All-Star Wine, but no All-Star Beer?

There is a 2013 MLB All-Star Wine available from Purlieu Wines.  This is fine, I’m all for specialized products celebrating the 2013 game at Citi Field. Of course, this product was put together with about as little effort as one could manage. The URL for the site still reads 2012, and it’s just a simple bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon with the game logo on the label. The description doesn’t even mention the Mets, or New York. Additionally, it’s from Napa Valley. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, there are a ton of nice wineries on Long Island that are local and would probably love to sell one of their wines for this event.

 

And there is no beer. You can specifically tailor a beer to the event and it takes much less time to brew for production than wine. There are dozens of appropriate breweries in New York that could provide something fun. Even Ommegang, the brewery located in the same town as the Hall of Fame, would be a great choice. They brew a special beer for Game of Thrones, I imagine they could spare a couple of barrels for the Midsummer Classic. Think about how neat it would be for the baseball Hall of Fame to feature a collection of bottles from each game?

 

Regardless, there seems to be no All-Star Beer. Citi Field’s beer selection isn’t horrible, but it has about as many All-Stars as the Mets do. It’s disappointing that the event seems so corporate sometimes it’s hard to get some of this personalization. Never mind that Budweiser is a huge MLB sponsor and would probably do their best to nix any non-Budweiser beer being celebrated anyway.

Craft Beer At Citi Field: New Additions

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.

 

New at Citi Field this year

photo by CeetarThe 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.

Citi Field Beer Idea

This weekend I got a chance to visit the new Queens brewery, Singlecut Beersmiths.

Photo by Ceetar

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.

Sixpoint Beer Expansion at Citi Field?

photo by CeetarThanks to CoreyNYC for pointing me to this tweet

 

Starting Aug 7, @sixpoint cans will be available at @citi_field_ny outside of section 139. Stop by this area & get your #craftbeer fix!

— Union Beer Dist. (@greatbrewersnyc) July 25, 2012

 

Now, as you can see by the picture, Sixpoint Sweet Action is already served at Citi Field at any of the three Craft Beer Dugouts.  These are located near the foul poles on the field level and just to the first base side of the Big Apple Brews stand in the Promenade Food Court area behind home plate.

 

The section 139 mentioned in the tweet is the last section of the left field reserved section on the field level, on the left field side of the apple.   There is already one of those beer of the world stand there that looks similar to the Craft Beer Dugout and has four taps.  So perhaps all this tweet means is an additional Dugout.  This is a poor place for it, as it’s basically on the Shake Shack line when it gets really long, but maybe getting a beer prior to getting on the Shake Shack line (even if you can no longer get Shackmeister Ale) is the perfect spot.

 

What I would love for it to be, and I doubt it would be given the location and proximity to the Big Apple Brews (distributed by Anheuser-Busch), is a stand devoted to carrying excellent local craft beer cans, starting with the half dozen or so nano-kegs (cans) that Sixpoint carries.  If they included Diesel this would match my request for a darker beer at Citi Field.

 

Unrelated to the tweet, Blue Point was supposed to have their White IPA available in cans at Citi Field, but I have had yet to see them.  I’ve seen tweets from Blue Point folk that the cans have been released recently, so hopefully they’ll start showing up at Citi Field.  The beer itself might be a little more palatable for the casual fan, as it’s not as super bitter as many associate with IPAs.  It’s a little more floraly and has some Belgian wheat beer feel to it.

Citi Field Needs a Beer

Whether or not you believe the season is over or if the Mets can come back from this recent slump, I think we can all agree that we need another beer to watch right?

 

I was at the game Friday night where it rained half the night and was breezy and pretty chilly.  I walked up to the Craft Beer Dugout and the first thing I thought was “A nice porter would really hit the spot right now.”  The Mets do not sell any dark beers, not even Guinness.  The closest option is probably the Leffe Brown, and that’s an import.

 

There are plenty of other cool summer evenings, and there are cold games in April, September, and maybe even in October some years.  A nice roasty porter or stout would really be a great option for those games.  Brooklyn Brewery makes a dry Irish Stout that’s very tasty, and you could even re-brand it the Daniel Murphy Stout.

