Good Beer 3rd Anniversary

Interview with David of Good Beer (Flash version)

Non-Flash podcast   

Good Beer celebrated its third anniversary on Nov. 9, with complimentary pours of Single Cut 19-33 Queenslagerrr! on draught. We did a very limited post on Good Beer in June of 2011, when first discovering the shop, which has become a near daily ritual. Since the summer of 2011, in addition to the already then established Bierkraft, Whole Foods and New Beer, we're seen an explosion of bottle shops/growler filling stations in NYC. Alphabet City Beer Company, Top Hops, Beer Boutique, Breukelen Beer Merchants, City Swiggers, The Jeffery -- the list goes on, and continues to grow.

David with a rich pour.

Good Beer stands out for their extremely carefully curated selection and fair prices. Their stock is about 80% American craft beer and 20% from countries with established brewing traditions, such as Germany, Belgium, the UK and Scandinavia. Patrons are welcome to purchase both bottles and growlers to go. But only sample sized glasses and pints may be enjoyed on premise, along with light snacks, as a condition set by the Community Board in approving their request for a liquor license. Their food menu consists of organic, local or heritage chorizo, kielbasa, vegan sausage, pretzels, jerky and hot dogs.

Good Beer has also become known for their fantastic events and tap take-overs: Founders, Perennial, Allagash, Dogfish Head, etc. Most of their events take place on Tuesdays during after work hours. They're very vigilant about keeping their BeerMenus listings updated, and you can keep up to date on their events and specials via their Facebook page. In this installment of the podcast, we speak to owner David, as well as some regulars who we know from the Black Top Street Hockey adult rec league, which plays in near-by Tompkins Sq. Park during the warmer months.

A surprised André.

A sign of good beer.

Cantillon Amphoras

Our 8 day trip to northern France and Brussels began auspiciously with a visit to the Cantillon Brewery, where brewer Jean Van Roy showed us an exciting brewing experiment that he's undertaken. He's fermenting and conditioning about 2,400 liters of lambic in custom made amphoras.

Amphora of lambic.

Jean got the idea from a wine maker friend of his in Sicily. He said that the wine he experienced which had been aged in the ceramic vessels was dramatically different from wine aged in wood barrels, and that he instantly wondered what his beer would be like if aged the same way.

While beer used to be fermented and stored in such vessels a few thousand years ago, we've not heard of any brewery using such ancient vessels in modern times. For Jean, it's a pure experiment, with no idea about what the end result will be. Hear the whole story of Cantillon's bold exBEERiment in this week's podcast. There are lots more great photos of the amphoras on Cantillon's Facebook page.

B.R. and Jean Van Roy.

Gueuze.