All posts by deronc

Beer Brewing at the White House?

General

Yes, according to CBS news!  The following story can be found here:

Former Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer, who was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Thursday, had a simple but unusual request when White House staffers talked to him a few days ago, reports CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante.

Meyer said he would like to have a beer with the president.

Great idea- right? And how could the president refuse?

So it happened. Mr. Obama and the war hero hung out together on the patio outside the Oval Office.

Wondering what brand they were drinking? Are you ready?

It was — the White House’s own brew, made with equipment the Obamas bought with their own money — the first beer ever made at the White House, according to historians.

It is White House Honey Ale.

It was the first beer served at the Super Bowl party. A very small batch — 90-100 bottles — all consumed that day.

The White House chefs have been brewing since, a little at a time. There was some for St. Patrick’s Day, another batch in June, and the beer served to Sgt. Meyer.

And just for the record: Home-brewing is legal in Washington, D.C.

Plante says he’s never tasted it – but he keeps volunteering!

My comments:

This is great news.  As someone who has recently started homebrewing, I am gratified to read this story.  Maybe one day, the recipe will be more widely distributed and we can all try this brew during a craft beer-focused NYC bar crawl.  I’m a bit surprised, though, that it’s the first beer ever brewed in the White House.  George Washington was a brewer, but since the White House was not completed until 1800, the first President of the United States did not live it in.  Thomas Jefferson, also a brewer, spent his two terms in the White House, but, apparently, did not make beer there.

The first taste of our bottled beer

Pub Crawl Brooklyn Home Brewing

On a recent weeknight evening, my homebrewing buddy Scott and I got met up with our girlfriends and two mutual friends to taste our first bottled beer.  We had brewed this batch in late Spring, bottled it in July (using bottling sugar in an effort to improve upon our first attempt at carbonation) and were finally ready to taste!  There were two types, an IPA and a porter.  Working from light to dark, we started with the IPA.

Upon opening the first bottle, we heard the familiar “pssst” sound.  The beer sounded carbonated.  The pour provided a visual confirmation of the carbonation.  The look of the beer was almost that of a hefewiezen!  No, our IPA didn’t accidentally become a wheat beer.  This had more to do with the fact that our homebrew method does not have a complete filtration process that the larger brewers do.

Scott pouring the IPA into a tasting glass

 

The IPA, about to be tasted.

The nose indicated the hoppiness that one would expect with an IPA.  Putting the glass to our lips, we found that our IPA was more mild than the typical American IPA.  Perhaps we had more of an English style IPA on our hands; subtly hopped, but not overly done.  We asked our fellow tasters to be frank in their assessment and they suggested that the carbonation could be more pronounced.  I would also like the hops to be more present.

After the IPA was done, it was time to try the porter.  Similar to the IPA, the porter had the sound and sight of carbonation.  The color and the nose were both solid.  The mouth was toast and malty.  Unlike the IPA, I felt that this one was very well done.  I mean, I think I’ve ordered something similar tasting in bars and brewpubs!  Scott argued that if the porter were just a tad sweeter tasting, it would be perfect.

The Porter, about to be tasted.

So, after several months, Scott and I finally had something we could call bottled beer.  The brewing will continue in the fall and we are both looking forward to improving our IPA and porter experience and trying out new recipes.

Pubcrawlbrooklyn.com's visit to Coney Island's small brewery

Pub Crawl Brooklyn Visits

 

 

On a recent Sunday afternoon, I visited the self-proclaimed “World’s Smallest Brewery”, located in Coney Island (right next to the entrance for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, aka Freak Show), near the southwest corner of Surf Ave & West 12th Street.  Run by Shmaltz Brewing Company, this location makes several beers of the Coney Island Craft Lager line.  They weren’t joking, the space is very small!  The size of a small storefront, the place is a basically one-person operation that brews in one-gallon batches.  Beer is available for sale, but technically, they are not allowed to offer on-site tasting.  If you want to drink their beer while visiting Coney Island, there are several nearby spots including the café/bar at the corner of Surf Ave & West 12th Street, Beer Island and Bratva. The storefront will be open through Halloween on Thursdays through Sundays, noon until 6 p.m.

 

The brewery in action!

 

 

The one-gallon sized aging tanks

Pubcrawlbrooklyn.com's visit to some recently-opened establishments

Pub Crawl NYC Reviews

On a recent weeknight, it was time to check out some recently opened establishments.


Henry’s rooftop bar (at Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington Avenue at 47th Street)
This is located on an outdoor perch on the 16th floor at the Roger Williams Hotel in Midtown East.  Not much larger than a patio, this outdoor spot offers views of Midtown to the south and east.  The drinks are a bit pricey ($7 for a canned beer, $10 – 14 for a “glass” of wine; the “glass” was a clear, plastic 6-oz cup).  The food menu exhibits standard bar & grill fare.  The spot feels almost makeshift.  It’s as though the hotel, seeing the proliferation of rooftop bars in Midtown, took a small, unused outdoor deck and threw together a bar out of it.  For a rooftop bar in the immediate nabe, you would be better off going to Patron or Upstairs at the Kimberly Hotel.  No need to include Henry’s as a stop on a Midtown rooftop NYC bar crawl.
Looking south from Henry's

La Carafe (653 9th Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets)
From the people behind L’Ybane on 8th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, La Carafe, a block west on 9th Avenue, is a cozy wine bar and restaurant.  Much smaller in size than L’Ybane, La Carafe has tables for parties of two and four in the front half and a small bar area with three high-top tables and a ten-seat bar in the back half.  The staff is friendly and attentive.  The food can almost be described pan-Mediterranean, including some Italian pasta dishes and Arabic mezze plates.  Dozens of wines available by glass or bottle.  Definitely a place I’d like to visit again.

