NYC Tastes

It's been such a crazy summer it's hard to believe August is here and I haven't even talked about July!  Here's a quick recap of some great moments over the Independence Day weekend in Vermont. The first stop of the trip was Prohibition Pig Brewery for beers and some of the best Peel N' Eat Shrimp we've had in years. These were plump, juicy and dusted with the perfect amount of seasoning. I would expect shrimp like this on the coast somewhere, but certainly not in Waterbury, VT.  The following day we drove out to Hill Farmstead and spent the day drinking some wonderful beers on their patio including 2014 Flora and Juicy Batch 3.  Then we made the obligatory pit stop at Parker Pie for a surprisingly great Steak Sandwich, that was so good I forgot to even snap a pic. Saturday we checked out the new  Lawson's Brewery  in Waitsfield.  We've been enjoying their beer for years at can sales, but to see the new facility was really amazing.  ...

It's New Brew Friday and Memorial Day weekend vibes are hitting in hard here at NYC Tastes.  It seemed like the work week was never going to end, but it's finally here and we're celebrating with a new collaboration IPA Shook Ones. This Double IPA was brewed by Equilibrium and Other Half with a trio of hop goodness using Mosaic, Citra and Amarillo.  It pours a bright hazy yellow with aromas of pineapple and lemon on the nose with a fruity, citrus candied orange flavor.  It's the perfect local beverage for cracking open this long weekend.  Cheers! Equilibrium Brewing 22 Henry Street Middletown, NY 10940

It's New Brew Friday and today we're drinking a delicious Double IPA from the new Belt Line Brewery in Buffalo, NY. This frothy orange DIPA give off delightful aromas of fresh mango and pineapple with more juicy citrus fruit flavors on the palate of orange, mango and lychee with a bitter  finish.  This is a fantastic summer beer; full of fruit goodness but low enough abv (6.7%) to crush all day long. In addition to beer, Belt Line has a full kitchen serving up a doughy  Breadhive Everything Pretzels with white beer queso, a hefty Diner Double Cheeseburger and a few great veggie options like the Beyond Meat Chicago Dog loaded with  Barrel + Brine  pickles,  Weber's Mustard , tomato and onion jam. If you're headed to the  Shelton Brothers Festival  this October, Belt-line is a great place to add to the beer weekend itinerary. Belt-line Brewery & Kitchen 545 Swan Street Buffalo, NY 14204

It's New Brew Friday and we're chilling in the neighborhood with an Other Half Green City at Blue Smoke .   This New England style IPA is brewed with Citra, Centennial and Simco hops giving it juicy, tropical flavors of orange and pineapple with a dry biscuit finish.  It clocks in at just 7% and is the perfect pairing with some of Blue Smoke's Alabama White Sauce Wings, which are half off during all March Madness games. Cheers to the weekend! Blue Smoke 116 East 27th Street at Lexington New York, NY 10016

It's New Brew Friday and we're heading across the river to New Jersey's Kane Brewing for one of my favorite local beers Sneakbox. Sneakbox is a pale ale made with 100% Citra hops giving off aromas of orange and mango with more citrus fruits, biscuit and malt on the finish.  It clocks in at just 5.2% making it an incredible sessionable beer, perfect for a long day of March Madness basketball watching.  Cheers to the weekend! Kane Brewing 1750 Bloomsbury Avenue Ocean Township, NJ 07712

It's mind blowing to think that five years have passed since Other Half opened up its doors in Brooklyn.  Mr. T and I had been lamenting the nonexistent beer scene in NYC; then that tiny little tasting room opened up and voila, IPA's for everyone!  Of course it wasn't perfect at first.  The tasting room was so small, only one table fit inside and a single fan spun slowly in the corner, almost mocking us with its false respite from the scorching hot weather.  But today the tap room is much bigger, release lines much more manageable and although I miss the single hop series that kicked off their fame, it's really great to have such an awesome brewery in the city.  Cheers to Other Half's Anniversary and New Brew Friday! Other Half Brewing 195 Centre Street Brooklyn, NY 11231

It's New Brew Friday and today we're coming from the wonderful Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia for this extra special bottle Cantillon 20 Ans d'Amite. 20 Ans d'Amite was created by Jean Van Roy of Cantillon to celebrate both the 20th anniversary of Monk's Cafe and the 20 years he has been friends with the owner Tom Peters.  This beautiful lambic is a blend of Cantillon Nath and Lou Pepe Framboise with Nath being the majority at 70%.  It's light and fruity with delicate flavors of rhubarb, vanilla, raspberry and funk with a refreshing finish.   This was a delightful bottle to both drink and to purchase, as the label is just perfect for the occasion.  This bottle is only available for on-site consumption at Monks Cafe in Philadelphia. We were lucky enough to drink it both on draft and in the bottle at the Monks/ Sierrea Nevada Camp Fire Relief charity event last Saturday.  An incredible beverage for an incredible cause.  Cheers!  Monks Ca...

Our final morning in Brussels, we packed our bags and headed out for one last beer-centric stop to In De Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst, which translates to The Insurance of Great Thirst.  This cozy little pub is the last remaining cafe in the town of Eizeringen and only open on Sunday's. The little building looks like something from a fairy tale, with exposed wooden ceilings, tiled floors and a delightful mix of church goers and beer geeks, all chatting over bottles of lambic.  Grote Dorst has one of the largest selections of kriek and gueuze in the entire world with fantastic bottles like Bokkereyder Wijngaard brewed with Muscat and Riesling grapes and the Toots Tribute a dry, funky gueuze I absolutely fell in love with that Sunday morning. It's hard to just order one bottle when faced with such an incredible  list, so we stayed for a few vintage 3 Fontenien's. A super dusty bottle of 50 Degrees North- 4 Degrees East. And another round of wonderf...

