Come Down to the Clubhouse: Meet the Brewers, Ukrainian Festival this Weekend

BrewskisIt’s shaping up to be a beautiful spring weekend, and we’re happy to be the unofficial “clubhouse” for great beer during the 39th Annual St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church Festival in celebration of Lower East Side History Month and that the East Village is Back! After the fire and destruction of March, the East Village Independent Merchants Association has been getting together to improve our alliance, and as the St. George Ukrainian Festival is going strong, we’re happy to be the official “clubhouse” during this weekend’s festivities.

We’re getting a jump on the fun with a meet and greet tonight with two of our favorite brewers, Chris Cuzme and Mary Izett, who are bringing their latest creation, Cuzett Libations’ Revenge of the Emu, an all-Galaxy-hopped Australian Sparkling Ale. It was just brewed at Greenpoint Beer Works in Brooklyn, so it should taste as fresh as it gets. You can mingle with Mary and Chris from 6-8 p.m. and enjoy their beer all weekend (while supplies last).

Speaking of beer, we’ll be featuring Brewski’s as our official lager of the Ukrainian Festival. Brewski Brewing Company is the beer brewing venture between Jerry Kuziw and Greg Zaccardi. The building where Jimmy’s No. 43 is located housed the original Brewsky’s (now Standings) along with Burp Castle, both of which were previously run by Jerry. As Steve Hindy said in his book, The Craft Beer Revolution, Brewsky’s and Burp Castle are two pioneering microbrew bars created by Jerry, who created and ran Brewsky’s and Burp Castle for many years as the visionary landlord behind these three establishments.

Brewski’s Lager takes its inspiration from Jerry’s East Village community and history. We’re showing that the #EastVillageloves a great lager beer! that he recently began his next venture,  All weekend we’ll feature Brewski’s as our official lager of the Ukrainian Festival.

We’ll have other celebrities dropping by for tastings this weekend, so be sure to drop by and have a beer or two in celebration of St. George Church’s 39th Annual Ukrainian Festival!

We’re opening at noon on both Saturday, May 16, and Sunday, May 17. We hope to see you soon!

What’s on Tap? More Sour Beers, Cool Cocktails

CocktailsWhat are we drinking this weekend? Owner Jimmy Carbone is enjoying our bottle list of sour beers and Barrier Brewing’s Evil Giant Rye IPA on draught.

Some of the sours we’ll have available this weekend:

  • Gose beers (Leipziger, Riterguts – both from Germany) – sour, slightly salty beers with coriander that say “summertime”!
  • Tilquin form Belgium – Gueuze Classic Lambic and Quetsche Tilquin (rare!) Lambic with plums

If liquor is your beverage of choice, our new Friday/Saturday daytime bartender is a mixologist with a flair for whiskey cocktails! Last weekend for Kentucky Derby Day, she whipped up a wicked Presbyterian (our version of a Mint Julep).

Finally, we’re featuring The Other Half (Brooklyn) on draught and should have the following beers throughout the weekend:

  •  Laatse Ronde – a 6.0% ABV Saison
  • All Green Everything – Triple IPA (10.5% ABV; rated 98)
  • Hop Showers IPA – 7.4% ABV
  • The Other Half IPA – 7.1% ABV
  • Centennial IPA – 7.1% ABV

And on Sunday,  be sure to bring mom by for a great craft beer or cocktail. Mom deserves it!

RIP Josh Ozersky

As many in our close foodie community are already aware, food writer and big man and personality Josh Ozersky passed away suddenly early yesterday morning in Chicago, where he was reporting on this year’s James Beard Awards. Our history with Josh runs deep, dating back to 2007 when he did a great write-up about Jimmy’s No. 43 and our then up-and-coming chef Phillip Kirschen-Clark.

Josh co-hosted many bacon and beer tastings with Chris Cuzme and Mary Izett back in those early days, and he joined us on Governors Island in 2010 when we co-produced the first blow out Meatopia. Josh brought many chefs and friends together, and he will be missed.

If you have a little time, you might enjoy watching Josh from 2013 on the Munchies show here:

RIP Josh!

Pre-Nepenthia Meet and Greet with Great World Brewers

LeonardoDiVincenzo
Leonardo Di Vincenzo of Birra del Borgo will be one of several brewers visiting Jimmy’s No. 43 on Friday.

