What's the Buzz? Albany Craft Beer Festival 2017

A: The buzz is me and hundreds of other beer nerds on a recent Saturday afternoon at the Washington Avenue Armory attending the 2017 Albany Craft Beer Festival.

Once you're in you're in

So much beer, so little time. The Festival was only running from 100 to 400 pm on April 22, so CBM and I showed up on time ready to explore. And drink. She knows everything about beer, a real superhero in her own right, with almost 600 beers tasted on Untappd. I love my beer buddies, more with every beer, but I digress.

Not overcrowded, a casual hairy crowd of beer lovers

I wish we had planned ahead - I didn't know where to start - a few breweries we recognized but many we did not. A few ciders, lots of IPAs and double IPAs and bourbon aged beers, as well as sours, gose, scotch ales, and other delights, though not too many stouts. Many of the offerings are unavailable. Period. Except if you go to the festival or line up at the beverage store when there's a new release. And since there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for the arrangement of the space it was hard to find anything anyway. Drinking beer didn't help.

DD's get to drink excellent coffee from Stacks

And the offerings were not only heady, profound, unusual and intoxicating, they were a made for mindful consumption because, in addition, they were mostly highly alcoholic. We started with the Gogo's Shiso from Nine Pin, a light, dry cider developed in collaboration with City Beer Hall, laced with Asian mandarin, fresh shiso, and Matcha Tea from Short and Stout. That was lunch.

Gogo Shiso translates into "delicious"

The names were a hoot. Of course, being on the dating shit list for too long now, I had to try the C.H. Evans Handsome GuyPA (7.4% alkeehall).  It was handsome, hoppy, and shiny like some frog I may have to kiss to get my prince. 

Someday my prince will come

Finback (Ridgewood, NY) had Between the Sheets Dead Stout (9.5%) - it was a revelation, like tasting something amazing for the very first time, aged in bourbon barrels, it made my eyes open up and my brain say howdy, like the walking dead anyway, and I'm usually busy taking those guys out so it was interesting to feel for a moment what they feel like for a change, but again, I digress. This was a beautiful American double/imperial stout. 

The music was loud so I didn't feel like the walking dead for long

Gun Hill (Bronx, NY) was in on the barrel-aged thing as well, and their Void of Light (8.1%) was a stout for the stout at heart - cocoa, coconut, marshmallows, thick, and a subtle smokiness that always makes me happy. 

My favorite: the Schmaltz Brewing Company's Jewbelation '13, aged four years, 17 hops, 17 malts, and 17% alcohol. That little 3-oz glass suddenly made me feel all silly inside. Time to quit.

Friendly, knowledgeable brewers abound

Wait one more. Red Ale from Artisinal Brew Works (Saratoga Springs, NY). Always wonderful.

Proud of their work!

OK yeah yeah it was a $65 ticket to get in, but worth every nickel and then some. It kept the crowd serious, and kept the cheap zombies and even cheaper vampires away. It was, bar none (pun intended) the BEST beer event I've ever attended.

CBM and her little beer glass

And Zena, Goddess of Fire, was in need of quenching.

Drinking at Druthers OR How I Got Lost

Cheese and crackers, where am I??? I'm at the far end of Broadway in Albany, NY, just before it goes under the Interstate, in the warehouse district where the trains cut through and the trucks are big and it's disturbingly dark and quiet after business hours and the wind and rain can really howl and forces of evil and dirt devils lurk behind every overflowing bin of trash. Then I burst into the light that is Druthers Brewing Company, and I know that all is well.

The brewery at Druthers

It's really a brewery - really really - you can see that through the glass walls on the other side of the bar. Very bright and clean and industrial looking. Contrast that to the rustic exposed beam and brick open concept low light bar and restaurant. Both are spacious, and I liked that the dining areas and bar spaces were broken up into smaller, intimate spaces. It was fun to explore, crowded, noisy (but not from loud music, thankfully), cozy and very exciting, especially when I saw the wood fired oven. Working hard to keep my identity a mystery, I sent a few soft kisses to the kitchen and finally took a seat.  Everyone was safe now and it was time to get serious.

