Ready for the Weekend: Welcoming Secret Engine with Rocky Point, Lots o’Lardo

IMG_00001435Here at Jimmy’s No. 43, we love a good story, and one of the better stories can be told about our neighbor around the corner, East Village Meat Market. Our special relationship with them came out of Pig Island, the annual pork fest that takes place each September, which we sourced this year from Flying Pigs Farm. We needed to break down our pig and the team did it for us. To quote from our upcoming Pig Island Cookbook:

“The East Village Meat Market, started by Ukrainian expat Julian Baczynsky in 1970, is one of Manhattan’s special places, a store that manages to straddle past and present by serving truly great product. It is one of the last of what used to be many butcher shops in the neighborhood specializing in Eastern European smoked and cured meats, as well as fresh cuts of pork, beef, lamb or chicken. Today it is managed by Andrew Ilnicki and a staff that includes workers like Anthony Tychanski, Jersy Kossakowski and Sudolia Vasil who hail from both Poland and the Ukraine have had many years of experience smoking, curing and cutting meat on two continents.”

Now, whenever we have a whole hog we need broken down, we take it around the corner to get all the amazing cuts we can to use the meat sustainably.

And things have come full circle, as EVMM is making one of its traditional products with pork sourced from Flying Pigs Farm. This weekend we have their special fatback, or “lardo,” a rich, fatty, prosciutto-like meat that we serve on open face dark-bread sandwiches. It’s a great small plate to pair with beer.

Speaking of which…

Tonight we welcome Brooklyn’s latest brewery, along with their cool collaborators from upstate for a mini-tap-takeover and meet the brewer event. From 5 p.m., we’ll be pouring several brews from Rocky Point Artisan Brewers (from Long Island) and gypsy brewers Secret Engine (from Brooklyn) during this themed event. Beers to include:

  • *Rocky Point Artisan Brewers / Secret Engine – Sticke Handwerker on cask – An American Amber/English Mild (6.7% ABV)
  • *Rocky Point Artisan Brewers / Secret Engine – Das Saftige
  • *Rocky Point Artisan Brewers – Motueka Pilsner

Plus the brewers from both breweries will be on hand to talk about their beers. As always, while supplies last, and regular bar/restaurant service is available.

We hope you’ll be dropping in this weekend to enjoy our craft beer and kitchen.

 

Fall into Great Beer

SaisondErpeMereWe kicked off fall with our Smoked+Smoked dinner featuring some of the world’s most traditional smoked beers, including Schlenkerla and Evil Twin Cowboy, which we will continue to feature this week as the days begin to shorten and the temperatures beckon heavier brews.

We asked B. United founder Matthias Neidhart about his great smoked beers, and here’s what he had to share.

How did you get involved with importing Schlenkerla?

From the start in 1995 our company has zeroed in on the classic examples of as many beer styles as possible. The late Michael Jackson served as our “guide” as follows: “The most famous Bamberg Rauchbier is Schlenkerla, made for the tavern of that name by the Heller brewery… Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Maerzen , is made entirely from smoked malt…the resultant beer has a smoky aroma and a dryness the moment it hits the tongue, and a full, smoky flavor that lingers in a long finish.”

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Maerzen, a world classic is the definitive example of this style.

Is there a thriving market for smoked beers in the US?

From our first day of importing the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier portfolio until today, about 19 years later, the portfolio has grown every year. Every year it has attracted new friends to this extraordinary style of beer. All other “smoke brews” we have added over time follow the same trend!

What are some of the other smoked beers that you import?

  • *De Dues “Tocatta” from Spain – a dessert brew at around 11.5% ABV that uses peat smoked barley malt for extraordinary complex flavors and aromas.
  • *Grodziskie by Prof. Fritz Briem from Germany – a sour smoke wheat ale historically created in the Polish town of Grodzisk Wielkopolski.
  • *Fumigant by Birrificio Montegioco from Italy – a peat smoked sour ale aged in Barbera wine barrels.
  • *Torbata by Birrificio Almond 22 of Italy – a peat smoked barley wine that adds honey.
  • *BrettPeat DayDream by Birrificio Del Ducato from Italy – a Scotch Whiskey barrel aged sour ale made with peated malt!
  • *Charbonniere by Brasserie de la Goutte d’Or from France – a peat-smoked amber ale!

In addition to smoked and rauchbiers, we’ll also be featuring Saison d’Erpe Mere on draught (Brouwerij De Glazen Toren brewmaster Jeff Vandersteen will be a special guest on today’s Beer Sessions Radio at 5 p.m.). And several of last night’s dishes will be on the menu all this week, including Potato Soup with Shiso and Smoked Bacon and Grilled Tamari Pork Skewers.

