Big Alice At MBAS Meeting

  [link to podcast page]
Big Alice Brewing podcast

Big Alice Brewing's brewers were the guest speakers at the Malted Barley Appreciation Society on May 8, 2013 at Mugs Alehouse in Williamsburg. You can get the long story about how they got into brewing on their website, but the short story might begin with a homebrew contest hosted by Heartland in 2011. Kyle and Robbie entered two of their homebrewed beers into the contest -- a light Belgian ale and a dark Belgian ale. And while they didn't fare well with the judges' panel, one of the beers won the "people's choice" award, which gave them the encouragement to start talking about brewing professionally.

Kyle and Robbie.

In 2013, they applied for licensing and started up Big Alice Brewing in Long Island City, joining fellow tiny Queens breweries Rockaway and Bridge and Tunnel, and the not-so-tiny Single Cut. They brew on a .333 barrel Sabco system. That's just ten gallons! When planning the enterprise they thought, "we don't need to brew huge quantities, but we want to be able to play around with recipes a lot, and have other people pay for our hobby."

Their concept is to brew unique one-off recipes using organic and local ingredients as much as possible, often incorporating seasonal ingredients in the recipes. Rather than offer one consistent product, they will brew something different each and every time! Operating a ten-gallon system certainly allows for unlimited experimentation. They plan on making 72 different batches this year.

Kyle, Felice and Robbie.

There's got to be some serious hurdles for a brewery that brews a different style each batch, including having to design, print and register a unique label for each 48-bottle run of 25-ounce bottles. The labels alone could be very costly. So they devised an interesting answer to their labeling issues. They have the same exact label for all their beers, except for a blank space in which the batch number is indicated. To find out what kind of beer that batch actually is, one must refer to the brewery's website.

So, batch #0001 is a red ale brewed with Cinderella Pumpkin in the mash, and fermented with Belgian ale yeast. Batch #0002 is a Belgian I.P.A. with the addition of citrus fruit in the fermenter. #0003 uses barley, wheat and rye in the mash, and Flame Raisins, and is fermented with multiple Belgian yeast strains.

Even their sales concept is one of a kind. They operate a community supported agriculture model (CSA) for sales, selling "subscriptions" to their brewing projects direct to individuals, offering 2 bottles per month for six months. Their plan is to sell two-thirds of their production through "beer shares", 30% of which has already been sold to individuals who have been early supporters of the brewery. They're going to release the other portion of beer shares to the general public very soon. They hope to sell another third of their production through retail outlets.

One of the beers they poured at the meeting -- their second batch -- was a Belgian style I.P.A. featuring a unique ingredient: Buddah's Hand. The Buddah's Hand, which is a Far Eastern citrus fruit, is introduced in the fermenter, and imparts an exotic citrus quality to the beer. They also poured a wheat malt based coffee stout (50% wheat), which was dark, rich and roasty, utilizing Gorilla coffee beans ground up and added in the fermenter. 

Wheat malt coffee stout.

By the way, the brewery is named for the iconic Ravenswood No. 4 electrical power station which is located in their neighborhood. The plant was built in the early 60s by the Allis-Chalmers company -- thus nicknamed "Big Allis" -- and was the world's first million-watt generating station. The brewery's homepage has a very comical comparison of Big Allis to Big Alice!

Big Allis.

The brewhouse.

Setting up the system.

This is what nano brewing looks like.

Rockaway Brewing

[link to podcast page]
WFMU's Beer Hear! Rockaway Brewing Podcast

Recently, Ethan Long of Rockaway Brewing was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Malted Barley Appreciation Society homebrew club at Mugs Alehouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

 

Though the 2-barrel nano-brewery is located in Long Island City, Ethan and partner Marcus Burnett, had long been homebrewing buddies at their summer bungalows in the Rockaways. That's where they first dreamt up the idea to create a commercial, albeit tiny, brewery.