Cozy dining with open kitchen/wood fired oven in the back

Beer. CBM enjoyed a pint of their 80 Shilling- malty and smokey and amber colored, a deliciously smooth Scottish style ale, while I downed a Druthers Golden Ale, light, loaded with hoppy goodness, clean and refreshing ($6/pint, $2 off during happy hour!). First rate - obviously alot has gone into their development - bravo!!!

Druther's Golden Ale - $6/pint and $2 for a 5-oz sample

Looking over the menu it was very much pub classics - burgers, sandwiches, pizza, wings. We shared an order of Confit Chicken Wings - jumbos, cooked in animal fat, super tender, definitely mild, even a bit sweet. The blue cheese dressing was great - chunks of cheese in a smooth creamy base, with the requisite side of celery/carrots that were decidedly fresh and crispy. OK, good, not great, I would have liked it a bit more kick cause I like it hot, but good with beer. Maybe two....  (:

Confit Chicken Wings

The Autumn Veggie Pizza ($14) was lovely to behold, creative even, laced with sweet apples, shaved brussels sprouts, and pumpkin seeds, cheddar???,  and finished with a drizzle of balsamic reduction. Good, with a nice char and a chewy crust, hot and drippy, a bit too sweet for me, but it was still a real treat.

Autumn Veggie Pizza - seasonal, creative, sweet

By 630 pm the place was pretty much mobbed with families and mostly 30+ somethings talking and laughing; the service continued to be first-rate despite the crowds. Druthers is certainly a bright spot in a part of town that by contrast ain't so inviting, so if you make a left when you should have made a right and find yourself  thinking "Where's a Goddess of Fire when I need one to protect me?" and "Would she like a beer?" find a parking spot and step inside, and call me anytime!!!

Druthers is so hot it's cool.

Zena, Goddess of Fire

Loving Our Local Brewers at the Craft New York Brewers Festival

I 'm impressed, as I hope you are, with the burgeoning craft brew industry in New York. There are some truly fine brews in our back yard, and a great deal of tasting to be done in order for us to sort out our favorites. So in the spirit of exploring the craftsmanship of our local brewers Saturday I struck out in search of good beer. Luckily for me this past weekend was the 3rd annual Craft New York Brewers Festival at the Desmond Hotel, with two tiers of tickets.  I chose upper tier, which also provided access to the food catered by a couple dozen or so local caterers, restaurants and pubs.There were also a group of  rare and one-off beers reserved for the VIP tier*.

Others in our region had the same idea and the event was completely Sold Out.  Wonderful!  People are getting hip to the fact that New York does good beer,  ale and stout.

The Desmond organized the event very well and of course they have excellent exhibit space so that brewers and caterers had plenty of room to serve up their finest wares.  Since the VIP ticket holders knew that we had an hour to enjoy the food and drink with a smaller crowd we were pretty much all at the door by 4pm. Everything was set up and ready for us, and so we all played out our various strategies for enjoying as much as possible of what was on offer.

Since the VIP tickets were issued to a smaller group, there was plenty of time to talk with brewers and get the inside story regarding the beers and other aspects of their brewing.  That's a lot of the fun for me, since I'm discovering that brewers are sort of half business people and half artists.  And all around they seem to be a jolly bunch.

One of the first people I met was a man who grows hops in his yard as a hobby and is starting to make connections with breweries who like what he produces.  He had some hops in a box and I was curious regarding exactly what the taste of a hop is.  So I munched it.  I mean, what is a festival for if you're not going to try things you'd never think of trying? It was sort of  mind bending and I now understand what the hops contribute to the overall brew.

The food was very good and complemented the beer.  The beer was superb.  I'm no beer snob, just learning about what is out there but I had all delicious and intriguing beers that had yards and yards of flavor.  The prize for the most weird was the Peanut Butter Porter  - oh yeah, I know how it sounds.  It took me awhile to wrap my head around it, but it holds a place in my heart.  Another superb example was the Water Street Brewery Strong Ale.  That one was a pleasure I will seek out again.

I'm not sure how long this link will last, however a run down of the breweries and caterers is here: http://thinknydrinkny.com/2015/11/3rd-annual-craft-new-york-brewers-festival-albany/

As good as it was, I'm happy to know that this annual festival is only one of lots and lots of festivals and other opportunities to get out there and try some wonderful brewskies. Go and support the people who work hard to produce the most delightful beers possible.

