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.
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.
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.
We had a wonderful afternoon visiting the Tui brewery and headquarters in Mangatainoka New Zealand, which is a short drive from Palmerston North on the North Island. What an awesome little set up the guys have, it is fantastic. Set amongst farmland the historic Tui tower can be seen for miles so there’s no problem finding it. There’s an amazing welcoming centre complete with bar and giftshop, plenty of outdoor seating and a huge expanse of grass to enjoy a beer or meal. The bar features some pretty interesting drops of beer too, not only do they serve the Tui we have come to love on our Beer tour of New Zealand but they also stock a couple of beers not sold anywhere else- so it’s pretty special. Tui offer tours of the brewery which is amazing, seeing how they produce beer from the freshest of ingredients. The friendly staff not only show you behind the scenes of the brewing process they end the tour as all good tours should end finishes with a taste of their tasty brews you even get to take home a Tui glass- how good is that!
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.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Today Hoppsy features a interesting little brewery from Ithaca New York- The Ithaca Beer Co. Ithaca is about 4 hours drive North West from New York City and is a major college town on the southern shores of Lake Cayuga. Well anyway back to the brewery, The Ithaca Beer Co opened in 1998, and produce some pretty interesting brews including a Apricot Wheat Beer, a award winning pale ale called Flower Power, and our favorite (although we haven’t had the pleasure of tasting it yet) Cascazilla. CascZilla is a very hoppy red ale and with a name like that has got to be a winner and it has a 7% alcohol content kick. For those visiting Ithaca drop in to the brewery for a taste of their craft brews any day between 11am – 6pm or look out for it in the north eastern USA states its available in a number of places. If yourve tried one or more of these beers drop us a line and tell us what you thought. Read the rest of this entry »
Check this fun video out its a couple of guys giving tribute to their favorite Christmas beer- Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Christmas Ale. Great Lakes Brewing comes from Cleveland Ohio and have brewing great beers for about 20 years. They are Ohio’s most celebrated and award winning brewer- and looking at the passion of these guys in the video they must make a great beer. Their Christmas Ale is available during November and December, it has a robust spicy style with honey ginger and cinnamon added to the recipe. The beer has a 7.7 alcohol volume and has won quiet a few gold medals at the World Beer Championships, 1999, 2006, 2005 and 2007. Its a great beer for the cold North American Christmas and goes great with all those rich Chrissy foods of the season. See if you can get your hands on some for Christmas- as the final worlds in the song say it all…”In a few short weeks it will all be gone”
For more information; http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com
When travelling around Southern California recently we came across Karl Strauss Brewery in downtown San Diego. They have about 6 different brews on tap at any one time and ever one we tried (all 6) were winners. They have ales, IPA’s, Lager, a Wheat and some seasonal beers- we were lucky enough to try their Oktoberfest beer which was a very delicious malty drop. If you are not in for a big night and want to try a few they have a great sample deal where you can purchase a selection of the beers in small glasses. Much to our delight we found another Karl Strauss at the amazing Universal City Walk in Hollywood- so we thought we would give it a try- and to our delight the beer and food was just as good. There are quiet a few of the breweries throughout California including La Jolla, Sorrento Mesa and Costa Mesa. If your in the California region look out for Karl and drop in for a feed and a few beers- you wont be disappointed. http://www.karlstrauss.com
We did a story about Murray’s Craft Brewing’s Drop Dead Gorgeous Blond, http://www.hoppsy.com/australia/drop-dead-gorgeous-blonde/
well they have just released another special product which is well worth chasing down. The first release of Murray’s Wild Thing Imperial Stout has hit the market, but you better be quick as there will only be 1100 bottles of this beer available and is only available at their soon to be new home in the Beautiful Port Stevens Winery on Australia’s New South Wales coast. Now the Wild Thing sure has a kick with a ABC of 10% and OG of 11,00 it is inspired by the great Russian Stouts and Murray’s reckon it’s fit for a Czar- who could argue with that, with lovey aromas of strong dark chocolate, a little fruitiness from the hops and yeast and some rumminess from the alcohol. The flavour is an intense hit of mocha – bitter dark chocolate bordering on coffee- no more time to talk about it we need to get our selves to Port Stevens and try it before it runs out… cheers!
