NYC Craft Beer Week 2010 and Get Real NY

My husband checks out local brewery and food vendor offerings (just before Le Fooding) at Get Real NY, part of NY Craft Beer Week.

After starting 2010 New York City Craft Beer Week with a stop at The Pony Bar (for Ithaca Brewing's spectacular Brute and the tasty Super Friends Laird's Apple Brandy Barrel), I headed to the first session of Get Real NY, a cask event sponsored by Rattle N Hum with Alex Hall of Gotham Imbiber.

After waiting in line for almost an hour before the doors opened, the first thing I overheard when getting my tasting glass was how much of a disaster ticketing was for this event -- so I was starting to wonder what this event would be like.  But in the end, it turned out to be a great event for beer lovers and definitely one of the better beer festivals I have attended.

I started off with some cask ales from The Bruery: the Seven Grain Saison and Mischief, a strong pale ale.  Some of the highlights of the afternoon for me included:  Tampa's Cigar City Brewing (amazing flavorful beers especially the Guava Grove IPA and Red Oak IPA); Smuttynose Robust Porter (with Apple Brandy Chips); Schlafly Imperial Stout; brews from Heavy Seas (Clipper City); and the River Horse Oak Aged Special Ale (from NJ).

Since the Saturday afternoon session was not too packed, I was able to take a few samples of some of the homebrewers offerings, including an India Black Ale (or Black IPA), which seems to be one of the hot styles of beer being offered these days.  Even local brewery Blue Point Brewing had an India Black Ale, a bitter and toasty delight called 'Toxic Sludge' whose profits go to the Gulf oil spill clean up.  Overall, the selection of cask ales was amazing -- I doubt any beer event in NY before has been as good as this one.

Food options were light, with Luke's Lobster serving up tasty half shrimp rolls (though I wished for their lobster rolls), bite size cupcakes from Kumquat Cupcakery, cookies from Amy's Cookies and cheese from Lucy's Whey at Chelsea Market.

It was definitely worth the visit, I'm already looking forward to next year (hopefully they will do this at least twice a year).  If you like cask ale, or real ale as some people refer to it as, definitely check events like this out or try a pint at your local craft beer bar.