Fall sure did arrive fast and furiously here in New York City this week, with chilly mornings and the leaves finally turning. This is a reminder to you that if you’ve been avoiding those fall seasonal beers, scoop them up very soon, as they’ll be gone before you know it. Trader Joe’s on 14th Street had six-packs of Southern Tier Pumking priced to move this week, and they and other outlets will be soon replacing them in favor of winter beers like my favorite seasonal beer of all-time, Sierra Nevada Celebration, a fresh hop IPA that’s already rolling out in some markets and should be in New York by early November.
Actually, I take that back. My favorite seasonal beer of all-time was Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat, which was still a limited release when I lived in Vermont. Its arrival on store shelves and tap lines in Burlington was the surest sign that the cold, dark, long winter was over in Northern New England. Even if it wasn’t a beer that was particularly suited to my tastes, I snapped it off the shelves every mud season to celebrate the coming warm weather. Its popularity eventually made it a year-round offering from Long Trail, but these days, it’s back to being a seasonal release. I should revisit it when it comes around again next Spring — it’s been too long.
What’s your all-time favorite seasonal beer? Leave a comment and share. I have a feeling at least one person from the Philly area will say Troegs Mad Elf, and you’re not wrong.
Hops Hill to open in former St. Gambrinus Beer Shoppe
Hops Hill, the Clinton Hill bar that’s been churning out good beer for over eight years, announced this week that they will be the new tenant at 533 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, the former home of St. Gambrinus Beer Shoppe. The shop, which was a stalwart for the neighborhood near Barclays Center, closed at the end of June.
The new Hops Hill at Atlantic will offer many of things their other location does, and some of what you’ll remember from St. Gambrinus: 16 rotating taps and lots of cans to stay and to go, plus crowlers, wines, ciders, and mead.
As always, I’ll keep you updated on opening plans for the new bar.
Trip Report: Beer in Canada’s Capital
There are a few Americans, maybe even some who read this newsletter, who are unaware that Canada’s seat of government is in Ottawa, the second-largest city in the province of Ontario, which sits about 200 miles northeast of Toronto and 100 miles west of Montreal. It’s a relatively sleepy city compared to the booming urban centers closer to the border, but Ottawa’s beer scene is booming, and the beer is tasting great.
I started my visit Friday with a trip to the west side of town, where three breweries create a little beer crawl along Somerset Street: Tooth and Nail, which poured an outstanding Pilsner called Vim & Vigor; Beyond the Pale, which excels at beers across the style spectrum and has a huge bi-level taproom; and Spark Beer, a relative newcomer with a cozy taproom and some standout IPAs and sours. Later in the evening, I hopped over to Flora Hall Brewing, who easily had the best food-and-beer experience in town, with an extensive menu of beer-friendly comfort food with cheeky names to pair with tasty brews that lack cheeky names, like their Vermont DIPA and American Oat Pale Ale.
The next day, I headed east to the suburb of Orléans, where I checked out two breweries just a 5-minute walk apart: Broadhead Beer, which was celebrating its anniversary on the day I visited, and Stray Dog Brewing, which had a friendly community-focused taproom and whose bartender insisted that I head to Dominion City Brewing next. She, along with several others in my travels, were right to recommend the spot. The beer was excellent, and the brewery was split into both a taproom and bottle shop where the staff was super-helpful and knowledgeable. Really enjoyed the Civic Pilsner and Safer Shores IPA, and truly appreciated Meg and Apurva in the taproom popping a bottle of their Wilderness Gothic Vidal 2020, a beautiful barrel-fermented Saison with Vidal grape juice from a winery in Prince Edward County, Ontario’s wine country. It was easily my favorite beer of the trip.
Later Saturday, I ended up at Overflow Brewing Company, where I was greeted with staff asking me to pony up a $15 cover charge. That seemed odd, until I realized that one of the hallmarks of the brewery’s taproom is live music — and not just a band shoved in the corner of a room, but a full-on stage with a high-quality sound and light system that has hosted Juno-nominated artists. I was treated to a tasty Final Bow Porter while The Steadies serenaded the crowd. Well worth the price of admission.
