December 2014 - Jimmys No. 43

What’s On Tap: Celebrate New Year’s at Jimmy’s No. 43

We’re girding our loins (or stacking our kegs, at any rate) in anticipation for tonight’s ringing in the new year! We’ll be opening at 4 p.m. (until who knows?) with a great selection of craft beer, cider, wines and – of course – Prosecco to bid farewell to 2014 and toast to 2015.

Among tonight’s offerings are an open bar ticket from 9 p.m. until midnight, plus pay-as-you-go options and plenty of food from our craft beer kitchen.

Some beers expected to be on draught? We’ll have a wide range from Rocky Point/Secret Engine plus our new favorite “sleeper” brew, Barrier Brewing’s Evil Giant Rye IPA (an India Pale Ale at 6.4% ABV, nothing evil about drinking it all night long!). Plus many others on tap and a wide range of “Champagne-level” bottles to choose from.

What will Jimmy be drinking for New Year’s? Well, you can find out in this post about the Best New NYC Beers of 2014.

And if it’s hair of the dog you seek, we’ll be open at 4 p.m. on January 1st, as well.

Happy New Year!

What a great year! 2014 comes to an end.

From our annual cassoulet cook-off in January through Battle of the Belgians just a couple weeks ago, Jimmy’s No. 43 was host to countless events, tastings, dinners and meet-and-greets. We look back fondly on some of our favorite moments we shared with you in 2014:

*Slow Food Founder Carlo Petrini visits! We were truly honored to have the opportunity to meet, interview and host the leader of the slow food movement when he came to NYC this past October. We really hope to see him again in the spring when he has tentative plans to return to the city. You can read more about Carlo’s visit with us here.
*Food & Wine Magazine names us one of the Best Gastropubs in the U.S.! We were truly humbled to be named to this list. Grazie!
*Liquid Lent! Based on a blogger who decided to consume nothing but beer during Lent, Jimmy Carbone decided to undertake his own Liquid Lent this year, exploring vegetarian foods paired with great Belgian beers.
*The Launch of Pop-Up Sundays. Jimmy’s No. 43 has a long history of discovering and nurturing talent in the kitchen, and this year we started a series of pop-ups on Sundays that featured many different food styles. Our favorite had to be August’s Perfectly Evil Pop-Up with Revolving Dansk and Evil Twin’s Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø.
*Battle of the Belgians. It was back to basics for us at Battle of the Belgians on December 6th, with a wider selection of beers and a roast pig to round out the fun. You can reminisce (even if it just happened) on the event here.
*The Real Cider Manifesto and Ciderwick. The “craft cider” movement is still in its infancy, but we’re trying to remain a leader in what we like to call “real” cider. In June, we brought you the Real Cider Manifesto and Ciderwick, a week’s worth of cider-related events focused on the new vintages. Among the ciders we discovered this year was Redbyrd, and we look forward to an expanded cider focus at all our events moving forward. Read about what the Village Voice had to say about it all in this profile.

And the year’s not over! Coming in the next week:

*On Thursday, December 25th, it’s time once again for Craft Beer Christmas: $25 gets you a plate with drinks pay-as-you-go (tickets here)
*On Friday, December 26th, it’s our annual Boxing Day Coat Drive: Your new or gently-used coat donation gets you a free American pint
*On Wednesday, December 31st, we’ll be offering up a three-course Early Bird Prix Fixe Pairing Menu: $45 gets you dinner with drinks (last seating 7:30 p.m. – tickets here)
*On Wednesday, December 31st, it’s our famous New Year’s Eve Open Bar: from 9 p.m. to midnight you’ll have an open bar to ring in 2015 (tickets here)

We truly are grateful for all of you who have joined us at Jimmy’s No. 43 in 2014, and we wish you the happiest of holidays and a fantastic new year. See you in 2015!

We’ll Tap “Local” Sierra Nevada this Friday

Maybe you’ve heard? Sierra Nevada is now brewing near Asheville, NC, and we’re getting our first keg from them this Friday (cutting down the shipping time by 2/3 from brewery to our keg room).

The release of Pale Ale from North Carolina is a milestone for the company and officially marks a new era in Sierra Nevada’s history. A couple weeks ago Sierra Nevada reached the 1 million barrel mark and this milestone surpassed every wild dream Ken Grossman had when he started in 1980. Still growing as an independent, family-owned operation, Ken’s son (Brian) has assumed the leadership role at the North Carolina brewery, signifying a new generation of beer innovation. Our palates have grown with Sierra Nevada throughout the years and Sierra Nevada continues to innovate and evolve alongside all of our palates.

