Coney Island Summer Pre-Party

                                              Wednesday, May 23rd at 3PM

I don't know about you, but the only beverage that approaches beer in my heart is a high quality sipping tequila. So my chest is beating a little harder at the thought of tasting Jewbelation Quinceanera, Shmaltz Brewing's 15% ABV Anniversary Strong Ale aged in Siembra Azul premium tequila barrels. The Spanish word "siembra" means sowing or seed time, and it seems like Jeremy Cowen, founder of all things Shmaltzy, has been planting his Jewbelation in all sorts of wooden wombs lately, and we're about to reap the harvest. In fact, not only will the Tiger be premiering his 15th AnniversaryTequila Barrel Aged Jewbelation, next Weds, May 23rd, at 3pm, we'll also be pouring Funky Jewbelation and Vintage Jewbelation '08, as well as a host of other special kegs.

Some of Jeremy's other inseminations have been equally fruitful: he recently became the first president of the just established New York City Brewers Guild, an organization dedicated to "advancing the local brewing industry and thereby lessening human misery." To acknowledge and celebrate this historic communion, the Guild is holding a unique evening of rare & obscure beers from each of the nine inaugural brewers. This event will take place May 22nd - the day before our event - at Brooklyn Brewery. The Brewers Guild will be taking over New York Craft Beer Week from the capable hands of Josh Schaffner, and during the event Jeremy will announce the week's new date, rumored to be in February 2013. The public is invited and tickets are available for $75.

Jeremy is also expanding his Coney Island Brewery - which wouldn't be hard since it only produces 1 gallon of beer at a time - and is currently searching for the right spot. No word on where that might be, though you can ask him yourself when he's at the Tiger. You might want to wait until after he's had a couple Jewbelations, and he's feeling mucho siembra...

                                                                             Dave Brodrick

Wednesday, May 9th at 3PM

                            Captain Lawrence           

I'm out in San Diego for our annual Craft Brewer's Conference, an event that brings brewers, wholesalers, and retailers together in one place. This year there's 4500 of us, and we've completely taken over the resort we're staying in. From now on this conference, which takes place in a different city each year, will graduate to much bigger venues, though hopefully the familial nature won't change.

One of the first things you notice at the CBC is that the camaraderie in our business remains strong. Of course, the feel good vibes have been somewhat enhanced by the 130 tap tower of California beers down by the swimming pool. Each night, this hastily constructed tiki hut/beer bar is open from 10 pm to 1 am, and the beer is all free. I bet the annual Grocers Convention doesn't have 130 taps of free beer.

The Tiki Hut doesn't open until 10 pm to ensure that we all go to the various seminars during the day, from 8:30 am until 5:30. And after that there are numerous parties around town that require our attendance. I think the organizers of this event realize that if the Tiki Hut was open all the time none of us would ever leave the pool area, and our convention would turn into a 4 day keg party.

Not that we arent encouraged to drink during the day. There are beer stations set up all around the seminar rooms. Once you grab a cold one, you quickly realize that if you want to sit down you have to take a class. Smart. The seminars are also a great way to tame a break from the constant networking. I often see Sam Calagione hiding out in them, as he tries to escape the hordes of people who want to talk to him.

What I'm getting at is that this conference is generally not a sobering experience, though we did receive some sobering news at the opening reception: thanks to another year of double digit growth, and the inability of brewers to keep up with demand, our industry is about to add another 3 million barrels of capacity, and there are 900 new breweries on the drawing board. That's 6 million more kegs you guys have to drink. I just thought you should know, in case you had any plans on doing anything besides drinking craft beer morning, noon, and night. Maybe that's what the Tiki Hut and the beer stations are really all about - we're being trained for a world that's about to be flooded with really good beer.

Speaking of which, Captain Lawrence, along with Scott Vaccarro and his team, will be at the Tiger on Weds, May 9th, starting at 3 pm. Scott is in the midst of his own expansion, having moved to a new location that will eventually allow him to brew about 5 times more beer. He's also added a pilot system for small batch brews, which should make his events with us even more interesting than they are now.

Enough chit chat - I have to get back to the keg party..I mean conference..

While Michigan may be struggling financially, as far as craft beer is concerned the Great Lakes State can go head to head with anyone. Bells, Jolly Pumpkin, Shorts, Kuhnhenns, New Holland, and Dark Horse are some of the best breweries out there.

And then there's Founders, which, according to RateBeer, is the second best brewery in the world, just behind Three Floyds, and just ahead of Bells. Which is why we're so excited about hosting our friends from Grand Rapids this coming Weds. And they must be pretty excited too, considering the beer list they've put together.

And why wouldn't they be? They've finished their brewery expansion and now have an annual capacity of 50,000 barrels. So we'll be seeing more of those Bastards - both the Dirty and the Backwoods, as well as their Better Halfs. They've also recently joined forces with Green Flash to do their first collaboration. Founders head brewer Jeremy Kosmicki and Chuck Silva put their heads together and came up with Linchpin, a super citrusy White IPA. It'll be debuting on May 1st at Green Flash, as a lead up to the Craft Brewer's Conference. I'm actually going to be at Green Flash that day, so I'll make sure to let them know that we'd like some.

 In the mean time, we'll have to make do with Canadian Breakfast Stout, one of the highest rated beers in the world. Ho hum. They also sent a couple of kegs from their taproom that we've never had before, as well as some vintage Curmudgeon. So come join us on Weds, April 25th, at 3pm, as we welcome Founders into the house.

The List:

Red’s Rye

Centennial

Double Trouble

Devil Dancer

Canadian Breakfast Stout (5PM Tapping)

Porter

Imperial Stout

Oatmeal Stout (usually available in the taproom only)

Winter Wheat (usually available in the taproom only)

Curmudgeon Old Ale 2011

Backwoods Bastard

Blushing Monk

Breakfast Stout 2010

Wednesday, April 18th 3PM  Lovullopalooza! 

Mike Lovullo. You may not know him (though it’s quite likely you do), but if you’ve been to the Tiger chances are he’s had a hand in procuring a good amount of the beer you’ve enjoyed here. He’s gone from beer enthusiast, to beer rep for Union Beer Distributors, to specialty brands manager to, ahem, beer expert (I read it in Time Out New York), but who are we kidding? He’s still the beer geek we know and love, and guess what? It’s his birthday.

At first he said he wanted a pony, but we declined. Then he asked if he could have his party here. We said sure, and then somehow hoodwinked him into doing all the work. That’s right. He called brewers, begged friends, and even helped brew a beer (Sixpoint Double Dot, an imperial smoked rye) all in an effort to curate the best beer list possible. The line-up is stellar.

It will be a night of revelry. Mike’s been telling people about it for months. There will be plenty of familiar faces and rare beers. Look for him; tell him happy birthday; thank him for the beer (Cantillon!); but whatever you do don’t ask him to tell his joke (that he made up all by himself) about what the bottom fermenting yeast said to the…you get the picture.

By the way when I asked him how old he was turning and if there were any tidbits of info I should include in the email, he texted, “Word. 32! Favorite color blue, favorite dinosaur the tricerahops!” I couldn’t make this stuff up.

We bring you…Lovullopalooza! Enjoy.

Katherine

Greenport Harbor Wednasday, April 11th 3PM

Each day feels more and more like spring and this delicate sunshine puts me in mind of a nice Saison. You may remember the Greenport Harbor Spring Turning Rye Saison from last year’s Saison style event.

It was a real stand out even among a list curated from “the best”. We’ve been wanting to do an event with these guys ever since. Our first idea was to do the Rye Saison, the Black Duck Porter, and the Canard Noir as a small Sunday event. This would be ideal to be able to drink them back to back as the Black Duck is a real Porter-lovers Porter and the Canard Noir uses that as a base and adds the Saison yeast from the Rye Saison. It is a natural threesome.

As much as we were looking forward to this event, we’re even more excited to have a full blown event including these three beers along with four beers from their Project Hoppiness line (including the Hoppy Stout) and some other stand out beers. Jen Torriero of Spring Lounge fame had a hand in brewing the Strong Ryeland, a collaboration with Southampton.  The Citrus IPA and the Otherside IPA are the last kegs in existence! They dug deep into their stash to bring us this fantastic list.

Come hang out with DJ, John, Rich, Greg, and the rest of the crew this Wednesday at our first ever Greenport Harbor Event at the Blind Tiger, you’ll be glad you did!

Katherine

The list:

Spring Turning Rye Saison

Canard Noir

Havre Rouge

Black Duck Porter

Supeh Freekeh

Project Hoppiness: Chinook'red

Project Hoppiness: Hoppy Stout

Project Hoppiness: Citrus IPA 

Project Hoppiness: Otherside IPA  

Strong Ryeland 

The Hammer and the Sickle Imperial Stout  

Harbor Pin- Dry-Hopped with Citra & Glacier

Just when the days are getting longer and the nights shorter, here at the Tiger we are making a last grasp at winter. (Did we have winter this year?) Before we readjust our expectations with Daylight Savings Time let’s take a night to embrace the beers that give us the extra umph we seek when it’s cold out. Even if we have to pretend it’s cold out. What am I talking about? Why, Night of the Imperials, of course!

We used to do the Night of the Imperials every year. The name was coined by Todd Selbert of Yankee Brew News, and it was a great way to showcase all the imperials we stashed throughout the year, but then stopped when it seemed like all our events were high octane imperial nights. Now that we're not doing our style events, it seems the perfect time to bring it back. Like it or not, the imperial style still seems to get our juices flowing. When a certain beer tastes good, won't it taste even better when the dial is turned up even louder? Hey, it works for music.

