Oktoberfest at Spuyten Duvyil and Mission Dolores

Oktoberfest is in full swing and their are plenty of opportunities to drink our German beers from traditional gravity kegs.

Where: Spuyten Duyvil, 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn
When: Saturday, 4 October

Dust off those lederhosen and shake out those dirndls because Spuyten Duyvil is hosting their annual Oktoberfest. From 12 pm onwards they'll be featuring all 8 of our Franconian gravity kegs along with some other German drafts. 

Gravities 

• Weissenohe Monk's Fest - traditional festbier
• Weissenohe Altfränkisch Klosterbier - märzen
• Weissenohe Bonator - doppelbock
• Weissenohe Bio Classic Export - organic export
• Weissenohe Bonifacius - dunkel
• Bayer Theinheim Landbier - zwickel
• Mönchsambacher Unfiltered Lager - kellerbier
• Löwenbräu Buttenheim Kellerbier - landbier

On draft:  

• Freigeist Hoppeditz - doppel sticke alt brewed with smoked malt
• Freigeist Geisterzug Gose - brewed with spruce branches
• Monarchy Münchhausen - Münsterland-style altbier
• Monarchy Preussen Weisse - north German weissbier brewed with ginger and juniper

They will also have a selection of German bottles and wurst.  

Where: Mission Dolores, 244 4th Avenue, Brooklyn
When:  Saturday-Sunday, 4-5 October

From 2-8 pm on both Saturday and Sunday, Mission Dolores will be holding their annual Oktoberfest with sausages from Brooklyn Bangers. On each day they'll tap a gravity keg; one day it will be Weissenohe Monk's Fest and the next it will be Bayer Theinheim Landbier.

Super Shelton Brothers Tasting - Tuesday 15 July

Join Brother Joel for a Super Serious Shelton Brothers Tasting at Jimmy's No. 43 on Tuesday, 15 July.

Starting at 7pm, Joel will be leading you through a tasting of 10 of our beers. The beers will be serious; the stories - not so much. DJ Bocky will be spinning tunes to pair with the beers.

The beers:

• Thiriez Extra
• Cervesera del Montseny Malta Cuvée
• De la Senne Taras Boulba
• Het Nest Ace of Spades
• Naparbier Sai Saison
• The Monarchy Grodziskie
• Freigeist Geisterzug Gose
• Brouwerij West Tripel
• Trois Dames Grande Dame
• Amager Pride Imperial Stout

The host:

The tasting is starts at 7pm and costs $20 for the 10 beers. Jimmy's No. 43 is located at 43 E. 7th Street.

German Beers for Summer - Tasting at Hops & Hocks

Come by Hops & Hocks in Bushwick on Friday, 27 June from 6-9pm for a free tasting of some unusual German beers that are perfect for summer. We'll be sampling out the following unique brews:

• Ritterguts Gose - THE classic sour beer from Leipzig brewed with salt and coriander
• The Monarchy Münchhausen - an easy-drinking Münsterland-style sour altbier
• The Monarchy Grodziskie - based on the style once brewed in the Polish town of Grodzisk Weilkopolski, this authentic version is brewed with 100% oak-smoked wheat, Polish hops, willow bark, and the style's original yeast
• Freigeist Abraxxxas - smoked sour wheat beer based on the lost Lichtenhainer style
• Kyritzer Mord & Totschlag - for those who like their beers darker, a full-bodied yet not-too-heavy cross between a schwarzbier and Baltic porter. The name means "Murder & Manslaughter.

Hops & Hocks is located at 2 Morgan Avenue in Brooklyn, not far from the Morgan Ave. stop on the L train.

Freigeist at Radegast - Elect to Drink Beer!

Tuesday is Election Day so go vote and then go drink some beer. Starting at 7pm on 5 November, the Bier Haus at Radegast will be featuring 4 drafts from Freigeist. Freigeist is the experimental off-shoot of Cologne's Braustelle brewery focusing primarily on Germany's unique, historical beer styles.

• Abraxxxas - Lichtenhainer, a smoked sour wheat beer
• Geisterzug Gose - based on a recipe dating back at least 600 years and brewed with spruce branches. 
• Salzspeicher Sauer Porter - sour porter brewed with salt
• Hibiskuss - mildly sour ale brewed with hibiscus flowers

Radegast is located at 113 N. 3rd Street (at Berry) in Brooklyn and 8pm you can shimmy to the sounds of Glen Crytzer and his Syncopators.

