New York City Craft Beer Week Part 3

Here's the final installment of Pat Fondiller's NYC Beer Week account.  You can almost feel the tired seeping form the screen.


Part #3

Tuesday evening I was back at it with NYC’s Puck Fair hosting Smuttynose as their NYCCBW brewery. I spent the evening with the Union Beer crew headed by Joshua Tussin and Bar Manager Collin and a lot of great Puck Fair patrons. We shared the floor that night with Southern Wine and Spirits and my old friend Dave Rose which made for a particularly spirited evening. Afterwards we all headed around the corner to big Smuttynose supporter’s the Spring Lounge to finish out the evening with Dermott and Jen and company. Needless to say it was another great night.

On Thursday, I was at Mug’s Ale House in Williamsburg where every night and day is Smuttynose night. Eddy and family have been one of Smuttynose’s best allies for years and I wanted to spend a night there paying homage to them. I spent the evening with Jimmy Tillman the white-bearded patron saint of Smuttynose IPA and had a great time with several of the patrons. Afterwards we all wound up at the great Brooklyn beer bar Barcade and then back to my favorite haunt The Gate another couple of places that have given us great support over the years.

The grand finale was a 20 line blow out put up by Rattle n Hum where we shared the 40 tap lines with another great brewery Ballast Point. There were representatives and brewers from all parts of the Craft Beer Industry including Stone, Ballast Point, Two Brothers and more. The lineup included a vintage Wheat Wine and Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, all of the core brand styles and several of the Short Batch Series. The turnout for Smuttynose at this event was enormous and very flattering and the patrons were really excited peppering me with questions about hop varieties and original gravities and the like. Around midnight Stone brewer Jeremy Moynier and Ballast Point brewer Colby Chandler and I snuck out to The Ginger Man to say hello. We shared a beer there and then headed back to Rattle where we closed the joint down and then grabbed a cab home to Brooklyn.

All in all New York City Craft Beer Week was a blast and it was great to experience it from the supply side of things as opposed to the retail side as I had in years past. I am looking very much forward to next year’s week and hope you’ll all be in NYC and come along for the ride!

If you see Pat arou

New York City Craft Beer Week Part 2

     When Pat last left off, Freaktoberfest, had kicked off the events of the week and Pat was just getting started on along week of beer-vangelism and Dave was getting down to the city to join the revelry.  This section is full of fantastic foods, so if you're hungry, go grab a slice of terrine or some baba ganoosh.

Part 2

     On Saturday, I was joined by Smuttynose Director of Brewing Operations (DoBrO) Dave Yarrington and we made our way over to The Get Real NY cask ale festival put on by Patrick Donagher of Rattle n Hum and Cask Master Alex Hall at NYC’s Altman Building. The scene here was simply amazing as the organizers built a huge rectangular stillage that housed over 80 cask -conditioned ales from all over the world. Food purveyors lining the outside of the room and the festival provided attendees with a chic mini pint glass to sample the beer. 

     The Smuttynose offerings were varied and amazing. There was the Big A IPA, quadruple dry-hopped with Simcoe, Centennial, Santium and Cascade and the elusive Chai Porter. There was a second Porter firkin that had been aged on apple brandy-soaked oak chips in addition to three other single dry-hopped brews; Star Island Single with Sterling, Pumpkin with Liberty and Old Brown Dog with Glacier. Dave was pulled from the crowd to speak to the geeks and we also did a few interviews.

      Next, we were off to Brooklyn to attend a Zagat/Smuttynose Beer dinner at Benchmark Restaurant on 5^th Avenue and 2^nd Street in Park Slope. Chef Ryan Jaronik prepared a three course meal in a format that I was not used to but found to be very pleasant. Each of the three courses was portioned larger than the norm and we received a full 12 ounce bottle of beer with each course served in large wine glasses.

