Wolaver’s Pale Ale

Picked up a six of Wolaver’s Pale Ale at Fairway this past weekend. Didn’t realize Wolaver’s was an Otter Creek brand.

Smuttynose “Finestkind” IPA and Nectar Red

Picked up two new six-packs at Fairway last weekend, although haven’t gotten to try them yet: Smuttynose “Finestkind” IPA and Nectar Red.

Nectar IPA

I picked up a six-pack of Nectar IPA at Fairway over the weekend, and it’s quite good. Additionally, it is quite possibly the least bitter IPA I’ve ever tasted.

While I do love me some extremely bitter IPAs, this was a nice change of pace for once.

The best bar in New York City

If you are a craft beer lover living in New York City, do yourself a favor and get over to Pony Bar as soon as possible. This absolute gem of a bar is a bit off the beaten path — corner of 10th Avenue and 45th Street — but totally, utterly and absolutely worth the trek. The bar’s impressive menu of 20 rotating craft beers helpfully indicates the ABV for each of their brews, and for those interested (and really, if you’re making a point of coming here you know you will be) you can request a scorecard to keep track of every beer you imbibe at the bar. The bar will then hold onto the scorecard for you when you leave, and if you eventually consume 100 different beers you receive a sweet shirt and membership into Pony’s vaunted elite beer drinker’s club.

In addition to being the only bar I am aware of in Manhattan specifically dedicated to craft beers, Pony’s prices are unheard of and unbeatable. Literally every single beer they offer on tap — regardless of ABV — costs $5. I have never been to a bar in which craft beer was offered at such a bargain price across the board. Clearly the 10th Avenue location is the primary factor in this pricing schematic, but it certainly helps make the hike over there that much more worth your while.

To be able to enter a bar in New York and be confronted with a menu of 20 new beers I’ve never tasted is truly a dream come true for this craft beer aficionado, and I look forward to many more lazy Saturday afternoons of new beer discoveries at insanely reasonable prices.

Stout beer tasting in Serious Eats

Via the inimitable Ben Kabak, here’s a great article from Serious Eats on tasting North American stouts.

Belgian beer tasting in the New York Times

Here’s a story from today’s New York Times in which the author tasted 20 Belgian beers with restaurateur Christian Pappanicholas, the owner of Resto, and Richard Scholz, owner of Bierkraft in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Needless to say I’m a wee bit jealous.

Sierra Nevada Glissade Golden Bock and Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine

Yesterday I picked up two new beers at Fairway that I’ve never tried before: the brand-new for 2010 Sierra Nevada Glissade Golden Bock and Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine, owner of a drool-worthy 11.3% ABV.

Reviews forthcoming.

First official meeting of the NYC Beer Club

The first official meeting of the New York City Beer Club took place on Saturday, January 30, 2010, and consisted of me, Pete and my brother-in-law Ryan. While Pete and I have partaken in a handful of official and unofficial beer tastings over the years—the most recent being a semi-official gathering at Pete’s on January 8—this was the first such instance in quite some time that we actually armed ourselves with scoresheets.

The directive was simple: Try four new beers, take notes and grade each brew on a scale of one to five in the following categories: Appearance, Aroma, Taste, Aftertaste and Overall Impression.

The four beers we tried during the first official meeting were as follows:

Mendocino Red Tail Lager
Mendocino Black Hawk Stout
Ipswich Nut Brown Ale
Ipswich Original Ale

Here is what we each had to say about Mendocino Red Tail Lager:

Appearance
Pete: Clear red body; white head
Ryan: Light orange/red
Larry: Light red

Aroma
Pete: Malty
Ryan: Nut, malt
Larry: Not terribly aromatic

Taste
Pete: Malty
Ryan: Smooth, soft, light, no bite
Larry: Light, expectedly lager-ish taste

Aftertaste
Pete: Crisp, brief
Ryan: Fast finish
Larry: Mild, not terribly bitter

Overall
Pete: Not too much flavor; pretty light in flavor, 2
Ryan: Good compliment to cheddar cheese, 3
Larry: Nice, light, relatively inoffensive lager, 3

NYCBC Total Score for Mendocino Red Tail Lager: 2.7

Next up we had the Mendocino Black Hawk Stout.

Appearance
Pete: Very black and opaque; small, tan-colored head
Ryan: Dark, opaque
Larry: Dark, almost black. Guiness-esque.

