Yesterday marked four years since the passing of writer and raconteur Anthony Bourdain. I’m not going to wax poetic about how he inspired me to travel more and experience the world through its food and beverage or how his death was a true gut-punch in a way that I hadn’t experienced with anyone else I didn’t know. No, I’m going to share his words about beer — words that affirmed that I was a beer geek and not a beer snob. This was an excerpt from an interview he did in with John Sellers in Thrillist in 2016:
I would say that the angriest critiques I get from people about shows are when I'm drinking whatever convenient cold beer is available in a particular place, and not drinking the best beer out there. You know, I haven't made the effort to walk down the street 10 blocks to the microbrewery where they're making some fucking Mumford and Sons IPA. People get all bent about it. But look, I like cold beer. And I like to have a good time. I don't like to talk about beer, honestly. I don't like to talk about wine. I like to drink beer. If you bring me a really good one, a good craft beer, I will enjoy it, and say so. But I'm not gonna analyze it.
Somehow, this got some people bent out of shape at the time. Those people are beer snobs. Later in the same interview, he points out that “snobbery is bad, period.” Those people should’ve taken it to heart. Around that time, I got to thinking about gatekeeping in beer and how obnoxious the response seemed to be whenever I merely mentioned mass-produced beers in my writing. So your friend drank a Miller Lite a couple weeks ago. Go ahead, tell them they’re evil incarnate. That’ll really win them over as you force your hazy IPA with hop burn on them while insisting it’s the greatest beer ever made.
I felt vindicated by what Bourdain said back then not because it was a clap-back at an obsessed beer culture that would only get more snobbish in the ensuing years as line culture and whale-chasing and the haze-bro phenomenon grew. Sure, I’m not like him, in the sense that he doesn’t analyze beer and I most certainly do, but I’m just as likely to figure out what I like about a Coors Banquet as much as what I like about a hazy IPA. His words rang true because they reminded me of my typical response to a question I get asked all the time: “what’s your favorite beer?”
“The beer I’m drinking right now,” I say. Doesn’t matter what I’m drinking. That’s the answer.
“Why?”
“Because it’s cold and it’s in my hand.”
Drink what you like. Everyone’s preferences for beer are different and those preferences shouldn’t be judged by others. No one should care about what you’re drinking other than you. Have a cold beer, have a good time.
St. Gambrinus to close their doors at the end of June
Boreum Hill, Brooklyn standby St. Gambrinus Beer Shoppe announced this week that they will close their doors at the end of the month after nine years in business.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, the team that runs the beloved beer shop and bar left some parting words:
It is with a heavy heart, we announce that St. Gambrinus will be closing at the end of June after 9 years as part of the Boerum Hill and NYC Craft Beer communities. It's been a wild, challenging and rewarding road and it's been incredible to see the local beer community explode from just a couple of NYC based breweries to dozens. We want to thank all of our customers, craft brewery partners, friends, family and the community for supporting and welcoming us these past years. You'll be seeing us soon...on the other side of the bar! Cheers to 9 years of great beer, great people, and great friendships.
Ray & Heather and the whole St. Gambrinus Family: Irene, Rick, Hannah, Joe, Mike, Matt, and Rhea
St. Gambrinus opened back in August of 2013 and quickly became a neighborhood favorite and a low-key spot to pre-game before an event at Barclays Center or sip a beer outdoors in their backyard. They hosted events from countless local breweries and always had a reliable tap list and friendly faces behind the bar. It’s a gut punch to see this spot leave, and I’ll miss the whole St. Gambrinus Family for all they did to promote good beer shared with good people.
NYC Beer News Roundup
There’s a lot of goings-on with the city’s beer scene right now, so here’s a few quick hits of news for you to drink in:
Green City is one week away
A reminder: Other Half’s Green City Festival is just a week away, with the festival kicking off next Friday at 6pm, with a second session on Saturday starting at noon at Zero Space on Baltic Street in Brooklyn. Tickets for both sessions are still available. As with any festival that brings a lot of out-of-town breweries to New York, keep your eyes peeled for special events with visiting brewers. For example, Threes Brewing is hosting guest tap takeovers with Resident Culture, Alvarado Street, and Halfway Crooks on Thursday in Greenpoint and with Highland Park, Green Cheek, and Charles Towne Fermentory on Friday in Gowanus. Keep your eyes peeled for more events to be announced in the next few days.