Course number one was a Ginger-Fried Squid Salad with Papaya, Spicy Cashews, Frisée, Squid Ink Vinaigrette paired with the Star Island Single. The delicate Belgian spiciness of the beer paired well with the appetizer and the beer’s clean finish went quite well with the fried calamari.  The second course was a Duo of Beef: Broiled NY Strip Steak and Big A IPA Braised Short Rib with Horseradish Potato Purée, Boeuf Onions, Mustard Demi-Glace. I found this course to be great with the bold double IPA standing up well to the hearty dish. Finally for desert, a Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Honey Roasted Bananas and Hazelnut Caramel paired with the Smuttynose Robust Porter. This pairing was simply sublime with the best of both the beer and the food coming out and complimenting each other in a way that literally made both better.

     After dinner we sauntered down to Mission Dolores on 4^th Avenue, one of the main Smuttynose Craft Beer Week venues, and sampled some Rouge D’Shire, Vunderbar Pilsner and other offerings. We finished the night with a brief pub crawl paying a visit to Pacific Standard, 4^th Avenue Pub and High Dive, all craft beer week venues that housed at least one Smuttynose line and then stumbled home to bed.

     Sunday morning Dave and I went back to Get Real, sampled some more brews and food and did another interview or two and then headed over to Meet and greet Union Beer’s Mike Lavullo at the legendary Blind Tiger Ale House. Mike and company were in the midst of a Craft Beer Week pub crawl that he had organized through Manhattan’s East and West Village beer bars. We caught the first half of the Giants game (Dave and I both from Jersey are mutual fans) and then drove up to Tim Reinke and John Sharp’s Birdsall House in Peekskill, NY. This beautiful Westchester County beer bar and restaurant was featuring a dozen or so Smuttynose brews and though the beer dinner that Tim and I had discussed never materialized, it mattered not because the food was fantastic. Holed up for the night we started with a few charcuterie platters featuring fine artisanal cheeses, sausages and pate’s. The first consisted of Pork and fennel sausage with porter and caraway mustard, Brovetto Farms green peppercorn Tilset, chicken terrine wrapped in bacon over mesclun and the second Pork terrine with mustard seed caviar, spicy lamb sausage with red onion jam, and seared bacon lardon with apple butter over mesclun.  After a few hours shooting the breeze with Tim and John and some of their patrons we settled in for dinner. Dave had the Fried Organic Chicken with buttermilk biscuits, southern-style giblet gravy, black-eyed peas, collard greens, glazed carrots and I had the 9-Spice Roasted Pork Loin with sweet potato and cheddar mac-n-cheese, braised brussel sprouts and smoky tomato marmal. All of the food at Birdsall is locally sourced, house made, organic and outstanding. This place is well worth a trip and easy to get to and from via the Metro North railroad out of Grand Central Station in NYC. In the morning Dave headed back to the Shire and I back to Brooklyn for a well earned day off…well from drinking at least.

New York City Craft Beer Week Part 1

Pat Fondiller, our man in the Big Apple has written a three-part account of his experience at New York City Craft Beer Week.  Craft Beer Weeks take place all over the country from hotspots like Philadelphia, San Francisco to areas where craft beer's profile isn't as wide, like Charlotte and St. Louis.  Area grocers, bars, restaurants, breweries and other food and drink centric entities band together to promote craft beer through various events from the commonly seen beer dinners and tastings to more creative events like s Beer Geek of the year contest.

These weeks are pretty intense for our sales reps (you'll be exhausted just reading this).  Pat did an amazing job scheduling, organizing and attending our events.  I'm sure his liver took a few days off afterwards as well.



Here's part 1:

Right off, a very special thank you to all the fans of Smuttynose Brewing Company who came out in support of the brewery at our many events for this year’s New York City Craft Beer Week. NYCCBW ran from September 24^th through October 3^rd and was the most successful week by far for the organizer’s Josh Schafner and Chris Cuzme. The duo worked out a new format this year, pairing breweries with specific bars and restaurants throughout New York City. They also picked up a few formidable partners in Great Brewers.com, The Brooklyn Brewery and NYC’s Zagat Guide who provided support and made it a great week for all.

