More in the city

Grimm Artisanal Ales had their ‘grand opening’ Saturday June 30. My friend Em, who doesn’t really drink beer was coming to the city. When I said I want to go to Grimm she said she would come with me. So after she got here we headed to Brooklyn. I have had Grimm before and since I know what she likes, I was sure she would find something to drink she would like. On that Saturday they were pouring 3 sour beers, an American pale ale, a double IPA and a saison de Copage.

It was mad crazy packed. There was a line to buy cans and bottles that went down the side to the back, across the back, down to the front and out the door. People were lined up 3 deep at the bar and they weren’t accepting cash, only cards which Em didn’t like, she prefers to use cash. I told Em she would probably like a sour, since she likes beer with grapefruit and orange in it. She ordered the “Super You” a Sour Gose with Pineapple. As expected she liked it, mainly because it tasted like “A fruity cocktail, not beer”. I had “Air & Light” a dry hopped sour with cherries. I didn’t take any pictures that day partly because Em was with me and also because is was so packed! I bought the growler on my second trip on July 9th.

On that trip I had “Icing on the Cake” and “Double Negative” both stouts. I got the growler filled with “Zero Anniversary”.

Grimm Artisanal Ales is a Brooklyn-based brewery founded in 2013 by Joe and Lauren Grimm after nearly a decade of tinkering with fermentation. Grimm specializes in concise, elegant ales epitomizing the creative, experimental spirit of the American artisanal beer revolution. With each limited edition release, we seek to push the boundaries of style and flavor in order to create beers with the utmost depth and complexity.

When I started researching breweries for my 2017 Brewery Tour I discovered breweries that claim to be NYC breweries that don’t actually brew in the city. These are contract breweries. Most of them actually bring all their ingredients, except water, to another brewery and use their equipment. As part of my ‘brewery tour’, I was going to track down as many of these brewery’s beers as I could. Some are easy, you can find them at places like Whole Foods and the Pony Bar, Six Point, KelSo, Evil Twin, and the above mentioned Grimm. Some are not so easy. One of the not so easy ones is Harlem Blue. I have to be honest and say I wasn’t exactly searching very hard, after all there is so much beer to drink! But I was keeping my eyes open for any mention of them. The Museum of the City of New York had an event, I thought Harlem Blue was going to be there, thought that was what I read but instead the alcohol was Prosecco, not to be deterred I kept the museum on my watch list. Then it happened. I don’t remember if it was e-mail or Facebook but they started a series of events, the one that interested me was, “Unexpected Pairings: Beer & Chocolate” featuring Harlem Blue and Harlem Chocolate Factory, on July 19, 2018. You know which one I was interested in! Julian Riley founded Harlem Blue in 2014, he described himself as a ‘recovering attorney’, specializing in contracts, he stated he wanted to “represent crafting from a Harlem point of view”. Currently brewing in Harrisburg, PA, but stated plans are in the works to open a brewery in NYC. When I asked him, he couldn’t give me a firm date. You can be sure I will set a Google alert for this! There were two beers to sample, “1658 Ale” Pale Wheat Ale, the name comes from the fact the 1658 is when Harlem was founded. I didn’t try it (allergies) but it is ‘approachable’, I can’t explain that, for all the beer I drink I am woefully uneducated about what the terms mean. The other beer was “Hectic IPA” also drinkable. The chocolate was good too.

Another brewery I had my eye on was a brewery named “Radiant Pig, according to Google it was located in Manhattan, but the address looking like a apartment. In a rather weird coincidence, if you believe in them, I stumbled upon some Radiant Pig beer on July 22, 2018. I went to a different grocery store to get my lunch. Most of the grocery stores in Queens have awesome beer selections. I stopped to look at what they had, like I always do and saw “Save the Robots” by Radiant Pig, an American Pale Ale, so I bought a six-pack. Now I can add Radiant Pig to my brewery tour list.