beer

Our Quick Trip to Boston, or I’m So Glad I Locked That Down…

The other day, Holly said to me, “We need to do more Beer Adventures so you have more fodder for your Blog!” I told this to my coworker Kevin, and he said “Did you look down at your wedding ring and say ‘I made the right decision?'” I responded, “Yeah, I’m so glad I locked that down…”

Holly and I are continuing our 2016 by finding more opportunities to do something different. We live in the greatest, worst, dirtiest, prettiest, smelliest, most expensive city in the world. This year started off with a bang (literally) when our ceiling collapsed, at 12:01am on January 1st. (Ok, I don’t know exactly when it collapsed, as we were out at Singlecut Brewery with Alex, Shelbie, Ryan, Erica, and Rafa for the quietest, most amazing New Years celebration we’ve ever had. So it may have happened in 2015. We’ll never know.). Things could definitely be worse, so we’ve been making a conscious effort to be present in the moment, and venture out and explore as much as possible.

“Hi.” -2016

I got a text from Holly the other day, as we had the next day off together. “Wanna drive to Vermont tonight and crash at a B&B and spend all day touring breweries? Or we could do Upstate NY.” I thought that Vermont was a bit far for an overnight, so I did a little research, and we decided on Boston! We left right after work, and as I got onto the Whitestone Bridge, Holly asks, “Can I make us a playlist for our ride?” I said “Of course!” She responds “THIS IS GOING TO BE LIKE JOCK JAMS.” And like Jock Jams, it was. We got to hear a freaking non-radio edit of Chumbawumba’s Tub Thumping. Absolutely not-to-be-missed. Also, it made the nearly 4 hour drive go by in a flash.

We had gift certificates for bedandbreakfast.com, so we booked a quaint little, definitely not haunted, Bed & Breakfast in Brookline, MA, called Coolidge Corner.

Sitting room on the second floor of our (DEFINITELY NOT HAUNTED) Bed & Breakfast

Room 16. That bed was amazingly comfortable!!

A tiny iron burn on the hardwood that definitely wasn’t left there by a tiny ghost boy trying to iron his ghost clothing.

Cool old dresses, that way the ghosts have something to wear as they galavant the hallways whilst we’re asleep. (Because who wants to see a naked ghost?)

A Nest thermostat to cover up the fact that the temperature changes are actually caused by the ghost of this Cherub Boy.

In actuality, I didn’t see one ghost (not even a naked one), and frankly, I’m disappointed. Minus one star on Trip Advisor.

We absolutely loved this place, and would definitely stay there again. The staff is wonderful, and the bed was really comfy!

Boston is home to a ton of breweries, but the ones we decided we would try to hit in our limited time were: Sam Adams Brewing, and Trillium Brewing, which are inside the city, and Night Shift Brewing, and Lord Hobo Brewing Co., which are just North of the city. The long shot, though, was Tree House Brewing. Their brewery is in Monson, in Western Massachusetts. I wasn’t sure we’d be able to make that one, as it was an hour and a half from Boston, but it was a possibility, as (I thought) they were (sort of) on the way home. More on that later.

So basically, we tore through Boston. We got up early and had an amazing Breakfast spread (because what’s a Bed & Breakfast without Breakfast? I’ll tell you what. It’s Just Bed.). We headed out to Sam Adams Brewery to catch one of their first tours of the day. Holly and I agreed this tour was our favorite part of the trip. Sam Adams is the second largest Craft Brewery in the United States (Yuengling Brewery is the largest). They make a delicious lager, but you know that. Their other offerings are hit or miss, but they’ve been around for 32 years, and are still 100% privately owned and going strong.

A goober in front of Sam Adams Brewery. Photo Credit to Holly Kay!

The facility is absolutely gorgeous. The exterior of their buildings is a dark, reddish brown brick, combined with the cobblestone streets on their property, evoked a feeling of Old-World Germany. We got our tickets for the tour, and wandered around the lobby, waiting for the tour to start. (BTW, Tours are free! They ask for a $2 donation, all of which goes to local Boston Charities!). Our tour guide was named Tom, and he was so passionate about the brand, and about beer in general! Super well spoken and articulate about the ingredients that go into beer and the brewing process in general.

Tom, mid sentence. Photo Credit to Holly Kay!

We got to taste different types of barley (they get darker as they roast them for longer, and the more they’re roasted, the darker your beer is! SCIENCE!!).

