(From l to r: Jarred Roth, Allison Whittinghill, Rienne Martinez and I).

A pic from last night’s soiree at the 2012 Manhattan Cocktail Classic Gala with some of my fellow managers from Hearth & Terroir.

And yes, that is a black bear behind us standing on his hind legs, fangs and claws bared.  Thankfully, we weren’t harmed, but I did hear the bear was spotted loitering around the Negroni table, and he was being a pushy son of a bitch.

Rally the homebrew club.  Cancel your weekend gambling trip to Macao.  Request the day off from work…hell, request two days off from work.  Cause it’s about to be ON.

Four days from now, it’s time to stand up for the craft beer cause.  Time to declare your independence from the mass-produced swill that clogs our grocery stores and holds the beer industry in a sleeper hold.  As part of the 2012 Manhattan Cocktail Classic, we’re humbled, honored and fucking fired up to bring you: The Declaration of Beer Independence.

On Saturday, May 12th, we–your tireless, diehard, beverage drum squad from Terroir–will be taking you on a coast-to-coast journey with four of the top craft breweries in the country.  Each brewery is putting up four offerings—ranging from their flagship offering to their experimental concoctions that push the boundaries of what the brewer’s art is capable of.

In this corner, representing the unstoppable force of the East Coast region, we’ve got Captain Lawrence.  From the Midwest, weighing in at 452 lbs , we’ve got Two Brothers.  From the sunny climes of the Rocky Mountains, representing the craft beer Mecca (and my home state) of Colorado, we’ve got Left Hand.  And all the way from the ancestral home of craft brewing in beer-soaked California, we’ve got 21st Amendment — (full beer list below).

And that’s not all…we’ll be also unleashing a bevy of fried vittles, meats, cheeses, paninis, and possibly a roast yak (if it ever gets released through customs).

Declaration of Beer Independence
Saturday, May 12th, 3-5 pm
Terroir | Tribeca
24 Harrison Street (bet Greenwich and Hudson)
$44 / person (incl. tax & gratuity)

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—–BUY TICKETS HERE—–

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CAPTAIN LAWRENCE (Elmsford, NY)

• Captain’s Kölsch (5.5% abv)
• Liquid Gold (Belgian Pale Ale; 6% abv)
• Captain’s Reserve Imperial IPA (9% abv)
• Golden Delicious (American Tripel, dry-hopped and aged in Apple Brandy barrels; 12% abv )

TWO BROTHERS (Warrenville, IL)

• Dark Mild (English Dark Mild Ale; 3.2% abv)
• Pillar of Salt (White Rye; 6.8% abv)
• Cane & Ebel (Rye Beer; 7% abv)
• Circus Penguin (Pale Ale with Organic Beets & Blood Oranges; 5.9% abv)

LEFT HAND (Longmont, CO)

• Good JuJu (Ginger Ale; 4% abv)
• Stranger (American Pale Ale; 5% abv)
• 400 lb Monkey (English IPA; 6.7% abv)
• Smokejumper (Smoked Imperial Porter; 8.8% abv)

21st AMENDMENT (San Francisco, CA)

• Hell or High Watermelon Wheat (4.9% abv)
• Bitter American (American Pale Ale; 4.4% abv)
• Back in Black (American Black Ale; 6.8% abv)
• Monk’s Blood (Belgian Strong Dark Ale Aged on Oak with Black Mission Figs; (8.3% abv)

Paul Grieco of Hearth & Terroir (pic from Stuart Pigott's Planet Wine)

Stoked to hear, hot off the presses of the Beard Foundations Twitter account, that my boss/colleague/compatriot/rebel-rouser/mentor/fearless maniac, Paul Grieco, just won the 2012 James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional.

This is awesome, well-deserved news for me and all the other glorious misfits that call Hearth & Terroir home.  Well done, Paul.

In honor of this glorious occasion, Paul will be planting 12 hairs of his devilishly long goatee in slate-filled vineyards all over the world…but mostly in the Mosel.

I was reminded of a movie clip we made (driven by the great Steven Solomon)—a long time ago it seems—when we were opening Terroir-Tribeca in April 2010.  We shot this footage unassumingly, and told ourselves we couldn’t stop it, or edit it.  In it, you get a close look at some of the characters in our bizarre world—including some classic moments with Paul.

