How I learned to stop worrying and love the beer

Since being an unemployed college graduate doesn’t pay well and waiting for people to respond to resumes sucks, I’ve decided to venture into the part of the work force known as waiting tables. I started this week, and things are looking good. I’ll (hopefully) be able to make a decent amount of money and can get a sneak peak into the restaurant world. As an added bonus, I can speak Spanish with the multitude of individuals working in the back. ¡Que Divertido!

In honor of me finding a job, I decided to take the week before work to visit a bunch of friends situated throughout the northeast. While it is always fun to see friends you haven’t seen for some time, it’s even more fun to see them at a delicious local brewery! Hence, I created a miniature Justin Lloyd-Fun-in-the-Summertime-Craft-Beer-Week! I managed to hit up 5 breweries, unsuccessfully beg for samples at 1 and indulge in the Beer Advocate American Craft Beer Fest in Boston. If you’ve ever seen the American Beer, then you understand my inspiration for the trip. Hurrah for being an unemployed college graduate!

Although I tried to take detailed notes at each of the breweries, my notes seem to have slurred into one another. I will do my best to recapture the magic.


Blue Point Brewing Company
Patchogue, NY
Despite its bad reputation for most things, Long Island has some solid beer. The best part about Blue Point is that the tasting room serves as a bar too. After sampling their 8 beers on tap, you can buy a couple of pints and sit at a picnic table in the picturesque parking lot out back.

Beer Sampled: Summer Ale, Pale Ale, Toasted Lager, ESB, Spring Fest, Hoptical Illusion, No Apologies Imperial IPA, Imperial Stout, Old Howling Bastard Barley Wine

My favorite Beer: Oatmeal Stout on Cask. You just can’t beat the rich smoothness of a cask beer.

My Favorite Moment: The crazy old man on the patio shouting about the importance of eating Parmesan cheese with IPAs. He even had a ziplock bag full of the stuff.


Middle Ages Brewing Company, LTD.
Syracuse, NY

Middles Ages holds a tender spot in my heart. It is close to my old college in Binghamton and it is a block away from Dinosaur BBQ. Also, they have a few fat felines skulking around the tasting room and every time I’ve been there I have chatted with the owner. They changed the room around and raised the prices since I’ve last been there but I still love the place. I would have a picture to demonstrate this change but I forgot my camera this day and the photos I snapped of the growler nestled in my fridge won’t do justice.

Beer Sampled: Raspberry Ale, Swallow Wit, Grail Ale, Syracuse Pale Ale, Old Marcus Bitter, ImPaled Ale, Wailing Wench

My Favorite Beer: Old Marcus ESB. It’s better than their Beast Bitter and (even better) there is a growler sitting in my fridge. Dark copper coloring, solid tannish head and a delicious balance of the hoppy bitterness and malty taste.

My Favorite Moment: Seeing the faces of the people pouring beers when my friend Austin Powers showed his ID.
…Yes, that is his birth name.


Empire Brewing Company
Syracuse, NY

I found out about this little brewpub after speaking with a friendly fellow at Middle Ages. A couple of buddies and myself headed down the stairs into this dark and snazzy little pup after feasting on ribs and Ape Hanger Ale over at Dinosaur BBQ. The place recently reopened, and from what I hear they have been inviting different brew masters over to concoct specialty brews. I had a decent 6-beer sampler as I tried to digest the BBQ onslaught inside my stomach.

Beer Sampled: Skinny Atlas Light, Purgatory Pale Ale, Empire Amber Ale, Seasonal Brown, Instigator Dopplebock, Black Magic Stout

My Favorite Beer: It’s between the Brown and the Dopplebock. The brown ale had a heavy coffee flavor that pushed it into stout territory but it managed to retain its lightness and brown ale punch. The Dopplebock was just a monster of a beer. These two made up for the terrible Skinny Atlas and mediocre at best Pale Ale.

My Favorite Moment: Seeing the Syracuse socialites order wine at a brew pup.


Ithaca Beer Company
Ithaca, NY
This is another place that holds a special place in my heart. Ithaca was my Binghamton getaway and the brewery is a great spot to hit up before or after a hike in one of the nearby gorges. The place has been expanding over the past few years and recently won the “Best NY Craft Brewer” award in the 2008 TAP-NY competition. Keep up the deliciousness Ithaca!

