All hail good brews: New York Craft Beer Week is here
Elevating the spirits, one pint at a time
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American beer consciousness has improved markedly over the past few years—no one talks about traveling to Colorado to score some Coors anymore, which is a good thing—but there's nothing quite like dedicating a few days to the pursuit of quality suds. Meet the New York Craft Beer Week, which begins tomorrow and runs Sept. 11-20. Here's a basic breakdown.
The Passport
As with the CMJ Music Marathon or the New York Wine Expo, you'll need a credential to take full advantage. Here, that means dropping $35 on a "Passport" that allows the holder to purchase $2 pints at 83 participating bars, receive discounted entry to various events, and drink lots of free beer. You can purchase one here, and as with all of these events, it comes with a complimentary mug.
The Events
There's a ton going on, from lectures on hops to a bicycle-mounted bar crawl that frankly sounds like an awful idea. Herewith, five events worth checking out:
-Deconstructing Beer: Here's a lecture series worth sitting through. Each of the three talks is devoted to a different component of the beermaking process, and each is led by the head brewer of a different well-regarded microbrewery. Tim Surprise of Arcadia talks malts, Brian O'Reilly of Sly Fox takes on hops, and Rob Tod of Allagash digs into yeast and fermentation. The prices are a little steep ($44/lecture with a passport, $55 without), but they're held at Astor Center and include many samples. (Sept. 13-14 & 18)
-Gotham Cask Ale Festival: Cask beer—the kind that's barely carbonated, sort of warm, and way more complex that that which comes in pressurized kegs—gets play from some of the bigger bars, but most beer drinkers aren't as familiar as they should be. This festival-within-a-festival takes place at three bars simultaneously (Jimmy's No. 43, Swift Hibernian Lounge, and Rattle N Hum), and features a total of 60 cask ales, most of which you've probably never heard of. (Sept. 11-13)
-Bike Brooklyn Beer Blitz: Again, this seems highly dubious, but omit the "toast a few pints en route" bit and you have a pretty nice bike ride. The tour begins and Williamsburg and winds through Bushwick, highlighting old breweries along the way, and ends at Evergreen Cemetery, the eternal home for many of Brooklyn's brewers. (Sept. 13 and 19)
-NYC Homebrewers Tour: This is an opportunity that doesn't come along very often—a chance to peer inside the homes of some of the city's homebrewers, and see just how far they've compromised their few hundred square feet of homestead in the pursuit of a product that can be purchased down the street for $2 a bottle. Dedication, sacrifice, probable inebriation: all good things. (Sept. 12)
-Women In The Beer Industry: Beer is filled with masculine associations and connotations, many of which play into the oft-misogynistic commercials aired by Bud, Coors, and Miller. (Check out the one below.) But beer's recent upscaling has brought new folks into the fold, some of whom just happen to be women. Carol Stoudt of Stoudt's Brewery and Debra Boening of distributor Oak Beverages are slated to speak, and the program emphasizes that "both men and women are welcome!" (Sept. 15)
The Rest Of It
Check out the festival's (somewhat creaky) website for events, as well as a list of participating bars. And think seriously about the passport: If an average pint costs $6, and you're spending $2 per pint, that's less than 10 pints over 10 days to make it worth your while. Of course, you could make it worth your while in much less time—your choice.
