Belgian Beer Dinner (Vegetarian!)

When:  Monday, 3 December, 7 pm
Where:  Jimmy's No. 43, 43 E. 7th Street
What:  $45 plus tax and gratuity for 5 courses paired with 5 beers




Join Joel Shelton and myself at a vegetarian beer dinner at Jimmy's No. 43 featuring 5 of our Belgian beers. 

Tickets are available here.

The menu (subject to change):

• Wild mushroom and Jerusalem artichoke soup
• Toast with wild mushrooms and sheep's milk camembert
• Roasted beets and tamari on wild watercress salad
• Roasted squash and farro risotto
• Banana bread pudding with Ronnybrook whipped cream  

The beers:

• Drie Fonteinen Beersel Blond
• Cantillon Lou Pépé Framboise
• Blaugies Saison d'Epeautre
• De Ranke XX Bitter
• Achel Extra 

This dinner is the culmination of the 3rd annual Battle of the Belgians weekend at Jimmy's. All weekend long, they'll be pouring Belgian beers and there will be a special ticketed tasting session on Saturday, December 1 from 12-3pm. For more information, check out the Jimmy's No. 43 website:  http://jimmysno43.com/   

Belgium2Brooklyn

When:  Saturday, 1 December - Sunday, 2 December, 11 am onwards
Where: Mugs Ale House, 125 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn
What:  pay-as-you-go   

courtesy of Bill Coleman

After getting your Zwanze on, saunter on over to Mugs Ale House for the 7th annual Belgium2Brooklyn featuring Belgian and Belgian-inspired beers. The draft list will be different on each day so make sure you return on Sunday. Check out their Facebook page for a full list but here's a small sampling of some of the beers that will be poured:

• De Struise XXX Rye Triple
• De Struise Pannepot Grand Reserva 
• Drie Fonteinen Beersel Blond
• Jolly Pumpkin Luciernaga
• Mikkeller Funky E*
• Christoffel Bok
• De la Senne Band of Brothers
• Ellezelloise Hercule Stout
• Kerkom Bink Winterkoninkske (Winter King)   

Zwanze Day 2012

When:  Saturday, 1 December, 12pm onwards. Zwanze tapping at 3pm
Where:  Spuyten Duyvil, 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn
What:  pay-as-you-go

Once a year, Brussel's Cantillon Brewery, makers of traditional lambic and gueuze, brew a special experimental batch of beer, never to be rebrewed (aside from this year's version). This year brewer Jean Van Roy has recreated 2008's inaugural brew, a rhubarb lambic brewed with organically grown rhubarb. Because of adverse winter weather conditions and the unpredictable nature of wild yeasts, this year's batch was not ready for the traditional September release. Find out more about this year's Zwanze here.

The word zwanze comes from the Flemish dialect spoken in Brussels and describes the typical humor of the city's inhabitants, characterized by a finely-balanced mix of self-deprecation and exaggeration. Jean Van Roy enjoyed the idea of calling his experimental blends Zwanze since the name suggest a light-hearted approach to the blends which he feels have a similar jovial and slightly derisive spirit as do the people of Brussels.

Spuyten Duyvil will open at noon and will be pouring 2 other Cantillon drafts:  St. Lamvinus (with French wine grapes) and Mamouche (with elderflower). They will also have a selection of other spontaneously fermented ales in bottles. Note that the Zwanze keg will not be tapped until 3pm to coincide with the Zwanze tapping in Brussels at 9pm WET but you'll want to get there early.  

VSK at Blind Tiger

We hope you still have room in your beer belly post-Thanksgiving because it's going to be a beery week!

This Wednesday, starting at 3pm, drop by Blind Tiger Ale House for the annual VSK (Very Special Keg) event. Each year, they hoard kegs and then pull them all out at once for the adult version of "kid-in-a-candy-shop" experience.

The full list is awfully impressive and can be found here but to save time and avoid anxiety-inducing decision-making, we're going straight for glasses of Cantillon Fou'foune (apricot lambic), Dieu du Ciel! Sieben Hugel (rauchbier only available at the Montreal brewpub), and the De Struise/Stillwater collaboration Outblack (Belgian strong dark ale combined with a hoppy black ale).

Upcoming weekend events:  Zwanze Day at Spuyten Duyvil, Belgium2Brooklyn at Mugs Ale House, and Battle of the Belgians at Jimmy's No. 43. Details to follow shortly.

Thursday Tap - Yeastie Boys + City Swiggers Anniversary

Tonight's Thursday Tap at Jimmy's No. 43 is a rare keg of the aptly named Bye Bye Badman from New Zealand's Yeastie Boys. Come support a lower Manhattan business and say "bye bye" to storm damage. Bye Bye Badman is a very sessionable 4.8% northern English brown ale. The keg will be tapped at 5pm.

Jimmy's No. 43 is located at 43 E. 7th Street.



Also happening tonight is the one-year anniversary party of our friends at City Swiggers. They've contributed immensely to the beer scene on the Upper East Side so drop by and offer your congratulations. They'll have special beers on tap plus their great selection of bottles. Things get started at 6pm and they are open until 10pm,

City Swiggers is located at 320 E. 86th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues).