NYC Craft Beer Week Passport Midweek Report

Here we are right smack in the middle of Craft Beer Week here in New York City and Lobster and I have found ourselves torn. We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves, but are finding it a little harder than expected to keep up the pace. Since sampling the 53 beers at the Get Real Cask Festival on Sunday, we really haven't stopped. I've spent each weekday designing an itinerary for that evening. Once 6pm rolls around we're out the door and our night's beer adventure.

Lobster and I made the mistake of purchasing our passports when they first went on sale. You wouldn't think anything was wrong with this, but after also purchasing tickets to the Get Real Event we were told we would be given passports there. It's a fantastic problem to have, but now we both have 2 passports for Craft Beer Week. As this week is now more than half over, here is our review so far.

MONDAY NIGHT - EAST VILLAGE

Venue: Swift Hibernian Lounge
Featured Brewery: Pretty Things Ale Project
Beer Sampled: American Darling
Alien - Apple cider-y, not compex, slightly fresh
Lobster - Strong first taste of honey, drinkable, earthy
Light in color and clear. Aroma was apple/pear.

Venue: Jimmy's No. 43
Featured Brewery: The Bruery
Beer Sampled: Blind Bat Old Walt Whit (The Bruery was all kicked)
Alien - yellow in color, small amount of foam, aroma of nail polish, overwhelmingly sour, like chemicals, entirely unpleasant and undrinkable, vinger-ish
Beer Sampled: Troegs Dream Weaver Wheat
Lobster - light in color, cloudy, tastes a little wheat-y but with a bubblegum.banana aftertaste

Get Real Cask Festival - New York City

Over the weekend Lobster and I attended the Get Real Cask Festival in New York City. We attended the early session on Sunday, and apparently because a lobster vendor didn't show up, everyone with a ticket to that session was allowed to also sample the VIP beers. This was great news for us, as we weren't even expecting a lobster vendor to be there in the first place. More importantly though, we hadn't realized that our ticket would not give us access to all the beers. We were under the understanding that the VIP ticket just allowed you to enter the session an hour early. More than disappointed, I would have been really furious that I paid $65.00 for a ticket and wasn't allowed to try everything, especially because there wasn't a clear list before-hand of the VIP only beers. Many of the beers I was most excited to try were in fact the VIP beers, and I would have been irate at not being able to sample them. (I know I could have bought a VIP ticket, but the only advantage a VIP appeared to have was just an extra tasting hour - but perhaps I just misunderstood.)

Onto the beer. Lobster and I had done some research beforehand and knew which beers we wanted to try out early. These included The Bruery's beers, Ommegang Zuur, Cigar City I.P.A., the Nebraska beers, and Pretty Things' beers.

Beer Review: Pretty Things Ale Jack D'Or

Last week Lobster and I were up in my home state of Massachusetts. We visited a number of liquor stores on the south shore and in Rhode Island and noticed a few bottles we'd never seen before. Upon further research into the Pretty Things Ale Project we found out a lot about this interesting company. Pretty Things is run by Dann and Martha Paquette, a husband and wife team from Cambridge, MA. While they have a line of beers, Pretty Things Ale, they do not in fact have a brewery. What they do have is an agreement with other brewing companies to lease space so they can brew their own beer. Currently the "gypsy" setup is being staged in a brewery in Westport, MA.

Pretty Things has a few beers, but Alien and I picked up their Saison, Jack D'Or to try from a Whole Foods for $7.99. After spending some time in the fridge, we cracked it open last night. Unfortunately I had not yet read this review in which Dan Paquette says before serving to "gently turn the bottle upside down to re-suspend the yeast ("You get more of the bitterness," Paquette explains), then slowly decant straw-gold Jack."

Details:
1 pt. 6oz. bottle
6.5% abv
Bottled 2010
Batch 16

Our results:

Lobster: No smell. Presents with full body, but is light. A perfect balance of bitterness and tastiness. Entirely drinkable. It's like perfect beer, unadulterated, delicious, distinct. Is orchestral-esque (by which Lobster means everything flows together just right and nothing stands out). "When I think of beer, this is what I want it to taste like."

Alien: Smells like beer. Not too frothy. Golden in color. Slightly hoppy. No weird flavors or spices. Rustic, and without any bells and whistles. Perfectly balanced. Not overly carbonated. Was still good even when warm.