The Beer Friends

Today officially starts the 3rd Annual New York City Craft Beer Week. This week long event has grown to feature hundreds of events at dozens (maybe hundreds?) of beer bars and regular bars alike all across the five boroughs of New York City. The focus of the week of course is the craft beer itself, made from all over the United States and the World by skilled and creative master brewers who hone and express their craft at our favorite breweries. The beers we will be drinking have spent hours, days, weeks and months in the brewing process, all for a chance to be featured on such a massive scale as the New York City Craft Beer Week. Consider yourself lucky that you get to be on the receiving end of such a process. I sure do and so do my taste-buds.

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I’d like to say I love each season equally. They all have their own reasons for being important: the desolation and chill of winter, the rebirth and awakening of spring, the heat and freedom of summer. However, nothing hits me quite like the beginning of fall. The temperature in September dips (hardly in NYC), the leaves fall off the trees and with the change we all become more contemplative about life in general. Oh! AND there’s the beer!

Finally, the beer darkens, becomes less refreshing and more hearty. The malts get roastier, the spices come out of the woodwork (or spice cabinet) and every once in awhile you get something that tastes of pumpkin pie and home.

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Well Craft Brew lovers, the moment you’ve been waiting for since NYC Good Beer Month is right around the corner:  NYC Craft Beer Week.  NYC Craft Beer Week, in it’s 3rd year of occurrence, will be arriving at this small town’s doorsteps this Friday night with a slew of events all over the 5 boroughs.  If you are lucky enough you can still find a NYC Craft Beer Week Beer Passport which gives you a gigantic selection of deals at craft beer bars all around the city, both during NYC CB Week and year-round.  Any craft beer bar participating in NYC Craft Beer Week will have them for sale, however they do sell out.  Check the NYC Craft Beer Week website here for more details including:  participating bars, passports, pub crawls, breweries, beers and events (why would you need to look anywhere else for events besides http://thebeerfriends.com?)

Here are some of the events leading up to NYC Craft Beer Week, as well as some of our favorites out of the opening ceremonies.

Tuesday, Sept 21 – $10 Dollar Tastings: German Beer @ Jimmy’s No. 43, Manhattan: The weekly $10 beer tastings that pairs you, beer and beer experts (and cheese!) together will be featuring German Beers this week to celebrate Oktoberfest’s happy, warm, fall arrival here in New York.   If you are the fall type, who suffers through the heat of summer, waiting with anticipation to sip on those slightly hoppy, delightfully malty, warmingly spiced brews that remind you of jumping into a pile of leaves as a child and eating pumpkin pie (like one Beer Friend might…), then taking an Oktoberfest sampling from Jimmy’s reserves will please you immensely.

Wednesday, Sept 22 – Sly Fox and Cheesesteak’s Night @ Standings, Manhattan: Sly Fox, out of Pennsylvania, will be heading into the E 7th Street brew bar and sports hub of Standings to grace you with their craft brew presence.  And there will be Cheesesteaks.  I know that New Yorker’s aren’t always the biggest fans of the City of Brotherly Love.  However, for this event you should put your distrust of Philly to rest, sample some of Sly Fox’s favorite brews and eat yourself some cheesesteaks.  But if anyone asks to put on the Philly’s game, feel free to toss your cheesesteak at them as a response.. (more…)