Since Ottawa lies right on the provincial border with Quebec, I hopped over the river to visit two breweries there on Sunday: 5e Baron Microbrasserie and Brasserie du Bas-Canada. I’ll talk about 5e Baron below in my Brewery Visit of the Week, but Bas-Canada is definitely the first brewery I've visited in Quebec that’s, as I’ve coined it, “doing the thing.” They had nine very solid IPAs on tap with different hop blends, a smoothie sour, and two Stouts — one with coffee and one with macadamia nuts, cacao, and vanilla. They also had a very well-made Helles. It’s clear the type of beer drinker they’re going after, and it’s nice to see that even Quebec’s very provincial beer scene isn’t afraid to go after these drinkers.
Beyond the beer, of course, Ottawa is a beautiful city architecturally, full of gorgeous spires and lovely greenbelts. In between breweries, take a walkabout and enjoy what the capital has to offer. Oh, and don’t miss the shawarma and poutine!
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,830
Total breweries visited in 2022: 301
Total breweries visited in Canada: 151
Total breweries visited in Quebec: 16
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #2828, 5e Baron Microbrasserie, Aylmer, Quebec (Visited 16-Oct-2022)
You might know I’m a sucker for a brewery in a unique setting. I’ve seen breweries in old factories, breweries in old churches, and breweries in sporting equipment stores (not surprisingly, both of these were in Colorado). But my personal favorite is a brewery in a house. They always end up being real charmers, and 5e Baron was no different.
In a little over two years in business, 5e Baron has gained a reputation in the region for their beers, especially their hazy IPAs. RateBeer named them the third best new brewery in the world in 2021, behind Timber Ales and Newbarns Brewery — both outfits whose beer I’ve enjoyed in the past year at home and abroad, respectively.
But to be honest, the beer is only half the draw here. 5e Baron went out of their way to make their brewery a welcoming place to hang out. The cozy patio out front started to fill up with friends gathering over beer and a couple of families as I sipped on my first beer, the Elephant Velvet, an English Mild. Inside, the cozy taproom featured a bar and retail counter, plus a window that looked down into a surprisingly large, high-ceilinged production space in the basement. I enjoyed a hazy IPA while a family camped out near me at a table that included a Super Nintendo emulator and fired up Super Mario World for the kiddos.
This place felt like the perfect weekend escape, and the warm service and delicious beer made for a lovely crisp fall afternoon on this side of the Ottawa River.
Social Post of the Week
Please don’t do this.
Long Read of the Week
Here’s an update from New Jersey Monitor on the continuing clash between the state’s Division of Alcohol Beverage Control and breweries that have faced draconian rules as a result of very obvious pressure from the restaurant and bar lobby. One key quote that nearly made my head explode, from a bar and restaurant owner who paid $400,000 to sell alcohol as a result of New Jersey’s utterly broken licensing system: “what’s the difference between a bar and restaurant and a brewery if they’re allowed to do everything I’m allowed to do?”
I guess this person is unaware that a brewery has to manufacture beer.
Once again, I invite every and any liquor license holder in New Jersey to sell their existing license to someone else, apply for a brewery license, go through the process of procuring brewing equipment and production space and permitting, build a brewery from the ground up, and hire brewing staff and/or go through the entire process of learning how to brew beer competently in a commercial setting if they want all the rights and responsibilities of a brewery license holder.
One Last Thing
I want to give a huge pat on the back to fellow intrepid beer traveler Joel Geier, the man behind Brewery Travels, who visited his one-thousandth brewery last weekend: Bierstadt Lagerhaus in Denver, Colorado — a brewery that’s fitting of that milestone. I’ve met Joel on a couple of occasions (including at my brewery #2222 last year — Sprecher Brewing in Wisconsin) and his passion for traveling to breweries is unmatched. I may have almost two thousand breweries on him, but I’ve also got more than a few years on him, so I have no doubt he’ll catch up to me as I slow down in my advanced age — and he’ll do a better job documenting his visits than I do.
Cheers,
Chris
It had not occurred to me that it is the time of Celebration. Made my stipples nick out a bit. That and the subsequent Big Foot are my faves
I always associate Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout warmly with winters and the holidays in NYC.