2nd installment from NYC

Since the last installment, I have visited yet more pubs, bars, cafes, delis, and restaurants around NYC in the name of research. For beer bars, I've visited Blind Tiger in the West Village, Jimmy's No 43, dba, Pony, Pete's Waterfront Alehouse and Bierkraft (the latter two in Brooklyn). As well as trying some great beers (see below), I've a few ideas to try at home..

There are still about 10 places on my list (including Beer Table, Union Hall - for a game of bocce - and Ginger Man) so I'll be a busy boy over the next couple of weeks!

Here are just some of the beers I've been fortunate to drink (one small beef is that I LOVE trying lots of different beers yet very few places formally allow this):

Green Flash IPA

Green Flash Le Freak Belgian IPA

Allagash White

Speakeasy Midnight Run Black IPA

Six Point Stout

Victory Braumeister Pils

Great Divide Fresh Hop

Schenkerla Oak Aged Smoked Beer

St Bernardus Christmas

Bear Republic El Oso Dortmunder

Boulder Cold Hop

Chelsea Hoppy Holidays

Defiant Muddy Creek Amber Ale

Six Point Bengali Tiger IPA

Heartland Spiced Ale

Southhampton Altbier

Bierkraft's menu

Self with Jimmy Carbone, owner of Jimmy's No. 43

Hopping Mad SpecTAPular on Feb 6!

The beer lineup for SpecTAPular VII (summer 2010) on Sat Feb 6 in both venues is coming along nicely. The Hopping Mad SpecTAPular will feature beers with a hop focus (aroma, flavour and/or bitterness). All the beers won't be BIG beers although there will be plenty for the hopheads!

The Tasting Booklet will also list the hops used in each beer and we hope to have various hops around the venue for punters to smell..

I'll list the beers ASAP..

3 IPAs of different styles on tap side by side (St Kilda)

On Boxing Day in St Kilda we will have THREE different kinds of IPAs on tap for your imbibing pleasure:

Feral Hop Hog (US style)

Sail and Anchor (UK style)

Bridge Road single hop Galaxy IPA (well......Australian IPA pa is the only way to describe it)

Merry Christmas to youse all

From all of us to all of you,

Merry Christmas!!!

Ho Ho Ho(p)

2009 - A Year in Reflection

Like last year, I thought it would be a fun thing to recap our past year in St Kilda and Darlo.

The best thing for me this year has been the continued growth in people's interest in craft beers. While we have a way to go compared to the USA in terms of craft beer penetration (I am currently in New York and they're truly spoilt for choice), we're catching up fast.

Over the past 12 months, these are some of the highlights:

The Local Taphouse Darlo opens in Feb and blew our minds with how many Sydneyside beerlovers crawled out of the woodwork. Subject to a few minor approvals, the roof terrace should open early in 2010 to complete the vision.

BrewShare - the introduction of a new night where homebrewers can meet up, socialise and swap homebrew stories of success or woe (and beer of course!). The first Darlo BrewShare saw 25 punters or so crammed into Wilfred's Room!

Showcase Breweries - This year, our monthly tap showcase of breweries (or any other theme we can think of) saw Little Brewing Co (NSW), Barons (NSW), Rogue (USA), Colonial Brewing (WA), Feral (WA), Mountain Goat (VIC), Moo Brew (TAS), Stone & Wood (NSW) and others grace the taps.

The Taphouse Sluggers - our softball team in Melbourne batted up in mid November and is due a win!

Interstate (and overseas) visits by me (and others) to Hopsters beer club (Tas), the Wig & Pen and the United States gave a great insight into how others do things..

SpecTAPulars - our seasonal beerfests continued with the Summer SpecTAPular featuring (duh) summer beers, Anzac Day (Autumn) when we imported NZ craft beers for the first time and matched them against great Aussie micros, the smash hit Star Spangled SpecTAPular (Winter) where Rogue beers from Oregon made it on to Australian taps for the first time, and the ever-popular Oktoberfest (Spring). A honorable mention goes to Steve from Catsart for being the first Local to make it to two SpecTAPulars in one day!