Beer Sampled: Apricot Wheat, Ithaca Pils, Pale Ale, Nut Brown Ale, Cazcazilla, Ten, Flower Power, Saison (brewed at the Empire Brewery)

My Favorite Beer: The Nut Brown is definitely my favorite all year Ithaca Brew, but the Ten is phenomenal! They made this brew in honor of their ten-year anniversary and it is a knockout. Ten is a bottle condition American Strong Ale with a dark, red color and a 10% alcohol content that goes down much smoother than most of the high alcohol beers I’ve tried. It’s made with similar hops as Cazcazilla but instead of being a hoppy assault on your taste buds, it melds perfectly with a stick maltiness that makes this one remarkably drinkable celebration brew. Be careful with this one, it will kick your ass if you don’t/

My Favorite Moment: A meandering stroll through Buttermilk Falls after the sampling.


Portsmouth Brewery
Portsmouth, NH
As delicious brewpub located in the center of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This brewery is the sister company to Smuttynose and serves a few of their great beers in addition to their own concoctions. This was my first time in the state and it was long overdue; some of my favorite brews come from New Hampshire and Maine and this brewery made some great food to go with their beers. I had a massive ten-beer sampler and indulged in every last drop. Go New England!

Beers Sampled: Dirty Blond Ale, Smuttynose Portsmouth Lager, Hefeweizen, Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale, Wheat Wine, Bottle Rocket IPA, Saison, Wild Thang, Black Cat Stout

My Favorite Beer: While the Wild Thang was the most interesting (a golden ale brewed with wild rice), the Saison was my favorite. The brewery describes their Saison as a “traditional ale characterized by its pale color, fruity notes and lively effervescence” and this is pretty much spot on.

My Favorite Moment: Hearing my New England born waiter say Chow-dah.


Smutty Brewing Company
Portsmouth, NH
Despite this brewery making tasty, tasty beer, they only allow visitors to sample their delights Thursdays and Fridays at 3pm. Unfortunately, I showed up on a Monday at noon and they refused my humble pleas for a tasting. Either way, they have a basketball hoop rigged up to the outdoor grain tank so they get an A+ in my book. Maybe Next time.

Beers Sampled: None

My Favorite Beer: The one I saw one of the Smuttynose employees drinking as I begged for a sampling

My Favorite Moment: Holding back my tears…


American Craft Beer Fest
Boston, MA
What can’t be said about this festival? 75 breweries, 300 beers and I got to hear Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head give a seminar on beer and cheese. This festival is the work of the Alström Brothers and their lovely creation, Beer Advocate. It was a way to give us East Coasters and chance to sample tons of good beer, learn about what we were drinking and make toasts to an entire convention center full of intoxicated beer fanatics.

Beers Sampled: Here it comes… Sam Adams’ 2-year Barley Wine and Sahti, Ommegang’s Biere de Mars and Ommegeddon, Brooklyn Brewery’s Extra Brune and Local 1, Cambridge Brewing’s Cerise Casée and YouEnjoyMyStout, Dogfish Head’s aged Raisin D’extra, Festina Lente, Old School Barley wine and World Wide Stout, Ithaca Brewery’s Brute and Ten, Magic Hat’s Berliner Weisse with raspberry and with a green substance the name of which I cannot read from my notes but it tasted like lucky charms, Mercury Brewing’s Original Ale on cask and Summer Ale, Michelob’s Shock Top, Peak Organic’s Amber Ale and Maple Oat Ale, Pennichuck Brewing’s Schwarzbier and Shouboushi Ginger Pilsner, Rouge’s 100 Meter Ale, Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Morimoto Imperial Pilsner and Shakespeare Stout, Southern Tier Brewing’s Big Red and Cherry Saison, Terrapin Beer’s Rye Pale Ale and, finally, Victory Brewing’s Saison and Baltic Thunder Porter

My Favorite Beer: Far too many to name

My Favorite Moment: Hearing Garrett Oliver tell me that he literally stands behind his beer as he poured me an Extra Brune while wearing the craziest black and green cowboy shirt I’ve even seen. Also, tasting a bunch of delicious beer with a bunch of great people and beer fans. Kudos Boston.

Slow and Low—Big Apple BBQ Block Party

This past weekend I ventured into Manhattan for the first time since returning from Spain. The reason for this trip was The Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, an annual BBQ festival where NYC and a bunch of sponsors usher in good music, amazing beer, BBQ specialists and—best of all—fourteen pit masters from everywhere in the United States. Way to go Manhattan.