We also got to do a HOP APPRAISAL!! (How do I get a job where all I do are hop appraisals??). A hop appraisal is where you take a handful of hops (in this case, Hallertau), rub your hands together to release the hop oils and aromas, and then smell your hands!! This is one of the only acceptable time smelling your hands in public is appropriate (in addition to, say, Lush or Bath & Body Works, where smelling your hands is absolutely acceptable, and in fact, encouraged!). I sniffed the hop flowers before grinding them up, and they smelled like sweetened iced tea, as I rubbed my hands together, and smelled again, they released flavors of lemon citrus, dank pine, and grapefruit. If I could put this scent in one of those little tree air fresheners, I would. (Is this a thing already? If not, I’m going to be a millionaire.)

Photo Credit to Holly Kay!

Holly Holding Hops! Photo Credit to Holly Kay!

“Quit smelling your hand, ya weirdo!” -Someone, probably. Photo Credit to Holly Kay!

After tasting the malt and appraising the hops, we got to see the brew house itself. Tom articulated the brewing process, from mashing in, which is where you add water to the grain to suck up all that sweet, biscuity sugar to make wort, which is non-fermented beer, to boiling and adding the hops, to adding yeast for the fermentation process. Yeast are really cool, you guys. They’re alive! And they take a dive into the beer, chow down on sugar and oxygen, and they fart out carbon dioxide and alcohol. It’s amazing. So next time you take a sip of that delicious craft beverage, remember, you’re drinking yeast farts. Malty, hoppy, yeasty fart water. (SCIENCE!!) But, I digress…

The Brewhouse! Photo Credit to Holly Kay!

After chatting about the brewing process, we went into the tasting room, and learned how to professionally taste a beer. When you’re doing a professional tasting, you use 3 out of 5 senses:

Sight: observe the color of the beer. Is it filtered, or unfiltered? How much/what color is the foam head?

Smell: Swirl the beer around in the glass. What do you smell? Malt will smell like bread, or biscuits, or sugary sweetness. Hops will smell like pine, or citrus, or grass, or tea, depending on the type of hop. Yeast, we learned from Tom, will give a beer like a Hefeweizen (a German Wheat Beer) aromas and flavors of Banana or bubble gum.

Taste: Take a sip of the beer, and keep it on the front of your tongue for two seconds. Swish it around and swallow. Then, take another sip and swallow it like a shot, straight down the gullet. You should get different flavors on the front and back of the palate. (SCIENCE!!)

As I’ve said in previous blogs, if you don’t do this, that’s ok! You shouldn’t have to put that much thought into each time you gather for a drink with friends, but sometimes it’s fun to sit and appreciate the hard work these Brewers go through to make good beer. At Sam Adams, almost the entire brewing process is automated, but all small Craft Brewers, like my friends Matt and Lauri at Moustache Brewing Company, have to sit, wait, stir, and watch their beer for hours. So much hard work and dedication goes into it.

In the tasting room, we got to sample Boston Lager (you all know how this tastes), Summer Ale (ehhhh…) and Oat Stout (YUM!). The Oat Stout was an 8% ABV Oatmeal Stout that has not been released to the public. It was roasty from the malts, with flavors of chocolate and coffee. We chatted with Tom for a few minutes, and Holly asked if she could take a picture of the two of us, so, here ya go!

Just two guys, with some beer! Photo Credit to Holly Kay!

And, like any good theme park, you exit through the Gift Shop! Holly bought a Sam Adams tee, and asked that I take her picture in front of this Rebel Raw sign (she was feeling reaaaaal good after a few tasting glasses of that Oatmeal Stout)

What a cutie! Hot cha cha!

Next, it was off to Congress Street, home of Trillium Brewing Company.

