It’s not always easy to get away from the chain or Irish themed bars and pubs in New York City, but sometimes you come across an absolute classic as we are featuring today- Rudys.  Ruby’s is in Hell’s Kitchen and is an institution in New York City. This small bar is so good you want to pack it up, with its pig, beers and very friendly staff and bring it home- it is so good.  Rudy’s features what is sure to be the cheapest draft beers in the city, and there is quiet a choice including, the Pigslapper we features a few days back.  If you are hungry, well the menu is pretty simple- hot dogs and guess what they are free, yes free a perfect way to enjoy a few beers.  The décor is a bit old school, the 70’s tiffany lampshades are pretty daggy, the wrap around couches have seen better days (much better days)  but it is so fantastic and you wouldn’t change a thing.   There’s great grungy and sultry tunes of the 60’s 70’ and 80’s ad to the experience and atmosphere. The place is not trying to be fashionable or styled to look and feel like it is, it somehow just turned out this way and this is what makes this bar so good and full of character.  It’s just down to earth and real.  Rudy’s has a great friendly place for pitcher or two, the choice of beer is great and it’s a fantastic night out which won’t cost you the earth.

http://www.rudysbarnyc.com/

As we mentioned on an earlier story one of our favourite Brew Pubs in New York City is the Pony in Hell’s Kitchen, well another is Heartland Brewery which are found in about seven locations all over the city.  We tried the Times Square, Radio City and Empire State Building pubs but the one we loved the best was in the historic seaport district on Fulton Street overlooking the tall ship museum. The choice of beers was fantastic and this Indian River Light was one of the highlights.  The pub is housed in a building that dates back to about 1812 and has been beautifully restored with rich timbers, old time charm and some lovely breweania on the walls. Food is pretty good too but it’s the beers we have been visiting for.  The Indian River Light is like a Belgium beer it has a hint of coriander and orange amongst its fruity and aromatic flavours. The beer is a mid-strength beer having only 3.9% alcohol and it is also low carb having about 25% less of those nasty carbs than the normal beer.  The beer is has a low carbonation which makes it pretty easy to knock back and enjoy.

http://www.heartlandbrewery.com

Today’s beer is Brooklyn Lager from New York’s Brooklyn Brewery.  The brewery began in 1988 and today is one of the top craft beer breweries in the world with a whole array of awards and one of the biggest exporters of craft beer. This picture we took in New York City but we have a local bottle shop which stocks the Brooklyn Lager in our hometown of Geelong Australia, only problem it’s about 3 times the price!    The beer is a brewed in a Vienna Style with amber gold colour and a very nice caramel malty taste.  The beer has been dry hopped giving it a very crisp bitterness making it quiet easy to drink.

The Lager is delicious but the brewery also has wide range of beers available all through the year and a number of fantastic seasonal beers including a magnificent pumpkin beer called Post Road we tried during the Halloween festivities it has a lovely nutmeg and sweet flavour.

The brewery is open to the public, with tours and happy hours available. Learn more on their website at www.broklynbrewery.com

Well here is a beer which has a name and label just as fun as it is to drink the tasty farmhouse ale. Porkslap Pale Ale is brewed by Butternuts Beer & Ale who are from Garattsville in New York State. The photo is of a six pack we bought in Washington DC, and we first tried Porkslap at Ruby’s in Hell’s Kitchen New York City where we thought it was a great drop.  The beer is brewed with 2 row North American barley and English Crystal Malt.  There is a touch of ginger and crystal hop to flavour the beer and it has a 4.3% alcohol volume.

Take note of the interesting plastic device which snaps on the six pack- we have never seen anything like that and think its pretty cool- just like the Porkslap. Butternuts make a few other interesting named beers including Moo Thunder Stout and Snapperhead IPA to name a few.

Check out their website it is real fun! http://www.butternutsbeerandale.com/

http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/christmas_ale/24.php

The Hoppsy guys have travelled the world and had some great beers in some great bars, but a recent visit to The Pony in Hell’s Kitchen New York City stands out as one of the best in a long while.  The Pony specialises in all American craft beers and they have a wonderful selection.  One of the beers we tried was RJ Rockers Son of a Peach, it was an unfiltered wheat beer with you guessed it peaches- it was amazing – it might not sound great but trust us- one of the tastiest wheat beers we have tried.

The Pony’s price is right on the mark too, at the time of writing they have a flat rate of $5 a 14OZ beer which is incredible for the quality of the beer on offer, they also do 64oz Growlers for those who want to take a drop of the good stuff home. There are usually about 20 beers on tap at any one time and the range is very varied.  There’s a pretty tasty food menu too.The Pony can be found on the corner of 10th Avenue and 45th Street Hells Kitchen New York City- well worth a visit for anyone in NYC.

http://www.theponybar.com

Anchor Steam Beer is one of San Francisco’s icons dating back to 1896 when it was founded by Ernst F Baruth and Otto Schinkel Jnr.  The Steam Brewery today still use the techniques and recipes they used more than a century ago to make an amazing rich tasting beer, they even still use handmade copper kettles and mash tubs. Like all great products there is a bit of legend and mystery about the manufacturing process and no one is really telling how the beer got it’s ‘steam name. Anchor Steam make a range of other beers which are also well worthy of a try including an ale, porter, bock and there is always a special brew or two on sale. For those visiting the beautiful San Francisco the brewery offers tours of their complex, bookings are essential visit their website for more information, and like all great brewery tours it finishes with a taste of their delicious freshly brewed beers.

http://www.anchorbrewing.com/

Today we do another beer we found at a local beer festival which isn’t readily available in our local bottleshops. Usually the only Mexican Beers we see in Australia are Corona, Corona and Corona, and sometimes and more rarely SOL, Tecate, Modelo  Dos Equis. But today we have found a new beer Cerveza Mexicali Beer.  After a bit of research we found that the beer is quiet popular and brewed by Tecate. The beer is a Pilsener style using German brewing techniques and recipes dating back 90 years.  The beer uses row barley malt and Chinook, Mount Hood and Peerless hops to give the beer a semi dry finish. Unlike many of the Mexican Beers lime or lemon are not suggested, this way you can fully appreciate the smooth and delicate flavour- works for me!  We have also seen there is a Special Dark Larger available so we are on the lookout for that.

