It’s Live Bloggerin’ time!!!! (Phil’s kinda excited for The Avengers). Hello Beer Friends Nation! Here we are again for our current favorite live blogging beer event at Idle Hands Bar in New York City welcoming Sierra Nevada to the stage.
For now were are chilling with a couple of pre-gamers:
“I’d like to thank my friends and family, those that supported me in low times, thank you Gigi, my little girls watching at home and most of all the academy, thank you!” It needs a little work, but we had barely any time to work on it (or about 100 weeks…) We made it. 100 reviews. 100 videos of a “bunch of boring dudes drinking beer on camera.” This week we return to one of our favorite breweries – Sixpoint from Redhook, Brooklyn. The Beer Friends have always been huge fans of Sixpoint and it was like Christmas when we could get their stuff in cans. We quickly ran out and reviewed our favorites, our new favorites, newer beers to Sixpoint, old standby’s, and their first seasonal. Now this Black IPA/Stout mix - Diesel comes along and confuses some people on it’s exact style and admittingly the Beer Friends were confused as well – until we went to the source and sought out the truth. Thanks to all the viewers out there who caught us for the first 100, and keep watching for the second 100!
Phil here tonight we are live logging from the awesome basement bar Idle Hands in New York City for Empire Brewing’s tasting night. The brewery is joined by Finger Lakes Distillery for a little compare and contrast. Paul and Graham will do the comparing and I will probably be the contrasting opinion……so sit tight, we’re gonna grab an intro beer and a burger and when the party gets started we’ll let you in on the fun!
Phil’s First: we have started off the evening with the Finger Lakes Distillery White Pike Whiskey. I am definitely the farthest thing from a whiskey fan here at The Beer Friends, but I have to say that this one out of all of the times I have had whiskeys in the past, this is the ONLY time I have not been completely turned off and can finish the one shot taster. I actually could have a full serving of this, which coming from me, says a lot.
Today we return to Great Lakes Brewing for their Burning River Pale Ale. This is a true to form Pale Ale, not like the overly hopped pale ales that we usually gravitate towards. Great Lakes Brewing is a fantastic brewery and we look forward to each chance we can try their beers so find one yourself, crack it open and play everyone favorite home game… Beer Reviews with the Beer Friends! Ohio River Valley! Pale Ale! Home Game!
This week the Beer Friends decided to stay in – we didn’t travel to California for Speakeasy, or Florida for Cigar City… instead we stayed local and tried Tundra Brewery Red Ale. Tundra Brewery is super local, only available at a few greenmarkets and local conscious shops around NYC. This up and coming brewer is Mark VanGlad and pretty much IS Tundra Brewery, he owns it, grows the hops, makes the beer, bottles it and outsources his label designs (UPDATE: to his girlfriend). At the time of production Tundra only had two available brews: Red Ale and Ma Pale Ale, but have now added a Brown Ale for the Holiday season. Do yourself a favor and find his stuff, you won’t regret it! Local Brews! One-Man operation! NYTimes friends! Beer!
Happy (Belated) Halloween from the Beer Friends! This week our SPotW was the perfect Halloween hangover in Cape Ann Brewing Pumpkin Stout. After you’ve dressed up and hit the houses in your neighborhood (yes I understand that our readership should be at least 21 – but I had a huge haul this year – even got a full size Snickers!) kick back and crack open this Pumpkin Stout to wash down all the Sweet Tarts and multi-colored Tootsie rolls (that I most likely gave you from my bag/pillowcase). This is the third Pumpkin brew in a row and we couldn’t help ourselves but to review the latest trend on the market. Warning: this will not save you from the stomach ache (or possible diabetic coma) you will have from eating all your candy in one night – but it will make you go to sleep faster… Beer! Candy! Pumpkin!
In our never ending quest to improve the overall quality of everyone’s beer drinking experience we try and find little tidbits of knowledge that might help you out in a jam. To that end we present to you a video that our colleagues over at Lifehacker found showing you how to open a beer bottle using one simple sheet of 8.5″X11″ regular printer paper. A perfect piece of know-how, in my opinion, if you find yourself in the office with a sixpack, your bottle opener on your keychain broke last night and Bob (the other guy in the office with a bottle opener keychain) already left. Take a look, you never know when it might come in handy to either impress a cute girl or win a bar bet, to say nothing of opening your favorite brew.
We had a great time at Rattle n’ Hum last night at the Empire Brewing Company event. Being a fan of the Empire Cream Ale I was excited to try some of the brewery’s other offerings. Of course, they did not disappoint. The “Dragons” were the standouts to me. I tried both and am interested to try these, and more like these, again. The addition of the basil to the Belgian style was great, and it almost got Phil to call a Belgian ale delicious…
If you missed out last night, NEVER FEAR! Empire is hitting NY Craft Beer Week hard and you should make sure you don’t miss it.
They have 2 events scheduled tonight; one at Spring Lounge and at Puck Fair. If you miss those, then you can hit up Dive Bar tomorrow night.
I suggest you try to get out to one of these events, and check below for what Phil and I thought of the night as it unfolded.
After a good conversation with a friend of mine about the wonders and wiles of the MolsonCoors company vs the Belgian Juggernaut InBev, I stumbled across this neat little Infographic on a sweet little website called coolinfographics.com. It was put together by Philip H Howard at Michigan State University and is a really great way to show the various relationships of some of the top over-arching beer conglomerates, and who they own in the craft beer world.
Granted it’s not the most comprehensive guide to the craft beer world, but I would be willing to bet there’s at least one ownership connection that might surprise you. Take a look and let us know which one was a shock!
Every once in a while the Beer Friends like to step out from our craft beer world and try something… well… from Walgreens. Walgreens Big Flats 1901 Lager is a pale ale that you can find at participating stores for 3 dollars. That’s right, 3 bucks. However, you pay for what you get (at least that’s what my dad always told me…) Cheap beer! Walgreens! 1901!