Harlem Hops celebrates 4th anniversary
Beloved beer bar Harlem Hops is celebrating four years in business this week with a three-day celebration. Thursday through Saturday, they’ll have guest DJs, bartender alumni working the bar, $5 food and drink specials, and a new collaboration beer with New Jersey’s Montclair Brewery: Jubilee, a Hibiscus Red Wheat Ale that’s perfect for summer and celebrates Juneteenth.
Next Week is Vliet Week
More from Threes: next week is Vliet Week — their first weeklong celebration of their flagship pilsner. They’ll kick things off this Sunday at their Governors Island location with $5 lager pours and live bluegrass. The celebration continues with Threes tap takeovers at Torst on Thursday and The Grand Delancey on Saturday, along with other events throughout the week. Check the brewery’s calendar for the full lineup.
The Bronx Brewery applies for brewery license at Hudson Yards
A little surprise we came across in last month’s filings with the State Liquor Authority: The Bronx Brewery is applying for another state microbrewery license in Manhattan, this time at 20 Hudson Yards, which is home to The Shops and Restaurants at Hudson Yards. This comes on the heels of the opening of their East Village location back in February. More to come on this, for sure.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,696
Total breweries visited in 2022: 167
Total breweries visited in England: 129
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #2607, Neptune Brewery, Maghull, England (Visited 19-Mar-2022)
Ahead of my visit to Liverpool back in March, my friend Matt recommended Neptune Brewery. But he added: “you’d need half a day to get out there and back though.”
I didn’t really have half a day to burn, as I was trying to get to Manchester by mid-afternoon to hit some breweries on Saturday, the only day Neptune’s taproom is open. But when someone whose opinion about beer you deeply respect tells you to visit a place, you take their advice (I took his advice the following day as well, and ended up at this lovely little spot in Clitheroe). So I hopped on the train and then made the half-hour walk to the brewery, mostly along a scenic canal, and arrived just minutes after opening to a completely empty taproom, save for co-founder Les O’Grady working behind the taps. He and his wife Julie founded Neptune back in 2015, and he was simply doing a favor to other staff by covering for them early on in the day. As the rest of the staff rolled in to work the bar, the crowd seemed to follow.
I could tell you all about the beer here, which from the Mosaic Pale Ale to the Silenus Bitter to the Even Flow Helles was a cavalcade of perfectly-executed beer styles from across continents. But it was even more of a joy to watch the regular Saturday crowd stream into the taproom. There’s a mere eight hours a week when this room welcomes strangers, but hardly anyone felt like a stranger in the place. Heck, by the time I finished talking shop with Les, I felt like I’d be welcomed back as a regular on another visit. Neptune feels like a community meeting place, tucked away in an industrial estate between two neighborhoods, and I’d love for a small taproom making beer like this to be my local.
As I waited for the train back to Liverpool after my visit, I ran into Julie and Les. We rode into town together and had a wonderful conversation about their visits to the U.S. exploring our beer scene. They’re genuine people making genuine beer, and it was well worth the half-day I spent to get out there and back.
Social Post of the Week
This is a good initiative.
Long Read of the Week
In a week where I received a gift of cookies made with ube, Vinepair published this piece by Beth Demmon exploring the common Filipino ingredient’s use in beer. Only a handful of producers in California and Hawaii have dared try making brews with this purple yam — and as she discovers, some initially failed. Could a purple beer be coming to a taproom near you? Time will tell.
One More Thing
No Beer of the Week this week, but mainly because I enjoyed quite a few different beers at Human Robot’s Logjammin, a celebration of lager held in Philadelphia on Saturday. Cheers to those folks for putting on such a great event in a lovely venue on a picture-perfect day. Here’s to more lager festivals in the future!
Cheers,
Chris