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By Root 1319 0

craft breweries had struggled to their feet, some dying soon after, and there was a general sense around the millennium that New York might shrug off the craft beer renaissance and remain the alpha city that it is: expensive and above the fray. It was a place for cocktails, pricey wines, and power lunches, not rare farmhouse ales. New York City habitually ignores trends that do not spring from its culturally superior loins, and the crunchier-than-thou methodology of microbrew culture always seemed out of place.

But good local beer belongs here. New York City has beer in its very foundations: no fewer than three breweries called New Amsterdam home in 1612; in 1913, a man named Jake Ruppert built a $30 million dollar brewery and got himself a baseball team, the Yankees, along with Babe Ruth; Brooklyn produced one-fifth of the nation’s beer by 1960, according to a recent New York Times story. But alas, by 1976, the number of local breweries had dropped to zero, and no one really cared about beer anymore. The best beers in town were standard-issue, mass-produced imports like Bass, Heineken, and Beck’s.

All that’s changed. It was only a matter of time perhaps, but the Slow Food-obsessed, pickle-your-own-cucumber inclinations (of Brooklynites, in particular) have ignited a new local beer scene. Several reputable small breweries now call the city home (with a total of fifty-four in the state), which means beer lovers get to drink far fresher beer, especially unfiltered, unpasteurized beers made in traditional styles, the kind in-the-know beer lovers seek out.

Naturally, the best action is found in the pubs, but for the beer traveler looking to splurge, several of the city’s best restaurants have ambitiously scaled up their beer lists recently, too. Where beer was once an afterthought, it’s now got its own menus—even beer sommeliers. Now truer than ever: New York is the city where you can get absolutely anything.

ITINERARIES

1 – DAY

Brooklyn Brewery, Spuyten Duyvil, the Blind Tiger, Whole Foods Bowery, Gramercy Tavern

3 – DAY

One-day itinerary plus Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Defiant Brewing Co., Captain Lawrence, Sixpoint

7 – DAY

Three-day itinerary plus Ommegang in Cooperstown

Manhattan

11 MADISON PARK

11 Madison Avenue, • New York, NY 10010 • (212) 889-0905 elevenmadisonpark.com • Established: 1998

SCENE & STORY

Only in New York could a restaurant with four stars from the New York Times and a 2011 win for Outstanding Restaurant in the country from the venerable James Beard Foundation count as one of the country’s top beer destinations as well. And while it’s not exactly the typical beer experience to sample artisanal beers and delicate market-driven cuisine in an elegant, hushed dining room, it’s an experience whose time has come. The chef is among the best in the world, and if he says beer’s acidity, residual sweetness, and sometimes oak barrel-given tannins work just as well with certain foods as the best wines, then who are we to protest? Pick a special occasion. Splurge, guiltlessly. The quieter the room, the louder you can hear your beer.

The beer list here is profound, with just four drafts but over 100 rare and vintage brews that are rarely seen in the United States—anywhere. In 2011, head chef Daniel Humm developed two unique collaboration beers with Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver and the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery. Then to kick things up a notch, Humm and Oliver began to plan a series of dinners for which both the entire menu and the beers were created from scratch to work together for a single meal. When a single beer can take anywhere from ten days to three years to brew, this will be no small effort going forward, and you can be sure seats will be hard to come by.

PHILOSOPHY

Respect, consider, revolutionize. “We have been pushing the presence of beer in our dining room,” says Kirk Kelewae, the restaurant’s earnest young beer guru and Dining Room Manager. “I provide beer pairings to guests when they request it, and we’ve picked up a whole collection of crystal beer glasses from