Author: anon

Great South Bay’s Niko Weisse

NikoWeisse

One of the things we really love about craft beer is how collaborative it is. Lots of brewers learn their trade from other brewers, and they always seem to be willing to pay it forward. What’s cooler then than a friend who brews with a local brewer? That’s what occurred when beer writer (among other trades) Niko Krommydas went out to brew with Great South Bay on Long Island. The beer is finally ready and Jimmy Carbone will be talking with Niko on this afternoon’s Beer Sessions Radio on the Heritage Radio Network.

We’ll be pouring the beer itself, Niko Weisse, a Greek-inspired Berliner Weisse with cucumbers at the bar this evening. The beer is a pale, wheaty, low ABV brew based on the regional specialty of Berlin. Niko added cucumbers, a primary ingredient in tzatziki, to uniquely celebrate his Greekness.

Come by and try this perfect beer for a hot summer day. All regular bar/restaurant service is available.

July IS Good Beer Month

SheltonBros1We hope you will join us in July as we celebrate Good Beer Month! We’ll be welcoming beer lovers to Jimmy’s No. 43 with some incredible brews and delicious food offerings from our Craft Beer Kitchen, including our award-winning grass-fed beef burger, our lamb sliders, and our vegetarian pasta dish made with green market asparagus and ricotta.

Among our featured events for July Good Beer Month will be:

July 4th – Celebrate July 4th in the East Village! After the fireworks (back on our side of the island!), drop by and have a pint of Sly Fox Pikeland Pils: It was inspired somewhat by Jever, one of the more hoppy & bitter Pils made in Northern Germany; brewed with Pils malt and hopped with German and Czech hops. Pikeland Pils won the first ever medal from the GABF for a canned craft beer!

July 5th – BEER-B-Q AT SINGLECUT BEERSMITHS: Jimmy’s No. 43 pulls up our Summer Rig BBQ Smoker from 1-5 p.m. outside the Astoria brewery. Get your post Independence Day on with smoked meats, Mexican corn, and lots of yummy Singlecut.

July 9th – CRAFT BEER JAM AND AFTER PARTY: Jimmy Carbone heads over to WNYC’s The Green Space once again to play host to live tastings at Craft Beer Jam. Join in for Conversation, Consumption and Live Music with Beer In The ‘Burbs: The most popular breweries on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley will be on hand to talk about the brewing scene in the suburbs, share their secrets of getting started in the business. After party at Jimmy’s No. 43 starts at 10 p.m.

July 15th – SERIOUS SHELTON NIGHT AT JIMMY’S NO 43: Some of our favorite beers from Shelton Brothers will be featured at a $20 Tuesday Tasting event (see photo for a preview!).

July 16th – CRAFT BEER JAM AND AFTER PARTY: WNYC’s The Green Space and Jimmy will be talking with Long Island hop grower John Condzella and Kelly Taylor, of Kelso Brewing and president of the NYC Brewers Guild, join us for a guided tasting and to explain how different varieties of hops affect the bitterness, flavor and aroma of beer. After party at Jimmy’s No. 43 starts at 10 p.m.

July 23rd – CRAFT BEER JAM AND AFTER PARTY: This week Jimmy talks about one of his favorite topics, Paring Beer With Food. After party at Jimmy’s No. 43 starts at 10 p.m.

July 29th – BEER FILM FEST AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES – We’re producing this Beer Film Festival with short films and videos curated by the Happy Hour Guys and Beer Nation TV, and beer from 508 Gastrobrewery brewmaster Chris Cuzme. Tickets here.

 

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!