More and more breweries are turning to cans and for good reason. There are a bunch of reasons why cans are the chosen beer vessel. They're lighter for shipping which costs less, lighter so they're easier to carry hiking, they protect the beer better from light damage and they fit in coolers/refrigerators better. There are all sorts of beer styles coming in cans also.
Originally Jim Koch wasn't in favor of putting his beloved beer in a can. Now he has changed his mind and rumors are that Samuel Adams cans are coming real soon. Above are some sample images of the first brews to be canned.
Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver made a friend ship in Italy with of course a brewery, a few years back. This resulted in two separate beers; a bruna (brown) and a bionda (blonde). The bruna is 7.5% abv and the bionda is 6.0% abv. The duo of beers was originally only available in close proximity to the brewery in Brooklyn. Now these beers are making their way East to Long Island. The beers will be coming to the island this Summer in both 12 ounce and 750ml (25.4oz) bottles.
Bubbas Burrito Bar in Islip, NY is not just a burrito bar but a craft beer bar also. Located at 513 Main St. in Islip in the heart of Islip sits a little restaurant that has some of the best "west coast" style Mexican food around. When it comes to beer owner Tim H. loves the East Coast brewing methods of Dogfish Head brewery. Tim aka Bubba features at least one Dogfish Head draft beer and usually more. His Dogfish bottle collection will make most of the local discount beverage centers drool. Many of the occaisional releases in the 750ml bottle like Positive Contact, Black and Blue and Hellhound can be found here each and every year when they are released. On top of carrying East coast's own Dogfish he carrys some heady local craft brews like Spider Bite First Bite Pale Ale. Some noteable burritos are the Brotato and the Land & Sea. The beer prices are very reasonable which makes it a great place to sample some of those rare and pricey 750ml bottles. This place is not to be missed and should be frequented regularly.
Brooklyn Lager 16 ounce cans coming to HESS EXPRESS this spring. The New York metro area Hess Express gas station store chain is adding Brooklyn Lager 16 ounce cans at a great single serve price of 2 for $4.00. Along with adding this, each store will also carry the Brooklyn Seasonal 6pk bottle that is available at that time. This is big news for Brooklyn Brewery since they were not previously mandated in that convenience chain.
There aren't many options when it comes to single-serve craft beers at a reasonable price, especially in a can. Now you can pick up a couple Brooklyn Lagers on the way home or out to do something with out picking up a 6 pack of bottles, if you can find them. Not to mention you are likely to leave the rest behind when you leave your gathering. This is all about convenience and is a sign of the times in the beer industry and what consumers want.
The second installation of the Dogfish Head & Sierra Nevada collaboration Life & Limb is coming called Rhizing Bines. This East meets West IPA is a follow up to the 2009 collabo which was a 10% strong dark brew made with Calagione family maple. Rhizing Bines is set to release this February in 750ml bottles and on draft.
Rhizing Bines is an IPA like no other. The beer is being brewed in Delaware at Dogfish with their continuous hopping technique featuring the brand new hop varietal Bravo. Then the beer is being shipped to the new Sierra Nevada brewery in North Carolina for their torpedo hopping technique, from there the beer is shipped back to Delaware where it is dry hopped once more with a super new experimental hop which is called Hop644 (too new to name). Not to mention a new Carolina heirloom wheat to round out the backbone of this brew with nutty notes. Finally this beer will be bottled and kegged weighing in at 8% and 70 IBU's.
Find this beer a solid craft beer distributors like Bay Shore Beer and Liberty Beverages in East Meadow. Also join us for A Hop Eclipse Now event in Bay Shore at TJ Finleys 6pm Friday March 15th 2013 which will feature 60/75/90/120min, Rhizing Bines, Hellhound, Burton Baton and Aprihop.
Long Trail Brewing Company has released their first draft only beer series. This series is named the Brown Bag series which features a burlap bag over the tap handles which states the style of beer. The first style released is an American IPA which is available on Long Island now at Legends in New Suffolk and Mr Beerys in Bethpage. The second installment in this series is set to be a Bavarian Smoked Brown Ale and will be released in late January.
Long Trail invites craft beer drinkers to join their "test pilot" program and share your feed back of thier draft only releases. You can sign up here: Brown Bag Series Test Pilot
Dogfish Head is up to it again, Sam is making a multi-month event leading up to the prestigious SAVOR event (which is in NYC this year for the first time). This event is A Hop Eclipse Now! Which is based entirely around IPA's and will introduce a special glass to enhance the enjoyment of your IPA. The idea is to showcase all the of many IPA's from Dogfish which will help show the different styles and taste profiles of different types of India Pale Ale's. This event will feature the core Dogfish IPAs like 60min, 90min, Burton Baton, Indian Brown Ale (credited as the first black ipa) along with the occaisional IPAs like 120min, Hellhound, Aprihop and 75 minute. On top of that already serious line up comes a few more brand new IPA's...Brand X a fruit infused ipa (which is likely not going to be called brand x and currently is unannounced) and Rhizing Bines (the colloboration with Sierra Nevada following the life and limb collabo). Look for more info on these brews in the near future here on LIcraftbeer blog.
All the above mentioned IPA's will be available throughout Long Island. There is also a couple upcoming Dogfish Head events coming up. There is a 4 course beer dinner at The Good Life in Massapequa Park this February (sorry already sold out). And there is already one A Hop Eclipse Now event booked at TJ Finleys in Bay Shore on Friday March 15, 2013. They already have 120 minute IPA draft, Burton Baton draft, Hellhound draft, 90 minute IPA bottle and a few more solid draft selections to enjoy. Check out this video to learn more about A Hop Eclipse Now!
Its been 25 amazing years since Brooklyn Brewery started making beer. To honor this Silver Anniversary is of course a beer. This Beer is the Silver Anniversary Lager which is a Doppelbock. Similiar to double version of the flagship beer Brooklyn Lager. Weighing in at 8.2% this beer will be a nice celebration to 25 years of hard work. There will be 4 different commemeritive 750ml bottles each with different art work from different Brooklyn area artists.
Originally there was only going to be bottles released as described above. We have recieved word at LIcraftbeer that there will be draft released! In March the Silver Anniversary Lager will be released on draft as part of the Brewmasters Reserve Series. Look for it at the better beer bars on Long Island.
Congrats Steve Hindy, Garrett Oliver and the rest of the staff at Brooklyn Brewery.
Sam Adams is re-releasing the original craft beer which was last made 30 years ago in 1983. This beer is the New Albion Ale which was originally brewed by New Albion brewery started by Jack McAuliffe in 1977. Set for official release this Thursday January 17, 2013 at Russian River brewery in Santa Rosa, California which currently is the home place for the original New Albion beer sign.
This beer was created after a Sam Adams employee ran into Jack McAuliffe at his home brewers club meeting. After talking to Jim Koch, owner and founder of Boston Beer Co., and realizing the trademark was no longer registered, Koch decided to register the name and make the beer.
This beer is already hitting stores and bars this week across Long Island. There is also a rumor of this beer on draft, which I can confirm. Dates and locations for the New Albion ale draft offering will be available soon.
