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/

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/

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

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

You might remember our cute Budwieser ad last week about a donkey wanting to be a Budwieser Cyldesdale. Well we have found a follow up to the ad..its just as good and there are a few new critters interested in joining up.

We found this great Budweiser commercial featuring a donkey going for a job interview as a cydesdale. It its pretty funny and the donkey sure is cute. Take a look as you enjoy an ice cold bud- the king of beers.

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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.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the beer can according to the Rocky Mountain News so we thought we would celebrate by not only having a can of beer ourselves, but also by showing you a video we found on Youtube of the Beer Can Museum in East Taunton around 40 miles south of Boston. The Museum features a collection of more than 3500 different beer cans along with other beer memorabilia. Watch the video above or check out the museum’s official website below.  

http://kevslog.tripod.com/beercanmuseum/

This beer commercial was nominated for a London Advertising Award and was shot on the Florida beaches using 70′s pop band Boston’s More than a Feeling for a huge UK campaign.  After a few mishaps and bad decisions trying to save money in the early 1980′s  Schiltz disappeared from the market. But in recent times the now owner Milwaukee’s Pabst Brewing Company has tried to resurrect the name and if early market trends are any indication the name may yet survive.

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.

For more information: http://www.ithacabeer.com

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

Goose Island Beers

Goose Island Beer originates from Chicago in the USA and they have been producing fine beers for about 20 years and are regarded as the city’s finest and freshest hand crafted ales and lagers. They produce a great range of classic brews and some very tasty seasonal beers including a Christmas Ale which is currently being served for the winter. It’s not hard to see a draught tap of Goose Island at the bar they have a very stylish goose neck handle as the pourer- you cant miss it. Goose island have two brew pubs which any visitor to Chicago shouldn’t miss one called Wrigleyville which is in North Clark Street not far from Wrigley park and the other in beautiful Lincoln Park called Clyborn- there is no better place to taste this great beer. We visited Chicago recently and just loved the Goose Island beers, the Honkers Ale is delicious and India Pale Ale is one of the tastiest we have ever tried- and we were very partial to the Harvest Ale too. Look out for Goose Island Beer it ships to about 15 states in the US and even to the UK….Hopefully they will remember us guys down here in Australia and send some our way soon- we can’t wait!

For more information :http://www.gooseisland.com/