Somewhere along the line, beer became as viable an option as wine for something to bring to a dinner party in New York. So be it.
Now what? Faux pas await you, ones you’d never find with wine.
For one thing, wine has labels to give even the cheapest hooch the veneer of respectability. No Read More
The habits of New York craft beer drinkers owe an inestimable debt to … California. The Golden State birthed the craft beer movement in the United States; it incubated the heavily hopped style that has come to define American craft beer more than any other; and it laid the template for that thankfully ubiquitous of Read More
Long Island has in the last year become a tender hub of nanobreweries: As many as four are in operation or will be in operation by the middle of 2011. Two of those distribute in the city (which itself hosts no nanobreweries, as far as I was able to find—if I missed one, please let Read More
If you’ve been reading The Hophead this year, you know I focus more on the back stories of beers and the people behind them than on the tastes (go elsewhere, please, for serious disquisition on mouthfeel and bouquet—I don’t claim to be a critic). I seek to report on the influencers of what we Read More
“My father’s a statistician,” said Jen Schwertman on the Friday night before Thanksgiving. She was in the front booth of an after-work bar in the financial district, just off the 1 line, talking over the labored small talk of men in loosened ties and the women in pencil skirts playing defense. She was sipping a Sierra Read More
What: The Good Beer Seal
Where: Jimmy’s No. 43 and 26 other bars around the city
Why: Because wine shouldn’t have all the fun
It was September 2008, on the last night of New York City’s first Craft Beer Week, an official celebration of everything brewing in Gotham. Jimmy Carbone was talking Read More
What: Old beer recipes
Where: Turin, Park Slope and Union Square
Why: Beer and civilization—they grew up together
I was in Turin, Italy, in the old Olympic Village, last week for the International Slow Food Movement’s annual gathering, Salone del Gusto–a sort of trade show meets Baptist tent revival in the shadow of the Alps Read More
What: Beer Class
Where: Greenpoint
Why: Because the verbs matter more than the adjectives in the craft beer movement.
I was going to give a talk on Oct. 13 at the Black Rabbit Bar in Greenpoint, owned by the delightful Kent and Anne Lanier, as part of what we were billing as “Beer Read More
What: Homebrewing
Where: Williamsburg
Why: Because the retail options for buying equipment and ingredients in New York City have multiplied from basically nothing to several in just the last few years, and an entire subculture has sprung up.
On Saturday, Oct. 2, I hoofed it from the Metropolitan stop on the G train (why did Read More
What: Pumpkin Ale
Where: Brooklyn
Why: Because it was the first weekend of fall, and someone tweeted something.
At 5:43 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 14, a New Yorker tweeted the following: “Anyone have a favorite pumpkin beer OR a favorite place in Brooklyn for drinking pumpkin beers?”
Two minutes later, the redoubtable Read More