This is a quick, grab-your-bottles-and-go, shop. No tasting room at this location(which is sad), but they do have a location just outside the city that has a small tasting room, and there are bars and restaurants throughout Boston that get their beer on tap, including The Publick House (which, coincidentally is about a mile from our B&B). There, I drank the Double Dry Hopped Scaled IPA, which poured like hazy pineapple juice and tasted like a pineapple dream. (What is a pineapple dream? I don’t know, I just made that up. What does a pineapple dream taste like? Let’s just say it was like melted Dole Whip). Holly and I picked out a few bottles (Artaic, a double IPA brewed with honey, Upper Case, a double IPA with Mosaic, Galaxy, Citra, and Columbus hops, and Free Rise, a saison dry-hopped with mosaic) grabbed them, and went! We stopped next door at Row 34 (their slogan is “If we could eat oysters and drink beer for every meal period, we probably would. Professionals Only.” I’d like to say that we’re professionals.) We wanted a bite to eat and a half pint of Night Shift Whirlpool Pale Ale. This is a low ABV Pale Ale that is pure golden in color, unfiltered, and tastes like crisp, citrusy pineapple and grapefruit. This comes in cans, and is available around Boston. Pick up a 4 pack of you have the opportunity. Also, we had some unbelievable seafood; half of a giant lobster and some amazingly fresh oysters.

Aerial view of the GINORMOUS Half Lobster

The lobster was HUGE.

Small haul from Trillium!

Night Shift Whirlpool Pale Ale!

With that quick taste of Whirlpool, it was time to head up to Night Shift Brewery! While the tour of Sam Adams was amazing, this was our favorite overall brewery. It’s in a giant warehouse, with a beautiful, industrial looking tasting room, with the coolest looking flights we’ve ever seen.

Tasting room!

Really awesome wooden flight holder!

We were just north of Boston, right across the street from Teddie Peanut Butter Factory, which was wild, because the smell of freshly roasted peanuts wafted in from one side of the street, while the smell of the bready, malted barley wafted from the other.

There was a separate area in the brew house with free arcade games and cornhole! (WE LOVE CORNHOLE!). It doesn’t really matter who won cornhole (it was me) because one of the brewers walked past us and said “You guys are amazing at this. I’ve never seen anyone play this game so well.” And our hearts grew three sizes that day!!

Free arcade games!

Cornhole!!!

Kegs on Kegs on Kegs.
Holly and I were growing tired, but we are intrepid travelers (I was trying to find a witty way to combine “Beer” and “Travelers” into something like “Beerelers”, or how ’bout “Beervelers”? Neither of those really roll off the tongue, do they?), and we still had places to go!

Our next stop was Lord Hobo Brewing Co., about 20 minutes west of Night Shift. We arrived at the brewery, whose building looks like a giant castle, with a grey brick facade and a large gate at the entrance. I couldn’t take a good photo, as the sun was directly behind the building, but it was absolutely massive.

This was an odd tasting room, because they had so much space, but you were unable to buy pints or flights. They offered free samples, and cans and growlers to-go of their three IPAs, Hobo Life Session IPA, Steal This Can IPA, and BOOM SAUCE (which is an amazing name) double IPA. I’m not sure if they couldn’t get a license to sell pints on-premises, and don’t get me wrong, the beer is great, all three were classic New England-style juicy hop bombs, and the staff is very friendly, and they have a dog, but the fact that we couldn’t really enjoy the large tasting room made it a bit disappointing.

Delicious IPAs in a MASSIVE, underutilized, space.

So, that’s a lot of breweries, right? But, like I said before, Holly and I are Beervelers! (That definitely doesn’t work.). So we looked at the map, and saw that it was about an hour and 30 minutes to Tree House Brewing, and then about 2 hours and 30 minutes from there to our apartment in Jackson Heights.

As it turns out, Tree House wasn’t really “on the way home” as much as it was “in the middle of nowhere”. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive through the hills of Massachusetts (is that a thing?). Tree House is a Mecca for Beer Geeks who love hops (I fall into both those categories). But again, overall, Holly and I were a bit disappointed. We thought it would be a nice way to break up the trip back to New York, stop in and have a taste of some of the best IPAs in the country, maybe have a bite to eat, chat for a little bit, then head home.

I was reading Tree House’s Twitter page to see what beers they were releasing (they release their hoppy IPAs the day they come off the canning line, as hops begin to fade the longer the beer sits in the bottle or can). So I knew there was going to be a line. We arrived at the sprawling, farmhouse style building in the middle of nowhere, and were directed to park by employees in red Tree House tee shirts. We hopped on line with about 100 other people, waiting to purchase their cans and fill their growlers. We waited in line for about 30 minutes, soaking up the rays of the setting Massachusetts sun, and entered the tasting room. They weren’t pouring any tastes, only distributing cans for purchase, and filling growlers. Those who wanted growlers filled had to wait an additional 45 minutes to an hour. Once we got our cans, we packed them up in the car and headed back to New York. Yes, these guys make unbelievable beer, but we were disappointed in our experience at the brewery, as you couldn’t even enjoy the cans you purchased on property. They have a beautiful space outdoors with picnic tables and cornhole (CORNHOLE!) but, it appears it’s just for those waiting to get their growlers filled.