The inaugural Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll saw Little Creatures Pale Ale take out Best Aussie Craft Beer of 2009. For those who haven't voted in this year's poll, you can do so at the top of this blog.

Awards - a slew of nominations and awards unexpectedly came our way this year. The most treasured was probably Best Australian Speciality Beer Venue at the Australian Bar Awards.

Fun events such as the Melbourne Cup lunch (in Sydney!) and BBQ (St Kilda) and the AFL Grand Final on the Big Screen

Another 200 or so beers tapped in both venues (with at least half being exclusives)

the launch of the Darlo Ale Stars ably led by Ale Star Tsar AG

Ale Star special guests included Brad Rogers (Stone & Wood), David Golding (Red Hill), Luke Nicholas (Epic), Shawn Sherlock (Murrays) and others.

Ale Star annual memberships finally coming to pass. St Kilda now has almost 40 members while Darlo has about 10 (although it's a year younger) . Oh, and we finally came up with our own handshake thanks to Anton (and no thanks to me!),

Late in the year, the Local Arts Initiative was given a new life in St Kilda and will hopefully see thousands of dollars raised in future for arts grants for disadvantaged youth.

the first St Kilda Ale Star Road Trip saw a busload of people spend the day traipsing around the Yarra Valley. If all goes to plan, a group of Ale Stars from Sydney and Melbourne will head to New Zealand's South Island next October.

Beer Diva - Kirrily Waldhorn ran regular beer and food matching dinners in both venues.

Beer & Cheese nights - cheesemongers McIntosh & Bowman hosted insightful beer/cheese matching sessions in Darlo.

Australian Homebrewer of the Year - at both venues we exclusively tapped the Mountain Goat-brewed Alt Spice (aka Spicy Ducks Nuts) spiced ale brewed by Ross Mitchell. We'll be doing it again next quarter.

Taphouse Tippers - our AFL tipping comp

Tangerine - until its host (Colette) moved overseas, Tangerine was a monthly film/TV/advertising industry short film night in St Kilda

IMPROvocation was launched in St Kilda - a wild night of improvisation

We raised thousands of dollars for charities and appeals including Raise a Glass Appeal (Anzac Day), World Vision (Oktoberfest), MovemBEER/Movember, Black Saturday Bushfire and Hargreaves Hill Brewery Appeal..

Robbie O and Richard S joined us as Head Chefs of Sydney and Melbourne respectively, helping us to achieve our culinary expectations. We're all looking forward to taking the next step of cooking/matching food with beer.

To relive many of above events, check out our Flickr family photo albums..

We still haven't run out of fresh ideas and look forward to introducing a few next year (and welcome any from you lot). As usual, this blog is the best place to learn about all that goes on (or is planned to go on).

From myself, Guy, Justin, Paul, Ben, Beccy, Les, Jo, James, Robbie, Richard and all our great staff, we thank you all for your support.

Have a Beery Christmas and a Hoppy New Year!

Anyone up for the Red Hill Hop Harvest?

Anyone up for the Red Hill Hop Harvest next March-ish? Dates will be locked in closer to the time..

Darlo Rooftop Unofficial Opening

The Darlo staff had the inaugural rooftop party last night as part of the celebrations for a great opening year in which we took home two awards.

Shown here on the rooftop are some of the crew with the Bartender Magazine Award for Best Specialty Beer Bar.

Merry XMAS to all our customers and best wishes to all from Paul, Les, Jo and all the crew.

What's in store from Feral Brewing

Here's what Feral are sending our way early in 2010.. It's fantastic to see the leading Aussie microbreweries pushing the boundaries (as well as doing the basics well)

More Fantapants,

Double dry hopped Razorback, this will be a version only three weeks out of the brewhouse. Typically Razorback would be held a few months to lager before release which sees the hops integrate more fully with the other components of the beer. This version is meant to be drunk fresh and young to expose the raw hop power! You will rarely see 10% ABV beer released this young with this level of hopping.

