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.

Brewery Launch & Meet the Brewer - Pays Flamand

Please join us in welcoming French brewery Brasserie du Pays Flamand to New York this Thursday at Brouwerij Lane. We'll have 2 of their beers on tap plus brewer Mathieu Lesenne will be there to talk about the brewery, the beers, and the seemingly oxymoronic name of the brewery which means "Flemish Land" in French. In addition, DJ Jim "Bocky" Barnes will be spinning the tunes for this Soirée Francophone.

When:  Thursday, 24 October, 5pm onwards

Where:  Brouwerij Lane, 78 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn

What:  pay-as-you-go

Les bières:

• Pays Flamand Anosteké - a hoppy blonde bière de garde brewed with local hops. The name is a phonetic spelling of a phrase in the local dialect meaning "see you next time".
• Pays Flamand/Nøgne Ø Protøtype - Norwegian brewer Kjetil Jukiun of Nøgne Ø swung through the north of France recently and brewed a few collaboration beers. This one is a porter brewed with juniper berries that Kjetil brought with him from Norway.
• Page 24/Nøgne Ø Rhub'IPA- another collaboration, this time with French neighbors Brasserie St. Germain who are fellow hop lovers. An IPA brewed with local rhubarb. Hoppy and tart.
• Trou du Diable Dubaï Pillée - not French but French-Canadian. A double IPA from Shawinigan, Quebec.

Italian and Spanish Beer Launch

When:  Saturday, 21 September, 12 pm onwards
Where:  Spuyten Duyvil, 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn

What:  pay-as-you-go

We're launching several breweries new to New York on Saturday at Spuyten Duyvil. Coming from regions not traditionally known for brewing, they're brewing some pretty amazing beers. You like session beers? We've got you covered. Hop monsters? Yup. Roasty, malty beers?  Those, too. From Italy, they'll be pouring beers from Brewfist and Toccalmatto and from Spain there will be a selection from Naparbier and Marina.

On draft:

• Toccalmatto Re Hop - American-style pale ale with Cascade hops 
• Brewfist Spaceman - west coast style IPA with Citra and Simcoe, 7% 
• Brewfist Czech Norris - imperial pilsner with Saaz hops
• Naparbier Naparpils -  malty traditional pils with  just the right amount of hop finish. Drink gallons of it in the back garden! 
• Naparbier Hopdoom -  11.5% imperial IPA. Deceptively easy to drink with tropical fruit notes. Do not drink gallons of it. 
• Marina Costa Brava - citrusy, fruity, aromatic pale ale, 4.5% 

In bottles:

• Toccalmatto Skizoid - American-style IPA hopped with Columbus, Chinook, and  Centennia, 6.2% 
• Toccalmatto Zona Cesarini - amber-colored pale ale hopped with Pacific Gem and Sorachi Ace, giving a huge tropical fruit character, 6.6% 
• Toccalmatto B Space Invader - black IPA with Galaxy hops 
• Brewfist 2Late - aromatic imperial IPA
• Brewfist Caterpillar - rye pale ale brewed in collaboration with Christian Skovdal Andersen of Denmark's Beer Here
• Naparbier Janis Porter - chocolatey and nutty with a hint of coffee, 6.2% 
• Marina Devil's IPA - double IPA with Citra, Galaxy, and Columbus hops, 6.5% 
• Marina Mas Cremat - 4.5% dry stout with coffee, pepper, and earthy notes giving way to a light acidity in the mouth.   

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

Zwanze Day 2013

It's time for the annual Zwanze Day. For the past several years, the Cantillon Brewery releases a special batch of beer, Zwanze, and brewer Jean Van Roy selects bars around the world to receive a keg of the current year's release. This year, the beer is the Abbaye de Cureghem, a 7.2% "abbey" ale. It was brewed in March 2012 and was fermented for 4 weeks in stainless steel tanks with a cultured yeast strain before being blended with 10% lambic and put into barrels. After maturing for 6 months, the barrels were blended and the beer was put into casks to referment and condition until now. Since cultured yeast was used at the beginning, the brewery doesn't consider this beer to be spontaneously fermented. However, there are wild yeast characteristics coming from both the added lambic and the wild yeasts floating about the brewery.

You can learn more about this year's Zwanze release and the history of the mysterious Cureghem Abbey at the Cantillon website, http://cantillon.be

Tapping of the Zwanze keg happens simultaneously around the world at 9pm Brussels time, or 3pm in New York. This year, 2 locations were chosen to host the Zwanze Day festivities and both will be pouring kegs of Zwanze, Cantillon Gueuze, and a special version of Cantillon Iris with no dry-hopping, and various bottles of Cantillon.

The locations:
Alewife Queens, 5-14 51st Avenue, Long Island City
Spuyten Duyvil, 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn

These events are very popular so we recommend getting there early.  Both bars will be opening at 12pm for pre-Zwanze imbibing.

Introducing Brouwerij Het Nest

We're pleased to announce the launch of Brouwerij Het Nest from Turnhout, Belgium.  The Het Nest brewery started as a group of friends with a beer tasting club.  They then moved on to brewing classes and, eventually, to brewing their own beer. Join Filip Govaerts from the brewery for the debut of 2 of their beers in New York this Thursday, 22 August, at Jimmy's No. 43. 

• Turnhoutse Patriot Saison (draft) is a 6.5% saison brewed with barley malt, spelt, American hops, and fermented with a French saison yeast strain.  Brewed in honor of the city of Turnhout's 800th anniversary.  The city of Turnhout is known for the manufacturing of playing cards which is why their logo is a hand of cards and playing cards are featured on most of the labels.
• Ace of Spades (bottles) is a 6.5% amber ale hopped with Tomahawk and Simoe and fermented with brettanomyces during secondary fermentation (bottles)

The Turnhouste Patriot Saison will be featured as this week's Thursday Tap and will be tapped at 5pm.

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

The Festival Recap

In case you weren't able to make it up to Portland, Maine in June for The Festival, here's a short teaser of what you missed out on. We'll be doing it again next year (location tbd).

Our thanks to all of the brewers, cidermakers, and meadmakers and beer lovers who came to Portland. We hope to see you next year!