East Coast Vs West Coast Punk Rock Brew Tour

[link to podcast page]
WFMU's Beer Hear! East Coast Vs West Coast Podcast

Three years ago, Smuttynose's NY sales rep Pat Fondiller started the East Coast Vs West Coast Brew Tour with two East Coast craft brewers and two from the West Coast. The idea was to take over the taps of a bar while a particular music genre battled over the sound system (think East Coast Hip Hop artists vs. West Coast Hip Hop artists) and the beers battled on the tap towers.

(C) Jan from Sierra Nevada, (R) B.R.

Pat said that the inspiration of the annual event was the fact that all of his music-centric pals drank terrible beer, and this was an excuse to try to get them turned on to the good stuff.

Jeff from Sixpoint, unidentified person, Pat from Smutty and Yvon from Oscar Blues.

We went to Barcade Jersey City, one stop on the 8-city stops on the tour, to talk to Pat about the history of the EC/WC Brew Tour, the schedule for this year's installment, as well as some of his ideas for future tours. One thing he told us was that, continuing with the beer/music collaborative themes, Smuttynose Director of Brewing Operations Dave Yarrington wants to brew a beer called  "B.W.A. -- Straight Out Of Hampton" once that their new facility opens in Hampton, N.H.! Suckers to tha side I know you hate my I.P.A. -- you're gunna get hops!

Barcade JC

Here are all the remaining dates left on the tour:


April 9 Bronx Alehouse -- Bronx, NY
April 10 Birdsall House -- Peekskill, NY
April 11 The Black Sheep Ale House -- Mineola, NY
April 12 Beer Authority -- NYC, NY
April 16 Julians -- Providence, RI
April 17 The Independent -- Providence, RI
April 18 Bar Matchless -- Brooklyn, NY


See ALL the dates for this year on the tour's FaceBook page.

Don't believe in Beer Santa? Now you do.

Sierra's Jan with his pal Liz of WFMU

Bronx Belgian Pale Ale

[link to podcast page]
WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 3/26/2013

In between sampling Franconian gravity kegs at Jimmy's No. 43

Weissenohe Bock at Jimmy's No. 43.

and joining some street hockey pals at Cadaques tapas bar in Williamsburg,

Cadaques, with the world's smallest water glass, by request.

we dropped by Coopers for the Bronx Brewery's release party for their Bronx Belgian Pale Ale.

Bronx Belgian Pale Ale.

Our pal Sean McCain, Sales Director, was on hand, as expected, along with the brewer, Damian Brown and GM Chris Gallant. We managed to talk to Damian about this new addition to the Bronx Brewery line up, though we had to fight the din of a full bar on a Thursday night.

L-R: Sean, B.R., Damian, Bob and Chris.

Damian told us that he uses two strains of Trappist ale yeast and another Belgian ale yeast in the Bronx Belgian Pale Ale, in order to achieve a beer that's very "yeast-centric". The addition of Belgian candi sugar in the boil ups the fermentables, and helps augment the rich malt flavors created by the use of Beloeil Belgian Pilsner and Biscuit malts, as well as German Vienna malt from Weyermann. One thing that sets the beer apart from most others of this style is the apparent liberal use of spicey American Sterling hops, putting a sharp hop bitterness into the finish of this 6.7% unfiltered beauty of an ale.

Bronxizindahowwwwz!