Quality Time with the Kids
By Mark Tumarkin
The old saying has it that April showers bring May flowers. Well, the tulips in NYC were fried by the time we got there. I guess they're suffering from the same drought that's keeping things dry here. Happily, though, there was plenty of beer in town, so the drought wasn't too parching. Anne and I had gone up to see my daughter Laurel graduate from NYU law school on Friday. It was quite an event; the main speaker was Joe Lieberman. He gave a very relaxed, entertaining speech. The graduation ceremony was very nice, as such things go.
With the graduation out of the way, we were able to spend some quality time with Laurel and her boyfriend Aaron, and my son David and his fiancˇe Elisa. Yes, we did some of the touristy stuff - walking around Time Square, up 5th Ave, etc and the obligatory culture bit - took in the Vermeer exhibition at the Met and had some NY piazza; but real quality time involves quality beer so the kids knew what to expect when Dad came to town.
I'd made arrangements to do the tour at Brooklyn Brewery on Saturday. I'd checked the website and found out that the brewery was hosting Pigfest; an event combining barbeque, microbrew beers and music. On the website, it said that Pigfest was sold out. I was afraid that might interfere with our tour, so I emailed the brewery asking about it. I got a reply from an "shindy" telling me to let them know the number of people and it would be taken care of - cool, no problem. Well, when we arrived we found out that shindy was Steve Hindy, one of the owners and founders of Brooklyn Brewery. He told us that due to Pigfest, he'd be giving the tour as the regular guide was helping out with the barbeque. He was a very nice guy and gave us an insider's view of the history of the brewery. He's a homebrewer who made good. It was a very unusual brewery tour and we had a great time.
That evening the kids had their own plans - Laurel to celebrate with some of her friends, and David was DJ-ing at a club. I'd arranged to meet Jim Brangan, a brewer friend, at the Ginger Man, a famous beer bar in Manhattan. Unfortunately, he and his wife were unable to make it into the City that night. His homebrew club had held their big yearly competition that day, and everything was running late. So after dinner at Laurel's apartment, Anne and I decided to go anyway. Good decision.
We negotiated the subways on our own and got from Brooklyn to Manhattan, found Madison Avenue, and found the Ginger Man without any problems. When we got there a little past 9, the place was almost empty with only 5 or 6 drinkers. We sat down at the bar, Anne ordered a Guinness while I perused the extensive beer list. I decided to try a Victory Storm King first. Good choice, this is a wonderful Imperial stout. The Ginger Man pours its' draft offerings in either 13, 20, or 23 oz glasses. I asked the barmaid for the small glass since I'd be trying several beers. Awhile later she returned, asking what I'd like to try next. I told her I was trying to decide between a couple of things. She said that since things were slow, she'd just bring me samples.
Well, now that's the ticket! So she brought me a 3 or 4 oz pour of Gouden Carolus in a wine glass, and then she said since I liked the dark beers to try a Maredsous Dobble. Ummm, yummy. After that it gets a bit hazy, but I remember the Corsedonk Pale, and a couple of doppelbocks; the Ayinger Celebrator and the Paulaner Salvator. And then Fuller's London Porter. All of these were wonderful. The only disappointment was the Magic Hat Fat Angel; even that wasn't a bad beer - just not up to the standards of the present company of brews I was enjoying. Since I'd been to Brooklyn Brewery I decided to try their Blanche de Brooklyn next, a classic Wit.
We had hardly scratched the surface of the draught list, and hadn't even begun on the even more extensive list of bottled beers (not to mention the single malts or the Anchor Potrero Rye or Junipero Gin - both of which I'd love to try). But by now it was getting late and the bar was filling up. So to finish off the evening, a couple of cask conditioned English bitters. The Yorkshire Terrier was a bit bland but the Jeffery Hudson Bitter was truly a joy; softly malty and with just enough hops to balance it to perfection.
When I got the bill, I found that she'd only charged us for the two stouts and a soft pretzel we'd ordered. Many pubs will pour a sample or two, but I was truly amazed that there was no charge for the many samples she'd poured for us. Needless to say, I gave her a very good tip. The Ginger Man is definitely on my list of places to revisit next time I'm in NY.
Sunday, we all had breakfast in a little Polish restaurant in Brooklyn; and then on to Cobble Hill and American Beer Distributors. Wow; so many beers, so little time. Choices, choices, choices. And the choices were limited by the fact that I had to haul the beer on a little cart through the subways and streets of NY. I managed to limit myself but it was hard. Big beers were prominent in my choices - Victory Storm King and Old Horizontal Barleywine, Belhaven Wee Heavy, the new Samichlaus, Gale's Millenium Ale and Prize Old Ale, Traquair House, Kindl Weiss, Hannsens's Gueze and Kriek, several Biere de Gardes, a Saison du Pont, among others. I could have kept on going but I had to carry them home.
Well, all in all I had a great time in NY. I guess I must have done something right in raising my kids. They seemed to enjoy our quality time together, and didn't give me a hard time at all about the focus of my trip to the Big Beer, err. Apple.