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.

Grimm Artisanal Ale

Interview with Joe & Lauren Grimm (Flash version)
  Non-Flash podcast 

Grimm Artisanal Ales is a husband and wife brewing company that approaches the art of brewing as... well, an art! They are brewers without a brewery -- nomadic brewers, gypsy brewers, however you term it. And they are among a growing young breed of modern brewers who put creativity before commerce, and variety before conformity. Rather than be tied down by the crushing financial obligations and limitations of owning bricks and stainless steel, they simply create a recipe, order the raw materials and brew their creations at other breweries that have surplus capacity.

 B.R., Bob, Lauren, Joe (Photo: Gillian Charlotte.)

Mikkeller, Evil Twin, Stillwater, Pretty Things, 8 Wired, Yeastie Boys, and now Grimm -- the list of these unfettered, unanchored, unrestricted craft brewers continues to grow. Some gypsy brewers simply contract with a brewery, giving them the specs, recipe, label artwork, etc., and then buy the end product from the brewery at wholesale cost, which they then sell to distributors. Others, like Grimm, see the process through from start to finish, hands on, at the brewery.

Photo: Gillian Charlotte.

Grimm recently released their third beer, a rye abbey ale called Going Awry. It's very similar to their 2nd beer, the Bees in the Trappe, though without the honey, and using Danko rye malt, a rare northern European rye that has a less spicy and more bread-like character than traditional rye malt. They used the same Belgian yeast strain for both beers. We got to talk to brewers Lauren and Joe Grimm at The Sampler, a fantastic new growler/bottle shop and bar in Bushwick which hosted the release party for the beer.

 

The couple has been homebrewing since 2005. but prior to that started experimenting with other fermentables, such as kimchi, sauerkraut, mead, kvas. It didn't occur to them to get into fermenting beer until discovering the vast varieties of Belgian beer styles. They say that they still brew at home constantly, as they experiment, research and plan for future commercial batches. They've brewed all three of their initial beers on the 20bbl system at Paper City, located in Massachusetts, which is where Pretty Things brewed for many years. Currently about 75% of the beer is sold in keg, with the balance going into 22oz bottles.

Made with 300lbs of NY State wildflower honey.

Like fellow upstart brewers Big Alice in Long Island City, Grimm brews a different batch each time, and doesn't plan on ever repeating a recipe. They liken their project to record label, with the brewers being the songwriters and musicians and the brewery as the recording studio. That's an apt analogy, since Joe has performed in a slew of indie rock bands over time. Loren and illustrator Gretta Johnson collaborate on the artwork for the labels. Grimm plans on brewing a new batch of unique beer every six weeks.

The first offering from Grimm.

Photo: Gillian Charlotte.

Photo: Gillian Charlotte.

 From their website:

GRIMM ARTISANAL ALES BATCH #3: GOING AWRY 
STYLE: RYE ABBEY ALE
ABV: 8% SRM: 15
IBU’S: 25

Brewed for the autumn season, our GOING AWRY abbey ale pours a rich orange-amber color topped with a sticky, lacy white head. We brewed it with an organic, heirloom rye grown at Thor Oechsner Farm in Newfield, NY, and malted by Andrea Stanley at Valley Malt — the East Coast’s only artisanal micro-malthouse! This exceptional rye contributes a rustic, spicy element that complements the phenolic flavors of our favorite Trappist ale yeast. A touch of caramelized Belgian beet sugar adds a subtle range of dried cherry and toffee flavors dancing in the background, while boosting the ABV and maintaining dryness and drinkability.

Best served in a tulip glass between 45 and 50 degrees, GOING AWRY pairs well with stewed and braised meats, roasted root vegetables, caramelized onions, mushrooms risotto, aged gouda and washed-rind abbey cheeses, as well as apple pie and tiramisu.

Photo: Gillian Charlotte.

Freigeist In Brooklyn

35 tumblers of beer on the tray, 35 tumblers of beer...

Freigeist's Sebastian at Bierkraft in Park Slope podcast

One of the side benefits of having a large international beerfest in our (general) area which features brewers is that they tend to make the most of their trip abroad, and end up doing some events in our little town. Such was the case following The Festival, and one such brewer was Sebastian Sauer of Freigeist from Cologne/Köln, Germany, who is also the brewer of another upstart brewery, The Monarchy. He led a tasting at Bierkraft in Park Slope, and was also on hand at Spuytin Duyvil which featured his beers as well.

Bierkraft's insane list!!!

About 30 people showed up to hear Sebastian talk about the breweries and to sample 5 of the 15 Freigeist/The Monarchy beers on tap -- FIFTEEN! It's rare to see even one of these brews on draught!

Bierkraft.

Freigeist Bierkultur was founded in 2009 and first began importing to the U.S. in 2012, while The Monarchy started up last year, and makes their beers in the Dutch brewery Jopen, located in a former church. They also brew at the Braustelle brewpub in Cologne and the Vormann Brewery, situated about 70km north-east of Cologne.