Barrel aged Farmhouse Ale, saison aged 6 months in old shiraz barrels

Dark Funk, a red ale fermented in chardonnay barrels with lactobacillus and pediococcus bacterias

An as yet unnamed Belgian Strong ale, aged in shiraz barrels (mid to late Feb)

First missive from New York - Rattle n Hum

Last night, as New York City experienced its first snowfall for the winter (and what a dump it was), Kel and I visited Rattle n Hum, one of the city's best beer bars.

I had earier arranged to meet Patrick Donagher, the main owner, a passionate Irishman who opened RnH 15 months ago in the shadows of the Empire State Building.

It's a fantastic bar with a great vibe and an everchanging list of craft beers on their 40 taps. There is also a cask bar (4 engines) which currently has Dark Star (UK) on.

Patrick gave me a real insight into the New York craft beer scene as well as a tour of his place, including the coolroom which is tiny given their needs (space in Manhattan is obviously at a premium)..

We also met Warren Monteiro aka the Beer Sensai who writes for Ale Street News "The Most Widely Circulated Beer Newspaper in America!".

I got through 12 of the tap beers (pathetic effort I know) by drinking tasting samples and there wasn't a bad one (not sure about the hefe I tried though) with most being excellent. There were also some very big ABV ones in the mix too. Here's the list:

Smuttynose IPA 6.9%
Cigar City American Brown Ale 5.5%
Nogne English Porter 8.5%
Kelso Chocolate Lager/Schwarzbier 6.5%
Rodenbach Grand Cru 6%
Kulmbacher Eisbock 9.2%
Magic Hat Hefeweizen 5.4%
Brew Dog/Stone American Strong Ale 8.6%
Jenlain Biere De Garde 6.8%
Stone Smoked Porter 5.9%
Goose Island Bourbon County Stout 13%
Captain Lawrence Belgian Strong Dark Ale 11%

At the end of the night, we wobbled outside to a blizzard and 10 inches of snow underfoot. It looked like a gorgeous winter wonderland!

Thanks to Patrick and his wife Ros for their hospitality..

More reports coming..

Patrick, the Beer Sensai and self.

40 taps snuggle up on the back bar.

Planning the tasting!

Hargreaves Hill the first Brewery Showcase for 2010

Hargreaves Hill in Victoria's Yarra Valley are locked in for the first Brewery Showcase in Jan (in both venues). We'll be featuring their Stout, ESB, Hefeweizen and American pale ale on tap.

If there's a brewery (or region or anything for that matter) you'd like to see showcased, drop us a comment below..

Ale Stars St Kilda - Christmas Style

Well Tuesday saw our biggest Ale Stars ever with almost 60 crammed in and Shandy miked up.

It was a great night with our very special guest David Golding from Red Hill Brewery dropping by for a chat about his Christmas Ale and all things Red Hill.

A huge thanks to everyone who made it such a great night from the seasoned campaigners to the newbies.

Appropriately enough, the trivia was taken out by a team including the Prof!

Many thanks to the Prof and the boys from Catsart for their gift to us on the night - the complete anthology of Ale Stars which was a bit like a grand final footy record with a detailed account of each session.

Speaking of the Prof...as is customary these days, click here to hear his version of events.

Below are a few pics from the night but click here for ALL the pics.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our Ale Stars. We look forward to seeing you all very soon in 2010.

Cheers and Beers,

Steve, Guy, Justin, James, Ben, Beccy and the entire Local Crew.

Potters Brewery (NSW) and Red Hill Brewery (VIC) lined up for monthly showcases in 2010

Early next year, Potters Brewery (NSW) and Red Hill Brewery (VIC - for May) have been lined up for monthly showcases in both venues..

Keith from Potters told me today he'd whip something special up for the occasion. Can't wait!

English and USA IPAs side-by-side

In both venues this weekend (or as soon as possible after) we will have both the Sail & Anchor English IPA and Feral's Hop Hog American IPA on tap at the same time. This is a great chance to compare the styles side-by-side.

If you want to know exactly when, subscribe to our SMS Beer Bulletins..

St K Ale Stars tomorrow (Tues) on track for another record turnout

Tomorrow night's Ale Star session in St Kilda looks like being the biggest ever, so much so Shandy and Special Guest David Golding (from Red Hill) will have to have a microphone - God help us with Shandy and the mic!