When I was in Spain I had many opportunities to talk food with the locals. I would often ask what were typical dishes, beverages, fruits and vegetables of whatever area I was visiting. More than once, a Spaniard would ask me about the “typical” American food. After taking too long to produce an answer, a woman from Valencia proclaimed McDonald’s hamburgers to be our most authentic food and changed the topic to something else. It was at this moment I realized that I needed to discover a legitimate answer to this question. After talking to several friends, reading numerous articles and pensively thinking over many meals the only suitable answer I could come up with was barbecue. Because America is such a conglomeration of every possible ethnicity imaginable, most of the cuisines we eat are various fusions and bastardizations of the foods from across the ocean. BBQ—along with the clambake I found out this weekend—are two Native American traditions that have survived until today. After listening to a couple of seminars about the stuff and eating my fair share of barbecued goodies this weekend, I have to hand it to the Native Americans for creating a culinary tradition worth bragging about to the snooty gourmands to the west.

The event took place in Madison Square Park—right next to the always-crowded Shake Shack—over June 7th and 8th. A stage was erected at the mouth of the park and was flanked by two delicious but over-priced beer tents. Rogue, Smuttynose, Blue Point and Magic Hat were only a few of the tasty brews that were too expensive for me to enjoy. Small tents from other, less delicious sponsors (e.g. American Express and Party Rental LTD.) were scattered throughout park along with people chomping away and lounging on various grass patches. The meat of the festival, however, was located on the perimeter of the park; here were the BBQ tents. Each Pit Master/Restaurant had a tent full of whatever cooking apparatus they utilized to produce endless plates of pork, ribs and beef.


In addition to the food and drink, there were free BBQ seminars. Now, while most people couldn’t care less about hearing BBQ “experts” debate about sauces, cooking methods, meats and—my favorite—the geography of barbecue, I couldn’t have been happier. I was able to see Calvin Trillin, the author of Tummy Trilogy and writer for the New Yorker since 1963, discuss the geographical boundaries of BBQ. While seminars like these might seem pretty one-dimensional, the talks brought up a lot of interesting points. For example, now that we can ship any food anywhere we want, are we losing track of our regional specialties? Are States and counties losing their idiosyncratic culinary traditions? Are small restaurants—backwoods places where grandma or grandpa has been cooking for over 50 years—on the verge of extinction because new, super-restaurants have the capital to bring “authentic taste” out of the swamp and into the big city? These questions and more were raised at these seminars. Despite the wealth of knowledge I obtained, the seminar tent made sure I didn’t leave empty handed. I walked out of the tent with a handy “The Geography of ‘Cue: The Sauce Boundaries of South Carolina” topographical map. What luck!

On the second day I had the honor of seeing Jeffery Steingarten speak about competition BBQ. In case you don’t know, Steingarten is author of the amazing book, The Man Who Ate Everything, food critic at Vogue, judge on Iron Chef America and the food personality most loathed by many of my friends. If you’ve ever caught a clip of him on Iron Chef or read anything about or by him, you probably have the idea that the Harvard educated Steingarten gives off a pretentious air of superiority. Well, after seeing him discuss, disagree and argue with three of America’s most seasoned and prominent BBQ Pit Masters and experts I can safely say everything you thought about the man is correct! He is slightly arrogant and pompous--albeit an incredibly knowledgeable food personality--who takes every opportunity to disagree with everything that is said about a certain topic. Whenever a question was thrown his way, Steingarten never missed a chance to completely deflate the conversation and put his own spin on things. I loved every minute of it.