Peeectures!!!

*VIP Tickets included the following rare on one off beers: Farmhouse Brewery –The Sour Evangelist, Sour Tomatillo Gose, Upstate Brewing -Double IPA, Empire Brewing Company –Two Dragons, CH Evans – Rum Barrel Aged Poor Soldier Porter, Olde Saratoga Brewing – Saratoga Kolsch Aged in Chardonnay Barrels, Crossroads Brewing – Black Rock Stout, Saint James Brewery – Bottled Conditioned Apple Ale “Pomme” Made with apples from Long Island, Erie Canal Brewing – Amber Waves of Grain American Pale Ale & Locktender IPA, Shmaltz Brewing Co – Funky Jewbelation, Coney Island Brewing – MerMAN Imperial Pilsner, Saranac – Barrel Aged Imperial Rye Porter, Four Mile Brewing – Reap Series featuring all NYS hops and malts, Greenport Harbor Brewing– Cuvaison 2015 and Canard Noir (Black Saison), Browns Brewing – Barrel Aged Imperial Brown Ale,Wolf Hollow Brewing Company – District 6 IPA with a special “trifecta” addition of local hops from RockinHops: Chinook, Centennial, and Columbus, Prison City Brewing – Passion Fruit Sour,Binghamton Brewing – Xocolatl Aztec Porter, Good Nature Brewing – Bier De Marc, Communtiy Beer Works – Smoke Rauchbier, The Brewery at CIA/Rare Form Collaboration – Ludicrous Speed Winter Pale Ale – an unfiltered golden pale ale brewed with lemon peel and juniper berries, Southern Tier – Grand Arbor – a limited release Belgian Style Farmhouse Ale brewed with Local NYS Maple Syrup,Wolf Hollow Brewing –  District 6 IPA Cask with a fresh Centennial hop from “Rockin Hops” a local hop grower, Adirondack Brewery – Firkin of Ryan’s Irish Red with wood chips soaked in irish whisky, Rushing Duck – Dog’s Bollocks, a barrel aged barleywine from 2014, Lake Placid Pub & Brewery – Imperial Smoked Porter, Brooklyn Brewery – Improved Old Fashioned the latest barrel aged BQE Series, 

Foodie Weekends in the Capital District - Hoptember Harvest Festival Part II

All down the Hudson Valley producers are being encouraged to cultivate hops by legislators as well as the burgeoning craft breweries. This is good.  Local hops encourage local beer. Local beer was on offer in spades at Hoptember Harvest Festival last Saturday along with local ciders and spirits and some delicious food that's perfect with beer.  All that along with a jolly crowd made this festival a true delight.  Put it on your calendar for next year.

Dutchess Hops has built out quite the welcoming verandas - on Saturday they also had the good sense to have huge tents for beer, whisky and food lovers. I swiped this from their website.

There was a little bit of a market at the entrance, but the real action was in the beer tent. Table after table of brewers and volunteer pourers were there to help you discover the local flavors of the Hudson Valley.  Many brewers weren't even into having a banner or flyers - they just brought the beer.

A cigar tent!

I went for the cider and wasn't disappointed!!!

"Just a half-inch, please"  yeah, that's how I was tasting as well.  That's enough to enjoy the bouquet and the unfolding of all those amazing flavors.

No food on toothpicks at this festival - hooray!  They also limit ticket sales so that there were only very short lines.  THIS is very good organizing.

The hops are harvested!!!  Let's have a festival!!!

It was on and off rain, but the tents covered everyone when it was on, so the party wasn't dampened.

There were a few non-beer vendors - this man was offering his syrups for tasting and they were excellent.

Denning's Point was offering a few of their whiskeys and we learned a good deal from side-by-side tastings.

The crowd at this festival was one of the things we enjoyed the most.  It was a mix of ages, so not dominated by any definite kind of response to the beers.  We thought is was exceptionally jolly, but that could have been because we were exceptionally jolly.  I also think it was because of the organization and thoughtful setup of the festival.  It wasn't too crowded.  The food was well made and served - it was easy to have a wonderful time.

LorreBob sez watch for this one next year and get tickets before they are sold out.  Be prepared to relax and taste some marvelous products of the Hudson Valley hops revival.