Very soon Sierra Nevada will announce some new year-round beers, including a new IPA utilizing distilled hops (the first to do so) to give drinkers a new IPA experience. Other new beers on the horizon:

A year-round pilsner called the Nooner
An Oktoberfest collaboration beer with a different German brewery each year as a fall seasonal
The Beer Camp concept will launch as a spring seasonal starting with the Ballast Point collaboration of this past summer

The Pale Ale is associated with so many fundamental memories that catapulted the movement to where it is today. For craft beer to maintain an impact on drinkers, drinkers need to know where craft beer has been. That is what makes the North Carolina release of the Pale Ale important and exciting. That and tasting the super fresh whole cone cascade hops like it was brewed yesterday. Happy Holidays!

Battle of the Belgians Best Year Ever!

This year’s Battle of the Belgians harkened back to the early days, when two dozen beers were poured for a packed house. While there were fewer actual brews from Belgium, there were great American and European beers, including a surprisingly impressive array of Italian beers. And while the crowd was loving the variety of pours at three separate pouring stations featuring beers from B. United, Union Beer and independent labels, a cheer went up when the pièce de résistance showed up in the form of a roasted half-hog that was deliciously carved up to the hungry revelers.

Best of Show winner from our first Battle of the Belgians (2000), Brian Strumke of Stillwater Artisanal Ales, returned to pour three of his newest beers that were extremely well received by the crowd. The Dupont Bière de Belœil, which won our second year, returned this year to show us just how good old school Belgian’s could be. (Sadly, our third year winner BFM of Switzerland wasn’t represented this year.) But there was no shortage of great beers to enjoy, with both classics and newcomers taking away people’s choice votes.

So, without further ado, the “envelope” if you please…

Best Belgian-style American:

1st place went to Grimm’s Artisanal (Brooklyn) Beers witha Buzz Triple + honey

2nd place went to Stillwater Artisanal Ales’ Kentucky Folklore, a Bourbon Barrel Belgian Stout (gypsy brewer Brian Strumke)

3rd place went to the Secret Engine/Rocky Point collaboration Madame Saveur, an 11% ABV Triple with grenadine (Brooklyn/Long Island)

Best Belgian:

1st place went to Rochefort 10 Trappist ale

2nd place went to Westmalle Dubble Trappist ale

3rd place went to Dupont’s Bière de Belœil, a dark farmhouse ale

Best Belgian-style from other countries:

1st place went to Birra del Borgo’s 25 Dodici Christmas/holiday beer

2nd place went to Baladin’s Isaac

3rd place went to LoverBeer’s Duva Beer made with grapes

Best of Show:

Grimm’s Artisanal (Brooklyn) Beers witha Buzz Triple + honey

For all our photos from Battle of the Belgians, please visit (and like!) our Facebook page.

The Bruery, Belgians Bring in December

While the weather outside is decidedly not frightful, we’re super excited about the line-up of beer events we have this week, including the return of (the fifth annual) Battle of the Belgians this coming Saturday, from 1-4 p.m. But first up, tomorrow night we welcome back Mike Lovullo, who used to curate our Tuesday Tasting program. Mike will be pouring from six different bottles from The Bruery in a guided tasting that will include (subject to availability):

*Hottenroth Berliner Weisse
*Autumn Maple, A Belgian-style Brown Ale with yams, molasses and maple syrup
*Tart of Darkness, A sour Stout aged in wood barrels
*Smoking Wood, A 14 percent ABV smoked imperial Rye Porter aged in bourbon barrels
*Sour in the Rye, A Rye sour
*Oude Tart, A Flemish Red aged in oak barrels

We are offering all six for a $35 ticket (here) or you can pay by the glass. Ordinarily, you have to buy the bottle to get The Bruery, so this is an excellent opportunity to try these beers at a fraction of the retail cost.

And of course our favorite annual event, Battle of the Belgians brings together brewers and distributors from around the globe along with a few home brewers thrown in for good measure. This annual event features the best of Belgium (from 12% Imports, Vanberg & Dewulf, Shelton Brothers, B. United, Duvel) alongside American-made Belgian-style beers. This year’s new representative is Italy! You’ll get three-hours of walk-around sampling plus food (we’re smoking a whole hog, plus vegetarian sides).

Expected to be available (subject to change):

*Blaugies Moneuse
*Wild Beer Somerset Saison
*Mystic Table Beer
*Jolly Pumpkin Fuego del Otno
*Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire
*Bruery Oude Tart
*Grimm Bees With a Buzz
*Midnight Sun Trickster
*Alvinne Melchior Pur Sang (aged in Red wine barrels with cherries)
*Extraomnes Zest
*De Dolle Oerbier
*De Glazen Toren Saison d’Erpe Mere
*Baladin Isaac
*Del Borgo 25 Dodici
*Loverbeer D’Uvabeer
*Ichtegem’s Grand Cru
*Smisje Catherine the Great
*Saison de Pipaix
*Plus selections from Stillwater Artisanal Ales chosen by brewmaster Brian Strumke

Tickets for Battle of the Belgians are on sale here.