Beer Selection at Nassau Coliseum Tweet This Post
Only a couple of games left this year, and really ever, for the New York Islanders but the beer selection at Nassau Coliseum ain’t half bad.
This picture is blurry, sloppy work on my part, but it’s a chalkboard inside a little bar area that’s right near the entrance by the box office. This is the best place to go if you want something special. Top drafts include Kelso Nut Brown, Blue Point Hoptical Illusion and Toasted Lager, Goose Island IPA, and Fire Island Lighthouse Ale. Except for the Goose Island, those are all local beers to Long Island (Brooklyn and Kelso are physically on Long Island, yes). I remember this list being different last year, and if you browse Google Images you can find chalkboard pictures featuring different beers.
Also available around the coliseum were Blue Point Blueberry Ale, Goose Island 312 Wheat, and both Sam Adams and Brooklyn lagers, including the seasonals. Of course you can also get the standard macro stuff, as well as the Shock Tops and Blue Moons of the world.
I had the Kelso Nut Brown ale, which is the same brown ale they serve at 5 Napkins locations around the city, and while it wasn’t my favorite, it was still tasty. To top it off the Islanders had a fantastically dominating game against the Philadelphia Flyers and continue their playoff push.
Hopefully when the Islanders move to the Barclay’s Center they continue to provide quality craft and local beer. I haven’t been to the place, so I can’t attest to what they’re serving now to Nets fans.
Craft Beer At Citi Field: New Additions Tweet This Post
I’ve updated the Citi Field Beer List to reflect the changes I noticed on Opening Day.
Craft Additions: Sixpoint Bengali Tiger, Kona Big Wave Golden Ale.
Craft Subtractions: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Magic Hat #9, Blue Point Cans.
Macro Additions: Redd Apple Ale. Third Shift Amber Lager, Budweiser Black Crown, Beck’s Sapphire.
This is a step back. The Bengali Ale is really nice, but the pushing of the more macro crafty imitations is poor when it seems to have come at the expense of some real beer. Still no dark beer to be seen.
I was very focused on baseball yesterday and haven’t gotten to do a full sweep of Citi Field or found my way into any of the clubs to see if there’s a hidden nugget. There are probably a couple of new additions I’ve missed, somewhere, and I’ll be back to find them.
Things i’m looking for on Opening Day Tweet This Post
Follow @Ceetar today while I share my observations and pictures from Opening Day.
Quick bullet point type list of things I”ll be scoping out today because I procrastinated this post and now it’s late.
Trackman thingy. I found this article very interesting, and am going to see if I can find the panel.
New Beer. Is there any new beer, and what is it?
New food. Most of the new food has been previewed some, but I’ll still be checking it out and getting a feel for what’s new.
There’s always new signs and kiosks and advertising. Subtle changes in the way Citi Field operates. I’m always interested in those things, the way the escalators run, how the security is behaving. That sort of thing.
Tailgate and Mets fan friends. Checking in with all the fun fans and bloggers that I rarely see anywhere but at Citi Field. It’s a new season, let’s have some fun!
And of course, most importantly, a Mets win! Let’s go Jon Niese!
Tags: Citi Field, Mets, mets beer, opening day
New at Citi Field this year Tweet This Post
The Mets will have a couple of new items at Citi Field this year, from food to ticket options to drinks.
There is no mention of beer, which is disappointing. Perhaps it’s just going unmentioned and there will be some new cool local options around, and I’ll certainly be looking for them, but I’m not holding my breath. They do mention an expansion of the frozen drinks stand that was around somewhere last year.
El Verano Taqueria will have a cantina menu with frozen drinks, and they’ll also be a frozen and mixed drink bar near section 414 on the promenade. That’s right behind home plate on what I call the Citi Field Piazza.
Blue Smoke will have pork rinds, as well as a delicious sounding brisket sandwich.
Shake Shack will get their vegetarian option, the ‘Shroom Burger. Also High Heat Cheese Fries, Cheese Dog/High Heat Cheese Dog, and a “Meet the Pretz” concrete (black & white custard, chocolate covered pretzels and malt powder).
The Mets Hall of Fame will get a Johan Santana No Hitter exhibit as well as a ton of All-Star stuff to celebrate the Mets hosting the All Star Game.
There will be various ticket deals as well. $10 student rush tickets, military tickets, and some others including a free ticket for your birthday.
As always I’ll spend a good chunk of Opening Day wandering the park to see what’s new and hunting for secret beer stands. I’m sure there will be a couple of interesting things here and there.
Baseball Themed Brewery Tweet This Post
It’s extremely new, but there’s a brewery up in Ontario with baseball themed beers.
Their beer list so far includes:
- Eephus Oatmeal Brown Ale
- 6-4-3 Double IPA
- Maris American Pale Ale
Sounds pretty cool to me. 6-4-3 Double IPA is an awesome name. Hopefully after they get settled they can get the Toronto Blue Jays to serve some of their beers at the Rogers Centre, because where better than that?
Citi Field Beer Idea Tweet This Post
This weekend I got a chance to visit the new Queens brewery, Singlecut Beersmiths.
