Get Out the Map

TALEA expands to the West Village and I head for the mountains

I did something a little ridiculous last weekend.

I’ve always wanted to choose memorable breweries for new visits that are multiples of a hundred, and while mulling over brewery #3200, I realized I had the opportunity to get out of town on yet another rainy Saturday in New York and make lemons out of lemonade. I had some airline miles burning a hole in my pocket, so I narrowed down my options to a list of places that wouldn’t burn all of them and I could escape to for a mere 24 hours or less so it didn’t interfere with my work week. The final decision: Bozeman, Montana, a city I hadn’t visited in almost exactly eight years.

So I dragged my ass out of bed at 5am on Saturday morning to head to the airport and hop on a one-stop trip to Bozeman. There were at least eight new breweries there since my last trip, but with just seven hours on the ground there, I had to narrow things down a bit based on reputation and convenience. Naturally, my first stop was Mountains Walking — a brewery you’ll see further on down the newsletter this week. I skipped around to a handful of spots, from one sandwiched into a shopping plaza next to a Jimmy John’s to another in a shiny new-construction development to my last stop, Map Brewing Co., which was just weeks from opening on my last visit. Map was teeming with drinkers and families enjoying a sunny autumn day overlooking the mountains (as I did, pictured above). I spent a good hour and a half just sipping beer and marveling the scenery, and it did so much to restore some balance in my life before I hopped back on a plane home.

Look, I know that I have a lot more tolerance for traveling and a wanderlust that has me constantly seeking a change of scenery, but this is just a reminder to get out and see the world whenever you can. Go someplace different. Get out of your comfort zone. It doesn’t have to be thousands of miles away. It could be a mile from your house. It could be a subway ride away. Variety is the spice of life… find some whenever and wherever you can.

TALEA opens new West Village taproom

The growing empire of TALEA Beer Co. has expanded back across the East River, with a new location on Christopher Street between Bleecker and Bedford in the West Village. It’s their first permanent location in Manhattan after operating a pop-up location near Grand Central in the summer of 2022.

The West Village taproom, their third, offers all the comforts of their brewery location in Williamsburg and taproom in Cobble Hill: a pastel aesthetic and marble slab bar, set flights and pours of their beers along with wines, cider and cocktails, light snacks and cheese and charcuterie boards, and a friendly, welcoming staff. On first glance, the space itself feels a lot smaller than their other locations, but it winds into a cozy back room with lounge-like seating, and there are a few seats on the sidewalk as well.

This is the first of two upcoming locations in Manhattan for TALEA. A second outpost, on West 40th Street across from Bryant Park and the New York Public Library, is currently under construction.

Brewery Tracker

Total brewery count: 3,206
Total breweries visited in 2023: 311
Total breweries visited in Montana: 25

Brewery Visit of the Week

Brewery #3200, Mountains Walking Brewery, Bozeman, Montana (Visited 14-Oct-2023)

I had heard great things about Mountains Walking since I was last in Bozeman. The brewery opened after my last visit here, and the way their beer was put on a pedestal by some of my beer-drinking friends whose opinions I respect, I expected to visit some pretentious temple to beer with sweeping mountain views and post-and-beam construction, especially in rapidly-gentrifying Bozeman.

I was surprised when I walked into a low-slung industrial building with a humble-looking bar serving world-class beer. Mountains Walking isn’t trying to woo people with flashy scenery — just great beer (and food, too). The Damsel Fly, a pale ale that won bronze in the World Beer Cup last year in the International Pale Ale category, was so bright and bursting with snappy citrus notes. It was easily one of the best beers I’ve had all year, from the first sip to the last. But fun experimentation is a big part of their beer lineup, too, and that shined through in the Opaque Thoughts Das Haze, a Hazy IPA made with German malt and German hops (Cryo Huell Melon, Cryo Mandarina Bavaria, and Hallertau Blanc), and fermented with a Kolsch yeast. It had a lot of berry and citrus character and drank very dry.

Mountains Walking is the brainchild of brewer Gustav Dose, who embraces tradition and discovery in the brewing process. He grew up in Japan, and his side project that connects him to his roots is New Hokkaido Beverage Co, which had a lovely lineup of beers with rice in the grain bill, including a pair of rice lagers, a pair of IPAs, and several seltzers with ingredients like yuzu and lychee. It may not be anything fancy, but this place was a brewers’ playground — and it was just what I wanted for another milestone brewery.

The Weekly Reader

This past weekend, the North American Guild of Beer Writers hosted their annual awards, honoring beer writers from across the continent and around the world. I’m a perennial judge of the competition, and I love to take part simply for the joy of reading more about beer. Here are some of the articles I read during judging, a couple of which have been shared in this newsletter before:

• A post-mortem on the closure of a beloved brewery in Washington, DC [Michael Stein, Washington Citypaper]

• A farewell to a Vermont brewing stalwart after his tragic death [Tom Bedell, The Commons]

• The feline brewery workers of New York City [Ash Croce, Time Out]

• A winding story of history, culture, oysters, and beer in Charleston, South Carolina [Jamaal Lemon, Good Beer Hunting]

• That time that Minnesota accidentally legalized THC drinks [Jerard Fagerberg, Vice]

One More Thing

For those of you who are big fans of the state of Maine or the beer made there, Torst in Greenpoint is where you should be this week, as they celebrate Maine Week at the bar. They’ve already hosted Bissell Brothers and Oxbow earlier this week, but tonight they have a tap feature with Maine Beer Co., and tomorrow they host Allagash Brewing starting at noon. And yes, there will be lobster rolls.

Cheers,
Chris