When the Mountains Turn Blue
An Opening Bash preview, and a hidden gem in Midtown, and some chicha on tap
Hello from Denver, Colorado — my home-away-from-home, my beer mecca, my favorite city that isn’t New York. I’ve been working from out here since the weekend, and while I’ve been able to pop into a couple of my favorite breweries, there’s a part of me that’s really missing the legendary Falling Rock Tap House, a beloved beer bar that was a cornerstone of the Denver beer scene for more than two decades. There was a time when it was my first stop off the plane in this town. It was consistently my first recommendation for people traveling here. But then the brewery taproom boom started, and even I was guilty of opting to visit the source of Denver’s beer over a bar with a broad, well-curated selection and an epic bottle cellar.
There’s been plenty written already about the slow decline of the beer bar across the U.S., but this visit to a Falling Rock-less Denver is a reminder to not take what we have for granted. I always encourage beer drinkers to support local beer, but please don’t forget that many bars have struggled during the pandemic as well and need your support. That was my motivation for celebrating a New York City beer bar each week in this newsletter — I hope that you’ll celebrate your local beer bars, too.
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NYC Beer Week is just over one week away
The biggest celebration of New York City beer is just nine days away. The NYC Beer Week Opening Bash will kick off NYC Beer Week next Saturday, February 26th from 2-5pm in a new venue: Building 269, a big space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The brewery list for the event is now 70 strong, with each attending local brewery inviting another out-of-town brewery to pour along side them.
Here’s the full list of breweries, for your perusing pleasure:
NYC Breweries:
18th Ward • Alewife • Back Home Beer • Big aLICe • Bridge and Tunnel • Bronx Brewery • Brooklyn Brewery • Circa Brewing • Coney Island • DaleView • Deep Fried Beers • Dyke Beer • EBBS • Endless Life • Evil Twin NYC • Fifth Hammer • Finback • Five Boroughs • Flagship • Greenpoint Beer & Ales • Grimm Artisanal Ales • Gun Hill Brewing • Iconyc • Interboro • KCBC • Keg & Lantern • Kills Boro • LICBP • Other Half • Randolph • Rockaway • Singlecut • Sixpoint • Strong Rope • TaLea • Threes • Torch & Crown • Transmitter • Wild East
Visiting Breweries:
3 Sons Brewery • 27A Brewing • Barrier • Bierstadt Lagerhaus • Black Project • Captain Lawrence • Civil Society • Crafted Culture • Crooked Run Fermentation • DUBCo • DuClaw • Equilibrium • Fidens Brewing • Fifth Frame • Heritage Hill • Human Robot • Kismet Brewing Company • Mast Landing • Outer Range • Prison City • Return Brewing • Steuben Brewing Co. • Ten Bends • The Seed • Three Heads Brewing • Tribus Beer Co • Twin Elephant • Two Tides Brewing • Two Villains
There’s some real gems in there that I’ll break down in next week’s newsletter. In the meantime, get your tickets now. They’re $75 for General Admission and $100 for VIP, which affords you an extra hour and a half in a more lightly-attended format from 12:30-2pm.
As for the rest of Beer Week: there’s a whole slew of special events planned, so stick around for those details next week.
Celebrating NYC’s Beer Bars: The Stag’s Head
The Stag’s Head
252 East 52nd Street (at Second Avenue)
Midtown East
I really feel for bars in Midtown that suffered through the pandemic. The after-work crowd that carried the load for them quickly vanished, and has been incredibly slow to return. But there are other reasons to go to Midtown than to simply be an office drone, and if you find yourself on the East Side, The Stag’s Head is alive an well and still pouring an awesome beer list.
I remember my early days working at an ad agency in Midtown when The Stag’s Head’s opened back in 2008. I was in search of a bar with a great beer list that was convenient to my office but not nearly as crowded as The Ginger Man (another bar that was a tragic victim of the pandemic). It’s not particularly large, but it’s got two levels, an outdoor space, a wrap-around bar, and an extensive but not overwhelming beer list. They were always reliable for an after-work tap takeover or special release back in those days, and they still serve great local beer and feature a brewery-of-the-month — a much more manageable tap takeover in a post-lockdown world.
On a visit earlier this month, the local beer scene was well-represented on tap, with Torch & Crown, Alewife, Coney Island, Grimm, Greenpoint, and Barrier all on the menu. I started things off with my first Troegs Nugget Nectar of the year — a pleasantly warming IPA on a chilly February night. I was happy to see them doing some steady business on a Wednesday night, with friendly staff keeping my glass full. The Stag’s Head is a happy respite from the dull, generic Midtown bars, and it’s yet another beer bar worth celebrating.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,576
Total breweries visited in 2022: 48
Total breweries visited in Colorado: 193
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #2576, Dos Luces Brewery, Denver Colorado (Visited 13-Feb-2022)
In a city like Denver, Colorado, it’s really hard to simply make beer and stand out. The Mile High City boasts nearly eighty breweries — and that’s not including the robust beer culture that exists immediately outside the city limits. These days, breweries in Denver are carving out niches to distinguish themselves, and Dos Luces chose a truly unique route, specializing in Chicha and Pulque, both alcoholic beverages that originate in Latin America. Chicha is a spiced, fermented corn-based beverage that has roots in Incan tradition. Pulque, a drink with Aztec roots, is made from maguey sap (agave) and spices and is mildly sour with a sweet finish. The best part about these beverages? They’re naturally gluten-free — yet another niche filled by opening this brewery.
But how do they taste? Well, look, they’re probably not going to bowl over a hazebro or lager lover, but they’re enjoyable in their own way, once you start to understand the ingredients and accept that you’re only drinking beer by its legal definition, not its technical definition. I enjoyed the traditional Chicha Inti, a dark, sweet beverage with a clove character, but I really enjoyed the El Viaje de Luz Lulo Chicha, a citrusy take on chicha made with lulo, a kiwi-like fruit that grows in the Andes Mountains.
I really enjoyed having my mind opened and my palate expanded at Dos Luces. Maybe this concept would have a hard time succeeding outside of a city like Denver, but it’s a great addition to the Colorado beer scene.
Beer of the Week
Illusion of Control
Threes Brewing (Brooklyn, New York)
American Light Lager
3.5% ABV
Last Wednesday night, I sat at the bar at Threes Brewing and enjoyed not one, not two, but three beers that were under 4% ABV. But I was there for one above all others: the beer brewed to celebrate their seventh year as a brewery. Illusion of Control is yet another clean-drinking stunner in a string of excellent beers to mark their anniversaries (last year’s Undone, brewed for their sixth anniversary, was this newsletter’s very first Beer of the Week). Made with rice and corn, it’s a tried-and-true take on a traditional, crushable light lager, and it still manages to pack in a lot of flavor. It’s also available in 12-ounce cans, a nice throwback to the early days of Threes.
This beer of the week is dedicated to the dedicated and kind employees at Threes, who have worked hard to make the brewery among one of the best in New York City, and don’t deserve distractions like their co-founder and CEO making some pretty inflammatory statements about vaccine mandates.
Long Read of the Week
Instead of a single long read this week, I’m going to plug a series of fun reads that amount to a long read. Each month, Singlecut puts out a series of articles that feature employees, highlight their passions, chronicle their favorite beer spots, and break down their beer. It’s called SingleCulture, and you can read this month’s missives on their website.
One More Thing
Here’s a cute cat named Mister Z, who basically runs the show at SaltFire Brewing Co. in Salt Lake City, Utah:
Cheers,
Chris
any idea if there are discounts for industry folks for the Opening Bash event? also, good to hear that there will be more events announced, since i'm in the city a few days a week now for work