiple kick-off parties at different craftbeer locations through out Long Island.  These parties will all be broadcasted via the internet, which should be very exciting!  This will allow for people from all parts of Long Island to have the opportunity to attend a kick-off cask party.
Some other events that were mentioned to take place during this week is craft beer hall of fame introductions, industry awards, home brew competions (must be a member of one of the two home brew clubs on LI) , beer dinners, samplings, tastings and other special events.
One thing that all participants must have in common is that they must sell or serve or both of at least one Long Island based craft brewery.  This does include brewerys from Brooklyn and Queens.  This shouldn't be difficult for most craft beer outlets since there are so many breweries on the this small stretch of sand we call home.

This is the current logo but there is word that the Brooklyn Brewery logo will be added soon.

Magic Hat Vinyl Logo

This is a quick follow-up to the previous Spring Seasonal article below.  Check out this video of Jim Pollock, a legend in music poster art, as he creates posters of the Magic Hat Vinyl Lager logo.


Last year after Magic Hat decided to introduce their new Spring Seasonal, they decided to have Jim Pollock design the label.  This logo has no problem fitting the brewery's style, with psychedelic color blends and the classic "green fly" in the middle.  Its been said that some locals in Vermont call the green fly the "state bird" which come out in full force during the warmer spring months.
Here is one of Jim Pollock's Vinyl Lager prints:

Spring Is Coming Early This Year

Today is Wednesday February 2, 2011 also known as Groundhogs Day.  Today is another miserable weather day here on Long Island, but instead of snow its now freezing rain.  Thankfully most of the areas groundhogs didn't see their shadow so Spring will come early this year.   It already has as Spring Seasonal varieties are hitting the shelves and taps.  This is your last chance to enjoy your Winter brews which are still great for about a month or so considering the weather in February and March are still much colder.  However the Spring brews are here.
Some beers are new to the market and some are the usual suspects.  One new brew to this season's collection is Long Trail Pollinator.  The Pollinator is an English Style Golden Ale originally brewed from 1997-2003 as a lighter offering to Long Trail's line of ales.  Now the Pollinator is back as the Spring Seasonal in both 12oz bottles and on draft!  Look for this brew at finer craft beer bars and retail outlets.

Some other returning Spring Seasonal beers are Noble Pils by Samuel Adams, Glissade by Sierra Nevada, Aprihop by Dog Fish Head and Vinyl Lager by Magic Hat to name a few solid brews.  There are a ton more craft Spring Seasonals, too many to name. There are also plenty of other Bock beers and you can't forget the Barley Wine Style beers also come out this time of the year.  Plenty of good beer to be drank in the upcoming season.
An old favorite brew for this time of the year is Dog Fish Head's Aprihop.  The Aprihop is an American IPA with apricot added to the flavorings. The apricot flavor isn't overwhelming but in fact balances delightfully with the hops.  This brew is a favorite fruit beer amongst the hop heads and there's no wonder why.  This beer is available in limited quantities in both 12oz bottle and on draft.



The Noble Pils is back for good from Samuel Adams and is one of the best pilsner style beers ever brewed.  Using all 5 noble hops, Jim Koch spares no expense in his ingredients.  These hops include Hallertau Mittelfrueh, Tettnang Tettnanger, Spalt Spalter, Saaz, and Hersbrucker Noble hops all from Germany or Czech Republic.  This seasonal brew is available in 12oz and 22oz bottles and also on draft.

The Glissade by Sierra Nevada is a unique seasonal in that it is a Golden Bock style beer that is well balanced and crisp.  This brew is very drinkable but beware the 6.5% abv will sneak up on you quick.  The Glissade was first released last year taking the place of the old esb (early spring beer).  This brew as well as the Vinyl Lager by Magic Hat is only in its second year of release at a Spring Seasonal.  The Vinyl Lager is an American Amber Lager with a medium body and is highly sessionable.  This smooth brew comes in at 5.1% abv so you can certainly have a few or more of these and still have a decent conversation.  Both the Glissade and Vinyl Lager are available in 12oz bottles and on draft and growler systems.
So it seems like a few major craft breweries have finally found the right beer to represent their spring portion of the ever so popular seasonal segment.  Why is it that the Spring Seasonals took much longer then the other seasonals to find their place?  Is spring beer the forgotten seasonal?  No one knows for sure but spring is certainly welcomed this year.