NYC CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL – SPRING SEASONALS RETURNS TO LEXINGTON ARMORY, Mar. 30TH
The Hand Crafted Tasting Company is proud to announce the return of its NYC Craft Beer Festival to the Lexington Avenue Armory (68 Lexington Ave.) in Manhattan on Saturday, March 30th, 2013. The March tasting will showcase spring releases from 75 of America’s best Craft Breweries, with approximately 150 selections, along with wonderfully prepared food that is designed specifically to be consumed while enjoying the tasting sessions from NYC Craft Beer restaurants Coopers Craft & Kitchen, and Tavern 29.
Examples of tasting pours available to all attendees on the Armory’s Drill Hall floor will include Allagash Interlude, Firestone Walker Double Jack, Two Brothers Cain & Ebel, Goose Island Sofie, Ballast Point Sculpin Ale and approximately 140 other selections.
The NYC Craft Beer Festival will offer two sessions, 12:30 PM-4:00 PM, and 6:00 PM-9:30 PM.
Tickets are on-sale now at NYCCraftBeerFest.com/tickets-spring
“The NYC Craft Beer Festival is a true celebration of the American craft beer experience. We invite the country’s best craft brewers to come together at one time, in one place, so attendees can sample a careful selection of the best Spring seasonal brews the brewers have to offer,” said Jim Pickett, Founder Gotham Artisanal and event consultant.
Snacks will be available for purchase in the food court from Craft Beer focused restaurants Coopers Craft Kitchen, and Tavern 29. These selections include Stout braised pulled pork sandwich with chipotle barbecue on a brioche bun; Triple cream gluten-free mac and cheese; Jalapeno guacamole with cilantro lime chips; Hickory smoked chicken empanadas with charred tomato sauce; and steak skewers with Grilled grass fed hanger steak, bell peppers, and ancho
bourbon BBQ sauce.
During the event, leading Craft Beer and Homebrew experts will host intimate, 50 person, firstcome, first serve, seminars, and many brewers representatives will be available at the taps to educate the guests about their liquid offerings.
Giancarlo and Sarah Annese from the NYC Craft Beer News site, BeerUnion.com, will hold a seminar & blind tasting to explore the question, “What is “Craft” beer, really?” Attendees will participate in a blind tasting of Craft beers alongside non-craft beers to see if they can tell the difference. A spirited discussion will focus on the official definition of “craft” beer, and what it may mean to you.
Douglas Amport from Bitter & Esters will teach people the basics of Home Brewing. In this discussion, Douglas will cover all the basic brewing points and provide resources that will have you brewing your beer in your apartment in no time. You’ll learn about extract brewing, malts, grains, yeasts, and how to avoid or troubleshoot the most common problems.
Mike Lovullo, Specialty Brands Manager from Union Beer Distributors, will be hosting a Beer style comparison seminar and tasting. The tasting will include 6 beers with 2 examples from each of the 3 styles being discussed. As there are hundreds of different beer styles and growing, there are still many different variations within those styles and this seminar and tasting is meant to educate the seminar audience about the differences and nuances.
VIP and Connoisseur ticket holders can enter the Armory an hour earlier and have access to the beer, the brewers and the food during this first hour. This is a great time to speak with some of your favorite brewer representatives and avoid what is expected to be a sold-out, capacity audience later in the day.
Finally, just one hundred & fifty Connoisseur tickets are available for purchase per session. The Connoisseur package offers a speedy entrance line to the Armory and access to the exclusive Connoisseurs Lounge for the entire session. The Connoisseurs Lounge is a great, relaxing place to get away from the throng at the historic armory’s main drill-hall floor.
“We are offering a private lounge environment for beer Connoisseurs to listen to live, acoustic, Blues & Folk influenced music all the while sampling some of the rarest and most exciting beers you’ll ever get a chance to drink. Beer Cocktails will be prepared by Cocktail Guru, Jonathan Pogash and complementary gourmet finger foods will be presented by Draught 55, Pennsylvania 6 and Firebird at no additional cost,” says The Hand Crafted Tasting Company founder Ken Tesler.
