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KEY BEER

Acer’s best beers are also his biggest, so look for the 9% ABV triple, various stouts, and his pièce de résistance, Death, a coal black monster with the complexity of an old vine Bordeaux and heft of a dump truck. Despite its huge profile, it’s got an incredibly smooth, decadent palate of chocolate, dark fruits, and vanilla notes.

Cooperstown

BREWERY OMMEGANG

656 County Hwy 33 • Cooperstown, NY 13326 (607) 544-1800 • ommegang.com • Established: 1997

SCENE & STORY

The roots of Ommegang are tightly intertwined with the history of Belgian beer appreciation in this country. American Don Feinberg headed to Europe after Yale to do his MBA in 1978, ended up in Brussels, and fell in love with Belgian beer. He was also in love with Wendy Littlefield, his college sweetheart; the two of them eloped to Brussels and ended up spending three years there. To make a long story short, when they returned, they started organizing to bring in some cases of Duvel Golden Ale as an import project, and one of the U.S.’s most prestigious beer import companies was born, Vanberg & Dewulf, later responsible for introducing American beer lovers to Affligem, Rodenbach, and Brasserie Dupont’s Saison lineup, among many others.

In 1997, the couple collaborated with Affligem, Scaldis, and Moortgat (brewers of Duvel) to launch Ommegang, dedicated to classic Belgian styles of brewing. The brewery itself is incredibly beautiful: an homage to eighteenth-century Wallonian farmstead architecture, the creamy white structures were built on a former hops farm on the banks of the Susquehanna River. With a portfolio of superb, award-winning beers and tours every day, Ommegang has become a true beer lover’s destination.

PHILOSOPHY

Ommegang is dedicated to making Belgian beers with superb balance and appropriately decorous packaging. The company stands out in a sea of imitators with its consistent image and beer formulation.

KEY BEER

There are five year-round beers and five seasonals and the occasional one-off or experimental brew, always a hot commodity. Hennepin, a 7.7% ABV unfiltered golden farmhouse style (aka Saison), is perhaps the most emblematic of Ommegang’s year-round brews. It’s a delightful melody of grainy toast flavors, mild banana, lemony tartness, and spicy notes of clove and pepper, and a great introductory beer to non-craft beer drinkers. Lately the brewery has been releasing more daring beers with spices and added barrel aging, such as the excellent Zuur, a 6% ABV Flanders oud bruin, or old-style brown ale.

BEST of the REST: NEW YORK

AGAINST THE GRAIN

620 E. 6th St. • New York, NY 10009 • (212) 358-7065 • grapeandgrain.net

Against the Grain is a near-perfect secret spot for a quiet afternoon pint en route through Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and East Village. This teeny space around the corner from D.B.A. has a narrow, warmly lit bar, a few stools, flickery Edison bulbs, and knowledgeable servers that don’t condescend. The beer list is eclectic and long, with hard-to-find brews from Achel and Thiriez, among many good domestic craft beers as well.

THE STANDARD HOTEL BIERGARTEN

848 Washington St. (near. Little W. 12th St.) • New York, NY 10014 • (212) 645-4646 • standardhotels.com

A short walk from New York’s ethereal Highline park, Andre Balazs’s Standard Hotel boasts an airy urban beer garden offering all the comforts of Bavaria and Bohemia in both liquid and sausage form, with ping-pong tables and serious people watching, too.

THE SPOTTED PIG

314 W. 11th St. • New York, NY 10014 • (212) 620-0393 • thespottedpig.com

Chef April Bloomfield’s see-and-be-seen (especially late night) Greenwich Village gastropub isn’t exactly a craft beer shrine per se, but the upstairs bar is perhaps the best place in Manhattan to take down some ultra-fresh Victory Prima Pils with some even fresher bluepoint oysters.

BARCADE

388 Union Ave. • New York, NY 11211 • (718) 302-6464 • barcadebrooklyn.com

Opened in 2004, Barcade is a shrine to two things: