Signs of Spring Have Sprung
When current events and beer collide, a Barch Madness preview, and good beer with Good People
As I mentioned last week, the annual Brew York tradition of Barch Madness is returning. The annual friendly competition among beer venues in New York City is back for 2022, with a refreshed list of beer bars and shops and a lot of first-time appearances. Catch up with the last edition of Barch Madness, held in 2018, if you’re not familiar with what this is all about. The full 64-venue bracket will be released early next week, but in the meantime, here’s a sneak peek.
While the venues are based on both reader input and appearance on the Brew York Beer Map, the final selection and seeding in the tournament is based on the number of recent monthly Untappd check-ins. So the top 64 venues might not be where you’re drinking the most beer, but it’s where the most insufferable of beer geeks are drinking beer. I’m sure there are also plenty of not-insufferable people who frequent these places, and it’s possible even some of them are heavy users are Untappd. But this is the methodology I’ve used for years — it’s far from perfect, but I’ve found no other way to objectively quantify a ranking of beer bars.
Another criteria here: brewery taprooms and satellite locations are not in the running here. We’re strictly about spots serving a variety of good beer that you can drink on premise. Beer shops that allow on-premise drinking do indeed count.
First order of business: your number one seeds. Here they are:
None of these should be surprising. But the rest of the bracket is full of both old classics and recent newcomers. There’s Burp Castle coming in as a #16 seed — a longtime East Village stalwart for Belgian beers that has survived a recession, a fire next door, and a pandemic. There’s Someday Bar, a #6 seed in Brooklyn that has soared in popularity in its first Barch Madness appearance. Out in Bayside, Queens, #15 seed Press 195 has been holding down its place as Bell Boulevard’s beer spot for years. There’s #14 seed Heart of Gold, who has won over the hearts of Astoria beer drinkers since opening in the midst of the pandemic in 2020. And #11 seed Amsterdam Ale House has been a reliable well-worn beer bar for the Upper West Side for a generation.
Stay tuned for a full bracket and how to vote to support your favorites in the coming days. The announcements will be on Twitter and Instagram.
Two new NYC beers are signs of the times
Two beers out this week from New York City breweries are relevant to two very different current events.
First up, Kings County Brewers Collective has released Hardcore Parkour, a beer they collaborated on with their friend Naz Drebot of 2085 Brewery in Kyiv, Ukraine in New York. The brew day with Naz in Brooklyn was less than two weeks before the Russian invasion of his home country, and he has since returned home to a dire situation in the Ukrainian capital. The beer, a Double Dry Hopped IPA with Citra, Strata, Mosaic, and Nelson Sauvin, is out now in cans at the taproom and via shipping in New York and DC. A portion of proceeds from the beer will go to UNICEF’s Ukraine fund to provide support to children and families impacted by the war.
KCBC will also be participating in the Resolve Ukraine Beer — an open-source beer project from 2085 and 42 North Brewing Company outside Buffalo that raises funds to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. Rockaway Brewing in Long Island City has also signed on to brew the beer.
Meanwhile, on a much lighter note, the Major League Baseball lockout rolls on, leaving us with an April without pro baseball in the United States for the second time in three years. Enter Torch & Crown Brewing Company’s Bat Flip, the brewery’s annual Spring Ale that was first inspired by our collective desperation to fill our baseball void with the bat-flip-filled Korean Baseball Organization in the Spring of 2020. I paired this beer with some late-night overseas baseball viewing during lockdown, and it has evolved to become Torch & Crown’s annual seasonal release. This year, they’re still going on with celebrating the beer on what would’ve been MLB Opening Day, so put March 31st on your calendar if you’ve ever wanted to drink a baseball-themed beer out of a custom-made plastic baseball bat.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,600
Total breweries visited in 2022: 71
Total breweries visited in Alabama: 12
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #1387, Good People Brewing Company, Birmingham, Alabama (Visited 28-Dec-2018)
This weekend, I got back to Birmingham, Alabama for the second time. Back when I visited in 2018, it was on a trip when I traveled to the last two states where I had yet to visit breweries: Alabama and Mississippi. It’s not surprising that these were last — these two states were the last states to legalize homebrewing, both in 2013. While Mississippi still ranks last in breweries among the fifty states, Alabama picked up the slack quickly, and now the Birmingham area boasts well over a dozen breweries. Good People was the first I visited on that trip three years ago, and it held up nicely when I stopped there on Sunday. Now well over ten years old, Good People boasts a flagship IPA (simply called Good People IPA) that is the best-selling in the country. Their Muchacho is an easy-drinking craft lager that was out longer before craft lagers were cool. This time around, I went for what was pouring from the cask engine — an English Porter that was roasty and warming and well-suited for cask ale.
An aside — this now marks five weeks in a row that I’ve come across cask ale at a brewery taproom. I’d like to believe it’s on a comeback stateside.
The taproom at Good People is a booming space with a large bar and easy-to-read menu, a cool mural map of the state of Alabama, and a patio that overlooks Regions Field, the home of the Birmingham Barons, the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. I’ve never been here during baseball season, but I imagine it’s gotta be a fun place to drink beer before a minor-league baseball game. Here’s hoping I can get back here again to catch a game. Maybe their most famous former player will be in attendance.
Beer of the Week
Spring Landscape: Helles Bock
Industrial Arts Brewing Co. (Garnerville, New York)
Helles Bock
6.2% ABV
I tragically missed the springlike day in New York City we had this Monday, so I was searching for any sign of spring I could find last night amidst the sleet and snow. This welcome sign was on tap at Beer Run NYC in Chelsea. I’ve really enjoyed this beer, which has been Industrial Arts’ spring offering in their Landscape series since 2019. It’s crisp and bready and has notes of honey and fresh-cut grass. It’s made with 100% New York State ingredients like all the beers in this series, and best of all, profits from the series go to a local cause. This time around, it’s Sustainable Hudson Valley, an organization tackling climate change north of the city.
Long Listen of the Week
For the second week in a row, I’m offering up a podcast instead of an article, but you have to get to know Zahra Tabatabai of Back Home Beer, the fast-growing brewery that’s winning over hearts and minds of New York beer drinkers with a unique Iranian-inspired approach to beer and its ingredients. Zahra’s interview with Good Beer Hunting’s Bryan Roth is very much worth a listen.
One More Thing
If you’re longing for good news, here’s some: the sun sets at 7pm in New York City on Sunday. It’ll still be cold at 7pm on Sunday, but hey, like that Industrial Arts beer, I’ll take any sign of spring that I can get.
Cheers,
Chris