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.
