Meet the Brewmasters at Effin Gruven

 

Meet the Brewmasters night at Effin Gruven in Bellmore NY on Monday May 16, 2011.  This memorable night was featuring Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery and Phil Markowski of Southampton Public House.  This event was on the Monday of Long Island Craft Beer Week.  There was so many amazingly rare and unreleased brews at this event, many of them being aged and/or oak aged.  The alcohol content of the night probably averaged around 8-10%.  Its safe to say that everyone had a good time and had a good buzz going.  There were only 60 tickets sold for this event and there was a lot of familiar faces from the Long Island craft beer scene.  Check out the videos of Garrett and Phil talking during the event.  Also for more pics check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/licraftbeer/sets/72157626850680816/

Brooklyn Brewmaster's Reserve: The Tonic

The next draft only segment of Brooklyn Brewery's Brewmaster's Reserve series is The TONIC.  Here's the official write up by none other than Garrett Oliver from the "Jockey Box" e-mail newsletter from the brewery to the distributors:

We spend a lot of time with our pals in the cocktail world, and they are constantly putting new flavor combinations in front of us. One of my favorites is a Scotch-based cocktail called The Penicillin. Invented by bartender Sam Ross at Sasha Petraske’s famous NYC cocktail bar Milk & Honey, the Pencillin is an instant classic. It combines peaty Scotch, ginger-infused honey, and lemon juice. It’s an improbable blend, but it’s delicious, and it’s also the inspiration for our next Brewmaster’s Reserve beer, The Tonic. The government wouldn’t let us call the beer “Penicillin”, we’re afraid. But friends, between you and us, this brand new Tonic will cure many of your ills. Now take your Tonic and text us tomorrow.
MALTS
English Peat Smoked Malt, English Pale Malt, German Pilsner Malt
HOPS
Willamette, Cascades, Fuggles, Kent Goldings, Simcoe, Citra, Sorachi Ace, Amarillo
ADDITIONS
Dried Lemon Peel, Minced ginger, NYS Wildflower Honey, Organic, Lemon Juice from Italy (Sicily)
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This beer will begin shipping at the end of this month and as always will be in super low quanities.  

Long Island Cask Festival

The 7th annual Cask Ale Festival at Blue Point Brewery was held on Saturday April 9, 2011.  It was a beautiful day and there were a ton of great beers there, all in cask of course.  Two of the tastiest brews were being served by none other than Brooklyn.  One of these cask conditioned beers was Blast, a west coast IPA as Garrett Oliver calls it, some call it an imperial or double IPA.  This had the most beautiful critical hoppiness you look for in a big IPA like this.  It was extremely drinkable and remarkably smooth even at 9% ABV.  The clarity of this brew was amazing, and this is no easy task especially when the casks weren't arranged and tapped until a few minutes before the event, normally 24 hours is recommended to settle the finings.  Finings are used to settle the live yeast in a cask to the bottom to prevent consumption of these yeasts.
The other offering from Garret Oliver and the Brooklyn Brewery was first released this passed March at the brewery and select locations.  This beer was a dark and roasty Dry Irish Stout.  Perfect body and a nice blend of roasted malt makes for a really enjoyable session beer at the festival.  Many of the beers at the festival being higher in alcohol made this beer a real treat at only 3.9% ABV.  There are rumors, none are confirmed, that this beer may become the Brooklyn Spring seasonal release in the future.

Dinner Cooked By Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster Garrett Oliver

On Thursday January 14th 2011, Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster, Garrett Oliver cooked a special beer school dinner at the Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg Brooklyn.  Garrett paired 5 courses of world class food with 5 different world class Brooklyn Brews.  LIcraftbeer was there to experience Garrett Oliver's personality, expertise, his food and his awesome beers. Heres a look at the menu that night:

One beer that was served during the dinner was a brew that is not sold to the general public.  This brew was served with an amazingly tastey stuffed quail, and goes by the name "wild 1".  Wild 1 is Brooklyn's

Local 1 aged in oak barrels with a special strand of wild yeast added.  This brew had a very similar dry taste that the Local 1 has, but add in some perfectly balanced oak aged tannins and another couple percent abv (alcohol by volume) and this brew is awesome.  Perhaps one day this brew will be available for everyone to try.  Until then the only way to stumble upon this brew is at the brewery it self or at special Brooklyn Brewery events. 

The stuffed quail and wild one.

For all the pictures of dinner by Garrett Oliver visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/licraftbeer/sets/72157625771520393/