For more information: http://mexicalibeer.com

Today we are drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon in the sunshine overlooking the magnificent San Francisco harbour.  This beer is a American style premium lager or pilsner which originated from Milwaukee in Wisconsin, but today is part of the giant Miller Brewing Company and is brewed in six locations around the USA including is now base Woodridge in Illinois which is west of Chicago.

Pabst originated back in 1844 and in 1893 made a bit of a name for its self at Chicago’s World Columbian Exhibition.  Pabst claimed they won the America’s Best award but others say they picked up a bronze medal for attending. But too much beer has been had since and the story is now legend and it doesn’t really matter.  The Beer was at its peak in the late 1970s when over 18 million barrels were produced annually. Over recent years it has a resurgence of popularity due to its push towards the youth market with inroads into social media and the like. The beer is probably more popular in the major US cities than in the rural areas.  For those who care about their waist line Pabst also produce a low carb version called Pabst Blue Ribbon Light which has less calories and about about a third less of those nasty carbohydrates.

for more info: http://www.pabstblueribbon.com

We were recently in Portland, no not the $%$# one a few hours down the road from us but the one in Portland Oregon USA. This was beer utopia for two beer loving Aussie guys like us.  The whole town is based on craft beers. The big names like Coors, Bud and Miller are rarely seen, its just craft beer after craft beer. There’s a few fantastic brew pubs too. One we tried was Rock Bottom Brewery boy they had some tasty drops including this wheat beer shown on our picture. The beer called Volkswizen Wheat was as their brochure described a unfiltered Northwest Wheat beer with the added twist of ginger and coriander to give it a crisp thirst quenching zing.. it had a ABV of 5.3% and IBU of 19 and boy was it tasty. They served it with a slice of orange which was popular with many wheat beers in the US including a wheat beer called Blue Moon which was available in many of the pubs.  We will do a few more stories on Rock Bottom’s beers over next few weeks as they were pretty tasty.

for more info on Rockbottom: http://www.rockbottom.com/portland

To find out more on this book click here

We received a great email from Anne who is the co-ordinator of the Finger Lakes Riesling Festival which is held in a town called Canandaigua in New York State USA which is not far from the northern end of the Canandaigua Lake close to the Canadian Border. Anna’s note mentions a fantastic festival in the area which will be held on the 14th and 15th of August this year. Read her note below and if are near the region in August pop in for some of the great craft beer on offer. We would love to hear what you thought of the festival and the beers so be sure to drop us a line.

“I am writing you on behalf of the 2010 Finger Lakes Riesling Festival to be hosted in Canandaigua, NY on August 14th and 15th. Along with having dozens of wineries on board for Riesling sales and sampling, the festival will feature live entertainment, local food and a craft beer tent. We would be thrilled if you would mention this year’s festival in your blog, and would be happy to send you Riesling samples from any of our participating wineries. So far Brooklyn Brewery, North American Breweries, Saranac Beer, Rooster Fish Brewing, Ithaca Beer and Soda Co., Southern Tier Brewing Company, and Ellicottville Brewing Company will be attending the event.”

Thanks Anne and goodluck with the event!

You can see more details about this event at  http://www.RieslingFestival.com

Launched in Sep 2008, Budweiser American Ale is a fairly new product in the Budweiser range so it is receiving a fair bit of heavy marketing about the place at the moment with ads like the one above, a fancy website, a youtube channel and even an iPhone app. American Ale is an amber ale style all-malt brew made with caramel malted barley from Idaho and Minnesota, then dry-hopped with Cascade hops from the Pacific Northwest. The result is apparently more of a micro brew style of beer than the traditional Bud products. We haven’t tried American Ale yet but this sounds like good news to us, when in the States we drank a fair bit of Bud although it wouldn’t be our first choice when looking in the liquor shop fridge. If you have had this Bud let us know what you recon below.

Official site

http://budamericanale.com

youtube channel

http://www.youtube.com/budamericanale

iPhone app (USA Only)

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=310045138&mt=8

This funky 1970′s ad above is a real classic and is for the Schaefer Brewing Company. Schaefer was founded in New York in 1842 and went on to become the longest operating brewery in New York City. The company was finally purchased by Detroit’s Stroh Brewery Company who continued to produce the Schaefer brand. Most of Stroh’s brands was eventually purchased by Milwaukee based Pabst Brewery in 1999. Allegedly the brand is still produced by Papst today although I don’t remember any evidence of it when I was around that region late last year. If you are drinking a Schaefer now let us know on the comment form below.

We found this great short video on youtube that describes the history of beer brewing in America. The video is far more interesting than some of the watery brews put out by America’s big two brewers, and also highlights that there are some good brews in the US thanks to the rise of the many micro breweries making inroads to the US market. We also agree with what the guy suggests at the end of the vid, go out taste, experience and live beer.