All's Fair in Beer and Cheese Curds
NYC's Blocktoberfest returns, plus the eclectic beers of the Minnesota State Fair
Last Friday, I checked a bucket list item off my list. It didn’t revolve around beer, but there was beer included: I attended the Minnesota State Fair. If you haven’t attended the “Great Get-Together” before, but perhaps have attended the New York State Fair, let me say this: Minnesota’s fair makes New York’s look like a quaint, cheesy county fair. It’s mile after mile of walking through rides, attractions, animals, live performances, demonstrations, and enough food and drink to have you asking the staff to roll you out of the fairgrounds. I could run down all the ridiculous foods I had at the fair, but I’ll instead share some of the ridiculous *beers* I sampled at the fair:
August Schell Brewing Company’s Oaktoberfest, a imperial Marzen aged for two months on oak
Lift Bridge Brewery’s Key Lime Pie, a golden ale with lime and lactose served with a coconut palm sugar rim
Mankato Brewery’s Cake'd Up Triple Berry Cheesecake Lager, which tastes exactly as it sounds
Insight Brewing’s Waffle Dog Breakfast Ale, a brown ale with maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla that I did not drink for breakfast
Barley John’s Brew Pub’s Dill Pickle Ale, served garnished with a piece of cheese and a pickle…
I have to admit, I’m not opposed to every beer being garnished like this. I enjoy a little snack with my beer.
Speaking of snacks, one other observation from my trip to Minnesota: the brewery snack game there is very much on-point. Nearly every taproom offered some sort of substantial, locally-made snack food, from pretzels to potato chips to cheese curds. I know we’re only a few months out of the #CuomoSnacks era (which, honestly, is a phrase I’d really like to forget now), but more of this in New York, please!
Blocktoberfest returns in person for 2021
Here’s a glimmer of hope that life is just a little bit back to normal: the New York City Brewers Guild’s Blocktoberfest will return for 2021. It’ll look a little different this year, but the annual fundraiser for the organization and seasonal celebration of New York City beer will be held on Saturday, October 2nd from Noon-4:30pm, and tickets are on sale now.
The festival will be in a new venue this year: the Brooklyn Navy Yard, behind Building 77 and by the NYC Ferry dock. Former host The Well was a pandemic-era closure. Another change for this year: the return of the VIP hour so that you can spread out and enjoy a less-crowded environment and chat with brewery staff.
The breweries scheduled to attend, in alphabetical order, are… (deep breath) 18th Ward, Alewife, Big aLICe, Bridge & Tunnel, Bronx Brewery, Brooklyn Brewery, Circa Brewing, Coney Island, DaleView, Ebbs, Endless Life, Evil Twin, Fifth Hammer, Finback, Five Boroughs, Flagship, Folksbier, Greenpoint, Grimm, Gun Hill, ICONYC, Interboro, Keg & Lantern, KillsBoro, KCBC, LIC Beer Project, Other Half, Randolph, Rockaway, Singlecut, Sixpoint, Strong Rope, Talea, Threes, Torch & Crown, Transmitter, and Wild East.
Early-bird tickets (now through next Tuesday) start at $40, with VIP running you $75 and Designated Driver tickets just $10. There will be food served from local vendors, including those nearby in the Navy Yard. And protocols supported by Women of the Bevolution and Hugging the Bar will be in place to make the event safe and inclusive. A full FAQ for the event is on the Brewers Guild’s site, with more details to follow.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,360
New breweries in 2021: 286
Breweries visited in Minnesota: 48
Breweries visited in Minnesota outside of Minneapolis and St. Paul: 2
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #2349, Utepils Brewing, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Visited 2-Sep-2021)
Ah, a brewery after my own heart. It has “Pils” in the name, for crying out loud! Utepils has been around for a mere four years, but opened big right from the get-go — a sparkling 18,000 square-foot brewery with a 50-barrel brewhouse. That’s a bold move, but it appears to have paid off. The beer is sparklingly clean, with a Festbier that was fit for drinking from a boot (called Receptional) and a Hefeweizen (called Ewald the Golden) that was outstanding and stood out in its proper tall glassware. The booming taproom (with friendly, knowledgeable service at the bar, I should add) opened up into a sprawling beer garden overlooking a creek and the bike trail I arrived on. In an article I read on Utepils’ opening, founder Dan Justesen said, “I don't sell beer, I sell beer experiences. Beer is all gone in a couple hours, but those memories of the experience is what makes you want to do it over again.”
This place was a beer experience, for sure. And I’d do it over again.
Social Posts of the Week
Beer of the Week
Security Deposit
Fifth Hammer Brewing Company (Long Island City, NY) in collaboration with Other Half Brewing Company (Brooklyn, NY)
English-Style Pale Ale (Served on Cask)
4% ABV
This is now the longest I’ve gone without a visit to London in nearly seven years, and I’ll be damned — this beer, a sessionable pale ale poured from a hand-pump at the Fifth Hammer taproom, was the next best thing to hopping the next flight out of JFK on Virgin Atlantic.
The beer is traditional through and through — Golden Promise malt, plus Fuggle and First Gold hops, naturally cask-conditioned, well-balanced and served properly cool, not cold. Fifth Hammer’s Chris Cuzme and Other Half’s Sam Richardson made the beer in honor of their shared love for Timothy Taylor’s Landlord — one of the gold standards of the English Pale Ale style. As a fan of that beer myself, I can attest that it’s a more than satisfactory replacement for someone who’s missed that beer for the past 18 months, even if I’m drinking it in a bustling taproom and not a quiet, carpeted English pub.
Long Listen of the Week
This weekend, Barrel and Flow Fest, a celebration of Black Arts, Music, and Beer, returns to Pittsburgh after a one-year hiatus. Day Bracey, organizer of the festival, talked with John Holl on the Drink Beer, Think Beer podcast and provided perspective on the purpose and challenges of creating a comfortable space for the Black community to celebrate beer.
One More Thing
While most of the breweries in NYC survived the remnants of Hurricane Ida with some nuisance floodwater, up in Mamaroneck, Decadent Ales took on five feet of water in their brewery and taproom. Their GoFundMe has some documentation of the damage and is raising money to get the space back on its feet. Here’s hoping we don’t get another 500-year flood this year.
Cheers,
Chris