Hop Wars #IPAday August 4th

Thursday, 04 August 2011 11:43 Written by beersomm 0 Comments

Rattle N Hum & Cafe D’Alsace

To celebrate international IPA Day, two of Manhattan’s top craft beer joints are teaming up for a global showdown of Old World Vs New World IPAs. Patrick Donagher of Rattle ‘N Hum and Gianni Cavicchi from Café D’Alsace are collaborating by offering New Yorkers some of the best IPAs from around the world! French brasserie Café D’Alsace will naturally showcase the Old World brews and will have on hand 20 special IPAs such as Meantime IPA, Thornbridge Jaipur, Nogne-O IPA, Evil Twin Before, During and after Xmas and Mikkeller Willamette Single Hop. The restaurant will even offer menu items prepared with IPAs and the showstopper will be Beer Sommerlier Gianni pouring table-side fresh hop infusions. Oh and all brews will be available for just $5!

Rattle ‘N Hum will be showcasing 25+ lines of American

hoppy deliciousness on tap plus a Cask Ale Festival featuring some really rare IPAs! Patrick – who is known for always having his hands on the good stuff – once again is bringing out all the stops! Some examples of IPA’s he will offer are Barrier Ruthless Rye, Undarum, Dunegrass, Oil City & Medula, Smuttynose Big A, Two Brothers Hop Juice and Stone Ruination just to name a few.

Get Real NY – Taking NYC by Storm!

Wednesday, 23 March 2011 18:40 Written by beersomm 0 Comments

Get Real NY Craft Beer and Food Festival took place last weekend. I was definitely excited to see how this would compare to last September’s first Get Real. The Get Real Gang displayed over 100 casks from breweries all over the US and internationally. Also available for the tasting was a wide selection of home brew beers. Tons more food this time around including Sunswick 35-35 beer brisket, Fatty Crab’s pork belly tea sandwiches, Brother Jimmy’s famous pulled pork sliders, Murray’s Cheese selections, and much more. Gianni and I worked Café D’Alsace’s table serving pate with duck, pork, fois gras and green pepper corns. The pate was a hit and paired well with some of the hoppier and stronger beers. The event was incredible. I tasted at least 20 different cask ales and some notable cask included:

Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA

Greenport Harbor Disorient IPA Dry-hopped with Citra

Greenport Harbor Triton Barleywine Dry-hopped with Fuggle

Greenport Harbor Belgian IPA Dry-hopped with Tettnanger

Kelso Quad Bock Aged in Jack Daniels Barrels

Sixpoint Diesel

Two Brothers Resistance IPA

Congratulations to Patrick, Andy, Mary and Chris for throwing an amazing event showcasing great food and incredible beer. I can’t wait to see what’s coming up next.

Here are some photos of the event:

Get Real New York’s Ultimate Cask & Food Festival

Thursday, 17 March 2011 06:37 Written by beersomm 0 Comments

Join us at New York’s premier cask and food festival.
The line up includes

Casks

Stone, Fullers, Two Brothers, Sierra Nevada, Oscar Blues, Weyerbacher, Dieu de Ciel, Defiant,
Great Divide, Troegs, Harvey’s, Firestone Walker, Lagunitas, Green Flash, Ballast Point, Victory, Geary’s, Thornbridge, Otter Creek and more

NY Breweries
Six Point, Blue Point, Southern Tier, Green Port, Brooklyn, Captain Lawrence, Ommegang and Kelso

Grub
Cafe D’Alsace, 404 Bakery, Luke’s Lobster, Lorely, Jimmy’s 43, Meze Grill, Rattle n Hum,
Petite Abeille, Muray’s Cheeses, Roni-Sue Chocolate, Oysters from Blue Island Shellfish Farms,
First Prize Pies and more

http://www.getrealny.com

Kill the Sasquatch – Great Divide Yeti – Firkin Friday

Monday, 14 March 2011 16:28 Written by beersomm 0 Comments

Last Friday was our last Firkin Friday unfortunately, but what a great beer to close the curtain on this round. We knew the Great Divide Yeti would be a BIG beer to get through that night and we definitely did our best to kill this beast. It was a huge bear of a beer but it’s smooth rounded taste, vanilla sweetness and bitter finish made this beer pretty drinkable and it actually went well with the oxtail and steak frites at Cafe D’Alsace. All my friends showed up that night to close out the event and I appreciated the turnout for sure. Stay tuned for more great events from beersomm.

Firkin Friday 3: Hops vs. Heat

Sunday, 06 March 2011 16:40 Written by beersomm 0 Comments

amon came up with a great idea for this week’s firkin night. Sausages with beer, the timeless pairing/tradition, but what would be our twist? We had a cask of Double Simcoe IPA from Weyerbacher brewery in Pennsylvania. Chef Philippe makes 8 different sausages @ Café D’Alsace including 2 that are uniquely spicy. His duck sausage has green peppercorns that give a sharp fresh pinpointed heat blast to the gamey duck meat. He also makes a seriously spicy Merguze: a lamb sausage that originates in Morocco and gets its heat from the Tunisian Harissa chili. Harissa chill’s have more of an elevating and lingering heat attack. Enter Hops vs. Heat. Hops seem to redirect your palate from heat while injecting a citrus bitterness, but we don’t want to confuse the pairing we want to add to it. Weyerbacher’s Double Simcoe IPA has an excellent tangerine, apricot sweetness profile that really compliments the hops, the heat and briny delicious sauerkraut. This is exactly the cyclical rollercoaster we wanted the pairing to ride.