Crafting beer has always been a close cousin of culinary exploration and this weekend’s fourth annual Brew and Chew featured small-plate pairings from some of the city’s best chefs and homebrewers. The afternoon featured six teams compeating with all proceeds donated to hurricane relief efforts in the western Catskills through the MARK Project.

Our favorite pairing of the afternoon was Team Woot’s Autumn Weizenbock & Peanut-Butter Banana Cuties (above). While both were phenomenal creations in their own right, the combination of subtle banana notes in the weizenbock that played elevated the peanut butter ice cream beyond your average ice cream sandwich. Additionally, the hint of salt brought the decadent desert to a nice balance between sweet and savory.

Also notable was The Moxey Brother’s pairing of pineapple-juice brased, heritage pork tacos al pastor with Birthday Suit Session Ale; a west coast inspired, overhopped pale ale. The combination of pineapple in the tacos played nicely with tropical citrus notes of the hops and the carbonation and bitterness cut the fat in the pork. Overall, a fantastic Sunday afternoon and unique event for New York Craft Beer Week.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: brooklyn, diamond, homebrew, ny craft beer week, pairing.

Leave it to the good folks at Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn to celebrate Good Beer Month in style. Teaming up with Jimmy Carbone (of Jimmy’s Number 43) and the rest of the Good Beer Seal folks, they transformed the Brooklyn Acadamy of Music into a two floor feat of delicate small plates and crafted brews in the same vein as their annual Good Spirits event. Pairing some of the northeast best breweries – including Kelso of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Brewery, Sixpoint, Southampton, Ithaca and more – with some of the city’s best restaurants – including Northern Spy, Gramercy Tavern, Beer Table, and Bark Dog – the event was one half party and half feast in one of Brooklyn’s favorite venues. Check below some of our favorite pairings below and click through for the full slideshow!

Heritage Pork from Jimmy’s No. 43 paired with Troeg’s Troegenator Double Bock

Terrine from Northern Spy paired with Greenport Harbor’s Summer Ale

Deconstructed BLT’s from Beer Table paired with Sixpoint Audubon IPA

Terrine from Gramercy Tavern paired with Brooklyn Brewery’s Concoction

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: BAM, beer table, brooklyn, edible brooklyn, edible manhattan, good beer, good beer seal, ithaca, kelso, sixpoint.

Another great video from the Sixpoint brewery describing their new collaboration with Stumptown Coffee Roasters… A cold-pressed coffee infused German-style bock beer. Check out the video for Mad Scientist Series #2: Berserker Bock and find it on tap in New York here.

Tags: brooklyn, sixpoint, stumptown, stumptown coffee, video.

The last two and a half decades have been a whirl-wind ride for Williamsburg’s Brooklyn Brewery. Right from their humble beginning in 1987 – when owners Steve Hindy and Tom Potter quit their day jobs to revitalized Brooklyn’s long brewing heritage – the Brooklyn Brewery has been on a meteoric rise to become one of the top 40 breweries in America.

Like any brewery, brewhouse capacity has always a major limitation for the Brooklyn Brewery. Rent is expensive in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood and finding nearby real estate can be an equal restriction. But all of those obstacles were overcome last week when the Brewery cut the ribbon on phase one of their 13,500 square foot expansion. The new space, located in an abandoned warehouse adjacent to the current brewhouse, will increase production ten fold as well as result in ten new jobs at the brewery. I Drunk That recently had a chance to swing by their tasting room for the expansion celebration and get a taste of their new Brewmaster’s Select beer, Main Engine Start.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2011, brooklyn, Brooklyn Brewery, Event, Main Engine Start, Photography, smoked beer.

Date: Thursday, January 7th, 7pm
Time: 7:00pm
Location: The Gate, Brooklyn, NY – map
Click here for official site

---

TAP LIST:
Life & Limb
Limb & Life
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Vintage 2004
Sierra Nevada Torpedo 2008
Sierra Nevada Stout 2007
Dogfish Head 90’ IPA
Dogfish Head Festina Peche
Dogfish Head Raison d’Etre

In August of 2009, brewing pioneer Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada and maverick brewer Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head collaborated on a companionship. The result is a brotherhood of beer reflecting the kinship that has developed between these two indefatigable craft beer brewer-advocates.

Life & Limb is a 10% ABV strong beer that defies style characteristics-brewed with pure maple syrup from the Calagione family farm in Massachusetts and estate barley grown on the Grossman “farm” at the brewery in Chico. The beer is alive with yeast-a blend of both breweries’ house strains-bottle conditioned for added complexity and shelf life, and naturally carbonated with birch syrup fresh from Alaska; it is the first beer we know of ever to use birch syrup in the brew.

Limb & Life is a companion to the big beer-an acorn off the larger tree. It is a 5% ABV small beer-a low-gravity beer made using the residual sugar as “second runnings” from the first larger brew, fortified with American hops. This is a session beer. Its big brother is a sipper.

The Gate’s own beerheads Patrick J. Hops & Jay P. Malt on hand and at your service!

Tags: brooklyn, dogfish head, Events, life and limb, Limited Release, sierra nevada.