Bathtub Gin (132 9th Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets)
Behind a small storefront, Bathtub Gin is the latest bar to join the Speakeasy trend.  After you walking through the small storefront and pass through a doorway, you enter an inviting space with a ten-person bar on the left and tables beyond the main bar area.  Wallpaper evokes the roaring-1920s feel.  The focus is on cocktails, but there are a few beer and wine offerings available. Staff is friendly and the place has one of the more memorable bathroom sinks, which are actually small bathtubs (see picture below).  This place is a good addition to the Speakeasy NYC pub crawl.
 

This is actually the bathroom sink!

What are your thoughts on these spots?  Please share your comments here.

 

 

How did you spend the weekend of Hurricane Irene?

Pub Crawl NYC Reviews

I spent a good chunk of my Saturday afternoon and evening at Ryan Maguire’s on Cliff Street in Manhattan’s Financial District.  This bar had a fire in early 2010, closed for about one year, revonated and re-opened just in time for St. Patrick’s Day 2011.  Great staff, a fantastic spot overall.  Definitely one for the Irish pub crawl in NYC’s Financial District.  So, where did you spend the weekend?  Please share your stories here.

 

 

Looking for an open NYC bar to wait for the storm? Check out these spots . . . http://dld.bz/anfGW

Could a Chumley's reopening be on the horizon?

Pub Crawl NYC Announcements

The following article is from the New York Times City Room blog, written by James Barron:

It was the storied bar whose name everybody knew, even though it had no sign: Chumley’s, in Greenwich Village. A speakeasy during Prohibition and a destination for tourists seeking a snapshot or New Yorkers seeking a nightcap, Chumley’s has been closed since a wall collapsed in April 2007.

Chumley’s owners said they had hoped to reopen in a few weeks, then a few months. By 2008, they had removed the booths and tables — and the photographs that had lined the walls — and stored them for safekeeping. The building’s landlord, Margaret Streicker Porres, said in August 2008 that she hoped the work would be completed in midfall of that year.

Three years later, the construction barricades are still up. So when, really, will Chumley’s reopen?

“That’s the one question I need to work on,” said Jim Miller, a firefighter who started as a part-time bartender and ended up in charge. “There’s nobody more unhappy than I am about how long this has been going on. You have no idea how complicated this was.”

He said that earlier in the year, he had hoped to finish the construction work at the bar, at 86 Bedford Street, by now and bring back the furnishings and the photographs for an October reopening. “That timeline did not work out,” he said.

He took another look at the calendar and recalculated. “I was hoping to get in for the holidays,” he said. “That’s what I was pushing hard for.”

But that now seems unlikely, he said, and he has set his sights on 2012.

He said one of the biggest delays had involved the adjacent building at 56 Barrow Street. “It butted against the rear of our building,” he said. “Nothing could go forward until that was rectified, and it took a year and a half to work out.”

Ms. Streicker Porres agreed that the rebuilding had been unusually complicated — and that the end finally seemed to be in sight. “We are working through the last of what we expect to be the construction issues,” she said.

She said her team had been waiting for mechanical engineers who work for Mr. Miller “to give us some guidance” about where to install hookups for city services, “since you want to rebuild this building only once every 100 years.”

The building at 56 Barrow Street, near Bedford Street in the West Village, dates to 1827 and was given landmark status by the city last year. Ms. Streicker Porres said that the building was being “rebuilt as a townhouse with an apartment underneath.”

A second adjacent building, at 84 Bedford Street has been renovated as condominiums. Ms. Streicker Porres said the apartments were being marketed through Brown Harris Stevens. One, a two-bedroom duplex, is listed at $2.124 million. Another, a one bedroom unit, is priced at $1.015 million.

My thoughts:

I am ecstatic about about Chumley’s re-opening.  Frankly, I had given up hope as the months we waited for a re-opening turned into years.  I figured that we had lost another piece of Old New York forever.  Once open, Chumley’s will anchor the Speakeasy NYC pub crawl.

A Westchester County day-trip suggestion from Pubcrawlbrooklyn.com

Pub Crawl Brooklyn Visits

I came across this article recently from the New York Magazine site:

Pleasantville
Metro-North, $9 each way
Over the past five years, Westchester County’s Captain Lawrence has become one of the region’s breakout craft breweries. But beer is only one reason to visit the captain’s home in leafy Pleasantville. Following a 45-minute train ride from Grand Central, you’ll disembark at Memorial Plaza, where on Saturdays till 1 p.m. you can shop the farmers’ market. Afterward, a five-minute stroll from the town center brings you to Captain Lawrence (914-741-2337), where free Saturday-afternoon tours run at 1, 2, and 3 p.m. and finish with free samples of beers like the piney Freshchester Pale Ale (the tasting room is open till 6 p.m.). Grab dinner at the Iron Horse Grill (914-741-0717), specializing in New American cuisine such as soft-shell crab with polenta, then catch an early evening art-house flick at the Jacob Burns Film Center (914-747-5555; movies like Cave of Forgotten Dreams begin at 7 and 9 p.m.). Then catch a 9:49 or 10:49 p.m. train home.

My thoughts:

This sounds like a great day-getaway to visit a fantastic brewery.  No craft-beer focused NYC bar crawl is complete without a Captain Lawrence or three!  I hope to visit the brewery in the fall and will share my experience with you.