Belgian Night in NYC and the World's Rarest Beer

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to host my first ever beer event with Ale Street News and CityDusk. Ale Street Nights: Belgian Night In NYC was a celebration of beer, friends, and more obnoxiously delicious beer.

The event consisted of a pair of beers at The Hop Devil Grill Lounge on St. Marks in the East Village followed by three pours, mussels and frites at the East Village Tavern on Ave C at 10th Street. Simple enough, right?

Wrong. I quickly found out that event planning in NYC is a huge pain in the ass. Besides booking venues and setting prices, there is that little aspect of advertising and getting people to go! Despite my best efforts I couldn’t convince many friends to shell out for fine beers and shellfish, so luckily Tony and Jack at Ale Street News decided the sponsor the event and we brought in a nice little crew of beer lovers.

Fast-forward past pitches, negotiations, write-ups and advertising and settle on last Saturday evening.

It was a beautiful day in NYC and I am settled into a bar stool at the Hop Devil sipping a Delirium Tremens. I’m taking my time with the ferocious pink elephant but getting nervous; I am expecting twelve people plus five or so friends of Ale Street and none have shown up yet; it is a quarter past the designated start date.

Waiting.

Drinking.

Waiting.

Drinking some more.

…Finally! An older couple shows up and I pounce, offering drink tickets, wristbands and some beer suggestions. The woman turns out to be the aunt of boss at CityDusk and we chat more about him than beer. Not a problem for me, at least people are showing up.

Fast-forward to twenty minutes later.

A whole slew of individuals show up including casual beer fans and Ale Street writers. I feel relieved, kill my beer and order a surprisingly thin tasting Victory Saison. People start chatting among themselves, Tony and Jack show up and the party is in full swing. Everyone is introduced and I start describing the evening. Tony gets up and gives a spiel about Belgium and Belgian beers and we round up the crew and head over to the East Village Tavern.

Before I get any further, I need to talk about EVT for a bit. I never got the chance to venture to this American craft brew haven before but I was speaking to the manager, Bill Mackin, on the phone constantly for the past several weeks. We started discussing the event, then got to just chatting about brewers, breweries and obscure and rare beers. I am nowhere near as knowledgeable about beers as Bill (or any of the people associated with Ale Street for that matter—I’m young, what can I say) but Bill took an immediate liking to me. We planned a stellar line-up for the evening—Goose Island’s Pere Jacques, Avery’s Salvation and Keegan’s Four Philosophers—and decided on a deliciously Belgian dinner of mussels and frites.

Once everyone got to EVT Jack handed out beer goggles and demanded, “We walk in there and own the place.” We snapped a few pictures as confused bar patrons sitting in the outdoor patio looked on and headed in to start the shenanigans.

Fast-forward to two hours and a few beers later.

I have beer goggles perched on my head, there is a plate of empty mollusk shells on the table and people are telling me anecdotes about Belgian café restrooms and beatnik cross country trips. I am in my glory; I have a glass of Four Philosophers in hand, a plate of Belgian chocolates and people are thanking me for a great evening. I’ve been chatting with the owner of EVT about hard-to-find beers and future NYC beer bars when Tony comes up to me and says brought the Holy Grail of beers; my jaw drops as he pulls out the nondescript, yellow-capped bottle of Westvleteren 12.

Just in case you have a life and don’t read about beer for fun, Westvelern 12 is the rarest beer in the world. Out of seven Trappist breweries, two (Chimay and Orval) are easily found in the US, three (Achel, Westmalle and Konningshoeven) can be found most times, one (Rochfort) is a much trickier to locate and the final brew (Westvleteren, also known as the Holy Grail of beer) is damn near impossible. Westvleteren is without a doubt the rarest of the Trappist brews. Garret Oliver, head brewer at Brooklyn Brewery says that “Westvleteren’s beers are available only from a drive-up hatch at the abbey gates or from the café In De Vrede, across the street. Even then, not all the beers are sold at any given time.”

When Tony went to Belgium in March, Westvleteren was not available at the brewery. After his fruitless pleading with the monks, he managed to purchase a few bottles at a larger café somewhere else. Luckily for me, I was able to sample the ambrosia without buying a plane ticket to Belgium and begging the monks at the monastery.

To shortly sum up a night up delicious debauchery, the first ever Ale Street Night was a complete success. I got to meet a lot of very interesting and knowledgeable people and drink some great and rare beers. Best of all, there is a chance I can write for Ale Street while I make my way across the country in my quest to taste great beer, have a great time and fulfill my manifest destiny. Cheers to that!