Nov 9, 2013

NYC Craft Beer Festival – Winter Harvest Edition


PR:  New York, NY (Nov. 1st)  The Hand Crafted Tasting Company is happy to announce the return of its NYC Craft Beer Festival – WINTER HARVEST to the Lexington Avenue Armory (68 Lexington Ave.) in Manhattan on Saturday, November 23rd, 2013 for two sessions, and a special afternoon Session on Sunday, November 24th.


The Craft Beer tasting scheduled the weekend before Thanksgiving will showcase Winter releases from 75 of America’s best Craft Breweries, with approximately 150 selections. "When curating this list we wanted to showcase local breweries and how they fit into larger craft beer landscape, as well as some great brews from across the country," said Giancarlo Annese from BeerUnion.com. "In fall and winter you like to have roasty and spicy flavors. But as always, the freshest beer is better beer."

Some of the featured beers on the main tasting room floor include Ommegang’s Take the Black Stout, Southern Tier’s 2 x Xmas, Bronx Brewery’s Black Pale Ale, Six Point Global Warmer, Founders Breakfast Stout, and Lake Placid’s Nipple Top Stout. To add more variety for the attendees’ palate, Hand Crafted is also showcasing a small selection of international beers for the very first time.

In the Connoisseurs Lounge, aficionados can sample additional beers like Allagash Hugh Malone, Corsendonk Christmas, Southern Tier Choklat, Firestone Walker Walker’s Reserve Porter and a selection each from Cigar City, Hopping Frog, Aspall, and Wandering Aengus Cider Works.

Delicious food specifically designed to be paired with the beer tasting sessions will be available for purchase in the food court from Morris Grilled Cheese, Carl’s Cheese Steaks, Cooper's Craft & Kitchen, and El Paso Tacos. Each restaurant will provide vegetarian options.

On Saturday, The NYC Craft Beer Festival will offer two sessions, 2:00 PM-4:30 PM, and 7:00 PM-9:30 PM. VIP’s and Connoisseur Level tickets enter one hour ahead of the posted times. Tickets are on-sale now at NYCCraftBeerFest.com/tix. On Sunday, there is only an afternoon session.

Our NYC Craft Beer Festival guests favorite venue is the Lexington Armory. And due to recently changed building codes at the Armory, occupancy is reduced. Our guests will have much more room to breathe during the tasting, and we added a third Sunday afternoon session to accommodate demand. We are excited for our attendees to sample our carefully curated selection of the best Winter seasonal brews the brewers have to offer,” said Ken Tesler, founder of the seasonal NYC Craft Beer Festival.

During the tasting, many brewers’ representatives will be available at the taps to educate the guests about their liquid offerings. VIP and Connoisseur ticket holders can enter the Armory an hour earlier and have access to the beer, the brewers and the food during this first hour. This is a great time to speak with some of your favorite brewer representatives and avoid what is expected to be a sold-out, capacity audience later in the day.

There will also be two educational seminars. Jonathan Pogash, aka "The Cocktail Guru", will lead an exploration of one of the hottest trends in beverages: beer-based cocktails aka The Hoptail in his how-to seminar on mixing up your own beer cocktails at home.  Jared Rouben, former Brewmaster at Goose Island Brew Pubs, now at Moody Tongue Brewery in Chicago, will discuss “Culinary Brewing.” During his 2 1/2 years as brewmaster at Goose Island brewpubs, Jared built his reputation by creating lush, flavorful beers that featured food — particularly fruits, herbs and spices — as essential ingredients.  This seminar is sure to be a hit with home brewers across the tri-state area.

Finally, just one hundred & fifty Connoisseur tickets are available for purchase per session. The Connoisseur package offers the extra advance hour of tasting, a speedy entrance line to the Armory and access to the exclusive Connoisseurs Lounge for the entire session. There will be an additional 12-15 rare beers not found on the Grand Tasting floor, and gourmet snacks will be provided at no charge by Route 66 Smoke House. The Connoisseurs Lounge is a great, relaxing place to get away from the throng at the historic armory’s main drill-hall floor.

We offer a private back-stage kind of lounge for beer Connoisseurs to listen to live, acoustic, Blues & Folk influenced music all the while sampling some of the rarest and most exciting beers you’ll ever get a chance to drink. Gourmet finger-foods will be provided at no additional cost,” says Tesler.


Win Your Own BIMC Beer Glass!

I've got 6 classic tulip beer glasses branded with the Beer Is My Church logo up for grabs between November 12, 2003 and mid-December!

All you need to do for your chance to win is be sure you're following me on Twitter and watch my feed on the announced dates!  There will be further details on Twitter as each date approaches.

Your first chance to win comes Tuesday, November 12th!  At 1pm ET I will post a craft beer related trivia question.  The first correct answer tweeted with the #jointhebrewsade hashtag will win!

To qualify for free shipping you must be located in the lower 48 continental United States.

Stay tuned and good luck!