We will be putting a limit on the night (as we have only so much beer) so don't hesitate to book via button at top right corner..

7pm. $30 inc beer and pizza

XMAS Beer Diva in Darlo

Kirrily, the girl who really knows her beers, is back for the final time in 2009 from 7pm on Wednesday 16 December - for the XMAS Beer Diva event.

With Kirrily you will taste and discuss 8 great beers as well as be treated to the following tasty delights from Head Chef Robbie

1. Oysters with Smokey Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout and oysters in Lime, chilli, thai basil and Wicked Elf Witbier

2. Shrimp cocktail with a Mary Rose dressing served in witlof and Saison Dupont dressing

3. Mini Christmas roast (pork with crackling, apple sauce, roast potato, roast pumpkin and field mushroom with a James Squire Porter and rosemary gravy)

4. Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock Christmas pudding with home made custard

5. Cheese board - Chefs selection of 3 cheeses, quince paste, dried fruits, poached pear and lavosh bread.

All for $65/head. Book early via the blog on the right of this page

Gone Fishin'. New Years Eve party scrapped in Darlo

We organised a NYE party in Darlo totally forgotting that all Sydneysiders head down to the harbour for the night. So we decided to scrap it and are considering going down the harbour ourselves! Apologies if you planned to come.

The St Kilda party is most definitely on so click here for information. Tickets are selling well so don't risk leaving it too late.

Final line up for the Ale Star session on Festive & Seasonal Ales next Tues in St Kilda

Here's the final line up for the Ale Star session on Festive & Seasonal Ales next Tues in St Kilda:

Red Hill Christmas Ale
Red Oak Christmas Cheer
Rogue Santa's private reserve
Meantime High Saison

More festive than a turkey eating christmas pudding in a flying sleigh.

It's $30 (includes beers samples and pizza). 7pm next Tues. Book via button at top right of this blog!

See ya there.

St Kilda staff add another $290 to the MovemBEER/Movember campaign

As per my previous post about our MovemBEER donation, I need to add that the St Kilda staff donated 10% of their November tips (an additional $290) to the Movember campaign. What an effort!

Hopfest Beer SpecTAPular! locked in for Feb 6

The Hopfest Beer SpecTAPular! is confirmed for both venues for Saturday February 6th. It will be a celebration of beers characterised by hops.

We're putting together a list of great hoppy beers (from anywhere we can get them) on our taps for that day. We’d love your ideas (comment below).. They won’t all be IPAs, DIPAs and we'll definitely include some sessionable beers and hopefully a few exclusives. The tasting booklet will detail which hops are used in brewing each beer.

As usual, we pick a charity which the gold coin entry donations goes to. In St Kilda, we''ll be raising money for our own Local Arts Initiative. We're yet to finalise the charity for Darlo..

Next Ale Star sessions have a surprise in store

Nothing else, the headline says it all..

Kick the Christmas kilos.. with beer

This from an article on the Today Tonight website:

The average Australian puts on four kilos over the festive season, which makes it hard if all you want for Christmas is to drop a dress size.

However, there are some practical ways to avoid a yuletide hang over.

Nutrition expert, Don Tolman, said Australians should not feel guilty about indulging in beer this Christmas because, if brewed properly, it is good for us.

"Drinking beers is one of the best things we can do," he said.

"Beer and natural organic wines, they are medicinal and very healthy," Don said.

Mr Tolman has identified a number of beers that are better than the more main stream, highly filtered options.

They are preservative and additive free. The list includes Coopers, Red Oak, Fat Yak, Mountain Goat, Edmonstone, and Barossa.

The Greenman and Hefeweizen by Hoegarden also get his tick of approval.

"There are some good ones out there," he said.

"A lot of people, thankfully, in breweries in Australia, are trying to lift this thing and come back to reality."

Stone and Wood, brewed in Byron Bay in northern New South Wales, is one of the 'good ones'.

Ross Jurisich from the brewery said less is definitely more when it comes to good quality beer.

"Beer is very much a natural food product," he said.