Recipe to remember you’re alive and the world is a vast, beautiful place:
-Oskar Blues, Dales Pale Ale, Colorado
-Six Point, The Crisp Lager, New York
-Lamb Sudzuk Sausage
-Halal Beef Sudzuk Sausage
-Kefalograviera Cheese
-Almond-Stuffed Olives

Just revisting this.  Surprised just how damn tasty it is.  Its funny how you’ll taste the same things, years apart, and they blow your mind with intensity…it pays to revisit things.

Biere de Garde in style, the Gavroche from Cappel, France, is bottled sur lie, meaning its conditioned in the bottle on the live yeast.  Rich, malty, but with a slightly tart raspberry pie flavor that makes your mouth water.  It’s all about the yeast, baby. 

View of fog rolling over Piemonte. Eat this, Royal Wedding! (Pic by Kat Bryant)

Nearly one year ago today, my wife and I were in Piedmont, one of Italy’s top wine regions.  It was a dream come true, and after years of dreaming and scheming, I had to pinch myself when I drove past road signs with names like “Barolo”, “La Morra”, “Alba” and “Asti”.

B-O-R-I-N-G

One of my most memorable afternoons was when Kat decided she was staying in the hotel to watch the Royal Wedding.  After thinking about that option versus zipping through the hilltop towns in my rented Fiat, I thought, “yeah, fuck that.  Royal wedding?!  Please! I’m in Piedmont, mf’er!”  And for the next three hours, I became one with the winding, serpentine roads, saw the clouds tumble in, dump their raindrops and roll back out again.  It was otherworldly…

Arcese 2010

This wine brought those memories flooding back.  While Piedmont is so often thought of for its reds like the great Barolos and Barbarescos, I found the whites to be eye-opening and unique.

Golden yellow (if this is the color of your pee, you need to drink some water) with notes of pear skin and honeyed apricots on the nose.  Medium plus to full body, unctuous in the mouth.  The vibrant acidity, though, is stunning like a taut, electric guitar string.  Reminiscent of white peach syrup but with a vibrant nerve sinewing through that makes it dance on the palate.

A blend of Favorita, Arneis, Cortese, Sauvignon Blanc grapes, it is a true “mash up” (Arcese).  The Favorita grape, a native to Piedmont, gives the blend its mouthwatering acidity, the Arneis adds a bit of the pear notes and the Cortese rounds it all out for the win.

This is some tasty stuff, and clocking in at under $20/bottle retail, the Queen is sure to be smuggling some away for a rainy day.

North Fork Project Chardonnay 2010 (bought at my favorite local wine shop, Astoria Wine & Spirits)  and in this corner, from my local Astoria butcher, Dijon Pork Chops with French Fries and Brussels Sprouts.

Let the satisfaction roll.

The Wood Brothers jamming in the hallway of a school in Brooklyn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYY1T7BYd9U

Not a bad way for our staff to start the night at Hearth.  Well-played, Matt Stinton.

The Plan

One year ago today, Kat and I donned backpacks and boarded a plane to Paris.  

What followed was a 93-day journey which wound us through Europe, with only wine and beer as our compass.  8 countries, 34 hotels, 9 rental cars…and 3 years of dreaming. 

Like ants in a newly-begun ant farm, we forged our path anew each day.  We got lost on the backroads and discovered, time and time again, that the more interesting life journeys lie on the backroads.  It was a trip of a lifetime…and the people we met, and the experiences that unfolded, will forever influence our thoughts and dreams of what’s possible on this planet.

But enough of my sappy drivel, watch this….the images speak for themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4ESTcpSzD0

And to read my posts as the journey unfolded, start here and scroll through: 

Thirsty Nomads: 93 Days in Europe (March 21, 2011)

At 1:00 pm, with the wee lad strapped in and the diaper bag filled with the tools of the trade, we left the house.  We vowed that no amount of shitstorms or wet-nappy assaults would knock us off our journey, and we jumped on the M60 bus in Astoria to make our way to 125th street in Harlem.  Brew day had arrived.

Our grain-loving pals, Jonathan and Lauren Moxey were at the ready to greet us.  This was Kat and I’s first foray into all-grain brewing, a leap up from the moderate-level extract brewing we’d been doing previously.  I’m a lover of gizmos and gadgets, so when my eyes first met the massive outdoor burner that could boil stew for an entire brigade in mere minutes, or the chemistry lab-grade stir plate with a happy yeast starter in full-feed, I was quickly in my element and firing off a litany of curious questions.