Tasting Room and Merchandise at Tree House!

Fermenters!

Three Can Release!
Photo Credit to Holly Kay!

Photo Credit to Holly Kay!

Our disappointmentcertainly won’t stop Beer Lovers from lining up for these liquid masterpieces of beer. (The beer is worth the wait.) The facility was beautiful, I only wish we could have spent more time there. I understand they are opening a new facility, and I hope that they are able to keep up with demand, and create a better on-site beer experience for their customers.

We got home around 10pm, travel weary and with a trunk full of beer!

Absolutely insane.

Our year of adventures continue, and I’m so thankful Holly Kay and I were able to share the experience together on a whim! Go out and adventure! Stay in a quaint Bed & Breakfast with ghosts! Go to a brewery! Or a vineyard! Or a museum! Enjoy the moment, and share your experiences with those around you! It feels amazing.

Thanks again for reading.

Cheers!

A love letter to Il Bambino, or, How I Became the Redheaded Tree Monster

On a sunny day in April, 2010 (it might have been late March, but that’s semantics), I put in my resume at a sandwich shop with an unassuming little storefront on 31st Avenue in Astoria. I was out of a job, and had no other prospects lined up. My wife (who was my girlfriend at the time) Holly Kay, and I, had been there once before. We popped our heads in when we were taking a walk, exploring the neighborhood. We ordered Crostinis to go, and they were unbelievable. Having lived West of the Subway, near the East River, we never really ventured past 31st Street.

Astoria is very confusing. As you go from North to South, the streets begin with a number, and end in Avenue, Drive, or Road. The numbers go up from 1 as you walk South. If you’re walking West to East, they go up from number 1, and all end in Street. Why? According to Internet (I googled “Why are streets numbered the way they are in Astoria?”), Astoria was made up of a number of different communities, who all had different names for the streets and avenues. This means that the same avenue could change names every few blocks. So, between 1910 and 1920, there was a massive overhaul, and they changed the names to numbers, going up from 1 starting in the Northwestern part of Queens.

Wow! A History Lesson! Not about beer! Yahoo for School! Yahoo for me! (This is my second Billy Madison reference in 3 Blog posts and I ain’t ashamed about it and I ain’t ashamed about my English neither.)

Anyway, I was out of a job, and in desperate need of one, so I walked into Il Bambino, on 31st Avenue in between 34th and 35th Streets. As you walk in, you look straight ahead into the dining room and outdoor garden. To your right are 6 stools, three underneath a banquette that looks out onto the street, and three underneath a small wooden bar that looks into the kitchen. On the wall to the left, there is a giant pig, sectioned off and labeled with different types of cured meats that come from each section (i.e. the head is labeled Sopressatta). Above the pig, are the words An Tard-Ri, which is Gaelic for “The Great King” (HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!?!?). Holly and I fell in love immediately, so I knew I had to give it a shot.

I spoke with Ryan Keogh, the manager, who said that there weren’t any server positions open, but he did possibly have a Counterperson position opening. I handed him my resumé, and said I was absolutely interested, and left.

A few days or so went by, and that desperation turned into necessity. I sincerely needed a job… So, here’s my side of how this went down. I decided to walk over to Il Bambino and pop my head in to see if they had made any progress in filling the Counterperson position. I was unemployed. I had nothing but time. So I walked over, and happened to see Ryan, the very manager I had handed my resumé to, walking towards the restaurant. So I said, “Hey man, remember me? My name is Patrick, I gave you my resumé a few days ago. Just wanted to follow up.” He said that he hadn’t made any decisions yet, but would call me in a few days.

Ryan remembers this differently. According to him, he was innocently walking to work one day, when an awkward redheaded monster jumped out FROM BEHIND A TREE and said “HEY REMEMBER ME? YOU GONNA GIVE ME THAT JOB????”

…I’m 90% sure I was NOT behind a tree.

A reenactment of this incident in front of Il Bambino in 2014.

Needless to say, I nailed it. I got that job. I worked behind the Counter, learned the ins and outs of the restaurant, and kept asking if and when any server positions were going to open up. Apparently I raised my hand like an eager schoolboy at one of our first staff meetings. Again, I’m 90% sure I didn’t do that. I’m an adult.