"We've got water, malted grain, yeast and hops and looked after the right way, you are going to have some great tasting beer."

Henry of Harcourt ciders coming to both venues

For all you cider lovers out there, we are expanding our bottled range from Pipsqueak and Bulmers to include Henry of Harcourt ciders from regional Victoria.

We're getting their premium cider as well as the Perry (pear cider)

It will be the first time HoH will be available in Sydney.

Rogue Ales Showcase tapped!

The Rogue Ales showcase has been tapped today in both venues. We have 6 Rogue kegs of which 5 we've never had before.

This is a rare chance to try some of these world class ales from Oregon, USA, so come down before we drain the kegs!

Check out the What's On Tap Today list at the top of this blog for what were starting with in each venue.

American Pale Ale the homebrew of choice for the next BrewShare

Your votes have been tallied and the beer style for the next BrewShare on Tuesday Feb 2nd (St Kilda) and Feb 9th (Darlo) is:

American Pale Ale (but you knew that from the headline didn't you?!)

As per our BrewShare posts, most people will probably brew an American Pale Ale but if you can't (or don't want to), there is an Open Class. There will be a points winner in both classes but there can only be one People's Choice best beer and this can come from either class.

The cost of the night will now be $10, all of which goes towards pizzas (to help soak all those beers!). We'll open a pre-bookings button closer to the date.

Ex Matilda Bayer closer to opening brewpub in Melbourne's inner north

Andrew Dunn

Matilda Bay alumni, Andrew Dunn, and his colleagues are edging closer to opening their new brewpub in Melbourne's inner north.

Similar to what I did before the Taphouses opened, Dunny et al trekked around the States for inspiration.

You can visit their blog for videos and general updates.

Meantime exports under threat?

A UK Treasury scheme to encourage 'craft' breweries is hitting breweries like Meantime in London with bigger tax bills if they sell their ales abroad. This could force them to give up exporting altogether..

I hope it doesn't pan out the way they suggest it could..

Read the full article here.

XMAS Host-a-Roast at Darlo

The first XMAS Roast for the season was whipped up by Siren and Nick on a hot Sunday afternoon at Darlo earlier today.

Julie and guests were treated to a feast of two sizeable turkeys with cranberry sauce and all the trimmings closely followed by xmas pudding.

The afternoon went off without a hitch under the watchful eye of Wilfred.

True South brewpub finally opens their doors

After months of waiting, the new brewpub in Blackrock, Vic, has finally had its liquor licence! Congrats to Sam, Lachie etc and all the best. I can't wait to come down and pull up a stool.

Their website looks great and the food awesome. Funnily enough, I was sent this article today about the increased interest in beer and food.

Colonial Brewery's plans are thwarted (for the moment at least)

Colonial Brewery bosses were left crying into their beer after Cr Jenny McGregor dashed their expansion plans at last week’s meeting of the Augusta-Margaret River Shire Council.

Click here for the full article.

The last drop of Meantime IPA kegs in St K!

Beccy proudly (or smugly?!) shows off the last glass of the Meantime IPA kegs in St Kilda last night.. We'll be trying to get some more sent over from London including some of Meantime's other brews.

Murrays monthly seasonals locked in for both venues

Today's exciting news is that we have agreed with Murray's Brewing Co (NSW) to showcase their planned monthly one-off's next year in both venues.

I have heard some of the beers planned but have been sworn to secrecy! I guess you'll just have wait and see. The beers start arriving from Jan.

$3240 raised for our MovemBEER campaign!

Our 'locals', Stone & Wood Brewing Co and both Taphouses raised $3240 ($1080 each) during November for our MovemBEER campaign (for Movember).

Thanks to everyone for supporting a great cause. I made the donation today..

Exclusive: Sail & Anchor beers coming from WA

For the first time, we're getting some Sail & Anchor kegs from the esteemed Brewpub in Perth.

Due to land late next week are their English IPA and Brass Monkey Stout. Also on the load is more Feral Hop Hog IPA (and Razorback Barleywine) so expect to see two great Australian-brewed examples of IPAs (English and American) SIDE-BY-SIDE!

