A Trip to NY, or Escape to the Planet of Decent Alcohol Laws, Part 1

So this past weekend Eric, Kristen, and I went to New York to visit our friends Frank and Courtney. It was a wonderful time, filled with good friends and delicious food (those enchiladas still make my mouth water). While there, we took advantage of the state's excellent (read 'normal') alcoholic beverage laws to buy some rather interesting beers.

For those of you not in the know (who? who am I writing this for?), the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has a monopoly on the importation and sale of distilled and fermented spirits (liquor and wine, with the exception of local vineyards). They also require that all beer purchases must be from a licensed distributor, and sales are made by the case. Things are slowly changing (verrrry slooooowly). Restaurants can sell six-packs or forties in limited quantities (192 oz per person), and recently several grocery store chains have been able to sell individual bottles, six-packs, and half-cases in designated restaurant areas of their stores. Nonetheless, finding uniqueness and variety of beer can be difficult. Enter Shoreline Beverage, Long Island, NY:

So many choices! So many options! So much beer!
Courtney and I decided to get a number of different beers and have a tasting among ourselves. The hardest part was choosing a limited number of beers to try.

I wanted to try this one just for the name alone. Also, what does a 'ridiculous' amount of barley taste like?

16.83%! Not a record, but still, wow. There were two others of the same variety that were slightly over 16% as well.

Wilco Tango Foxtrot == WTF

Labels in themselves (as you have seen from Eric's designs) are an art form.

Some of the beer styles they sold bordered on wine styles (makes sense as they were fruit-based, along the lines of lambics)

To be served hot? Hot!? I mean, the Brits like it warm, but hot, I just don't know, Swiss.

The whole Bad Elf line (minus Very Bad Elf). Just what did this elf do? I'm worried that we're contributing to elf delinquency.

Sorgham is an interesting choice. That is all.

KWAK!!!!

 

So those are all the beers we didn't get. In Part 2, we'll discuss what we did buy.