Month: June 2014

Celebrating Four Years of Barrier Brewing

barrier1One of the things we pride ourselves on is our willingness to try out new and local beers from up-and-coming brewers. Four years ago, we met Craig Frymark and Evan Klein, two guys with a vision and a pick-up truck. The were self-distributing their Barrier Brewing Company beers from Long Island, and one of the first bars in the city to embrace the brand was Jimmy’s No. 43. We’ve been ordering two kegs a week from the boys ever since, excepting the times they were shut down (first when they were building their beautiful brewery and then again when that brewery was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy). It was a testament to how much everyone loves Barrier that the greater craft beer community came together to help them through that difficult time.

And now they’re celebrating four years of making some of the best beers in NY State. We’ll be rotating four of our tap lines starting today and through the weekend to include the following Barrier brews:

  • *Beech Street Wheat
  • *Cycle Saison
  • *Imposter Pils
  • *Dune Grass Double IPA
  • *Frau Blücher
  • *Rembrandt Porter
  • *Iddulus Kolsch
  • *Mollycoddle Mild Ale (nitro pour)
  • *Bulkhead “Red” IPA
  • *MooChelle Milk Stout

Jimmy Carbone remembers that first day when Craig (who had been brewing at Sixpoint) and Evan came into our humble establishment. Here are his reminiscences over four years:

How did you first learn of Barrier Brewing?
Evan reached out to me when he first opened on Long Island. At the time, they were still a nano brewery and were self distributing. He kept coming every week with two kegs and he’s never stopped.
What was the first Barrier beer you drank?
Going back to 2010! They’ve always made a point of producing rotating beers: They’ve made over 30 different brews, and each week there is a different selection. One of the first beers I had must have been Bulkhead Red red or Green Room Pale Ale. Their beers were so different from most breweries that launch. When they started, the beers were packed with flavor, with unique hop and yeast profiles. They were fresh, local, always good.
Why do you like to order from Barrier on a weekly basis?
Barrier mixes it up every week. I never get the same beer week in and week out. Tonight we have six Barriers on tap to offer a good representation of what they have. Come by after the World Cup!
What is your all-time favorite Barrier beer?
I’m partial to three styles they make in general: Dark beer, saison, and hoppy IPA. The Rembrand Porter and Barnacle Brown are two darks I can’t resist. From their  Saisons, the Cycle Saison and Vermilion Red cover the gamut of diverse Saison styles. Among their hoppy IPAs, I particularly like the Money IPA and the Dunegrass DIPA. We’re getting in Dunegrass today, so we’ll tap it sometime this weekend.
Anything else you want to add?
Evan and Craig set the bar for new, small breweries in NY State. In their first year, they won “Best Brewery in NY State” at TAP-NY. Quite an accomplishment, especially since they were also the smallest brewery in the state at the time. They provided a road map on how to start a craft brewery that many people have followed. I’d say the new explosion in craft breweries in NY state started with Barrier in 2010.

Our ciderWICK™ “Real Cider” Manifesto

HAND_CIDER_APPLESPLEASE NOTE: ALL EVENTS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. REGULAR SERVICE IS AVAILABLE THROUGHOUT THIS VERY COOL THEMED WEEKEND. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY A TICKET TO ANYTHING EXCEPT MONDAY’S DINNER (YOU CAN PAY PER EVENT/A LA CARTE AT THE BAR). OR YOU CAN PURCHASE AN ALL-ACCESS PASS IF YOU WANT TO GET YOUR FULL CIDER PUCKER ON!

As a part of this week’s ciderWICK™ Cider Fest, we have been talking with the region’s best cider makers, including Steve Wood of Farnum Hill. Hard cider in America looks a lot like craft beer 30 years ago, with a lot of consumers uncertain of what real hard cider is. In the same way people identify the term “craft beer” as representing a “better beer,” we believe there should be a general term for the type of craft cider that we love to drink: “real cider” perhaps? For our upcoming four-day cider event (June 20-23), ciderWICK™ has put together a The Real Cider Manifesto. Real cider is:

  1. About making a quality product that includes cider apples, possibly a bit of sugar depending on the harvest, and yeast.
  2. An agricultural product grown from orchards; if additional product is needed, cider apples are purchased from neighboring farms, not as concentrate made in China, for example.
  3. A celebration of tradition and diversity; fermented real cider dates back to America’s founding fathers and the famous Johnny Appleseed; real cider wants to reclaim its heritage (for more on this, see the excellent 2011 article in Edible Manhattan).
  4. Real cider makers are dedicated to education and sharing, from teaching the next generation of cider makers in classes to propagating cuttings from dedicated cider apple growers to growing more cider apple trees.
  5. Consumers would benefit from the addition of a “real cider” label, designed with input from real cider industry leaders such as Steve Wood (Farnum Hill) and Diane Flynt (Foggy Ridge).

ciderWICK™ was inspired by the efforts of Glynwood’s Apple Project, Cider Week NY and English folk festivals as part of the real cider movement. Jimmy’s No. 43 will welcome the best cider makers pouring their latest (2013) batches of real cider at tastings, panels, and dinners, including:

We hope to see you at ciderWICK™, and enjoy real cider whenever you want to get your apple on!