You can click on that link for my review, but the gist of it is that it was good stuff. Queens hasn’t really had any breweries at all until recently, and Singlecut fits right in. You should all know where I’m going with this now. The Mets should support a local business, and get (at least) a tap of their beer into Citi Field. They did a great job with the craft beer dugouts last season, and adding Singlecut to the selection would not be that difficult.
It’d be a great way to expand the beer selection to include a larger variety of local beer.
Tags: beer, beer at citi field, citi field beer, Mets, mets beer
Bad News For Beer and Baseball Fans Tweet This Post
Budweiser extended it’s agreement with Major League Baseball by six years. This isn’t a new deal, it’s more than 30 years old, but the renewal of it may represent a lack of progress towards getting craft beer recognition at ballparks.
It’s fairly obvious that the big beer brands, including Budweiser, would rather the beer drinking public of America be as they feature it on television. Beer as mostly flavorless sustenance that is almost mandatory to have at any viewing of a sporting event. Leaving aside arguments that this reinforces the “Get drunk and belligerent” at ballgames attitude, because those people are looking for a place to party regardless of the entertainment provided. The ballgame is usually secondary to these people and it’s pointless to blame it on the beer and unfair to the rest of us that want to enjoy a beverage. Which is the point; there is a growing subset of fans that want to enjoy a beer at a game that’s a well-crafted tasty drink the same way fans in new ballparks are enjoying cuisine beyond hot dogs and peanuts these days.
Even if rumors of Budweiser actively pursuing ways to shut down craft beer taps, and not just at ballparks, are mostly exaggerated, Budweiser can afford to pay the big bucks for the prime real estate at a venue. This often means craft beer has to be almost hidden among kiosks and specialty stands in other areas. Don’t be confused by Big Apple Brews; while there are some good beers there, they’re all distributed by Anhauser Busch/InBev.
Even with Budweiser being the big player in beer at baseball games, craft beer has been making inroads more and more. Hopefully this continues.
Tags: Baseball, baseball and beer, beer, budweiser sucks
Mets Beer: Darryl Strawberry Hefeweizen Tweet This Post
As well as being a Mets blogger, I’m also a homebrewer. My mother got me a homebrew kit for Christmas one year, and it’s grown into a fun hobby. Recently I’ve taken my game to the next level, making beers that I feel are actually good instead of just drinkable.
Naming the beers is half the fun. Often I like to think of a Mets related name, and sometimes even labels to go with it. I first did this with a toasted coconut brown ale that I dubbed Oliver Perez is Coco-Nutz. Most recently I created a Hefeweizen with strawberries that is really more of a Berliner Weisse, but who needs precise labels anyway?
I decided to call it Darryl Strawberry Hefeweizen.
Tags: beer, ceetar, darryl strawberry hefeweizen, homebrew, mets beer
Beer Selection at MetLife Stadium Tweet This Post
@sixpoint Brewery tweeted this on Sunday.
Nanokegs are between section 126 & 124 concourse at MetLife
This is awesome. Sixpoint nanokegs are the perfect complement to sporting events. To have a wide selection of them AND a dedicated stand is terrific for beer-loving sports fans. It was great to see Sweet Action available to everyone at Citi Field this year, but that’s just a tease compared to this.
I sincerely hope we get something like this at Citi Field next year. Especially if it has Diesel.
Citizen Bank Ballpark’s Beer Selection Tweet This Post
Clearly the Phillies only do one thing right, and that’s beer. Philadelphia has a great beer scene, and Citizen’s Bank Ballpark is no different. This list was compiled by the producers of www.ChocolateCoveredMemories.com & www.MyRuinedLife.com listing all (well, besides the obvious macro brews) the beers available, and it’s broken down by section. (Something I probably should do next year with the Citi Field Beer List.
So while I like what the Mets have improved upon in the beer department, they’ve got a long way to go.
Let’s take a quick peek.
Locals: They’ve got Flying Fish, Victory, Prism, Weyerbacher, Yards, Yuengling, Sly Fox, Troegs, and Philadelphia Brewing Company. I may be missing a few off the list, but that’s quite a bit.
Styles: If you’ve been paying attention, I’ve been suggesting the Mets need a dark beer. (They don’t even have Guinness) CBP isn’t much better. They’ve got Guinness though, and also 21st Amendment’s Back in Black which is a delicious black IPA but not quite the same as a rich, malty porter. Baseball is a summer sport, but you can get chilly days early and late if your team hopes to make the playoffs. Even some summer nights are chilly and could use a darker beer. The rest of the selection is pretty broad across many styles. IPAs, a couple of Belgians, wheats, summers, even Sam Oktoberfest which is still way too early for but I think should be a staple of September and October baseball, Pilsners, Lagers, Pale Ales, Blondes, and ciders.
Location: I haven’t been to Citizen’s Bank Ballpark since 2007, and the beer was plentiful then, but it looks like now there are craft beers pretty much anywhere you look. 95% of Citi Field’s beer selection is located in 5 spots, but at CBP it looks like you never have to go more than a section or two, or perhaps one level down, to find a craft beer. That’s refreshingly awesome.
Tags: baseball beer, beer, beer review