Beer, Beer and More Beer

Obviously we do what we do because we love events. And we go to A LOT! Like anything else, we have our favorites. This past weekend was one of those events and we’ve been a great mood ever since we went to The 4th Annual Village Voice Brooklyn Pour Craft Beer Festival. If you weren’t one of the lucky 1,000+ people who attended, then you missed out…big time!

The event takes place in one of the most spectacular venues in New York. You spend the day at the Williamsburg Savings Bank in Fort Greene, Brooklyn where you very much feel like you’re in an old school bank. The beautiful architecture, high ceilings, vault that’s still intact and teller booths are all used as part of the tasting event.

So, you get three hours (or more if you’re press–YES!) to walk around a beautiful venue, talking to various craft brewers and the people that are behind the delicious products. We had great conversations, learned about new breweries, the challenges and hurdles that these small businesses have and what they overcome to get us awesome tasting beverages that the macro brewers simply do not offer. We learned that it is NOT easy to do what they do. It’s an art and we always leave this event having a greater appreciation for the product than we had going in. We also leave with a nice buzz!

Some of our favorites at this year’s festival include Bronx Brewery where we learned the challenges of selling beer in Yankee Stadium (can you believe that The BRONX Brewery is NOT served in Yankee Stadium?), Shmaltz Brewing Company from Upstate New York (you may know them as The Chosen Beer) and meeting the family behind Yonkers Brewing Co.; while we’re drinking, we often forget the businesses and operations behind the deliciousness but Yonkers Brewing Co. reminded us all about it!

Other fun experiences and not beer-related was trying Mount Gay’s Black Barrel rum (possibly too much). It’s a whiskey-like experience that we will definitely be trying more of. We also loved Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye. We never heard of it before Saturday but after we tried it, we can’t stop talking about it! It’s an Old Fashioned that is bottled. Yes, a bottled cocktail. Go get some!

The drinks were awesome and we would have been wobbling out that door even more if it weren’t for the delicious food that coated our stomachs. Outside in the courtyard, three food trucks were set up to keep up from getting totally plastered. And, whoever chose the offerings, knew what they were doing. They had the staples – cheesesteaks, pizza and grilled cheese! Valducci’s Famous Original NYC Pizza, Phil’s Steaks and Gorilla Cheese NYC showed up and took care of us.

All in all, we ate well and drank far more than we needed to. We’ll be in recovery mode for a couple of days but it sure was worth it!

@newyorkeventsco