The Hand Crafted Tasting Company has announced the return of its NYC Craft Beer Festival – WINTER HARVEST to the Lexington Avenue Armory located at 68 Lexington Avenue in NYC on Saturday, November 23rd, 2013 for two sessions, and a special afternoon Session on Sunday, November 24th.
The Craft Beer tasting scheduled the weekend before Thanksgiving will showcase Winter releases from 75 of America’s best Craft Breweries, with approximately 150 selections. “When curating this list we wanted to showcase local breweries and how they fit into larger craft beer landscape, as well as some great brews from across the country,” said Giancarlo Annese from BeerUnion.com.
Some of the featured beers on the main tasting room floor include Ommegang’s “Take the Black” Stout, Southern Tier’s 2 x Xmas, Bronx Brewery’s Black Pale Ale, Six Point Global Warmer, Founders Breakfast Stout, and Lake Placid’s Nipple Top Stout. To add more variety for the attendees’ palate, Hand Crafted is also showcasing a small selection of international beers for the very first time.
In the Connoisseurs Lounge, aficionados can sample additional beers like Allagash Hugh Malone, Corsendonk Christmas, Southern Tier Choklat, Firestone Walker Walker’s Reserve Porter and a selection each from Cigar City, Hopping Frog, Aspall, and Wandering Aengus Cider Works.
Delicious food specifically designed to be paired with the beer tasting sessions will be available for purchase in the food court from Morris Grilled Cheese, Carl’s Cheese Steaks, and El Paso Tacos. Each restaurant will provide vegetarian options.
On Saturday, The NYC Craft Beer Festival will offer two sessions, 2:00 PM-4:30 PM, and 7:00 PM-9:30 PM. VIP’s and Connoisseur Level tickets enter one hour ahead of the posted times. Tickets are on-sale now at NYCCraftBeerFest.com/tix. On Sunday, there is only an afternoon session.
During the tasting, many brewers’ representatives will be available at the taps to educate the guests about their liquid offerings. 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.
There will also be two educational seminars. Jonathan Pogash, aka “The Cocktail Guru”, will lead an exploration of one of the hottest trends in beverages: beer-based cocktails aka The Hoptail in his how-to seminar on mixing up your own beer cocktails at home. Jared Ruben, former Brewmaster at Goose Island Brew Pubs, now at Moody Tongue Brewery in Chicago, will discuss “Culinary Brewing.” During his 2 1/2 years as brewmaster at Goose Island brewpubs, Jared built his reputation by creating lush, flavorful beers that featured food — particularly fruits, herbs and spices — as essential ingredients. This seminar is sure to be a hit with home brewers across the tri-state area.
Finally, just 150 Connoisseur tickets are available for purchase per session. The Connoisseur package offers the extra advance hour of tasting, a speedy entrance line to the Armory and access to the exclusive Connoisseurs Lounge for the entire session. There will be an additional 12-15 rare beers not found on the Grand Tasting floor, and gourmet snacks will be provided at no charge by Route 66 Smoke House. The Connoisseurs Lounge is a great, relaxing place to get away from the throng at the historic armory’s main drill-hall floor.
“We offer a private back-stage kind of lounge 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. Gourmet finger-foods will be provided at no additional cost,” says Tesler.
Learn more at nyccraftbeerfest.com
