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Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
nickw wrote: AirBnB has proven to be a great option (not to mention the relative cheapness of it -- $120/night for two of us for a very large and clean loft apartment with full kitchen, outdoor space)...The location was great - easy walking distance (20 minutes or less) to beer destinations like Barcade, Spuyten Duyvil, Torst (which hadn't opened when I was there last), Brouwerij Lane, Bruekelen Bier Merchants, Beer Boutique, Mugs...The L-Train more or less cuts between all those destinations, so getting into Manhattan is very easy -- 10-15ish minutes to Union Square Station at 14th St and Broadway (but) be sure to check upcoming MTA service advisories.
Yeah, we also stayed about 20 min. away from the better beer pubs for a comparable price and found the transit system easy to navigate. Getting into Manhattan took 20-23 minutes each way since we had to transfer. The only thing I would say to Jeremy is that if you plan to spend a good chunk of your trip hitting the Manhattan tourist attractions and at least some of the beer bars, you're probably better off staying downtown. Since it was our first time in the city we spent about 85% of our trip in Manhattan. So while it was fun to visit four of the Brooklyn beer spots, we probably didn't need to stay there. Conversely if you're determined to explore all or most of Brooklyn's beer scene then it makes sense to get a room in Williamsburg, Park Slope, etc.
Belgian wrote: Haha. Me either, a place can have a different style and it doesn't get my goat quite so badly. Spuyten is just novel tiny and expensive. I would also like to spend more time exploring around Williamsburg, and Barcade sounds right up my alley. I love NYC exactly for its diversity. I've also heard soul-wrenching, horrified comments about dba bar in the Bowery, and I never had a bad time there over a number of visits.
The servers and patrons exhibited the same dismissive condescension as this post, so if that's your M.O., I can see how Spuyten would be "right up your alley."
"Bar people do not live as long as vegan joggers. However, they have more fun." - Bruce Elliott
I am updating these notes since I am in NYC again.
I had an outstanding Urquell from the tall bronze-coloured font, at a pub next to Rattle 'n Hum called I think, Mickey Spillane. Unlike sample tastes from various beer bars in the past, for once I think I've scoped the true taste of the fast cold-shipped Urquell the U.S. is now getting (but not us). It was quite different to equally fresh draft Urquell in Toronto. I think perhaps the U.S. one is not pasteurized. The U.S. one has a sharp hop flavour, while the body seems less sweet somehow than the Canadian import. Why this is I don't know, but to me they are almost like two different beers even though you can see evident similarities. The Canadian one when very fresh, as e.g. at Wallace Brewpub, is outstanding, but so is the U.S. one when you get it just right (I've had it a touch acidulous, flat or otherwize a little dull, but not this time).
It's two outstanding versions of the same beer and in all honesty I can't say the cold-shipped one (which reprises the local CZ flavour) is better. Both are great - but I stress you must get them both at their peak of flavour and it so happened I did, having the two two days apart, too, which permits proper assessment.
Bronx Black Ale on cask at Gingerman wowed, creamy, soft, everything right. Victory Session IPA didn't wow: exemplary in freshness and execution but the hop accent was of the "dank" type and you have to like that.
Weyerbacher's blend of Impy stout and its strong pumpkin beer, called Aries, was a little strong on the pumpkin spice for me, but well-made.
Gary
Having better luck on this trip than some earlier ones, mostly due to asking for small samples before committing to a pint. (I used to do the samplers at Rattle n Hum and Gingerman but those are expensive in relation to standard size servings).
Firestone Walker Pivo Pilsner, it uses the Saphir hop grown in Germany which I think is a hybrid of some kind. Excellent rich beer with a pronounced zesty hop flavour, sort of New World with some Old World added, but still not as good as classic Saaz pils or lager IMO.
Andechs Doppelbock at the German restaurant and bar at 7th and Avenue C, I think it called Zum Schneider. Fabulous beer, like those hard barley sugar candies that came from England when we were (or I was a) kid. Craft quality all the way, just old school craft. My wife and I agreed it was the best beer in months save one - mentioned below.
Peroni Asturro lager at Eataly. Excellent rich clean drink, tasty and very fresh. Rarely if ever is the canned one we get as good. It must be the high turnover but perhaps also that New York is a port and the stuff gets here fast. The draft we get can be good but not as good as this New York one, IMO.
Wells Young Courage Imperial Russian Stout on draft (not cask) at Rattle 'n Hum. I believe this is the 2013 vintage, the draft version of the one that will be bottled this year, thus the third vintage since the revival. What can you say... It is better than the 2012 IMO, richer and heavier with an almost molasses-like and also stored quality that is not brettish or sour. It is still the best Impy stout in the world in my view and this version, which looked only roughly filtered is the best way to drink it, better than the one time I had it on cask since the chill and carbonation do pick up the drink in a way, they balance the tremendous choco/coffee/molasses character. (Possibly the cask one Volo had last year at Cask Days was a 2013, I am not sure, but it seemed younger tasting to me than this current draft). A real treat and it was an accident to find it since I wasn't going to step in again and did it on a lark, just to look at the list in case anything important changed from the day before: and how. This was the no. 1 referred to above. By the way some pear estery character was there but not as much as in the 2011, in this respect it is more like the 2012.
Finally, just samples of a couple of nutbrowns from out west, can't recall the names but they didn't quite hit it for me.
A last one: Anderson Valley Boont Amber. On draft at a beer bar called Guilty Goose on 23rd street with a small but carefully chosen draft and larger bottled/canned list.
This is one of the earliest craft beers in America, more or less co-terminous with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Anderson Valley never grew nearly as much as Sierra Nevada though. What's interesting about Boont Amber is, it does not do the Cascade (or similar) citric hop thing. Rather, it is clearly inspired by English models with its clean hoppy and estery/fruity yeast notes. It tastes like a cross between Fuller's ESB and Newcastle Brown Ale.
It has a dry cereal note that is great when the beer is very fresh but rarely have I had it in bottle as good, oxidation seems to set in quickly. Today the draft was in exemplary shape indeed. It is the kind of beer that could have been the pale ale exemplar for America. It was not to be but is still a fine drink, some 30 years on.