Un-Oktoberfest at Mission Dolores Tuesday

When:  Tuesday, 17 September, 4pm onwards
Where:  Mission Dolores, 249 4th Avenue, Brooklyn

What:  pay-as-you-go, with sehr gut prices from 7-10pm 

Oktoberfest might not start in Munich until Saturday, but the folks over at Mission Dolores are pre-gaming and holding an Un-Oktoberfest to showcase some other German beers. Some of these are traditional German styles and others are not-so-traditional. And to make things even more fun, our own Jim "Bocky" Barnes will be spinning strange tunes from Germany and Eastern Europe. Heino in the haus! 

• Mahr's Ginger Bock - a bock, with ginger 
• Mönchshof Schwarzbier - classic dark lager from northern Bavaria 
• EKU Pils - classic pils from Kulmbach with a refreshing dose of hops  
• Freigeist Hoppeditz - doppel sticke alt brewed with smoked malt 
• Freigeist Geisterzug Gose - traditional gose brewed with spruce branches 
• Freigeist Salzpeicher Sauer Porter - sour porter brewed with salt

Meet the Brewer - Freigeist and The Monarchy

When:  Wednesday, 26 June, 5pm onwards

Where:  Spuyten Duyvil, 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn

What:  pay-as-you-go

 

The party continues at Spuyten Duyvil on Wednesday with brewer Sebastian Sauer from Freigeist Bierkultur in Cologne, Germany. Sebastian and Peter Esser from the Braustelle brewery started the Freigeist line in 2009 in order to brew more experimental beers as well as recreating obscure and extinct styles.

In addition, we'll have the debut of Sebastian's new project, The Monarchy, which he started in 2012. With The Monarchy, he continues his focus on historic German styles.

The beers: 

• Freigeist Ottekolong - unfiltered kölsch, 4.8%
• Freigeist Geisterzug Gose - traditional gose brewed with spruce twigs, 5.2%
• Freigeist Black Smoke - dark rauch ale, 6%
• Freigeist Pink Panzer - sour ale brewed with hibiscus flowers, 7.5%
• The Monarchy Grätzer - recreation of an extinct Polish ale, brewed with 100% oak-smoked malt and Lublin hops, 3.3%
• The Monarchy Son of a Batch (hickory wood) - dark gose brewed with coriander, black lava salt, and hickory wood, 5.2%  

Tasting at City Swiggers

On Wednesday, 20 February, we'll be sampling some of our beers at City Swiggers on the Upper East Side. If you're not familiar with City Swiggers, it's been a welcome edition to the uptown beer scene for just over a year. Alan and Pamela run a great little shop where you can pick up bottles, get your growler filled, and stay for a pint from one of their 14 taps.

Come by to try beers from Jolly Pumpkin, Mikkeller, 8 Wired, Adnams, Bretagne, De Ranke, Freigeist, plus cider from Henney's.

City Swiggers is located at 320 E. 86th Street. The tasting starts around 5:30pm and runs until 9pm.

Brett Weekend - Brouwerij Lane

This weekend, 25-27 January, Brouwerij Lane is celebrating funky beers fermented with our wild yeast friend, Brettanomyces.  They'll have 6 kegs pouring including the following:



Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza - an 8% strong golden ale. Spicy and peppery with a gentle hop bouquet. Like all Jolly Pumpkin beers, this one is aged in wood barrels. Rated the #1 Belgian Golden Ale by The New York Times.

To Øl Sans Frontière - from Denmark, the "Two Beers" brewery have created a "tart, picturesque and rural beer". This is a dry-hopped Belgian ale, refermented with brettanomyces.

Freigeist Brettokolong - this is an unfiltered kölsch beer from Cologne, Germany. This version was fermented with ale yeast and refermented with brett which accentuates the lemon and citrus notes.












Brouwerij Lane is located at 78 Greenpoint Avenue in Brooklyn.

The Harmony of Beer & Cheese Class at Murray's Cheese

When:  Wednesday, 3 October, 6:30-8 pm
Where:  the classroom at Murray's Cheese, 254 Bleecker Street
What:  $75 for 6 beers paired with 6 cheeses
These classes are always fun, informative, and delicious. I'll be discussing 6 of our beers, the history of the breweries, and the beer brewing process while the Murray's instructor will discuss the cheeses and the cheesemaking process.

These are the beers that will be poured:

• Freigeist Ottekolong
• Oppigårds Well-Hopped Lager
• De Ranke XX Bitter
• St. Somewhere Saison Athene
• Jolly Pumpkin Sobrehumano Palena 'ole
• Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew

Class size is limited and you can purchase tickets on the Murray's website:  www.murrayscheese.com

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.