June 2009 Archives

Mark Friday, July 10, 2009 on your calendar for the Empire State Brewing and Music Festival in Syracuse, NY.  Tickets are $40 in advance and $50 at the gate.  That'll get you a commemorative samping glass and 300 styles of beer to use it with.

Participating breweries:
 
Abita
Ale Street News
Allagash
Anchor Steam
Anheuser Busch Amber Bock
Anheuser Busch American Ale
Arcadia
Bass Ale
Blue Moon Ale 
Blue Point Brewing Company
Boddingtons
Boulder Beer Company
Brewery Ommegang
Brooklyn Brewery
Butternuts Beer & Ale
Chimay
Custom BrewCrafters
Doc's Hard Cider
Dogfish Head
Duvel
Ellicottville Brewing Company
Empire Brewing Company
Flying Bison Brewery
Full Force Promotions
Great Adirondack
Great Lakes
Green Flash
Green's
Guinness
Harp
Harpoon Brewery
He'Brew
Heineken
High Falls Brewing Company
Hoegaarden Whitbier
Hornsby Draft Cider
Ithaca Beer Company
Julius Echter
Killian's
Labatt's
La Chouffe
Lagunitas
Lake Placid Pub and Brewery
Landmark Beer Company
Leinenkugels
Lindemans
Long Trail
Magic Hat Brewing Company
Maredsous
McSorley's
Meretti
Middle Ages Brewing Company
Mike's Hard Lemonade
Monster Energy
Murphy's
Newcastle Brewing
Ommegang
Orlio
Orval
Oskar Blues
Otter Creek Brewing
Pabst Brewery
Paleewong Brew
Red Hook Ale Brewery
Red Stripe
Rochefort
Rogue Brewery
Rohrbach Brewing Company
Roosterfish Brewing
Sackets Harbor Brewing
Sam Smith's
Samuel Adams
Saranac Brewery
Shock Top
Sierra Nevada
Sinha
Six Point
Sly Fox
Smirnoff
Smithwick's
Smuttynose Brewing Company
Southern Tier Brewing Company 
Spaten
Stella Artois
Stone Brewing
Strongbow Cider
Thomas Watkins
Tomahop
Troeg's
Twisted Tea
Unibroue
Victory Brewing Company
Warsteiner
Watchussetts
Westmalle
Widmer
Wolaver's Organic Ales
Woodchuck Amber Cider
Yuengling

More information and details on the music available at the official Website, http://www.empirebrewfest.com

This week in blog has been suffering the last few weeks.  Blame it on a trip to Scotland.  But it's back now.

The Foaming Head
Shmaltz Releases Mermaid Pilsner
A draft-only summer attraction for New Yorkers.

Brooklyn Homebrew
Market Research Day
A new enterprise in Brooklyn looks for some survey help.

The Brew Club
Saranac Belgian White - Beer Review
The Saranac beer gets dissed.

FlowBrewing
Ubu Ale
The best recommendation ever given by a bartender. Short entry.

Logistically Speaking
1812 Ale
The most exciting part of a trip to Watertown.  This was posted May 31st.  Sue me.

Drinks - A Post-Standard blog
New Empire Brewing Co. beer: A summer ale with "noble" Hallertau hops
Traditional AND unusual?

Blues Traveler and Rusted Root have come and gone, but the Saranac Concert Series is far from over.  Upcoming:

• Dark Star Orchestra w/ Keller Williams, July 17th
• Gov't Mule, August 7th
• The Black Crowes w/ Truth & Salvage Co., September 11th

Also, for moe.rons, Saranac is presenting moe. at the New York State Fairgrounds on July 11th.  The other concerts are at the FX Matt Brewery in Utica.  Information, such as times and ticket prices, can be found at the Saranac events page.

Missed Blues Traveler?  Photos are up on the Saranac site.

The iconic beer steins "Schultz and Dooley" turned 50 on Saturday, according The Observer-Dispatch in Utica, NY. 

The "celebrity" steins began appearing in commercials for Utica Club in 1958 and have been made as collectables since 1972.

Happy birthday to Schultz and Dooley... below is a vintage commercial.

Charlie Papazian has an interesting report on the German hop situation after a storms damaged the crop late this May.  Papazian notes this may be more information than the average beer drinker would be interested in, but also recommends homebrewers put some German hops in the freezer for next year.

Updates to The New York Brew Authority have been a bit non-existent over the last week, and probably will remain that way for several more days as a I finish out a vacation in Scotland.  As they say around here, Cheers!

How much would you pay for an open bar of Ommegang, premium h'ordeuvres, hobknobbing with ESPN celebs and a performance by Huey Lewis and the News?

If you answered $195, in addition to being eerily correct, you will also be excited about this Catskill Area Hospice charity event hosted at Brewery Ommegang on July 1st.

A little rich for my blood, but the main character from American Psycho would be there with bells and whistles.

From the official PDF invite:

Guaranteed to sell out, The Hospice Celebrity Party is unique to any other event in Upstate New York. It's the perfect opportunity to join others who believe in the mission of hospice and have an amazingly fun time doing it! This all-inclusive ticket includes an open bar with an extensive menu featuring a shrimp bar, cold appetizer table, array of passed hors' doevres, flat iron steak glazed with bourbon sauce, marinated roast breast of chicken, seafood stuffed sole with Tuscan cream sauce, scallops and shrimp, citrus-infused wild rice, spicy carrots, cold bacon red potato and vegetable salad mélange. Meet and mingle with ESPN and other sports celebrities, bid on exciting silent and live auction items, including couple's getaway, sports memorabilia and a 2010 Super Bowl Package. Then, enjoy an up-close and personal performance by Grammy Award Winning Artists Huey Lewis and the News!

Tickets are $195. For more information call 607-432-6773.

I twittered about this the other day - A vintage six-pack of Utica Club beer was found in the ceiling of a library in Albany during a renovation.  It's believed to have been in the ceiling since the construction of the library in 1965.  Utica Club is still produced today by the makers of Saranac.

Check out a photo and several comments at the original article by the Albany Times-Union.

It's amusing to me how 'Utica' references pop-up in the strangest places.

The controversial bottle bill that would require special UPCs for bottles sold outside the state has been delayed by a judge until April 1 of next year, according to this article from the New York Times.