Sebastian isn't as sour as his last name implies.

Most of Freigeist's products are made for export, as Germany is not a huge market for "unusual" beers that don't fit squarely into the modern German lager styles of Pils and Helles. Freigeist doesn't own it's own facility, but rents brewing time at the Cologne brewpub Braustelle, as well as other breweries (Vollman and also Göller, near Bamberg), as many other renowned craft brewers do.

L-R: Anthony of Proletariat, Joel Shelton, 
Sebastian Sauer, Chris of Bierkraft.

In addition to talking about his own enterprises and creations, Sebastian also talked about some of the obscure and nearly forgotten historical beers of Germany, which are the focus of The Monarchy brewery, as well as the Reinheitsgebot and other germane topics. He also answered the many interesting questions posed by the thoughtful group gathered. Hear his full presentation on the Beer Hear podcast!

Alternate name: A Beer Named Sue.

And I thought it was a product of England.

Grodziskie: 3.3% ABV, 5 IBU, 100% oak-smoked wheat malt
Polish style sour, bittered with willow bark.

Methusalem: 10% ABV Adambier aka Dortmunder Altbier.

Son Of A Batch: dark sour Göse, brewed with coriander
and Hawaiian black lava salt, aged in apple wood.

Munchhausen: Münsterland Altbier style, traditionally (mildly) sour.

Sauer Power ale: collaboration with Jester King.

Phoebe Caufield: this better be a rye beer!

Bierkraft backyard.

L-R: Joe from Bierkraft, Ira Glass, B.R. of Shelton Bros.

Jim spins the schlager platters.

Sebastian looks ready to bust some Schuhplattler moves.

You know, Heino!

Ottokolong at Spuyten Duyvil.

Black Smoke at Spuyten Duyvil.

Spuyten Duyvil list.

Son Of A Hickory: dark Göse sour, brewed with coriander and Hawaiian black lava salt, aged in hickory wood.
.

Rauch at Spuyten Duyvil.

  [link to podcast page]

Allagash Rarities At Good Beer

  Allagash Rarities At Good Beer podcast on WFMU

Good Beer in the East Village hosted an "Allagash Rarities" event on Tuesday June 11, 2013, which was a busy night -- also that evening there was an Allagash/Ommegang event at Mile House, a Canadian beer tasting at Top Hops, and the one-night-only screening of The Beer Hunter, followed by an after-party at Jimmy's No. 43. I only managed the Good Beer and Jimmy's events, though B.R. made it to those and the Anthology Film Archives for the screening.

The four "rarities" of the six on tap that we tried were all sour, high in alcohol, barrel aged and a few were heavy on the Brett. We tried the Interlude first, which was the lightest in color and in flavor profile. It's saying something that a very sour, 9.5% ABV, Brettanomyces fermented beer is the lightest one in your flight! It gets a primary fermentation, before the Brett is added, from a Belgian farmhouse ale yeast. A portion of the batch is aged in French Merlot and Sirah oak barrels and, I'm assuming, blended back into rest.

Bob, B.R., and Dave of Allagash.

We found the 10.3% ABV James Bean interesting, it being a pale colored coffee flavored beer. The coffee aroma was very apparent, as was the coffee flavor. It was nicely sour, and also had some bitter bite. But we found those three main components kind of stood on their own and didn't quite meld. Still, a very interesting and tasty sour ale.

Our favorites were the Avancé (B.R.'s fave) and Midnight Brett (Bob's). Avancé is a sour pale colored ale aged with strawberries for three years in bourbon barrels! This 10.8% ABV ale was probably the most complex we tried, with a really nice sweet fruit finish. The Midnight Brett at, I'm guessing, the 10-11% ABV range employs the same Allagash Tripel ale as used in the Curieux, except that the beer is aged in dark wine barrels, which impart a smooth, enticing cherry/plum aged dark fruit characteristic. The beer is stout-black in color, from the wine barrels, and has a refreshing sourness.

 

Though we were disappointed that they didn't have the Allagash BAT tequila barrel aged beer, we really can't complain about the fantastic, extremely rare beers that were offered!
 

BAM!

UPDATE:  A few days after the event, I dropped by Good Beer and saw that the BAM, the Allagash/Beer Advocate collaboration, was still on tap -- it was one of the six that we didn't have -- so I gave it a try. And, boy, was I glad that I did! I think that it was my favorite! The BAM is a 9% ABV amber ale brewed with honey and rye malt and aged for three months in two different mead barrels, one from Artesano of VT and one from Maine Mead Works, and then blended. It was very well rounded, with its delicate, subtle complexities of honey notes, fruitiness and oak playing in concert with its mild sourness (mild compared to the others on tap, at least). This is one that you don't want to miss!

  [link to podcast page]