Heavenly Tasting: Cheese and Beer at City Beer Hall

Upstairs at the City Beer Hall is a great place to put some tables and chairs so that people can hang out and taste beers and cheese.  The huge windows and the view into the room below add a sense of expansiveness that sets a lovely scene for some great flavors. On a recent non-frozen evening a group of avid tasters tasted to their hearts' content.

We each were given a program for the tasting so we didn't have to take extensive notes. The beers and cheese were these, which I would highly recommend for paired tastings you should do at home:

Grimm Color Field farmhouse ale wth Perail de Brebis

Brouwerij Bavik Petrus Red Ale with Tome Rebelais

Birrificio del Ducato Chrysopolis with Saulnois Reserve

Dirrificio Montegioco Fumigant with Alchese Blauwe

Eventually the assembled plates  of two cheeses were delivered upstairs and the two beers were poured for everyone.

Our hosts from The Cheese Traveler and City Beer Hall each gave some background and we proceeded to share our experiences as we cheerfully explored some of the delights of basic food and drink.

The beers and cheeeses held one surprise after another.

And oh my.  Flavor was the topic, the stuff and the conversation of the evening. Flavor profiles had been carefully analyzed and matched so that the unfolding of complementary complex flavors, although in really just a few bits of food, was mesmerizing through the evening.

The second pairing of two brought the tasting to the four beers and four cheeses, which is a really good amount if one is to get the gist of each without covering up anything, rushing or spacing out.  While truly a tasting and not a meal, it was a great way to satisfy the senses without ending up too full or bored.

There was plenty of time to regale each other over our subjective experiences both at this table and at many others in past years. The time was used to slowly try each tidbit, but also to wait to clear one combination of flavors in order to fully experience the next. The beers and cheese were paired, but there were also little condiments to allow everyone to mix up their own tastes expand the range of what was happening.

The low lighting allowed the darkness from outside to eventually envelop the room and as we savored the strongest and most mind blowing flavors of the evening the room grew quiet and people said their goodbyes.

It was a satisfying way to explore new and traditional flavors and to share insights and opinions with convivial fellow guests.  I hope this tasting series will be ongoing for a long time to come.

Lorre Bob sez check out both the beers and the cheese and if you can taste them together all the better.

Coming up! The 2nd Annual Hudson-Berkshire Wine & Food Festival

Go and taste and find out who is making the good stuff in our region!

Hudson-Berkshire  WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL

Sat., May 24 11am-6pm • Sun., May 25, 11am-5pm

Columbia County Fairgrounds, Chatham, NY

From the website [click on the link below to go there]:
The 2nd Annual Wine and Food Festival will feature the five beverage trail members plus other regional wineries, distilleries, cideries and craft breweries.

There will also be delicious foods for sale and sampling including gourmet cheeses and creameries, baked goods, grass fed meat producers and more! Throughout the weekend there will be special guest appearances and book signings, seminars of wine and food pairings, home brewing, and cheese making by some of the region’s foremost experts.

Tasting Ticket Includes admission, souvenir tasting glass and all the wine, beer and spirits you care to taste for one price.

One Day Tasting – $25.00

The Hudson-Berkshire Beverage Trail is the premiere beverage trail in New York State and the Hudson Valley. The trail extends from Southeast of Albany down to Hudson, New York and features handcrafted, award-winning and celebrated wines, beers, and spirits.

DOING DISHES:The Mussels Series, Part III of V: The Bier Abbey

I hate when I read "professional" reviews of bar food in the local paper. Bars are bars and we generally go there for beer and OK tasting eats which we hope are cheap, and we don't go in with high expectations. And if the food sucks no one really cares that much, they just won't order food the next time. Most bars aren't trying to impress us as much as fill our tummies so we don't stumble too much when we head out the door at last call. It's just a bar, OK?

On Thursday last week FF and I went to Schenectady, NY to try mussels at The Bier Abbey, and they fit my low-bar profile of bar food, though to their credit they are trying to give a Belgian twist to the usual fare of burgers and wings.