 

Smuttynose-Stone Collaboration Marks Return of Thursday Tap

Smuttynose_Clusters_22oz_FRONTIf you were here in the spring, you might have been dropping by on Thursdays for special keg launches. Well, today, we have a great one as Thursday Tap returns: We’ll be tapping Cluster’s Last Stand, a special limited release IPA by Smuttynose with Stone Brewing. Inspired by Stone brewmaster Mitch Steele’s comprehensive book on India Pale Ale, this recreation of the original Ballantine IPA recipe was brewed for research purposes and sold out quickly last year.

While still in limited distribution, the 8.8% ABV beer will be tapped this afternoon and available while supplies last. You can read more about the beer here, or just come down to Jimmy’s No. 43 after 5 p.m. today and try it yourself! As always, regular bar/craft beer kitchen service is available.

Wet hop and fall beers arrive to celebrate the season

OktoberfeastAs the official Oktoberfest gets underway starting this Saturday, we’re celebrating with our favorite beers of the fall: Wet hop beers! Wet hop beers are those brews made by directly adding fresh cone hops to the beer making process. As this can only occur during the fall season, many of these beers are labeled “harvest” beers, and they are typically characterized by their exteme freshness.
Bar owner Jimmy Carbone has already homed in on his favorite beer of the wet hop season thus far: Barrier Brewing’s Hoplantic, a 5.5% ABV Pale Ale. Jimmy says, “Talk about fresh beer with the super subtle notes of fresh wet hops! This was my beer of the weekend. We have one keg left that we’ll have for the next few days.”
Other beers that Jimmy loved this weekend, included some great sours (still available by the bottle), including The Bruery’s Sour in the Rye, a very limited barrel- aged sour rye beer that we’ll be pouring tomorrow night at $12/glass (from the 750 ml bottle) in honor of his weekly show, Beer Sessions Radio on the Heritage Radio Network (the show airs here at 5 p.m.), where Jimmy will be interviewing the brewery’s (or Bruery’s!) founder Patrick Rue. Having just been to San Diego and getting the opportunity to sample Sour in the Rye (fresh from the growler!), I can attest you don’t want to miss out on trying this beer! Come and get your glass (while supplies last).
And our foray into fall beers continues with next Monday’s Smoked+Smoked beer and food prix fixe dinner. Special guest Jon Lundbom of B. United will be bringing beers from their smoked German portfolio (subject to change):
  • *Schlenkerla Helles
  • *Schlenkerla Maerzen
  • *Carrobiollo (2013)
  • *De Dues Toccata
  • *Schlenkerla Oak Smoke
Get your Smoked+Smoked beer dinner tickets here.
Finally, we’re very excited to be part of a new pop-up venture, OktoberfeAst, which will take place in Lower Manhattan (Front and Fulton) on Saturday, October 11th. We’ll be bringing out our BBQ Rig to pair food with an amazing lineup of German and German-style NY State beers. It’s an outdoor biergarden just right for the beautiful fall days! Find out more about OktoberfeAst here.
So, come out and celebrate the colors of beer with us. It’s fest season!

Sour Beer Weekend – With Saturday Bacon Pairing Guided Tasting

AprilSours2012_6BeersWe’re heading into fall and before we launch our Oktoberfest in a week or so, we’re celebrating the official end of summer with sours! These beers are suddenly all the trend, but we’ve been curating a menu replete with great sour brews for years.
Of course, sour beers make for great food pairings, but we wonder if some of their popularity of late may stem from wine drinkers discovering craft beer. And if you aren’t into hoppy IPAs, the line of sours we carry are a nice break from the bitter!

This past summer, NY Times food editor Eric Asimov wrote that Peekskill’s Simple Sour was his top beer of the summer. It’s a Berliner Weisse style that we have carried regularly.

In fact, we’re so psyched for sours that we’re doing a special guided tasting tomorrow afternoon (tickets here). We’re trying to cover a broader spectrum of sour styles, including Belgian Grand Cru and Flemish reds, German goses, and the best of Belgium (Lambics, Guezes, etc.).

Here are some of Jimmy Carbone’s notes on the sour beers he loves, including some that will be at tomorrow’s tasting:

  • *Off Color Troublesome Gose (from Chicago) – “To me it’s a wheat-gose hybrid; it’s refreshing, not so sour as a pure gose.
  • *”Bayrisher Bahnhof (from Leipzig, Germany) – “They revived the Leipziger gose style after the wall came down in eastern Germany. I really like their Berliner Weisse, in particular the buckwheat Berliner Weisse. It has more malt body than typical Berliner Weisses.”
  • *Sour in the Rye by The Bruery (California) – “A great sour rye aged in barrels.”
  • *Rodenbach Grand Cru Flemish Red (Belgium) – “Each year at BBQ events like NYC’s Pig Island, I pair the Rodenbach with head cheese for breakfast!”
  • *Surette Provisional Saison by Crooked Stave (Colorado) – “A barrel-aged lambic-style sour that is very popular right now.”
We hope you’ll come down this weekend and get your tart fix at Jimmy’s No. 43 (regular bar and restaurant service is available).