:-)

Beer Diva Xmas dinner in St K

What a great night we had at Kirrily's (aka Beer Diva) Xmas Beer & Food dinner in St Kilda last night. As mentioned earlier, Guy and I had the missuses along which meant it felt less like work than normal. Great food, great beer/food matches and great company.

Next one pencilled in for Feb. You'd be (beer) nuts to miss it.

See the slide show here.

FHM Magazine names Darlo in Australia's Top 49 Bars & Pubs

We're pleased to be in the same company as The Kitty Girls (above) as FHM Magazine has named The Darlo Taphouse as one of Australia's Best Bars & Pubs.

You gotta ask: does it get much better than that??!

Coles' blonde ambition rattles brewers

COLES is heading for a showdown with brewers over its comparative advertising that pits its own-label version of low-carb beer against the leading brands. Read The Age article here.

While I love the idea of a stoush between Lion Nathan/Kirin and Fosters, is there anything Coles is NOT planning on producing??!

Murrays Big Wednesday IPA tapped in Darlo today

Being a Wednesday, we thought it was a good idea to tap Murray's Brewing's new seasonal - Big Wednesday IPA. Apologies for St Kilda fans!

Here's the vital statistics beind the beer:

Murray’s Big Wednesday Summer IPA’s vital statistics are that it is 6.1% ABV with an original gravity of 1061.

It is a different kind of IPA to our Icon 2IPA – it is 1.5% lighter in alcohol, and it is a bit paler in colour – a ‘summer’ IPA. It uses a lot less of the richer caramel flavours from Crystal malt than the Icon in its malt bill. It is also unusual in that I used no standard bittering hop addition at all in the brewing process – all the ‘bitterness’ in the beer is coming from the aggressive hop flavour from the late hop additions rather than traditionally ‘measurable’ bitterness from earlier additions to the boil.

There is an aggressive hop flavour balanced by a biscuity malt character from the blend of British and German malts. The aroma is an aggressive blend of citrus and spice – almost passionfruit character and the finish is relatively dry for a beer of this ABV.

For all this hop flavour the beer just maintains its balance and has great drinkability.

And here is Shawn (Head Brewers) notes;

Basically it is a bit of fun for me – small batch brewing, draught only. As it says below it is meant as a different kind of Ipa – different to both our Icon double Ipa and many other available Ipas. It is pushing hop flavour and aroma and using the ‘perceived’ bitterness that comes from big late hop additions to the boil, rather than the big back palate bitterness more usually associated with the IPA style from the earlier boil additions. It is also using fresh whole hop flowers/cones as well as pellets throughout the mash, lauter, boil and dry hopped into the fermenter. It is inspired more by the US Ipa styles than the British but there is nothing from the US in the brew – British and German Malts, British yeast and a blend of fresh Pacifica, Motueka and Riwaka from NZ. If people are looking for big mouth puckering bitterness this isn’t the beer for them.

It is all about the fresh hop flavour and aroma – something it has lots of! A Summer IPA, and something a little bit different.

Ale Star road trip to New Zealand next October?!!

If anyone is interested in coming on the proposed first international Ale Star road trip to New Zealand possibly next October, please post a comment here. It is open to Ale Stars from both Darlo and St Kilda and promises to be heaps of fun as we tour around the beautiful South Island in Maui campervans visiting their best brewpubs, beer bars and breweries..

We're thinking 7-10 days sometime next October. Once we know how many people may want to come (and there would have to be at least 10 or so I think), we'll look into flights and Maui hire.

NYE parteeee at The Local Taphouse

Trumer Pils proudly presents our New Year’s Eve Party in St Kilda which will have a 1920's theme. (Darlo will be closed)

Tickets are just $25 and include:

* Free glass of Trumer Pils or house wine
* Entertainment
* Canapés until 10pm
* fun and games from 7pm – 1am

Dress up like our Patron Saint, Wilfred, at work or play! There will be a prize for best dressed..

Join us to celebrate a great year!

Tickets MUST be prepaid using the buttons at the top of this blog.

Here's the poster for the event - click on it to make it larger!