We were also armed with some malt-driven armaments, and throughout the day popped the caps on the Pelican Brewery & Pub’s ‘Mother of All Storms’, the Schlafly Reserve 2007 Oak-Aged Barleywine and some of Jonathan’s award-winning Saison.  We were properly fueled.

Jonathan and I planned out the brew last weekend; looking for something that celebrates the fresh herbs of the season, and is sessionable for the spring, we sketched up this hum-dinger of a recipe:

The (as yet unnamed) Thyme Pale Ale

8.00 lbs Crisp Organic Pale Malt
1.50 lbs Weyermann Dark Munich
0.50 lbs Weyermann Carahell
0.50 oz Amarillo whole leaf hops, 10.9% AA (first wort hop)
0.50 oz Amarillo whole leaf hops, 10.9% AA (30 min)
1.00 oz Centennial whole leaf hops, 10.3% AA (5 min)
0.25 oz fresh thyme (0 min)
Mash at 145F for 20 min (add 12.5 qts of water at 156F)
Mash at 154F for 40 min (add 8.0 qts of water at 172F)
Sparge with 4.3 gal of water at 175F
Wyeast 1968 London ESB (1.00 l stir plate starter)
OG: 1.052

(If you want to get technical, we also added WhirlFloc at 15 min, 1/2 tsp of Wyeast yeast nutrient at 10 min, and 90 sec. of pure o2 before pitching at 68F)

]]> http://www.grapesandgrainsnyc.com/2012/03/26/homebrewing-in-harlem-the-thyme-pale-ale/feed/ 11 http://www.grapesandgrainsnyc.com/2012/03/21/queens-kickshaw-turns-1-and-goes-big-to-celebrate/ http://www.grapesandgrainsnyc.com/2012/03/21/queens-kickshaw-turns-1-and-goes-big-to-celebrate/#comments Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:07:22 +0000 David Flaherty http://www.grapesandgrainsnyc.com/?p=8423

It’s truly amazing how much work goes into opening a restaurant.

Having now worked on the operations side of things for four years, I’m still amazed by this.  And even more amazed how the guests on the other side of the bar have no idea what this process entails.  The thought of someone thinking, “Oh, one day I’ll just open up a little restaurant and serve up my Grandma’s famous pierogis!  It’ll be such a hoot!” makes me shudder to imagine the viper-filled pitfalls awaiting their poor soul.

Opening a restaurant (or a wine bar, a cocktail bar, a tiki bar, a sports bar, a whiskey joint or a brew pub) is a laborious journey of legal entanglements, building code jungle gyms, plumbing/electrical rats’ nests, contractor miscommunications, ventilation and fire suppression system snafus, liquor license hula hoops…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  In short: it’s a damn behemoth.  And you better have a clear, dedicated vision because by the time you open your doors, your financial state is in a deep, dark hole with merely a hopeful rope ladder poised to get yourself up to the light.

But for those who do it well, it appears effortless, timeless.  How could my neighborhood have existed without this place?  It captures our vibe, it celebrates our passions, it feels like home.  One such place is The Queens Kickshaw.  Unequivocally one of the coolest places to open in Astoria in the past 9 years, owners Benjamin Sandler and Jennifer Lim have done so many things right its downright impressive.

(pic by Noah Devereaux of noahdeveraux.com)

Walking in the place is transportive from a design perspective, with beautiful, reclaimed wood tables and stools, an old school tin roof, Edison light bulb fixtures and a wood floor and exposed brick walls they personally uncovered from years of previous owners.  But more than that, they’ve created a neighborhood institution that celebrates artisan coffee, an extensive menu of creative grilled cheese sandwiches and a beer list that rivals that of any of New York City’s finest (and I dare you to show me another joint pouring locally brewed Kombucha on draft, and available in growler?!  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?)

This week, well, Friday, March 23rd, more specifically, The Queens Kickshaw begins celebrating their one-year anniversary.  And they’re doing it in style, with a sick roster of craft beers.  The theme?  All anniversary brews made by the breweries on their anniversaries.  Beer geeks, take note, this list will make the hair on your arms stand up.

Don’t mess with that pool shark over there.  Yep, the one with the baby strapped to her chest.  She’ll clean your clock.