Freaktoberfest, Brooklyn’s notorious craft beer, music and burlesque freak show, now in its third year provided the kick-off. Hosted by Jeremy Cowan and Matt Polachek from Shmaltz Brewing Company, Mikey Palms from Southpaw, Ben Granger from Bierkraft and Smuttynose’s own Pat Fondiller, the Festival provided just the punch that NYCCBW needed to get off to a roaring start. This year’s venue, The Rock Shop, the Bowery Ballroom’s latest music spot, provided the perfect setting. The festival featured about 45 breweries and musical performances by bands most of which had one member or more working in the craft beer industry. Downstairs in the club, the opening act WORKOUT! had two members whose “day jobs” are in sales for local distributor S.K.I. and they were followed up by solo act Al Duvall, one of the original members of the Craft Brewers Guild. The third act, Lambic Jones, featured drummer Steve Moses (Alice Donut), jazzer Percy Jones on bass and Ale Street News’ Paul Sullivan on guitar. The trio laid down a blistering set that really blew the roof off the joint. Headliners, Captain Ahab and the Sea Cracken, the only act sans beer folk, were the perfect finishers with their nautical themed surf punk extravaganza.

Upstairs the venue featured an outdoor rooftop deck and held the majority of the beer as well as the performances that Freaktoberfest has become known for. The performance, hosted by Donny Vomit - MC of the World Famous Coney Island Side Show was highlighted by Mr. Vomit penetrating his nose with 30 penny nails and a power drill, then introducing the fabulous burlesque performers Ravi the Scorpion Mystic, Remy Vicious, Legs Malone and Nasty Canasta.

The festival, which has become the official launch party for Shmatlz’ Freaktoberfest, a blood red lager and the party’s namesake, also featured many other specialty brews. The debut of Smuttynose Vunderbar Pils, Lagunitas Fusion III and Victory Village topped the charts of what was a rather fantastic list of fine craft beers.

Part 2:  Things aget really busy when the DoBrO comes to town....

NH Brew Fest

This weekend, we'll be pouring Smuttynose beers at the New Hampshire Brew Fest on the grounds of RedHook Brewery here in Portsmouth.  In addition to being a beer festival in our hometown, the event is a fundraiser for the Prescott Park Arts Festival as well as the New England District of the Master Brewer's Association of the Americas.

The Prescott Park Arts Festival is a summer-long program of events.  It encompasses everything from studio art shows and film to theatre and music.  The summer-long art-stravaganza is very friendly for both families and wallets as all it's events are free.  The first edition took place in 1974, making it one of the oldest Portsmouth arts happenings.

The Master Brewer's Association of the America's is one of three technical and educational brewing organizations (the others are in Europe and Japan).  The funds raised will go the New England District's Scholarship Fund.  One scholarship is given out each year and then winner is able to attend either the Brewing and Malting Science course or the Packaging Technology course.  Buying a ticket will ensure a future New England brewer's ability to make more delicious beer for you.  It's kind of like the Stock Market but with a much more predictable outcome.

We'll be pouring 2010 S'Muttonator, 2009 Barleywine, Big A IPA, and Pumpkin Ale.  The VIP session will feature 2009 Wheat Wine.

Paul Barber from the Finestkind IPA label will be on hand as well.

Please come out and join us!

Smuttynose Short Batch #10- Belgian Stout

         If you had eight freshly-emptied whiskey barrels, what would you do?  This is the situation we found ourselves in after we packaged the Ry(e)an Ale.   Sawing them in half and turning them into planters was definitely not an option, so we had to think of a new Short Batch beer.  We didn’t want to do another barrel-aged version of an imperial stout but it was difficult to stop thinking of how tasty the combination of roasted malt, caramel malts, bourbon and oak is.  The obvious choice was to make a Belgian-style stout.  