 

The lack of a broad variety is park of what keeps the competitive Citi Field Beer from being a true champion. I suggest Sixpoint Diesel.

Citi Field Beer Write Up

Let's Go Mets!I sent along a full write up of the Citi Field Beer selection over to John Kleinchester of Beertography, so you should go check it out.

 

If I was going to grade the selection available I’d give it a “meaningful games in September” grade and just missing the playoffs.

 

This is still a big step forward off a down year last year however.  The selection is still reeling from the loss of the Brooklyn specialty beers at Taste of the City stands in center field.  In fact, if you poke around on Beertography you can catch hints of similar stories about what seems to be “Big Beer” pushing out the little guys.  Particularly in the review for Yankee Stadium and the Prudential Center in Newark.

 

My hope is that Citi Field continues to add new local beers, and expands beyond what they have now.  At the very least, adding more Sixpoint cans including the newly released summer ale Apollo, would be excellent news.

A Brand New Beer, Have it at Citi Field

Available at Citi Field, Let's Go Mets! -CeetarBlue Point Brewing Company has a new beer.  It’s a White India Pale Ale and it’s available at Citi Field starting on Opening Day.  It’ll also be available via cans in the summer.  (So will Blue Point Toasted Lager and Blue Point Summer)

 

Here’s the description of the beer via Blue Point:

 

European-style white ale that finishes like a fresh American IPA.  Malted and unmalted wheat, west coast hops, and Belgian yeast give it a perfectly balanced character with less bitterness than traditional IPAs. 40 IBU, 6%

Mets Add New Craft Beer Options

have a beer at Citi FieldLast night was a preview event for the new food options at Citi Field for the 2012.  I’ll get to some of that in a different post, (Or you can check some of the other obvious places, such as the confluence of all Mets and Sandwich news, Tedquarters.  Spoiler alert: We both agree on what was the best new food option.)  First off, the beer changes!

 

The Citi Field Beer List lists Blue Point Lager and Blue Point Toasted.  Those are actually the same beers as far as I know.  It’s Blue Point Toasted Lager.  One has a star and one does not, so I think this means it’ll be available at both the craft beer stands and at some normal places. (Catch of the Day is where it’s been)  Another weird one is Goose Island Sum Blonde Ale.  I don’t think Goose Island makes a blonde.  They make Goose Island Summertime, which was occasionally available last year at Big Apple Brews due to it’s Anheuser-Busch/InBev distribution.

 

Yes, craft beer stands.  Located near sections 105 (That’s by the World’s Fare Market), section 127 (Near the other foul pole) and in section 413 (That’s the Promenade food court area) of the Promenade Level meaning we don’t have to go downstairs from the cheap seats to get good beer.

 

Real craft beers that weren’t on the list last year, or were only available in the Delta Sky 360 Club (The Ommegang may still only be there)  include Blue Point Summer, Blue Point White India Pale Ale (This one’s a new one, premiered March 29th, 2012), Ommegang Abbey Ale, Redhook Pilsner, Six Point Sweet Action, Sierra Nevada, Magic Hat #9, and Widmer Drifter Pale Ale.  Also new is the expanded line of Shock Top ales, the Lemon Shandy, the Raspberry Wheat, and the Wheat India Pale Ale.

 

I’m still going to do a full analysis of Citi Field on Opening Day to take in the options and confirm this list.  Having a craft beer stand is an excellent idea, and having three of them even better.  I’m happy with this expansion, but I also hope this is a first step and not a final idea.  The list has 12 stars on it representing the beers available at the craft beer stands in either cans or drafts.  I imagine some of the more seasonal ones will rotate out, like Blue Point Summer, but the others include Shock Top, Leinenkugel Summer Shandy and Blue Moon, which are macro brews.  Also included are Anheuser-Busch/InBev distributed Goose Island IPA, Kona Longboard Lager, and Widmer Drifter Pale Ale.    The real expansion is the Blue Point brews, and that’s great.  It’ll also be nice to be able to have Magic Hat #9, Sixpoint Sweet Action and Sierra Nevada outside the club areas.   Sixpoint has a large line of cans available these days, so hopefully more of those start showing up.