I made myself clear about what I wanted to do as I’d been stuck as a busboy in one of my previous restaurant jobs, with the promise of becoming a waiter. That never came to fruition, as I was told later I would never be a waiter because I wasn’t a woman. That was information that I wish they would have brought to my attention YESTERDAYYYY! (Second Adam Sandler reference in a single blog. Wordpress gives out badges, right? I should get a badge for this.) Also, I visited there about a year ago and there was a dude bartending. Again, whatevs. No bad blood, their food is amazing, wine list is on point, and as you’ll see in a few paragraphs, they had some beers that had an impact on me.

At Il Bambino, I became a server after about a month, and Ryan and I became friends pretty quickly. We worked hard, knew how to talk to people, and had similar tastes in music (although his knowledge far exceeds mine, also you should see his vinyl collection). Remember my first post about Kanye West’s Runaway? That’s that dude.

At this point, I didn’t know much about craft beer. I wasn’t really into IPAs (which, if you know me now, is very surprising) and I wasn’t above drinking a Bud Lite at the bar. I had been doing Improv Comedy for the last two years or so, and we were able to drink them for free (or really cheap) so that was a thing we did often. The beers I did know about were the ones served at the aforementioned restaurant where I was a busboy. Three that I remember specifically were:

Reissdorf Kolsch, which is a traditional German Kolsch, with sweet, bready malts, and a grassy hop character.
Rogue Brewing Dead Guy, a Maibock, which is a German-Style Amber Ale, a sweet, balanced beer with earthy hops.
Schneider Weisse (try NOT saying that with a German accent. You can’t do it.), a peppery, citrusy German Hefeweizen (wheat beer).

I wasn’t much of a beer guy. I wasn’t picky. Maybe times were simpler back in early 2010. Maybe I never shoulda gotten that job at Il Bambino. Maybe then, Ryan would have never turned me into the redheaded monster that hides behind trees and jumps out to grab the hoppiest IPA or the bourbon barrel-iest Stout he can find, just to scurry back behind his tree and take a sip.

Nah. It was the best decision Ryan ever made, hiring me. He knows it. I know it. We all know it. We had fun working inside that little unassuming storefront on 31st Avenue, between 34th and 35th streets in Astoria. Please go eat there.

My gateway into my love and passion for Craft Beer began here. Ryan and I would taste these beers together, and I learned that the people who made these beers were not unlike Darren Lawless (Owner and Head Chef at Il Bambino), and Ryan. They cultivated Il Bambino into the amazing restaurant it is today, and have expanded to a new location in the West Village. They’ve been working together for years, and are insanely talented, both in their own right, and know what their audience wants.

Beer, at its core, is 4 ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, and Yeast. Craft brewers are all about quality ingredients, hard work, and community. I think it’s this mindset that Darren and Ryan had helped fuel my passion for craft beer and the people who make it. Sometimes, simpler is better.

Ryan was (and is) a whiz at ordering the right beer (and wine) for the food they serve at Il Bambino. Darren’s menu of Crostinis, Paninis, Salads, and Tapas, consists of simple ingredients, simple concepts, executed impeccably. I believe that Ryan has the same mindset when it comes to the beer menu.

The beers Ryan had on the menu when I started were:

Sixpoint Sweet Action, a Cream Ale from Brooklyn, a crisp beer with grassy, citrusy hops, and a toffee-like malt profile.
Smuttynose Finestkind IPA, a malt forward IPA with balanced, citrusy hops.
Allagash White, which, in my opinion, this is the quintessential gateway into Craft Beer. “You like Blue Moon? Here, try this. It’s much better.”
Lagunitas Pils, a traditional, Czech-style Pilsner. Clean, grassy hops with nice sweetness from the malts (give this to someone who asks for a Bud or Bud Light).
Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale, classic Brown Ale from the UK, with nutty, roasted malts.
Ommegang Hennepin, a peppery, funky, tart lemon zest citrus Farmhouse Saison.
Pacifico, a Mexican style Light Lager. (Corona’s more awesome primo)

Chicken Mozzarella Panini accompanied by an Allagash White.

Ryan’s choice of beers listed above are amazing compliments to Darren’s menu. Simple ingredients, elevated and complimented by the food they’re served with. The beer menu has changed over the years, but it still contains amazing beers that pair perfectly with the food.

