Thursday Tap - Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black

This Thursday, starting at 5pm, Jimmy's No. 43 will be pouring a limited keg of New Zealand's Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black, an American-style porter. It's fresh and hoppy yet dark and rich. There are only 24 kegs of this beer in the entire US and Jimmy's got one of them. This 6% "black IPA", if you're so inclined to use that nomenclature, is roasty from the use of chocolate and black patent malts with big fruity hop notes from the New Zealand hops (Nelson Sauvin, Styrian Goldings, Cascade).

And if you're a fan of oysters, there will also be a Slow U event that night in the back room of Jimmy's to benefit Slow Food NYC:  Aw, Shucks - Oysters and Beer. From 6:30-8 pm, you'll learn about oysters from Karen Rivara of Noank Aquaculture Cooperative (speaking from experience, her oysters are fantastic). The ticket for the lecture includes your first half dozen oysters and a beer. Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets  http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/268896  Tickets are $25 for the general public, $20 for Slow Food members, and $30 at the door.

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

Collaboration Beers

Brewing your own beer is no longer enough. Now, everyone wants to brew with friends and get in on the collaboration game.  Tonight, Tuesday, Spuyten Duyvil will be hosting the first of a 2-part series featuring collaborations. Since they say it so well, let them tell you what it's all about:  "Collaboration Beers. You know, when two big shot brewers get together and one picks the malt and the other picks the hops and then they get some lowly assistant to brew it for them while they go out back and smoke some weed and talk about yeast."

They'll have several Mikkeller collaborations on draft and in bottle, including ones with Stillwater and Three Floyds, plus bottles of Nøgne Ø/Bridge Road Brewers (Australia) India Style Saison and De la Senne/Allagash Very Speciale Belge.

When:  Tuesday, 25 September, 6pm onwards
Where:  Spuyten Duyvil, 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn
What:  pay-as-you-go for 6 drafts and 12 bottles

A Little Bit of New Zealand Comes to Staten Island

On Wednesday, 5 September, Adobe Blues will be tapping 3 rare kegs of Yeastie Boys beers from New Zealand. We only shipped a handful to New York so here's your chance to try 3 of them in one spot!

Stu and Sam are the Yeastie Boys, part-time brewers who have been brewing since 2009. Come try the following beers from these "postmodern craft beer cult heroes":

• Digital IPA - 7% IPA hopped with Pacific Jade, Nelson Sauvin, Pacifica, and Motueka
• Pot Kettle Black - their flagship beer: a hoppy 6% porter
• Bye Bye Badman - a very sessionable northern English brown ale, 4.8%

Also keep an eye out for their Rex Attitude, brewed with 100% - yes, 100% - peat-smoked malt, newly arrived in bottles and limited kegs.

Adobe Blues is located at 63 Lafayette Avenue on Staten Island.

Thursday Tap - Freigeist Abraxxxas

If you missed last week's Thursday Tap and wonder what's up with that Freigeist brewery, you're in luck! This Thursday, 30 August at 5 pm,  Jimmy's No. 43 will be putting on another Freigeist keg - Abraxxxas.

Abraxxxas is inspired by an old style of smoked weisse beer known as Lichtenhainer which was popular in 19th century eastern Germany. The Freigeist version has been either modernized or retrograded; you decide.  Because brewers Sebastian and Peter are fans of disappearing sour beers like Berliner Weisse and Gose, they like to add some sourness to many of their beers. They also figure that most beers in the past would have had some degree of sourness so why not create a sour Lichtenhainer. And who knows? Lictenhainer might very well indeed have had some lactic sourness.

The name of the beer comes from the Gnostic deity Abraxas in Hermann Hesse's novels. Freigeist brews 2 versions of this beer:  Abraxas, a more subtle 3.2% beer and Abraxxxas, a bigger, more sour yet still refreshing version at 6%.  Add the extra xx for...sour?

Jimmy's is located at 43 E. 7th Street.

Thursday Tap - Freigeist Brettokolong

Every Thursday at 5 pm, Jimmy's No. 43 taps a special keg. Sometimes it's a seasonal, sometimes a limited offering, and sometimes a new release. Today, it's a limited keg of a new release from a new-to-the-US brewery:  Freigeist's Brettokolong, an unfiltered kölsch fermented with brettanomyces.

Jimmy's is located at 43 E. 7th Street.

The Freigeist beers come from the Braustelle brewery in Cologne, Germany. You hear "Cologne/Köln" and you think "Kölsch". Now there's a new brewery in town that not only brews a kölsch (unfiltered, so they can't legally call it kölsch) but also other updated versions of old German styles, even an Altbier - a traditional beer from Düsseldorf. Sacrilege!

Peter Esser and Sebastian Sauer, the brewers at Braustelle, don't always brew according to the Reinheitsgebot. As a result, their special Freigeist Bierkultur line of brews ("freigeist" means "free thinking") run the gamut from smoky to sour to malty to floral. Look for newly arrived bottles and kegs of the following beers:

• Ottekolong - unfiltered kölsch
• Brettokolong - draft version of Ottekolong fermented with brett
• Pimock - hoppy Rheinland weizen
• Abraxxxas - inspired by Lichtenhainer, an old style of smoked weisse beer popular in 19th century eastern Germany. The Freigeist version also has some lactic sourness because the brewers are fans of sour beers like Berliner Weisse and Gose and because most beers would have had some degree of sourness in the past
• Hoppeditz - 7.5% doppel sticke alt brewed with smoked malt. The name comes from the puppet which is burned in Düsseldorf on Ash Wednesday at the end of Carnival. Carnival is also known as the fifth season so 5 malts and 5 hops are used to brew this beer.

Belgian Beer & Cheese and French Beer & Food

Of course you like beer. And there's a very good chance that you like cheese. So why not join me on Monday, 20 August at 6:30 pm at Murray's Cheese for a beer and cheese class. I'll be talking about 6 of our Belgian beers and Murray's has chosen 6 cheeses to pair with those beers. It's a great way to learn about beer and cheesemaking. Or simply a great way to sample your way through a variety of beers and cheeses.

Tickets are $75 and are available on the Murray's website. Murray's is located at 254 Bleecker Street.

Also on Monday, 20 August, there will be a special event at Taproom 307 (307 3rd Avenue) featuring the beers of Brasserie Bourganel from France. Chef Stephen Durley will create 4 small dishes to pair with 4 Bourganel drafts. The Bourganel brewery, from the Ardèche region of France, is inspired by the rich agriculture of the region and uses local products in the beers, including chestnuts, honey, bilberries, and nougat. Hubert Pommier, a representative of the brewery has come all the way from France and will be there to talk about the beers.

From 6:30-9:30 pm, a flight of 4 beers and 4 small plates will be $20.

Interview with Ron Jeffries of Jolly Pumpkin

During our Festival in Worcester, MA last month, brewmaster Ron Jeffries sat down with us to talk about his beers, brewing, and the Jolly Pumpkin ethos.