Aroma
Pete: Caramel
Ryan: Caramel, coffee, chocolate
Larry: Coffee

Taste
Pete: Coffee, chocolate
Ryan: Bubbly, chocolate, bitter, Snickery
Larry: Coffee-like bite

Aftertaste
Pete: Long aftertaste; coffee, chocolate
Ryan: Bitter, lengthy
Larry: Subtle coffee aftertaste; lingers a bit

Overall
Pete: Solid stout, not too bitter or oily, 3
Ryan: Solid, probably wouldn’t want to drink more than 2-3- bottles, 3
Larry: Enjoyable, though not sure I’d buy a six-pack, 3.5

NYCBC Total Score for Mendocino Black Hawk Stout: 3.2
Third, we tried the Ipswich Nut Brown Ale.

Appearance
Pete: Cloudy, brown, cider
Ryan: Amber, brown
Larry: Semi-deep brown but not that dark

Aroma
Pete: No real aroma
Ryan: Peanut brittle
Larry: Most pungent so far prior to even having a sip

Taste
Pete: Hazelnut
Ryan: Nutty
Larry: Like a slightly better-than-average brown ale; very nutty

Aftertaste
Pete: Short, bitter
Ryan: Short, hazelnut
Larry: Doesn’t stay around terribly long

Overall
Pete: A little sour on the tongue but very tasty. Not too heavy, 4
Ryan: Good – would get regularly, 4
Larry: Really solid beer. I would buy a six-pack of this, 3.75

NYCBC Total Score for Ipswich Nut Brown Ale: 3.9
And lastly, we had Ipswich Original Ale.

Appearance
Pete: Cloudy white head; honey color
Ryan: Light brown
Larry: Slightly darker than Red Tail

Aroma
Pete: Floral/fruity
Ryan: Fruit
Larry: Smells a touch fruity

Taste
Pete: Malty
Ryan: Classic ale
Larry: Fairly mild pale ale

Aftertaste
Pete: Bitter, short-lived
Ryan: Slight linger
Larry: Pleasant, inoffensive

Overall
Pete: Thick for an ale; flat taste, 2.5
Ryan: Fairly average, 3
Larry: Not a particularly bold taste, 3.25

NYCBC Total Score for Ipswich Original Ale: 2.9
As you can see, our favorite brew of the four we tried today was Ipswich’s Nut Brown Ale. It definitely boasted the best flavor profile without completely overwhelming us with a lingering aftertaste.

Would I recommend any of these beers to fellow beer aficionados, or seek out six-packs for either my house or to bring to a party? Probably not, although if I randomly came across Ipswich’s Nut Brown Ale in a batch of mixed bottles I might reach for it.

Welcome to the official home of the NYC Beer Club

Stay tuned for a comprehensive report of the NYCBC’s first official tasting.

You’re telling me a supermarket has the best beer selection in New York City?

Well, non-beer distributor division, anyway.

Beer enthusiasts, take note: the Pioneer on the Upper West Side, on Columbus Avenue between 73rd and 74th Street, has the most impressive beer selection I’ve ever seen at a supermarket. This fact is even more perplexing considering that the place looks like an absolute dump from the outside, and a C-Town on the inside.

And yet, once you set foot inside, you cannot go more than two feet without bumping into beer. Most supermarkets save the prime end-of-aisle space for their weekly specials, but not at Pioneer. In addition to the absurd number of beer displays, the supermarket’s absolute jaw-dropper is an entire aisle devoted to beer. A portion of this aisle features six packs, but the majority of the space is taken up by a beer aficionado’s dream: literally hundreds of individual beer bottles — from craft breweries across the country to countless global imports — and empty cardboard six-pack containers, enabling one to create their very own variety pack.

Surprisingly, a couple of the commenters at Beer Advocate seemed fairly nonplussed about Pioneer, although a closer inspection reveals the dissenters to hail from out of town. I don’t know what the supermarkets are like in San Francisco and Chicago, but in Manhattan, you’re lucky to exit a Gristede’s or Food Emporium with anything better than Bud Light. Forget about Flying Dog or Long Trail.

Additionally, higher-end boutique food markets like Fairway and Whole Foods aren’t in this discussion, as you can’t compare a place like Fairway with your average run-of-the-mill overpriced and disgusting Manhattan supermarket. However, even if you did include those two beloved stores, both of which stock a fairly impressive amount of craft beer themselves, they still can’t compete with Pioneer’s overall selection — Pioneer boasts more than 400 types of beer — and the ability to mix and match individual bottles.

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