Founders Breakfast Stout, one of Ryan’s weekly specials. Coffee and chocolate dominate this easily drinkable, 8% Stout. Ask my Dad! He loves them!

Boulevard Tank 7 Farmhouse Saison. 8.5%ABV, with aromas of citrus, and a little funk. Taste is crisp, sweet, citrusy, peppery. Another perfect beer to go with Crostinis.

Puu Puu Platter, a plate of six different Crostinis.

Tröegs Mad Elf, an 11%ABV Ale made with Honey and Cherries. I like to let this one sit a year, as the flavors mellow out a bit.

Just wanted to throw in this picture of my gorgeous wife enjoying her wine. As you can see by the Poinsettias and Nutcracker, they decorate for Christmas! It’s amazing!

This is not beer. This is a Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Raspberry Syrup and Homemade Chocolate Frosted Flakes. Please eat this.

Myself and Ryan at Arts and Crafts Beer Parlor with The Thin White Duke.

Again, I will mention that Il Bambino now has two locations, one in Astoria, and one on 8th Street in the West Village. Please go eat there now, and I will wait here, so you can come back and finish this blog.

Il Bambino was my first foray into craft beer, and it got me excited to try something new. I learned how beer and food complimented each other. Also, I was shown the art of craftsmanship, whether it was Darren with his passion for elevated, simple ingredients, Ryan with his passion for experience (both for his employees and his customers), or craft brewers with their passion for quality, taste, and community. Often times, you can find complexity in simplicity.

Anyways, until next time!

Cheers!

Saying Hello, By Saying Goodbye? Pt. Deux

Hey! You came back! Thanks for coming back. That’s really sweet of you. You’re a real pal. This is a continuation of my first post, so please, if you haven’t read it, go back and check that one out, then come back and read this one. I’m very patient.

…

Look how patient I am!

Ok! Let’s continue with Part Deux…

So it was Hiten’s last shift at City Swiggers, a bottle shop on 86th, between 1st and 2nd Ave. You should go there. It has 14 draft beers and probably like 40,000 bottles and cans. This is not an exaggeration.

It was 8pm, which is way past my bedtime. I believe my wife, Holly Kay, had worked a 6:30am-3:30pm shift that day, and had met up with some friends in between. I worked until around 7:30, we met up, and got on the 6 (where some guy named Drake ran through with his WOEs), and walked the long avenue blocks over to City Swiggers. We were, frankly, exhausted. But we wanted to stop in and make sure we were there to give Hiten a proper send off.

It was pretty crowded, and loud, as it was a Friday night, and a lot of people were there for Hiten. My coworker David, a home brewer, was there with his girlfriend, and we said hello, and ordered our first two beers. Thankfully, two seats opened up right at the end of the bar, so we were able to sit. Our feet and legs thanked us, as we’d both been running around all day.

Holly ordered an Other Half Brewing Company Mosaic Dream (because she has impeccable taste). This is a single hopped Imperial IPA, hopped only with Mosaic. I’ve loved every beer I’ve tried from Other Half Brewing (they’re in Gowanus, Brooklyn). Hiten has waited in line at the brewery, very early on Saturday mornings, for their can releases. (See previous post for the awesome Make it Rain IIPA he gifted me…)

Other Half Mosaic Dream

I’ve heard of Mosaic referred to as a sexy hop. And ooh my, she sure is. She comes from the same family as Simcoe, another hop that I adore. The aroma wafts into your nose like a tropical breeze. One sip and you’re transported to a far off, white sandy beach (somewhere tropical, let’s say for this instance, Saint Martin), surrounded by freshly cut mangoes and pineapples. You take a bite… This must be the Dream that they’re referring to…

Snap back to reality (oh, there goes gravity!).

This beer is bright, citrusy, and perfect for a day on the beach, or by the pool, or wherever you damn want to, it’s your life, LIVE YOUR LIFE, DRINK BEER WHERE YOU LIKE! (Is that going to be the Benedict Beer Blog’s first tee shirt? Probably not.).

If you’re outside of New York and can’t get up here, and that picture I painted appeals to you, I would highly recommend picking up a Founders Mosaic Promise, or Pipeworks Lizard King. These are both single hopped with Mosaic, so you too can be transported to paradise. Check them out, and let me know what you think!