Day 3 in Brussels we woke up bright and early for a trip to my favorite place in the entire world, 3 Fonteinen's Lambik-O-droom.   This beautiful brewery located in the town of Beersel creates the most exceptional gueze in all of Brussels (in my humble opinion). We arrived right at 10:30 AM for the Saturday morning tour which takes guests through the history of the brewery, barrel room and bottling facilities. Since I had already been to Lambic-O-droom before, I hung out in the tasting room while my friends explored, and enjoyed a solitary bottle of Oude Geuze Vintage 2012, one of my favorite geuze's of all time. Followed by an Oude Geuze Vintage 2008 and 3 Fonteinen's incredible geuze cheese paired with mustard and apricot preserves.  I was really hoping to bring some of this fabulous cheese back to NYC, but it was already sold out by mid-day.  We spent the rest of the afternoon making our way through the extensive bottle list, sharin...

Friday morning we kicked off our day with a delicious Belgian waffle, then headed back to Cantillon where we had spent most of the prior day.  We just had to get one more bottle of that delicious Lambic D'Anuis.   Of course that one bottle turned into about five more wonderful delights, but finally we hopped on a train to Denderleeuw for lunch at De Heeren van Liedeckercke. De Heeren opened its doors as a specialty beer cafe back in 1991 by owner Joost de Four.  He had always wanted to sell lambic and reached out to various local brewers to stock his bar.  However one brewer, Armand Debelder from 3 Fonteinen, refused.  He would not allow Joost to sell any of his bottles without first being trained on how the beer were made.  So Joost was trained by the great Armand himself and today De Heeren is known as one of the best lambic bars in the entire world. In fact many brewers have created special lambics just for Joost and De Heeren like the el...

It's New Brew Friday and today we're celebrating at the shores of North Carolina with a delightful beverage from Wisconsin's Funk Factory Geuzeria, the Kiwi Melon Meerts. This gueuze pours a bright yellow with lots of fizzy bubbles up top and aromas of fresh melon, lemon rind and funk. The flavor is tart kiwi up front with a strong acidity that softens into tones of melon to finish.  Clocking in at just 4.5 % this fruity, refreshing Meerts is the perfect beverage for sipping in the sun on a steamy summer day.  Cheers to New Brew Friday! Funk Factory Geuzeria   1602 Gilson Street Madison, WI 53715

All of this rainy weather has really been getting me down this week.  I need some serious sunshine and if the weather won't cooperate, I'll create my own with today's new brew, Map of the Sun from Rare Barrel out in Berkeley, California.  This beautiful beer is a blend of golden sour ales, aged in oak barrels with the addition of apricots.  It pours a bright, white foamy head that dissipates almost immediately leaving behind almost zero bubbles.   The smell is straight sour apricot with a sharp citrus and funk aroma, while the flavor is a more balanced blend of sour and juicy, almost like biting into a ripe, fleshy apricot with just a hint of vanilla and oak on the finish.  Every time I have this beer I'm blown away; definitely one of my all time favorites.  Cheers to Friday! The Rare Barrel 940 Parker Street Berkeley, CA 94710

Ahhhh Hill Farmstead Brewery...one of my many "happy places" in life.  This brewery makes some of the best beers in the world and our last visit was filled with new bottles to try. Works of Love 2013, a collaboration beer brewed with Sante Adairius.  This was my favorite beer of the day, so crisp and clean with soft notes of white wine and lemon. I don't know what Shaun Hill does to make his saison's so perfect, but he is the saison master. Flora Cherry, another saison, this one aged in wine barrels with fresh, hand picked Montmorency cherries. Genealogy of Morals a thick, delicious bourbon barrel aged stout brewed with Kieni coffee beans roasted by the amazing Coffee Collective in Denmark.  All of these enjoyed with this beautiful view that always takes my breath away.  Hill Farmstead 403 Hill Road Greensboro Bend, VT 05842

It's New Brew Friday and to celebrate yet another snow storm in the books, we're opening up a Goose Island Bourbon County Reserve Stout 2017. The base for this beer is the original Bourbon County Stout which has been aged in eleven year old Knob Creek Bourbon Barrels.  This has all the wonderful qualities of a regular BCBS, loads of bourbon, chocolate, oak and vanilla, but with a slightly less sweet, more powerful barrel finish.  This beast of a beer clocks in at a 14.8% and is best enjoyed next to a crackling fireplace.  Cheers to the weekend! Goose Island Brewery Chicago, Illinois

Ahhh...Torst.  It had been way too long since Mr. T and I spent a rainy afternoon inside this awesome bar.  Just take a look at this Stracciatella Cheese. Known by most people as the creamy innards of burrata, this version was studded with green ramps, fresh basil and a spicy pepperoni chili oil alongside buttery thick cut She-Wolf Sourdough Bread.   This is a bowl of cheese worth getting up close and personal for... ...paired with a fantastic new Grimm and some of the best bartenders in the city.  This is my idea of the perfect afternoon. Torst 615 Manhattan Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11222