America is all about the indie spirit…especially when it comes to music and beer. And, it just so happens that Seaside Tavern and Sound Magazine are hosting a wicked good time this coming Sunday (5/26), starting at 1 pm. Pour at the Shore will surely be one of the great highlights of your Memorial Day Weekend. Now, you can’t exactly wear white yet, so hold off. Very soon, but not quite yet…
Ah, that’s a beautiful beer garden. Photo from Bobby Q’s FB page.
Biergarten: literally translating over to beer garden. Much cooler than kindergarten which is, literally, a garden of children?! Um, no thanks…we’ll take a garden of brews, ales, and stouts thank you very much. And, we’ve seen beer gardens sprouting up recently: the popular Beer Garden @ Harbor Point opened recently and The Landmark Biergarten at Station Eats is opening up any day now. But, Bobby Q’s Bodacious BBQ & Grill in Westport has been ahead of the curve.
People went crazy last year when Plan B Burger Bar opened in Stamford Town Center. What? A restaurant with great burgers, a killer beer selection, and an amazing variety of bourbon? Yes, yes, and yes. Well kiddos, ya’ll further out east in Fairfield County won’t have to drive out to Stamford anymore for your Plan B fix. Coming this fall, Fairfield will have its own Plan B Burger Bar at 1262 Boston Post Road, the old post office building. If that’s too far to wait, don’t worry. They opened the Stamford location ahead of schedule and maybe that will happen here?
Keep up to date with Plan B Burger Bar Fairfield on Twitter and their Stamford FB page to see what’s new. You’ll especially want to see what this cryptic message on FB means:
We are opening in Fairfield, CT Fall of 2013!
But, you won’t have to wait that long to have a Plan B Burger in the fair city. Stay tuned to find out what we’re doing in Fairfield for National Burger Day on May 28th.
We can still remember walking into Half Full Brewery when it was in shambles and just a run down skeleton of a building. Even with so much work ahead, Conor and crew saw it all as if the glass was, well, half full. Then, we saw Half Full Bright Ales all over Stamford, then we saw more brews hitting Stamford restaurants, and then we saw Half Full expand out to restaurants all over Connecticut. And now, almost one year later, they celebrate their first ever American Craft Brew Week (May 13-19) with amazingly awesome events . Here we go:
May 3, 17, and 31: Friday Night Open House, 5:30-8:30
Pay $15 and get a Half Full recycled plastic pint glass. Taps are open for your consumption pleasures. You are free to circulate, look around, hang with friends, play bags, and play the huge Jenga game. Note: Friday Night Open Houses happen every other Friday from here until eternity.
Rendering of the Landmark Biergarten at Station Eats Stamford
Zicke, Zacke, Zicke, Zacke, Hoi, Hoi, Hoi!
Yeah, you’ll be singing lots of songs in German pretty soon. Odes to the Oktoberfest gods, if you will. And, you’ll be singing your heart out from the beautiful, newly renovated patio at Station Eats in Stamford. The patio has been reimagined and redesigned and will forever henceforth be known as the Landmark Biergarten at Station Eats. We got in touch with one of the owners, Nick Type, and he told us more about the Biergarten, opening half way through May:
Kristien’s classic burger at Station Eats, all loaded and ready to go
“It will offer a line of rotating draft craft beers, wines, sparkling wines and our house made (fresh / no mixes) station margarita (14oz – $6.00). Beer prices will be very reasonable. We will have buxom gals and hunky lads serving out there and the occasional live music act. The biergarten menu will be an extension of our current menu and include items such as bier braised brats, house made bacon sauerkraut on pretzel rolls. Complimentary warm station kettle chips made to order will greet every patron.”
It’s that time of year again! Coalhouse Pizza and Maltose Express have put together another home brew competition, but this time around there are two specific brews at the center of the contest. Home brewers will either submit an American Pale Ale or an American IPA for judging. The deadline is May 25 and your brews can be dropped off either at Coalhouse Pizza in Stamford or at Maltose Express in Monroe. Then, on June 4, entries will be evaluated by Beer Judge Certification Program judges and Coalhouse will pour out “Best of Show,” “First Place,” “Second Place,” and “Third Place.”
This is just one of the great things that Gerard Robertson and everybody at Coalhouse Pizza have planned to highlight, enhance, and support the beer culture in Fairfield County. Because of optimal brewing times, you’ll need to get right on this. Here is the Bottle ID form and here is the entry form from Coalhouse.
Good luck everybody…and keep on the look out for some other great news from Coalhouse!
Coalhouse Pizza Noms: 3.5 Cost: $$$ Address: 85 High Ridge Road Stamford, CT 06905
So, look. We already drink beer a few times a week and we love discovering new local beers and breweries, so we had a beerpiphany: why not share a local beer we liked every once in a while? We’re going to keep it short, simple, and to the point. We’ll hit up the vital stats (as long as we can find them), the tasting notes, where we bought the bottle, and anything else we find along the way. Enjoy and let us know if there’s a beer you’d like for us to drink and cover.
Beer: St. Vincent’s Dubbel
Brewery: Captain Lawrence Brewery in Elmsford, NY
Style: Belgian Style Abbey Ale. Simply put, this means that the beer is similar in style to beer produced by monks. Trappist beers are certified, while Abbey Ales don’t necessarily need to come from a monastery as is the case here. As for the dubbel, that refers to beer made at abbeys that were malty, rich, and were light on hops that ended up being twice as strong…hence, dubbel.
Color and appearance: the beer settles down to a nice dark caramel brown. A foamy head forms, but quickly settles down to about fingernail length.
Smell: caramel, dark chocolate, and malts
Good beer is worth writing and talking about. And, do you know what else good beer is perfect for? Drinking, duh. So, it only makes sense that beer dinners are great because you get to drink the beer and you get to learn about the beer. Sometimes a rep from the brewery will be present and sometimes if you’re lucky you’ll get the owner or head brewer to present. But, in the case of the Brewmasters Dinner at Ginger Man SoNo on Monday, May 6 at 7 pm ($85 pp includes tax and tip), you’re getting much more than that.
That’s right beerologists, you’ll be getting a major treat. We’re talking about two brewers from Italy and a brewer from Denmark. The guests of honor, along with their breweries, are:
Southport Brewing Company
Last year we told you about something special that Southport Brewing Company does. They have a special “Help Line” that you can ask for. You’ll get to pick any of their house brews, but just for asking for the “Help Line” you’ll be donating .50 to a charity that they have chosen.
The two charities that they are currently collecting for (.25 per beer goes to each charity) goes until the end of June and are near and dear to us. The first charity is ALS TDI who is working hard to wipe out ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. According to their site, “Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that leads to paralysis, due to the death of motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain. There is no known cure for the disease…the average patient survives only 2-5 years following diagnosis.” The second charity is Camp Promise East who hosts a summer camp each year for people of all ages with muscular dystrophy. The collection of funds for both charities is going on now until the end of June, so if you’re having some SBC brews, remember to ask for the “Help Line.” You’ll be helping out big time.
Garden Catering
And also Garden Catering of Old Greenwich is helping raise money again, too. They’ll be donating a portion of their sales to the same two charities on May 22 from 2 to 7 pm. They’ll be donating 10% of all in-store sales and will donate 20% of all gift card sales. You know what that means? Yup! Plenty of birthday, Christmas, Hanukkah, Halloween, Groundhogs Day, and any other holiday where you get presents for the people you love. Or, maybe you’ll just hoard them for yourself to make that next trip to Garden Catering a bit easier?
Dan and Kristien Del Ferraro