 

Getting Jazzy with our Summer Rig

20130905_070228If you’ve been out and about with us the past month or so, then you’ve seen our very cool (or is it hot) Summer BBQ Rig that has been popping up at several of the city’s breweries and street fairs. A lot of regulars to Jimmy’s No. 43 may not realize that we cater large-scale events (and smaller ones, too—anywhere from 100 to 3,000 people). Coming up this weekend, for example, we’ll be hanging out with some of the sharpest dressed island revelers when we return to Governors Island for a “Taste of the 20s” Jazz Age Lawn Party, an outdoor celebration of the Jazz Age and its living legacy. We designed a killer menu perfect for outdoor dining that includes many items that can be served at your block party, wedding, or corporate event. Among our favorite food offerings:

  • *1920s-style Beefsteak—Grilled sirloin steak on whole grain baguette with parsley sauce and creamy horseradish
  • *Grilled Squab on Toast—Cornish hen, rosemary marinade on old fashioned garlic toast
  • *Mexican Corn—Hot popped-corn with choice of butter and sea salt
    or parmesan and truffle oil
  • *Brasserie-style grilling station—Burgers and Brats
  • *Luau BBQ—Hawaiian-style pork or dark meat chicken served with a side of Asian slaw
  • *and a Raw Bar—oysters, clams and shrimp cocktail

We can also roast whole pigs, serve up our classic pulled pork tacos, smoke meats and barbecue chickens.

Not heading to Governors Island this weekend? Well, you can catch us at other locations around the city:

  • *June 21st at Block & Brew, Bed-Vyne Brew’s First Anniversary party in Bed Stuy
  • *July 5th at Singlecut for another round of their very cool Beer-B-Q (come to Astoria!)
  • *August 8th in Bridgehampton for Edible East End’s Food Truck Derby (come to Long Island!)
  • *August 16th-17th we’ll return to Governors Island for round 2 of Jazz Age
  • *and finally, on September 5th it’s the Sixth Annual Pig Island

And for those who prefer to hang in the city, we’ll have plenty of great beer and food from our craft beer kitchen all weekend long, including a new menu with fresh meats and produce we just bought from our favorite vendors at Union Square Greenmarket. Whether outdoors or in, we’ve got some of the best food offerings for foodies and beer lovers alike.

 

 

Getting Sessionable: Session Beer Vegetarian Dinner with MJ Pal and Beer Author Gary Montoroso

GaryMonterossoWhat makes a beer sessionable? It’s all about the drinkability and alcohol level. What session beer would you choose to go with a very cool vegetarian menu? Well, Gary Monterosso (author of Artisan Beer) will be visiting Jimmy’s No. 43 to launch his new book, 101 Great Session Beers (and More), and we put together a slate of some of our favorites to pair with a five-course vegetarian dinner.

First up, we chose a nice malty Czech lager, the Konrad 11 at 4.5% ABV, which we’ll pair with an Heirloom Beet Salad.

The second course will be Melville Fresh Cheese on Toasts complemented with Rhubarb Compote paired with a classic Belgian, De la Senne’s Taras Boulba (4.5%).

Third, is a taste of the tart. Eric Asimov is hot for Peekskill’s Simple Sour, and we recently came across a similar beer from Chicago: Off Color’s Troublesome Gose, which we’ll pair with Grain (Farro) Risotto and Baby Leeks.

Also on draught we’ll have Barrier’s Cali Common paired with a Market Vegetables Frittata.

And finally for dessert, it’s Finback’s Coasted Toconut (summer milk stout with a hint of toasted coconut – 4.5%), a great example of how dark beers can be sessionable. We’ll pair with a Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler.

Gary is a true beer-ophile. He knew Michael Jackson and is featured in The Beer Hunter, a movie about Jackson’s life that we showed last year at Jimmy’s No. 43. Come meet Gary, learn more about session beers, and enjoy this delicious menu from guest chef Annette Tomei.

Tickets on sale here.