The Bier Abbey is located in a neat row of cool old buildings with bars and restaurants along one section of Union Street near Union College. There's a small parking lot on the corner - the lot was full, so even on a quiet night I had to park my hyperoverdrive superturbo Honda Civic on the street. Entering the restaurant through oversize rattley double doors led us into what was probably an old house, with the parlor on the right that can be closed off for a private party, and a large seating area to the left. You can move to the back of the restaurant through a corridor that also leads to the loo and kitchen, or through the busy bar, with a few booths nearby. The backity-back is set up  like a sports bar with a 10,000,000 square foot (approx.) flat screen TV. We took a booth because we like to eat with our feet on the floor. The benches were hard and the table was too far away from the bench to be comfortable - leaving us to lean into our food all through the meal. Overall the decor, look and feel of the joint was wonky and cheap. They did have real cloth napkins though, which I appreciated.No students, mostly guys drinking beer. No surprises there.



OK it's just a bar, right??? So we started with a beer order, of course. The Bier Abbey has a nice long selection of beers from all over the U.S. and we didn't know quite where to start, so we ordered a few created closer to home, then included one more that our server recommended. We had four 4-ounce beers so we could sample, with the price running $2.00 or $2.50 each. These included (reading left to right in the photo, below) New England Galaxy, an American pale ale from Woodbridge, CT (cloudy, tan, stinky, and bitter); Dales Pale Ale from Oskar Blues in Lyons, CO (my personal favorite - smooth, light amber); a Scotch Ale from Smuttynose in Portsmouth, NH (sweet - tasted like scotch!); and De Levende Doden from Rushing Duck in Chester, NY - a Belgian porter with cherries (rich and chocolatey with a smell of coffee off the top), which FF very much enjoyed. I wish I could find their beer listing online.

FOOD: FF and I ordered the "Classic Mariner" style mussels, prepared with shallots, garlic and wheat bier ($12 for 2 pounds). Also a spinach salad with candied walnuts (not too sweet), pickled onions (very interesting), fresh sliced strawberry (lovely color), and lumps of goats milk cheese (salty and creamy) all dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette. It was a really lovely salad, and a nice generous serving ($8). Our server brought the mussels then the salad. It's a bar, right??? But the food came quickly, so that tells me the kitchen and waitstaff are pretty well organized. I immediately asked for more bread to soak up the broth, and FF asked for spoons to taste it alone. The spoons were also handy for dividing up the salad. We got our extra bread right away and set to tasting.

The mussels were a disappointment. The sauce tasted a bit bitter and overly salty when tasted alone - there was NO sweetness as you might find in a wine sauce. Maybe we were also tasting the mussels more because the sauce was subdued, which meant I tasted more than a few mussels that were very fishy and that I superhero burped fishy as the evening progressed, telling me that they were NOT all that fresh when they were thrown in the pot. And the toasts ended up heavily doused in garlic salt, which, if I had known, I would have asked for the extra to be plain. It tasted like GARLIC SALT. So did everything by the end of the meal. And fishy. I'm glad we had strawberries to cleanse the palette. A lemon wedge might have been a nice touch on an otherwise boring plate. Next time I'll order the burger, just to be on the safe side.

If you read this blog to the end you are doing better than me. It's a bar and it was just OK. Who cares??? I don't know, but it was good to get out of Albany for a change. And heck, what superpower doesn't want to go on the occasional adventure to deepest, darkest Schenectady?

Zena, Goddess of Fire

DOING DISHES: The Mussels Series, Part II of V - The Merry Monk

I like eating out with FF because she and I like to go splits on things and not over-order or overeat.  I overeated anyway. It was good.

We made plans for a Wednesday night because on Wednesday nights mussels are 2 for 1, and we like eating out on the cheap so we can order lots for less and feel a bit less guilty about eating out too often. Well, I do anyway.

We arrived just after 5:00 p.m. while the State office workers scrambled for an exit to the highway, but found free parking on Clinton Street, only a few blocks away from the restaurant. Nothing of value was visible through the windows of my car, FYI.

There are two doors to the Merry Monk, the main entrance on the left, the second one is on the right. Both were open when we arrived so we sauntered in the right-hand entrance. We couldn't figure out if it was okay to sit just anywhere, but we asked permission and did so, instructed that as long as there wasn't a RESERVED sign on the table to relax and find a spot. No hostess in sight was a bit odd, but we took a small booth that could seat 2 or 4 comfortably and settled in.