         Belgian-style stouts aren’t very different than regular imperial stouts.  The most obvious difference is the choice to use a Belgian yeast strain.  Our house American ale yeast leaves a pretty neutral flavor profile but Belgian strains are known for adding very particular flavor profiles from clovey, to fruity to spicy. 

         To accommodate the spicy flavor our Belgian strain contributes, we needed to adjust the flavor profile of the beer by dropping out some of the roasted malt character.  This enables the caramel character to come forward and blend nicely with the bourbon and oak character.

         The challenge was to figure out the volume of beer.  Short batches are always a small portion of the full volume of our brew system.  If we were just going to fill the barrels, then we’d need exactly 424 gallons of beer, which is only about 13.5 brewer’s barrels of volume and there’s no way we could make that small of a batch on our 50-barrel system.  This means we get to release two versions of this beer, a barrel-aged version and a non barrel-aged version.

         The non-barrel-aged version was kegged on 11 June 2010.  The barrel-aged version is still aging at press time.

Stat Box

Malts: 2-Row, Carawheat, Munich, C-120, Chocolate, Roasted Barley, Brown Malt

Hops: Magnum, Glacier

Other Ingredients:  D2 Belgian Candi Syrup

Starting Extract 19° Plato

Finishing Extract 4.2° Plato

50 IBU

Champion Firkin Friday!

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?  We've all heard this philosophical quandry and yet the answer is still profound: the tree doesn't make a sound.  

Well, after Big A IPA was named the Best American Beer at the Great British Beer Festival, we thought it would be best to make a sound in our own town.  

This Friday, September 10, our friends at the Portsmouth Brewery will be hosting a special Firkin Friday.  David Yarrington, Director of Brewing Operations will be tapping a firkin of Big A at the Portsmouth Brewery at 4 PM.  This cask was dry-hopped with Santiam, Simcoe, Centennial, and Cascade hops, the exact same ones that were in the winning cask.

We hope to see you all at the pub on Friday so we can share this special beer with you.   Since Portsmouth Little League didn't have the same success as in years past, we hope that this provides a fun, if slightly more adult alternative to celebrating a hometown champion. 

L'Chaim!

Vunderbar! Short Batch #11

Guten tag!  Short Batch #11 is kegged and ready for delivery!  

Here are Dave's notes about the beer:

Ah, Vunderbar.  So simple.  So elegant.  The impetus of this beer was two-fold.   The first part stemmed from drinking a snot load of Sam Adams Noble Pils this spring.  Great beer.  The other was a visit by Cornelius Faust from Faust Brewery in Germany.  He brewed a pilsner with Tod Mott down at the Portsmouth Brewery that was also quite beautiful.  We, of course, couldn’t possibly let Mott show us up and so had to try our hand at the style.  We’ve made several lagers in the past but this was our first attempt at a beer this delicate.  Luckily, we stole Cornelius’ great idea of boiling the brewing water to soften it before use.  We bumped up the acidulated malt to balance the mash pH and were able to mimic a traditional pilsner quite well.  Hopefully you agree.  Prost.

The Stat Junkie Corner


Weyermann Pilsner Malt
Weyermann Acidulated Malt

Saaz Hops for all hopping

15 IBU, dryhopping at ½ pound per barrel.

5.11% Alcohol by Volume
Starting Extract 10.9° Plato
Terminal Extract 1.9° Plato.


Vunderbar Pils marks a departure from the last few short batches we have brewed.  It's not high in alcohol.  It doesn't use any kind of wild yeast, nor is it barrel-aged.  It's a beer in the classic, if not archetypal, sense of the word.  Best of all, it's blindingly delicious and drinkable.  The low bitterness and moderate body make the beer conducive to some serious elbow bending; we went through five gallons here in less than twenty-four hours. 