I ordered the Grimm Afterimage. This is an amazing unfiltered Double IPA, with citrusy, dank hops. According to the Brewers, they used Mosaic (there’s that pretty lady again!!), El Dorado, Falconer’s Flight, Columbus, and Simcoe. (I want to be a Hop Namer. Is that a thing? Can I make that my life’s work? I mean, come on… Falconer’ Flight? Give that man a Nobel Prize!). The hops are balanced out by a burnt caramel, bready malt sweetness. This was my second time having this beer, and it’s just as good as I remember it. I rated it 4.5 out of 5 caps on Untappd, which is an awesome Beer Social Networking App that you should absolutely check out. This comes around in cans from time to time (at least twice, from what I know), so grab it if you can. This is a gorgeous beer. If you can’t find it, try to see if you can get Grimm Tesseract, Grimm Lambo Door, Other Half Green Diamonds, or Singlecut Billy Full Stack. These are some of the best Double IPA’s released in NY.

Grimm Afterimage Double IPA

My palate needed a change after all those delicious, delicious hops… And I looked across the bar, and saw some nice gentleman sharing a bottle of 2015 Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout. This is a variant of the regular Bourbon County Brand Stout, with Intelligentsia’s Los Delirios Nicaraguan coffee beans added. For those of you who may not know, Goose Island admitted to some Varients of their Bourbon County Brand (specifically Coffee and Barleywine) having what they referred to as “off-flavors”. I was interested to try it, after reading countless reviews about how the beer was infected.

I have had the Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout once before, about 5 years ago, with my dear friends Matthew and Lauri Spitz, who went on to open Moustache Brewing Company, and it was amazing.

This bottle was certainly off. It tasted boozy, with sour raspberry and chocolate, but no coffee. It wasn’t bad, as I enjoy sour beers, but this was unintentional. I’m glad I didn’t wait on line to pick this up, but was happy I got to try it. Thank you strangers at the bar, and thank you Hiten for pouring me a taste!

Looking down into the abyss of an “off flavored” Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout

At this point, a number of our friends had showed up. We hadn’t really eaten anything at this point, so we ordered some snacks. Hiten also had a bunch of pizzas ordered, so Holly grabbed us two slices, and by that point, we wanted to slink back into our cave and hibernate like the tired bears we were. But we were having such a great time with our friends, and Hiten was having a blast pouring and sharing beers with his friends.

The last beer I tasted, and shared, was the Stone Xocoveza (pronounced “shocko-veza”) Stout. In stark contrast to being transported to the beach, this beer picks you up and drops you in a rocking chair in front of a roaring fireplace, with untouched, glistening white flakes of snow flittering by the window, family singing Christmas Carols while visions of cinnamon, coffee, and spice dance all over your tongue. Holly and I shared a 5 ounce pour of this from our friend Sean’s flight (he doesn’t like stouts that taste like coffee), and it was so good (as I remembered) Holly and I ordered and shared another.

Our friend Sean’s Stone Xocoveza Stout. He promptly ordered “A stout that doesn’t taste like coffee.”

Our second Stone Xocoveza Stout

By this point, we paid our check, and prepared to make our long journey home to Jackson Heights. We were both exhausted, but really happy that we showed up, and spent time with some amazing friends. And, as we went down into the Subway station, we saw a group of people doing QUIET CLUBBING! Have you ever heard of this? There’s two different stations, and you get to choose which you want to (quietly) rock out to. It was really cool, and we actually considered doing this.

As memorable as the beers were, I simply loved our whole experience. I got to share stories and beers with my beautiful wife and our amazing friends, and we were all able to be together and celebrate Hiten’s last night at City Swiggers. The bar was filled with he and his fiancee’s friends and family. Hiten, whether he knew it or not, made an impact on people around him, and will continue to do so in Arizona.

I got a few texts after my first post, saying “Great blog! When are you going to talk about beer?” I hope this post has answered that question. For me, it’s not just about the beer. What I love about beer is that every sip, every different beer you try, comes with an experience. The appearance, aroma, taste, even the environment you’re drinking in and the people you are with, will bring you somewhere. Sometimes, it brings you somewhere you never want to go again. Sometimes it brings you somewhere you’ll want to visit over and over again (responsibly, of course).

Until next time, dear, sweet, sexy (I assume) reader. Keep having and enjoying wonderful experiences, and share any thoughts you have in the comments below!

Cheers!