Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [43]
We return in time for dinner at the Hyde Park Brewery, and then quickly stop by our inn for a short hour of downtime. I dare not lie down for fear of falling asleep and never waking up. This is Rip Van Winkle country. So I have a beer, one of many that had already been given me.
In the evening we return to the CIA to meet and talk to 90 members of the student beer society, ALES (Ale and Lager Education Society). We finish a fun evening by 11:30 after watching a few beer videos I’d brought along, tasting and talking beer and food.
Day 4: Departing the Rhinebeck area, we already miss the hundreds of kindred spirits who are in their own special ways all cultivating a passion for beer and brewing. This morning Sandra and I visit friends at the Egg Farm Dairy in Peekskill, a small organic producer of traditional and local cheeses. We share homebrew, and Jonathan White offers us some of the best cheese I have ever tasted.
By evening there are already eight inches of snow on the ground, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped 120 beer enthusiasts from coming to the Hudson Valley Homebrewers/Woodstock Brewing Company “rendezvous” in Kingston. There is nothing maniacal about the people who turned out this evening. Everyone is dead serious about their love of beer and brewing. Dozens of locally made homebrews, as well as fresh specialties and cask-conditioned ales from the Woodstock Brewing Company cellars, flow freely.
Richie Stolarz, Beers International
Those who attend learn one important lesson: if anyone dares serve me a beer, they had better serve my wife too. More than once she charges to the podium during my presentation to steal my porter, IPA and best bitter, leaving me empty handed, each time to the howling applause of the audience. The last homebrewer who comes up to fill my glass gets it right, one for Sandra and then one for me. I can’t really complain about a spouse who in thirst will steal my IPA and enjoy drinking it herself!
Late that night, sleep and bed. How sweet it is, but I’m beginning to wake up wondering where in the world we are.
Day 5: The snow stopped last night and it’s starting to get a bit warmer. We drive down to New Jersey and rendezvous with Richie Stolarz of Beers International. Beer enthusiast extraordinaire Richie had arranged for the evening’s sold-out 80-person beer event. There’ll be a lot of homebrewers in attendance tonight.
True to anticipation, the evening is overflowing with beer. The venue is the Gaslight Brewery in South Orange. More than 15 beers are formally tasted. Several are homebrews, while most are imported strong Belgian ales. And then there are dozens of beers informally tasted (“Charlie, will you taste my homebrew?”). It’s still cold outside, and a winter-warming homebrew is a welcome sight.
Day 6: We’re not even halfway through our journey. With seven days ahead of us, we’re still in the “just warming up” mode.
Dropping off our rental car at Newark airport, we haul our luggage (our extra duffel bag for gift T-shirts gets bigger every day) onto a bus and into New York City. The Big Apple homebrewers and microbrewers are waiting with outstretched arms, beer grins and cheer. We stash our belongings at a friend’s apartment on the Bowery, have a quick lunch, change clothes and take the subway to Brooklyn Brewery, arriving in time to judge at the Malted Barley Appreciation Society’s second annual homebrew competition. There are 420 entries, up from about 250 the year before. Lots of homebrewers, judges, brewers, fun, winners, food and beer stories.
After judging 420 beers it’s time for…well, beer and dinner a short walk over to the local beer haven, the Mugz Bar. And that’s where and when the evening begins to drift off.
Day 7: A day off. It rains all day, so we sleep in and relax. We have dim sum in Manhattan and home-prepared mussels, asparagus and Jay Sims’s pie-to-die for dinner. And some of her own homebrewed beer, of course.
Day 8: Three morning business appointments in Manhattan are followed by an afternoon visit to D.B.A. bar in the East Village. With great