After all the kegging was done, we ended up with (27) 15.5-gallon kegs and (60) 5.16-gallon kegs.  Final allocations and destinations have yet to be determined.

We also have designed these swank Vunderbar t-shirts.  Wearing one tells the world "I'm formal, but I like to party," just in German.  Greg Blanchard, our Head Brewer, models one below just before going to the cellar to take some Zahm hits off of BB 8, while blaring side two of the Dio classic, "Holy Diver."

The run is limited and will be on sale soon through our website and retail store.  We'll let you know when they are available through the blog and Facebook/Twitter. 

Isles of Shoals

The Isles of Shoals are a group of islands and tidal ledges about ten miles off the coast of the New Hampshire-Maine border region (Portsmouth, where we are located, is right on the Piscataqua River, which forms the border between the two states). There are nine islands in the chain, five belonging to Maine and four to New Hampshire. The islands have a long history, serving as seasonal fishing camps for Native American populations with the first Europeans arriving in the early 1600's.

The history of the Shoals encompasses a range of people and events so diverse, I'll just make a list: Captain John Smith, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the legendary pirate Blackbeard, the poet Celia Thaxter, several hotels, an artist colony, a grisly ax murder, a Unitarian-Universalist retreat, and a 2000 film starring Elizabeth Hurley and Sean Penn.

The islands have also been a source of inspiration for our branding. If you've looked at the map above, you'll notice Star Island, Smuttynose Island and as well the name "Shoals." Our logo even boasts a harbor seal, which are commonly found around the backside of Star Island and occasionally in Gosport Harbor.

The Shoals are still a vibrant community now although there are no more incorporated towns.

The Unitarian-Universalist church has a retreat/conference center (http://starisland.org/) on Star Island, which is easily the most developed of the nine islands.

Smuttynose Island is still home to the Samuel Haley house, the structure on our Shoals Pale Ale label. There is also a replica period building next to it which serves as a caretaker's house.

Appledore Island plays host to the University of New Hampshire/Cornell University Marine Sciences lab.

Cedar Island and Lunging Island are privately owned.

Duck Island was once a naval bombing range but is now home to a wildlife sanctuary and a population of harbor seals.

White Island is home to the White Island Lighthouse and the light keeper's cottage. The structures are now currently owned by the State of New Hampshire and in need of some maintenance. A local charity, Lighthouse Kids (http://www.lighthousekids.org/) has been raising funds to restore the light and the keeper's cottage with an ultimate goal of having a museum on site. Please visit their website to learn more about the work they're doing.

Sue Reynolds, a retired teacher and founder of Lighthouse Kids, also runs day-boat trips to the Isles as well as fishing charters on The Uncle Oscar, a converted lobster boat. She was kind enough to take me out to Star Island for a few hours. I had a great picnic lunch on Star Island and snapped some great photos which you'll see below. If you ever need to go to the Shoals, The Uncle Oscar (http://www.uncleoscar.com) provides an excellent experience. Our captain that day, Tom Davis possesses a wealth of information and knowledge about Shoals history and lore and he's not afraid to use it.

On to the photos:

This view from the side of Star Island provides a great vantage point to see the Unitarian-Universalist retreat center. The most interesting part of my visit was the sense of peace and calm you feel when you're on Star. It'd be a great place to get away for a week in the summer. I didn't see any mermaids or bright red beehives though...

The UU folk have great welcome station right on the dock. You can even make reservations to have lunch out there during the summer.

Gosport Chapel, on Star Island, is an austere and charming church. This simple, one-room chapel has such a presence that's apparent from your first step in the door.

The bridges of Portsmouth as seen from the Isles of Shoals. The largest bridge, though it looks like it might from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, is actually the Route 95 bridge that spans the great Bay and connects New Hampshire to Maine.

Looks like a great place for draft line!

Finally, the obligatory product shot! Two different sides of the Samuel Haley house, brought to you by Smuttynose Brewing Company.