High Life-Brilliant or Low Life-Despicable?
A new way to drink the Champagne of Beers and more Lukr adventures
Well, we’ve made it through most of NYC Beer Week. I spent last night hanging out with beer industry folks at Blind Tiger Ale House, who dedicated all 28 of their taps to New York City beers yesterday. Enjoy this impressive draft list:
Anyway, if you’re still looking to celebrate our city’s beer scene in the next few days, there are still plenty of events left in Beer Week, including a Saison tap takeover with Transmitter and Wild East tonight at Covenhoven, Caskalot (a cask beer festival) at Fifth Hammer Brewing tomorrow through Sunday, the launch of the KCBC/Pink Boots Society Dynamite Evolution beer at Someday Bar on Saturday, and of course the Ruppert’s Cup Celebration at Endless Life Brewing on Sunday.
And for all those industry folks who are toiling away to make Beer Week possible, thanks for all you’re doing. The end of this very exhausting week is in sight!
Queue Beer Goes Highbrow/Lowbrow with Canal Champagne
This year in New York City might go down as the Year of the Lukr Faucet. The Czech-manufactured beer tap is appearing more and more around the city, with bars installing them as quickly as they can get their hands on them, Bushwick brewery Niteglow opening with an all-Lukr tap system, and this new twist that will probably have both its lovers and haters: Queue Beer in Gowanus is now pouring Miller High Life, branded at the bar as “Canal Champagne,” through a Lukr faucet.
Yes, you can get your side-pull on with the Champagne of Beers at Queue now for a cool $8 for a 20-ounce pour. It may seem like a gimmick, but it’s for a good cause — a portion of sales from Canal Champagne goes to the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, an organization that advocates and cares for ecologically sustainable parks and public spaces in the Gowanus lowlands while empowering a community of stewards. Queue’s Shane Monteiro claims it will be “the best pour of Miller High Life available anywhere,” and it’s probably the first time the beer has been poured this a Lukr faucet, unless some High Life-obsessed brewer drunkenly hooked a keg up to a line in a brewery taproom after-hours, just for fun.
Speaking of, the beer industry’s obsession with Miller High Life is an odd one. I’m more of a Coors Banquet fan myself. A casual poll of beer folks about this concept at last weekend’s NYC Beer Week Opening Bash resulted in a mix of intrigue, excitement, and disgust for the concept, with most of the disgust followed up with a “…but I’d try it once.” If you’d like to try it once, or several times, Queue is open seven days a week just two blocks from the Smith-9th Sts. F/G subway stop and around the corner from Other Half’s Gowanus taproom.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 3,340
Total breweries visited in 2024: 56
Total breweries visited in Australia: 91
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #3310, Co-Conspirators Brewpub, Brunswick, Victoria, Australia (Visited 18-Jan-2024)
I never really did do a proper debrief of my trip down under last month, and time passes too fast for me to really savor the moment now. On my last full day in Australia, an old New York beer friend (and now brewer at Urban Alley in Melbourne) suggested we meet at Co-Conspirators on a sunny summer day, and within seconds of walking in, it was clear to me what I was having: the Czech Pils on a Lukr faucet, served in a proper dimpled mug. It did not disappoint and immediately cooled me off after a bit of a sweaty walk through this Melbourne suburb. The range of their beers showed a lot of their skill (beyond the delicious Czech Pils), from their deservedly award-winning Hazy Pale Ale and NEIPA to a refreshing Mandarin Gose, with a daunting 12.4% ABV Whiskey barrel-aged Imperial Stout called The Don. The taproom staff were lovely and the taproom itself was charming while industrial, with lots of wood and metal. I had some other breweries to visit that day, but this was ultimately the winner of that Thursday afternoon. Hopefully I’ll be back to this spot again — it was worth the 10,000-mile journey.
The Doom and Gloom Tracker
At least 4 breweries I’ve visited closed or announced their closure this week:
Brewery #553, Forgotten Boardwalk Brewing, Cherry Hill, New Jersey (Visited 7-May-2016)
Brewery #920, New Bohemia Brewing Co., Capitola, California (Visited 27-Aug-2017)
Brewery #1905, Trustworthy Brewing Co. - Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada (Visited 29-Feb-2020)
Brewery #2322, Harding House Brewing Co., Nashville, Tennessee (Visited 15-Aug-2021)
The Weekly Reader
Beer Sessions Radio marks its 700th episode with some New York area beer experts [Jimmy Carbone, Beer Sessions Radio]
Common Roots makes its Albany debut in an historic location [Steve Barnes, Times-Union]
Things are not looking great for beer these days in Australia [James Smith, Crafty Pint]
Please, breweries, describe your damn beers [Jim Vorel, Paste]
One Last Thing
Thank you to everyone who said hello at last weekend’s NYC Beer Week Opening Bash. It’s always nice to meet people who read this far down the newsletter (though honestly, even if you’re more of a skimmer, I’m cool with that, too). It was another great year for the marquee event of Beer Week, the turnout was great, and even I got to try some beers I’d never tasted before. I tend to hype up Opening Bash, but it’s a genuinely great time for visitors and locals alike trying to wrap their head around our city’s beer scene. Cheers to the NYC Brewers Guild for putting on another memorable event!
Cheers,
Chris
Missed opportunity for “Lowenbrau despicable”