EVENTUALLY one of the waitstaff brought us menus. I poured over the list of draft beers, knowing, because I work at a university and one of my student workers is beer-literate and cheap-savvy as well, that draft beers are $2.00 off between 3 and 6 p.m., and, as you already know, some of us like it cheap. There is lots to choose from, so I read every entry in the very descriptive, beer-poetic listing, having a hard time deciding what might pair well with mussels. When then server came for our order FF told her we weren't ready because she didn't have a beer menu of her own and I'd obviously been hogging the one we had. So I'm an idiot. Anyway, because I am a dyed dark brunette these days (part of my disguise) Zena chose the Leffe Blonde, a pale malt. FF chose the Goose Island Matilda because it was "wild in character". Gotta love that girl. Both were great! The Leffe Blonde tasted just a bit smokey. It had a long finishing flavor and was not overly chilled, which I liked. The server tried to answer my question "What would go well with mussels?" but it didn't go anywhere; I think the lighter beers worked out well in the end.

P.S. They have lots of great beers listed in the bottled beer menu, including Belgian Ales and Lambics, as well as Fruit Beers and even Gluten Free beers. Go figure that one.

Feeling somewhat virtuous we ordered a house salad with a balsamic vinaigrette to start that we told the waitress we were going to split. Like Garden Bistro the salad wasn't divided in the kitchen for us, and we had no utensils at the table to facilitate the process, but we finally got the waitress' attention and, with a well-meant apology, she brought what was needed (e.g., side plates; we still had to use our forks to toss and dish up). We managed fine, and really enjoyed the salad. The dressing was sweet, strong, clingy, and the greens/cuke/cherry tomato/crouton delight held up to it quite well. A lot of pubs, which is what we would call the Merry Monk, don't do salads well as a rule, but this was lovely. It was a nice portion for $8.00 bucks.

MUSSELS. We ordered two types, the MM "almost" classic Meuniere (with white wine, butter, cream, celery and shallots), as well as the Beer Steamed (in Belgian amber ale, onion, garlic, tomato and fresh thyme). There were seven "Moules" to choose from, as well as a special for the day, but we wanted to stay with dishes that we could compare to other area restaurants. The combined flavor of the mussels and broth with our Beer Steamed selection was GREAT, the better of the two that we ordered, but the broth alone was a bit too salty. The combined flavor the Meuniere mussels and sauce was great also, BUT, the broth alone or dredged in the nice, solid baguette served alongside was absolutely perfect.  We liked the addition of the celery but weren't too sure about the cream - it had coagulated a bit on the shells and had separated from the sauce. The count was good: about 25 mussels per pound, with only one unopened shell. Too bad about half a dozen or more had a bit of grit. Even us cheapskate superheroes hate biting into sand (not that Zena is undone by a bitty piece of sand). Oh, AND there were more than a few mussels that had escaped their shells. Do mussels also have legs??? I am becoming suspicious. Anyway, most importantly all the mussels were tender and the presentation was low-key and simple. We were VERY happy with our dinner.

But Zena had to order another beer, this time an Ommegang Scythe and Sickle. It tasted almost lemony, a bit spicy, and very good. Too bad it was 6:30 and I had to pay full price, but I digress. Zena needed another beer because she was out-eating her foodie friend, including eating most of both hunks of sturdy baguette soaked in the two broths, and needed a drink. I easily beat off an "un-server" who attempted, at no avail, to remove the appearantly empty bowls while I finished things off.

Being cheap, I'm happy to report that a dinner of a salad, two pounds of mussels (for the price of one), and three beers came $46.00 including tip, and we were both satiated. We liked the pub environment, FF noting a nice mix of 20 something hipsters, suits, and middle-aged suburbanites, as well as a few superheroes. By 7:00 p.m. there was a lineup at the left door but no one rushed us along. Zena appreciated that she could finish her beer without being pestered by the waitstaff.

I burped my way home, happy, way too full, with plans to work it off out saving the innocent and fighting off dragons or whatever comes along that night, or, if I have to, at the gym the next morning. Not to confuse mussels with muscles, of course.

Yesterday morning I bought a half-off gift card for the Merry Monk through MetroMarket.com. What a great deal!! I plan to return and continue to explore their menu. Also maybe link up with a few superheroes.

Zena, Goddess of Fire