As for the food itself, rarely have I tasted anything better. Chris Lilly, Pit Master at Big Bob’s Bar-B-Q in Alabama and Mike Mills, Pit Master at numerous restaurants and four-time world chmpion and three-time Grand World Champion of the Memphis in May festival, described BBQ best—it is a way to get people together, eat delicious food, enjoy some music and kick back some beers. The meat may not be the only part of barbecue, but it certainly takes the lime light. Both men claimed that the beauty of an event like the Big Apple BBQ was that instead of a competition, where the public rarely has a chance to sample the food and the Pit Masters are nervously overseeing every minuscule detail of roasting a whole hog or slow cooking numerous racks of ribs, the NYC festival allows the cooks to relax and prepare the food they would cook in their homes, much to the benefit of me and the masses assembled in Madison Square park. Needless to say, everything I tasted was delicious. My standout plate was a whole hog sandwich from Ed Mitchell, Pit Master from The Pit in Raleigh, North Carolina. The line for this tent wrapped around the block but the delicious aromas that clung to the city air assured me that the food would be well worth the wait. The sandwich starts by whole pigs cooked slow and low until the skin is crispy and pulls right off of the meat. The cooks then take the giant slabs of pig, chop it and mix everything together, making for a delicious mess of every part of the hog. It’s kind of like eating every delicious ham, pork and bacon plate you’ve ever had in one luscious, slightly spiced and juicy sandwich.



Despite not being able to try as many plates as I would have liked, everyone I spoke to loved what they sampled. The air was full of deliciously meaty smoke and people didn’t even mind the relentless 95-degree weather as they drank and danced along to the country, funk and surf bands that provided the entertainment for the weekend. I was out there in the middle of it all, sipping a Smuttynose IPA while wiping bbq sauce off of my lips and dancing to some hopping country and folk. Oh how I missed NY.



And some more photos:

Pulled Pork Shoulder and coleslaw-simple and delicious.

Up close of my whole hog sandwich. I might have to stop eating pig unless I am simultaneously eating every part of it.

Not from the festival, but fitting nonetheless. Some soul food I had at Miss Mamie's Spoonbread Too up on 110th. My buddy took me here and I couldn't have been happier--ribs, fried chicken, collard greens and a local beer from Harlem called Sugar Hill.

The Snob

Since getting back to the States a week ago, I haven’t had many encounters with gastronomic greatness; I’ve eaten a lot BBQ leftovers I made a for party we threw for my mother’s birthday and watched my dad eat countless peanut butter/cinnamon raisin bread sandwiches. I’ve been on the search for some decent bread but this is taking much longer than is acceptable. After leaving my bakery job in Binghamton—fresh, hand-made bread definitely spoils you—I jetted straight to Spain where a delicious panaderia is on every corner. Back in NY, every bread that I’ve tried so far has struck out, but I remain hopeful. On my trip to the Columbian bakery that recently opened by my house, I saw a shelf full of mysterious looking sweet breads. This may successfully hold me over while I continue my search.

The reason for this post isn’t to lament about the distance between me and the super-fresh chomps in Spain, however. It is actually the opposite—I am optimistic!

I recently finished a couple of books that inspired me to write this post. The first was Don’t Try This At Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World’s Greatest Chefs. Despite the great potential of this concept, the book sucked. There is a reason why (most) chefs are cooking and not writing. The second was Jeffery Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything. Steingarten attacks food recipes and concepts with the scientific gusto of a true food dork—it was fantastic! I definitely recommend it to anyone, especially those who are only familiar with Steingarten from his stint as a Iron Chef judge.

The third book—and the one that I just started this morning—is the reason I am optimistic. I picked it up after reading an on-line article about the best food books from 2007. It’s called The Food Snob’s Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Gastronomical Knowledge and it is best summed up with a quote from the foreword:

Part groupie, part aesthete, part stark raving loon, the Food Snob is someone who has taken the amateur epicure’s admirable zeal for eating and cooking well to hollandaise-curdling extremes.

How much better can a description be? How else would you describe Jeffery Steingarten ordering 100-lbs of potatoes, countless quarts of various oils and 6-pounds of horse fat from Austria in order to study, test and re-test numerous french fry recipes or why Alton Brown will take the time to measure how long it takes the different sections on his gas and charcoal grills to melt an ice cube in order to understand the best way to cook a steak? The Food Snob’s Dictionary says that its aim is to help normal food enthusiasts defend the ever-lurking snob or help an aspiring food snob reach his goals of complete food snobbery. I wonder which category I would fall in?

So why did the mere foreword of this book make me optimist? Well, it made me realize that I am a mere 30 minutes from New York City, if not the culinary capital of the world, one of the few places where you can order any part of any animal, fruit or vegetable prepared any style you wish at any time of the day. It is here in Manhattan where one can practice his snobbery to the letter.

...Also, there is a BBQ festival in Madison Square Park this Weekend and Calvin Trillin—author of a slew of delicious food books in the 70’s and 80’s—will be giving a free BBQ seminar!

Oh happiness.