 

The operation was licensed in April of 2013 and began brewing two months later. Their ESB and Black Gold Stout have been flowing at a handful of NYC craft beer bars since. In addition to being served at Alewife, Proletariat, Sunswick, Jimmy's No. 43, Kickshaw and others, Rockaway Brewing scored big by getting their brew on the menus of reputed local Rockaway eateries Rockaway Taco and Caracas Arapa, as well as LIC-based John Brown Smokehouse. They also serve the public growlers to go direct from their brewery Thursdays through Saturdays at 5-01 46th Ave. in Long Island City, not far from Silver Cup Studios -- which is convenient for Ethan, since his "day job" as an independent set builder is also located there! Marcus also works in the film industry as a cinematographer, filming documentaries for National Geographic.

Ethan of Rockaway Brewing with MBAS president Felice

Rockaway Brewing fires up the kettle in the 1000 sq ft brewhouse on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, delivering their goods themselves on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Aside from always being able to find one of their beers at Alewife and Caracas Arapa, they brew a special nitro-system Oyster Stout for Vinegar Hill House at 72 Hudson Ave.

Rockaway Brewing on Jimmy's No. 43 tap tower

There's a very good piece on nano-brewing, which features Ethan, on American Public Radio, and Jimmy Carbone's Beer Sessions Radio featured them last summer. And, of course, you can hear Ethan's address to the MBAS right here!

In a bonus podcast, Ethan explains that Rockaway Brewing is not located in the Rockaways but in Long Island City near the East River, and that, ironically, his bungalow in the Rockaways sustained less flood damage than the brewery did during Sandy.

 

Alewife Beer Bar in Queens

  [link to podcast page]

Alewife in Long Island City Queens is the subject of this week's podcast! There are two main points that can't be stressed enough about the place. #1: it's not at all far from Manhattan. In fact, it's the first stop on the 7-train, one station away from Grand Central. And #2: their goal is to have the very best draft beer list possible, and it could be argued that they succeed!

Patrick, formerly of Rattle & Hum, Bob and Daniel.

In addition to being a station of the Boston mass transit system, a Massachusetts state park, and a species of herring, "alewife" is also an old English term for a gal who manages a pub. And with founder Daniel Lanigan being from Boston, we're not sure which he was going for in the name. (Probably not the fish, but, who knows?) Daniel is also the man behind other elite Northeast beer destinations: The Moan and Dove in Amherst, Mass., Lord Hobo in Cambridge, Mass., The Dirty Truth in Northampton, Mass. and Alewife Baltimore, in Maryland, of course.

We've been to all but the Baltimore establishment, and -- yeah -- this guy is a bit of a fanatic about putting the best shzt on tap! The ever changing list at Alewife is almost threatening in its level of quality. They boast 28 taps, plus a beer engine for casks, and a respectable list of bottled beer, as well.

Having opened in October 2011, Alewife recently brought on Patrick Donagher to help with events and publicity. Patrick has been a key figure in the NYC craft beer scene, as manager of Rattle & Hum and as the driving force behind the touted Get Real! beer events, which he continues to run.

Being in LIC, the gastropub has some distinctive advantages, and unfortunate perception disadvantages. On the plus side, the non-Manhattan rent allows for a huge, airy, open, comfy space, with an upstairs dining area, a cozy fireplace nook, and an outdoor deck. On the (supposed) downside, it's not in Manhattan. But wait a minute -- neither is Spuyten Duyvil! In fact, S.D. is one subway stop further from Manhattan than Alewife! It takes about the same amount of time to bicycle to both places from the East Village. And rumor has it that another good beer bar is eying the neighborhood of Vernon/Jackson, which will make it all the more of a beer destination.

Notice the foam lacing resembling the USA on Chris' glass!

We haven't had too much experience with the food of Alewife just yet, but we can attest to the fact that their fries are pretty damn good! They come seasoned with a garlic topping, and rank as some of the best in NYC. Their pizza is respectable. And, judging by the look of the roast beef sandwiches au jus which we saw others wolfing down recently, the menu will please the carnivores among us.

We expect to see more and more special events driving folks beyond the East River to enjoy what Alfwife has to offer. Who knows -- maybe LIC will become our intra-NYC get away. Remember when the East Village became ruined by up-town yuppies and bridge-and-tunnelers, and we were forced to go to Brooklyn for sanctuary? And then Williamsburg became spoiled with the trendy-set? LIC is still far enough off the radar to provide a relaxing, non-unnerving pub experience! I'll take that train one stop!