Every spring, our friends at B. United host an industry-only invite to their annual “Nepenthia” tasting, which brings in some of the world’s best brewers and their latest beers. Nepenthia is a fantasy name, derived from nepenthe, which in Greek mythology was an anti-depressant or cure for sorrow.

We’re all about curing sorrows, and many of the outstanding brewers from Nepenthia will be coming to Jimmy’s No. 43 on Friday (May 1st) for an incredible May Day celebration of some incredible beers. Swing by in the late afternoon and early evening to meet and greet (and drink) with the following brewers and brewery representatives:
  • Jeremy Luz of Beavertown Brewery (U.K.) and his Applelation, an 8.7% ABV apple Saison
  • Birra del Borgo Italy’s Leonardo Di Vincenzo and Paolo Bertani with Perle ai Porci, a 5.5% ABV English Stout
  • Giovanni Campari and Manuele Piccoli of Birrificio del Ducato (Italy) with Beersel Mattina, a 6.2% ABV farmhouse ale
  • Makana Meadery (South Africa) – Garth Cambray pouring Iqhilika Dry mead, a honey-based wine aged in South African red wine barrels
  • Domaine Dupont’s Jérôme Dupont (France) with two ciders: Pommeau and Bouche Brut du Normandie
And if you’re looking to support beers a little closer to home, well, we’ve got your NYC breweries covered as well (and check out this great report by Metro about where to drink NYC beers)!

April Sours continue with Hitachino on tap, great bottle list

DSF3844We have had a long-term friendship with Japan’s Hitachino brewery and always enjoy the unique and balanced beers by Toshiyuki Kiuchi (pictured at left from when he and his team visited Jimmy’s No. 43 after the tsunami that rocked Japan).
This past weekend, we held our annual April Sours event, and we’re very excited to have several beers still on the menu, including Hitachino Nest Anbai, a Plum Wheat Gose, on draught.

Mr Toshi Kiuchi is using “unripe” (i.e. green plums) from his own yard, resulting in a high level of citric acid in the mash. These fresh green sour plums are added into the maturation tank for two months! Lots of wild yeast from the plums add to this beers unique flavor profile. Mr. Kuichi shares the basics of the brewing process:

  1. Brew special White Ale for Anbai ( 8% ABV)
  2. Add Japanese sour plums into special White Ale and soak for two months in cold temperatures
  3. Remove the sour plums
  4. Add salt
  5. Age one month with additional yeast added

In addition to the Hitachino on draught, we have a full list of other sour beers (we’re happy to recommend food pairings! sour beers go great with food!):

  • Bell’s Oarsman Sour Wheat Ale (on draught)
  • Finback’s Sunday Field Trips Saison (on draught)
  • Cuzett Libations’ Grisett (on draught)
  • Fantôme Hiver Saison (Belgium)
  • Haandbryggeriet Krekling (Norway)
  • Kerkom Reuss – a blend of 80% blonde ale (similar to Bink Blond) and 20% young lambic
  • Monarchy Munchhausen – a 4.8% ABV Munsterland-style sour altbier
  • Siren/Hill Farmstead Lemoncello – sour ale (lactic fermentation) with honey Imperial IPA with lemon (trying to recreate Limoncello in a beer)
  • Evil Twin Come Again Sour (made in UK at Buxton Brewery)
  • Ichtegem’s Grand Cru
  • Leipziger Gose
  • Tilquin Gueuze (Belgium)
  • Quetsche Tilquin Special Plum Lambic (Belgium)
  • Hof Ten Dormaal Zure Van Tildan Blond Sour Ale (Belgium)
  • Del Ducato Chrysopolis  – B. United
  • Anchorage/Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Boreal – Belgian-style ale brewed with grapefruit peel, grapefruit juice, and peppercorns and aged in oak
  • The Bruery Oude Tarte
  • The Bruery Hottenroth Berliner Weisse
  • Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo Especial Dark Sour Ale
  • Transmitter Brewing NY1 Sour Saison (last of the 2015 SMASH beers)
  • Transmitter Brewing F4 Brett Farmhouse Ale
  • The Other Half Veldrigen Love Farmhouse Ale
  • Crooked Stave Surette-Provision Saison (Colorado)

Come by anytime or on Sunday for our special brisket fundraiser with Chef Jesse Jones and try one of these great sour beers.