You may notice that not all the beers have Imperial in their style names. Now open your mind here and allow room for the high octane Barleywines, Old Ales, and even a Buckwheat Wine.

The third Webster Dictionary definition of imperial seems relevant here: Of superior or unusual size or excellence. Our entire list is of unusual strength and demonstrates excellence. Some synonyms include, epic, glorious, grand, magnificent, and monumental. Perfect descriptors for these beers:

Dogfish Head My Antonia Imperial Pilsner
Uinta Dubhe Imperial Black IPA

BFM/Terrapin Spike & Jerome's Barley "Rhyne"
Captain Lawrence Captain’s Reserve Imperial IPA
Kuhnhenn Bourbon Barrel Aged Fourth Dementia Old Ale

Speakeasy Scarface Imperial Stout
 Xbeeriment Black Force One Smoked Imperial Stout

Troeg’s Scratch 57 Weizenbock

Great Divide Espresso Oak-Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

Oskar Blues Deviant Dales Imperial IPA

Wandering Star Rude Man Barleywine

Southern Tier Oak Aged Unearthly Imperial IPA

Mikkeller/Three Floyds Boogoop Buckwheat Wine

Flying Dog Double Dog Double Pale Ale (Nitro)

Don’t forget about our $15 Food and Beer Pairing with Chef Tommy Harder on March 15^th!

Up-Coming Events:

Sunday, March 18^th: Ithaca

Sunday, March 25^th: Blind Tiger Celebrates 15 Years

Wednesday, March 28^th: Vermont Beer and Cheese

Wednesday, April 4^th: Brooklyn

And after drinking a few of those nine percenters, I’m sure going to be ready to cool my heels with the low gravity Table Saison, if I can keep my hands off of that Cucumber Saison. Cucumber Saison…maybe I should start with that.

Wait a minute, I’m already five beers deep, and I haven’t even gotten to the Dirac/Bohr (both Imperial Stouts) Blend Aged in Palm Ridge Whiskey barrels or the Marshal Zhukov's. These are must-have’s.

Oh, and my quest for truly delicious low ABV beer will require trying the El Lector a 4% English Dark Mild Ale, the Minaret an English-style Extra Special Bitter, and the Hotter Than Helles both at 5% ABV.

It is clear to me by now that this event will require cunning and strategy. Let’s hope we’re all up for it.

Special Bulletin…

Midnight Sun Brewing Company from Anchorage, Alaska is sending beer to NYC. First Stop? The Blind Tiger!

We are anxiously awaiting the shipment which we are hoping arrives sometime this weekend, and we absolutely can not wait, so we are going to have the kick-off event at the earliest possible moment.

So, with Ozzy’s permission we are having a Monday Midnight Sun Event. We will be tapping the kegs at 5PM.

The highly regarded Midnight Sun Brewing Company fired up its brew kettle in 1995, and has become a serious yet creative force on the American brewing front. From concept to glass, Midnight Sun relies on an "art marries science" approach, mixing tradition with innovation, to design and craft bold, distinctive beers.

You can take a look at them here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OC8YXQYc1M

As I said, we are hoping to have this event on Monday the 30^th, but there’s a chance the beer won’t arrive on time, so we may have to push it to Tuesday. I guess that’s how it is when you get beer from Alaska. So, set your calendar for Monday the 30^th, but check Facebook or just check in with us directly for any changes. This should be a fun one too!

The Lists:

Cigar City

Cigar City Jai Alai IPA   

Cigar City Maduro Brown Ale

Cigar City Table Saison        

Cigar City Cucumber Saison                                                                                

Cigar City Dos Costas Oeste aged on Spanish Cedar

Cigar City Dos Costas Oeste aged on Grapefruit Wood                                                                                                                   

Cigar City Dos Costas Oeste aged on Lemon Wood

Cigar City Jose Marti

Cigar City Dirac/Bohr Blend aged in a Palm Ridge Whiskey Barrel

Cigar City Hotter Than Helles

Cigar City Marshal Zhukov's

Cigar City El Lector    

Cigar City Minaret

Cigar City Improv Oatmeal Rye

Cigar City E & J's Smokeout Stout                                          

Cigar City Church on a Hill          

Midnight Sun  

Sockeye Red – 5.7% Red IPA with Centennial, Cascade & Simcoe

Panty Peeler - 8.5% Belgian Triple with coriander & Curacao

Mammoth Extra Stout -7.8%  

Treat Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter -7.8%

Cohoho Imperial IPA -8% IMP IPA with Centennial, Cascade & Simcoe

Bottles: Monk’s Mistress Belgian Dark Ale -11.5% Belgian Strong Dark Ale