LIBeerGuide hopes you are all staying safe and enjoying Oktoberfest season! Welcome to our new subscribers and as always we thank all of our readers for your support. We also appreciate the support of our advertisers and welcome our newest advertiser, The Live Brew podcast series. In these podcasts, beer enthusiasts John Burke and John Selle travel across Long Island to taste beers at local craft breweries and share their entertaining reviews. New podcasts are available every Thursday and a complete list of past episodes is available at this link. Enjoy!
Popular Beerfests Adopt New Formats
Beerfests across the country and around the world (including Munich's Oktoberfest) have been cancelled or shifted to virtual formats, and Long Island beerfests are no different. The Bats & Brews Benefit, an annual fundraiser for the Seatuck Environmental Association typically held on the grounds of the Scully Estate in Islip, will be held this year on Oct. 24 as a virtual event. Bats & Brews is one of LI's most popular beerfests, with tickets for last year's event selling out in 20 minutes. Thankfully tickets for this year are still available online and depending on the ticket package you purchase you will get up to four 16 oz. four-packs of craft beer from your choice of local breweries, including Barrier, Blind Bat, Blue Point, DUBCO, Garvies Point, Ghost Brewing, Great South Bay, Greenport Harbor, Saint James, Sand City, Secatogue and Spider Bite. The live virtual event will also feature music from local artists, presentations about bats (not spooky!), and an online silent auction raising funds for Seatuck, which is dedicated to conserving Long Island's wildlife..
Blue Point Brewing in Patchogue made the difficult decision to cancel the Nov,. 7 date of its 17th annual Cask Ales Festival, which had been postponed from its original date in April. The Cask Fest is one of the most beloved beerfests on Long Island, featuring cask ales from LI breweries and around the East Coast, along with cask ales from LI's homebrew clubs. In place of the Cask Fest (and to not waste the terrific cask ales they have brewed), Blue Point will hold Cask Week on Nov. 10-13 at the Blue Point Brewpub, featuring four unique casks of Blue Point brew each day. The event will be capped by the relaunch of Blue Point's Firkin Friday on Nov. 13, with the tapping of eight casks for a firkin good time.
The largest beerfest in North America, the Great American Beer Festival held annually in Denver, made the switch to a virtual format and will be held on Oct. 16 and Oct. 17. The awards ceremony will be streamed live on Fri. Oct 16 at 7 pm Eastern time and there will be exclusive online sessions on Friday and Saturday with leading brewers from across the country. The festival will conclude at 10:45 pm on Saturday night with Sierra Nevada’s founder Ken Grossman leading a Celebration toast to GABF, the coming holidays and all things beer.
Tickets to the GABF include a Beer Passport that unlocks special deals at breweries across the country. Two LI craft breweries are part of the Beer Passport: South Shore Craft Brewery in Oceanside will offer passport holders a free 5 oz. beer sample and discounts on flights, while Great South Bay Brewery in Bay Shore will offer Two for One pints and will also be showing the live stream of the GABF awards ceremony on the big screen on Friday night, with discounted pints for any of the 10 beers that GSB has entered into the competition..
Two LI Craft Breweries Open New Taprooms
The craft beer industry on Long Island continues to expand even in the face of the Covid pandemic. Two craft breweries opened new taprooms in the past month and more openings are planned before the end of the year. Twin Fork Beer Co. opened a taproom at its new brewery on Raynor Avenue in Riverhead at the end of September. Dan and Peter Chekijian, twin brothers from Riverhead, founded Twin Fork in 2014 and spent the past two years building their new brewery.
Moriches Field Brewing Co. held the grand opening of its taproom in Center Moriches on Oct. 15. Founder Richard Flynn spent three years setting up the brewery in a building that was built decades ago from a military surplus Quonset hut. He decorated the taproom with aviation artifacts, paying homage to the rich history of aviation pioneers on Long Island. For the grand opening, Flynn had four of his own beers on tap including Summer Winds, a crisp light cream ale, and Flynn's Irish Red, a deliciously robust amber ale. He plans to have up to eight beers on tap going forward and will have food trucks at the taproom on weekends.
Several more LI craft breweries are planning to open taprooms before the end of the year, including Bellport Brewing and Long Beach Brewing Company in Oceanside. These openings would bring the number of craft brewery taprooms and brewpubs on Long Island to more than 50, compared to just nine at the end of 2012. Onward and upward Long Island!! LIBME Moves Forward with Homebrew Competition
The Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts (LIBME) homebrew club will hold its 8th annual LIBME Homebrew Competition with a number of changes to adapt to the Covid pandemic. The awards ceremony, which for the past few years was held at the Nassau Coliseum during the Great Beer Expo beerfest, will be held online on Nov. 8. The number of entries is capped at 100 and entries can not be shipped but must be dropped off at one of three locations -- Bellport Cold Beer and Soda, BrewSA Brewing in Freeport and Karp's in East Northport.. LIBME is accepting entries through Oct. 29 and the club is also looking for judges and stewards to volunteer. Good luck to all the homebrewers (including LIBeerGuide)!
Port Jeff Brewery Run Goes Virtual
Like most running events this year, including the recent Aloha 5 Mile Run to the Great South Bay Brewery, the popular Run to the Port Jeff Brewing Company will be a virtual event this year. Participants will run a 15K, 10K or 5K on their own, either on the race course in Port Jefferson (not advisable if you haven't trained for killer hills!) or at a place of your choosing (like the boardwalk in Long Beach). Registration is open until Nov. 15, when times must be submitted. One of the best incentives for this race is receiving two tickets for pre-paid beers at Port Jeff Brewing's taproom. The race is being organized by the Greater Long Island Running Club and part of the proceeds will support a local non-profit, Theatre Three in downtown Port Jefferson.
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