Friday, June 02, 2006
Chelsea Brewing Company
Last night I met up with Big Daddy Cal and we headed to the Chelsea Brewing Company at where else but Chelsea Piers.
Chelsea Brewing Company is the only real brewpub in New York City. Meaning that they do all the production on-site. Heartland used to do this, but they have since moved their production facilities off-site and everything you see in their restaurants are decorations.
I will say that while it is the best brewpub in the city, Manhattan deserves a lot better. Someplace with the quality and reputation of the Southhampton Publick House out on the east end of Long Island. Hopefully some rich beer lover will wake up and open such an establishment.
Anyways, back to the Chelsea Brewing Co.
It is located at Pier 59 by the driving range. I had been there once before in 98 or 99 after hitting some balls with my dad. Back then I hadn't had more than a handful of beers, and I just had one pint of the Checker Cab Blonde.
Last night Chelsea was offering 7 beers, but they were out of the spring wheat so the sampler only consisted of 6 brews, pictured below:
Labeled. For your convenience.
I started at the bottom left and worked my way around, so the first one up didn't count towards my goal, but I will write about it anyways.
The Checker Cab Blonde Ale is one of Chelsea's year round brews, made in the German kolsch style. I've only had a few of this style, so I can't definitively say how it stacks up against the competition but it is a nice, crisp, easy drinking ale and perfect for the summer. It's rather light-bodied with somewhat of a citrusy finish. If I came here on a nice day, and was sitting out on the deck by the marina outside I would order one of these. Better than a Corona anyday.
The rest of the beers on the sampler were all new to me, so here goes:
164) Chelsea Blackberry Wheat - Chelsea always has a fruit/wheat beer available. Today it was the blackberry and you could indeed taste it right up front. However it was too cloying for my taste.
165) Chelsea Piers 10th Anniversary Abbey Ale - Chelsea's version of a belgian style ale. Tastes malty with some spice notes in there. Not a bad try but there is too much going on and nothing really brings it into balance.
166) Chelsea Sunset Red Ale - Now this I really liked. Any drinkers of Killians should take note and get this into your rotation instead. Nice balance between the caramel malt taste and hops. I could really drink this all day. Chelsea really did a great job on this. As a bonus, this is available year round. If you see it on draft around town, give it a try.
167) Chelsea Hop Angel IPA - If you like your IPAs to be intensely bitter, then this is right up your alley. I like bitter IPAs but the finish was a bit coarse on this. That I could deal with, but my main peeve here is that I couldn't discern any kind of malt whatsoever so the beer was not balanced at all. Very unrefined. I will say this though. I have had worse IPAs. At least it has the intense hoppiness going for it. Better to have that than an IPA without any character whatsoever. I just don't like when brewers play it safe, so kudos to Chelsea for actually trying.
168) Chelsea Gotham Stout - This was the final beer out of the sampler. This stout was hoppy. I bet the IBUs on this are sky-high, though because stouts are so malty you never notice. But this one definitely had an interesting kick to it. Bit of a different aroma on this one as well, due to the prevalance of the hops. It had the typical chocolate notes but with a piney element.
We both liked the stout so we each ordered a pint, pictured here in all its glory.
The logo shows through!
Well, some nice progress was made yesterday, bringing my total for the year to 168. That leaves me with less than 200 new beers to try for the year, 197 to be exact.
The next milestone will be #183, as that will mean I'm more than 50% done. Tonight is a gym night but I imagine I'll have one or two new ones this weekend.
Chelsea Brewing Company is the only real brewpub in New York City. Meaning that they do all the production on-site. Heartland used to do this, but they have since moved their production facilities off-site and everything you see in their restaurants are decorations.
I will say that while it is the best brewpub in the city, Manhattan deserves a lot better. Someplace with the quality and reputation of the Southhampton Publick House out on the east end of Long Island. Hopefully some rich beer lover will wake up and open such an establishment.
Anyways, back to the Chelsea Brewing Co.
It is located at Pier 59 by the driving range. I had been there once before in 98 or 99 after hitting some balls with my dad. Back then I hadn't had more than a handful of beers, and I just had one pint of the Checker Cab Blonde.
Last night Chelsea was offering 7 beers, but they were out of the spring wheat so the sampler only consisted of 6 brews, pictured below:
Labeled. For your convenience.
I started at the bottom left and worked my way around, so the first one up didn't count towards my goal, but I will write about it anyways.
The Checker Cab Blonde Ale is one of Chelsea's year round brews, made in the German kolsch style. I've only had a few of this style, so I can't definitively say how it stacks up against the competition but it is a nice, crisp, easy drinking ale and perfect for the summer. It's rather light-bodied with somewhat of a citrusy finish. If I came here on a nice day, and was sitting out on the deck by the marina outside I would order one of these. Better than a Corona anyday.
The rest of the beers on the sampler were all new to me, so here goes:
164) Chelsea Blackberry Wheat - Chelsea always has a fruit/wheat beer available. Today it was the blackberry and you could indeed taste it right up front. However it was too cloying for my taste.
165) Chelsea Piers 10th Anniversary Abbey Ale - Chelsea's version of a belgian style ale. Tastes malty with some spice notes in there. Not a bad try but there is too much going on and nothing really brings it into balance.
166) Chelsea Sunset Red Ale - Now this I really liked. Any drinkers of Killians should take note and get this into your rotation instead. Nice balance between the caramel malt taste and hops. I could really drink this all day. Chelsea really did a great job on this. As a bonus, this is available year round. If you see it on draft around town, give it a try.
167) Chelsea Hop Angel IPA - If you like your IPAs to be intensely bitter, then this is right up your alley. I like bitter IPAs but the finish was a bit coarse on this. That I could deal with, but my main peeve here is that I couldn't discern any kind of malt whatsoever so the beer was not balanced at all. Very unrefined. I will say this though. I have had worse IPAs. At least it has the intense hoppiness going for it. Better to have that than an IPA without any character whatsoever. I just don't like when brewers play it safe, so kudos to Chelsea for actually trying.
168) Chelsea Gotham Stout - This was the final beer out of the sampler. This stout was hoppy. I bet the IBUs on this are sky-high, though because stouts are so malty you never notice. But this one definitely had an interesting kick to it. Bit of a different aroma on this one as well, due to the prevalance of the hops. It had the typical chocolate notes but with a piney element.
We both liked the stout so we each ordered a pint, pictured here in all its glory.
The logo shows through!
Well, some nice progress was made yesterday, bringing my total for the year to 168. That leaves me with less than 200 new beers to try for the year, 197 to be exact.
The next milestone will be #183, as that will mean I'm more than 50% done. Tonight is a gym night but I imagine I'll have one or two new ones this weekend.
# posted by Nick @ 10:07 AM 
