Beach Beer

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One of the nice things about a beach that's located in a federal park is that you can crack open a beer with no fear. It's completely legit. That's one reason to swim at Fort Tilden rather than Jacob Riis in the Rockaways! But for this trip, we went the distance, all the way out to Fire Island National Seashore.

Beach cat wagon?

Got a seagull problem? Start cartin' in the cats.

You can't get to this part of Fire Island by car. You have to take a boat. And that means bringing provisions, like cats, from the ferry to your beach bungalow in a cart. At the Davis Park area, there are about 100 bungalows, most quite nice and spacious. Further east at Watch Hill, where we end up, there are no commercial buildings, motels, residences or anything, really -- just sand and sea. There's a small convenience store and snack shop/bar where the ferry docks, a changing station, and some camping spots. But that's it.

Cool old telephone pole on Davis' "main street".

We brought four beers with us: Blue Point Summer Ale, Brooklyn Summer Ale, Stevens Point Nude Beach and Harpoon Summer Beer, which we saved for the ferry ride back to Patchogue, where the LIRR train station is.

It was an amazing day! We spent about four hours swimming, sunning and suddsing! The water was extremely warm for this time of year, and about as clear as we've ever seen it in the North Atlantic. We even got visited by a small school of juvenile banded rudderfish, who hung out with us in the shallow water, swimming between our legs, and up to our faces when we dove under the waves!

Beer at the beach!!!

We kind of got a little crazy making beer messages in the sand with colored stones on the beach. At first it was just a simple "BEER!" Which turned into a "BEER HEAR!" And then a drawing of a beer mug was added. Then the mug was colored in with stones. People walking along the beach took notice.

A few people stopped and photographed the "art"! Though some, we believe, thought that it was an advertisement, and that we we're selling beer. It clearly amused and confused.

 

We saved a can of Harpoon Summer Beer for the 30 minute ferry ride home. Three gals across from us on the ferry had brought their cocktails from the harbor bar on board, but most of the other passengers didn't think to have a nice return trip tipple, and they looked a bit jealous.

Once the ferry docked, we thought that rather than run to catch the next LIRR train back to the city, we'd drop by Harbor Crab, next to the ferry station. We sat by the window in the casual backroom bar overlooking the water, watching the geese float about while a white egret-kind-of-bird picked off small fish swarming in the warm shallow tidal river beneath us.

 

While the birds were feasting below, we enjoyed pints of Great South Bay (Bayshore, L.I.) Blonde Ambition and Blue Point Summer Ale, along with some raw clams and oysters, and some Italian calamari, which had marinara sauce and ricotta cheese -- very tasty. Then, inevitably, it was the long, sleepy train ride back to the busy city, far from the desolate sand and soothing waves... for now.

It started off simple, making a message in the sand with stones.

Then it got more involved.

And even more involved.

And then we lost control.

This is a mosaic of a beer mug... if you couldn't figure that out.

What other beer could you possibly drink on this beach towel?

Waiting for the ferry back to the main (is)land.

That's right -- we brought beer on this cruise!

Well, they've at least got Blue Point and Great South Bay.

Geese goosing around.

Craft Beer At Nassau Coliseum

The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum is the 2nd oldest venue in use by any NHL team (the oldest one, MSG, just got an $850M renovation), and is notoriously one of the most depressing venues for so many reasons, not least of which for the team that plays there and the often ghost-town attendance.

BUT, with Rick DiPietro winning games, young talent like Tavares lighting it up, and those raucous games when the Habs fans seem to take over and electrify the entire building, it's not all bad! And one of the most surprising, impressive and delightful new wrinkles that we discovered on our third-ever jitney to Uniondale was the beer!

Maybe replace Goose Island with Southampton? Or Greenport? Or Barrier?

Our bus, sponsored by the Canadian Association of New York City, arrived a bit late, and as we hurried along to find our seats at the end of the 1st period of a Habs visitation to the Island, B.R., always scanning the beer environment, caught sight of a good sign -- "They've got Bluepoint here!"

The odds were (literally) 50/50 that the guy behind us taking our picture was in Habs regalia.

Now, Bluepoint is good. Very good. But for a major sport arena/stadium/coliseum, Bluepoint is like finding water in the desert. We didn't care which Bluepoint that they were serving -- that's what we'd be drinking, in lieu of Bud, Bud Lite, cold-filtered ice-brewed triple-hopped cold-activated lime-flavored whatever, etc.

But when I got to the one stand selling beer that was drinkable, I was confronted with a rare experience at a major sports venue -- a real choice of real beer. Would it be pints of Bluepoint Toasted Lager, Bluepoint Hoptical Illusion, Goose Island IPA, Brooklyn Weisse, Magic Hat #9, or Lighthouse Ale? For some reason George Killians Red was there, too (not an option). But the real beer-option bomb... Captain Lawrence Smoked Porter!

A tap that we've rarely seen in most fancy NYC beer bars, right at home in the Coliseum.

What?! Seriously? A smoked porter at an NHL game? How is that possible? That's nothing short of a miracle. That's a beer that I'm excited about seeing when I'm at Barcade, Blind Tiger, DBA or, really, anywhere. But at an Islanders game?

At MSG these seats 7 rows off the glass would be $500 each. But go 20 miles east, and they're only $60 -- with round-trip transportation! Thank you supply-and-demand!

So, all in all, we split two Capt. Lawrence Smoked Porters, a Bluepoint Toasted Lager and a Brooklyn Weisse. (And a Sixpoint Bengal Tiger on the way there, thank you Cory!) And all of the beers were fresh and in very good shape. Let's hope we get choices like that more often when we go to the big show. Yo, MSG, how about some Kelso Kreik!