Blog | Super Neat Beer Adventure, Yes!!

Morticia Addams, the goth-vamp matriarch of The Addams Family, is noticeably pale. Barrier Brewing Company‘s Morticia Imperial Stout, conversely, is not.

The latter, a raven-colored 9.50% ABV imperial stout, was placed in 1,111 bottles and released at the Oceanside-based brewery on May 17 amid cobwebs, coffins, and other humorous macabre paraphernalia. Though Morticia Imperial Stout debuted at Barrier Brewing Company’s first location, 3595 Lawson Boulevard, in 2011 (the brewery moved to 3001 New Street A2 in 2012), the beer has not appeared since. The latest batch possesses an identical recipe, but was also bottle-conditioned with maple syrup.

“The beer was a little too hoppy, so we brewed another batch and blended them,” says Evan Klein, co-owner of Barrier Brewing Company. “I was really pleased once it was bottled with the addition of syrup.”

Morticia Imperial Stout is Barrier Brewing Company’s third bottled release. Zythossaurus, a 10.00% ABV imperial pale ale brewed with all Zythos hops, was released on March 29.

Super Neat Beer Descriptors//Barrier Brewing Company Morticia Imperial Stout

Rich
Syrup-olasses
Lil’hoppy
Chocolate
Bitter

I discovered the severed remains of eight A&S mannequins in an abandoned bank vault, individually wrapped in vintage He-Man and the Masters of the Universe twin bed sheets. After three hours of intense Faron Young-themed Zumba, we—

Sorry.

Bellport Cold Beer & Soda is unlocking its vault during Long Island Craft Beer Week for the third consecutive year.

David Schultzer, owner of Bellport Cold Beer & Soda, acquired the store, previously Station Beverage, in 1997. He started cellaring beer in 2003 and has accumulated 100+ kegs and bottles, not including vintages, or different years, of the same liquid.

“My day was infinitely better when I started to sell good beer and talked with people who enjoyed learning about it,” says Schultzer. “We could have a 45-minute conversation without discussing sports and women’s undergarments. The next phase was keeping stuff to see how the taste changed over a period of time.”

Though aging beer “isn’t the best business model,” says Schultzer, he enjoys preserving items for customers “who don’t constantly hunt for bottles and may have missed out on a lot of cool stuff.” He started the event for Long Island Craft Beer Week’s inaugural year in 2011.

“It’s just something different. We can always have a regular tasting or event, but this a special one.”

Bellport Cold Beer & Soda’s vault opens on May 18 (11:00AM-9:00AM).

Beer List (Partial)

Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout 2007
Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout 2008
Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout 2009
Founders Brewing Company Doom
Founders Brewing Company Bolt Cutter
Goose Island Beer Company Bourbon County Brand Stout 2009
Goose Island Beer Company Bourbon County Brand Stout 2010
Ithaca Beer Company Excelsior! Thirteen Anniversary Ale
Ithaca Beer Company Excelsior! Fourteen Anniversary Ale
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale 2008
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale 2009
Thomas Hardy’s Ale 2007
Thomas Hardy’s Ale 2008

The ________ was created in 1992 by ________ and designed to alleviate chronic symptoms of ________ and ________. Chris Werle and Jeff Piciullo also created something in 1992, but to alleviate thirst on Long Island: They opened a 12-draft bar, Croxley’s Ale House, in Franklin Square.

Blue Point Brewing Company, a Blue Point-based brewery owned by Mark Burford and Pete Cotter, brewed a liquid gift in 2012 to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Croxley’s Ale House. The aptly named beer, Croxley’s 20th Anniversary Ale, is a 7.00% ABV red ale featuring 20 ingredients—11 malt types and 9 hop varieties—to represent each year of aliveness for Croxley’s, which now possesses locations in Farmingdale, Franklin Square, New York, Rockville Centre, and Smithtown.

“They are the legacy for craft beer on Long Island,” says Burford. “I’ve known them from the beginning, when I owned a homebrewing store [New York Homebrew] in Floral Park. It was a natural thing to do.”

“Mark [Burford] has always been a regular customer,” says Werle, who currently owns with Piciullo, Ed Davis, Joe Rodriguez, and Joe Mendolia. “We wanted a West Coast-style red ale. They came up with the idea to have 20 ingredients.”

A cask of Croxley’s 20th Anniversary Ale pours at Pre Game Party Cask Tasting at 6:00PM. The event, hosted at Croxley’s Farmingdale location, is the pre-start of Long Island Craft Beer Week.

Beer List

Ballast Point Brewing Company Sculpin IPA
Barrier Brewing Company Money IPA (Dry-Hopped w/Citra, Primed w/Nectarines)
Blue Point Brewing Company Croxley’s 20th Anniversary Ale
Great South Bay Brewery Blood Orange Pale Ale
Green Flash Brewing Company West Coast IPA
Long Ireland Beer Company Celtic Ale (Whiskey Barrel-Aged)
Port Jeff Brewing Company Big Boy Birch Stout
Port Jeff Brewing Company H³ (Tripel H)

$24.95.

Sandy Relief Beer raised $58,000 for Barrier Brewing Company and Long Island Cares, Inc.

The project, a collaboration between eight Long Island breweries to help local victims of Hurricane Sandy, created Surge Protector IPA, a piney, dry-finishing IPA featuring donated ingredients from every participant. Thirty barrels of Surge Protector IPA were brewed at Blue Point Brewing Company on December 04, and Clare Rose Inc., which funded the project, distributed kegs and bottles across Long Island.

Every drop of Surge Protector IPA was sold. Every drop of Surge Protector IPA was consumed.

Sandy Relief Beer, however, was never about the beer. Never. Sandy Relief Beer represented community, resiliency, and compassion. Sandy Relief Beer was, and is, love.

As the oversized checks were presented to Barrier Brewing Company and Long Island Cares, Inc. at Blue Point Brewing Company on May 08, I witnessed a room of colleagues, not competitors, proudly raising bottles of Surge Protector IPA for cameras and reporters.

Everyone was smiling.

I smiled, too.

Great South Bay Brewery is ready to beer-make in Bay Shore.

The brewery, owned and brewmastered by Rick Sobotka, has primarily contracted with Brooklyn, New York’s Greenpoint Beer Works since opening in 2010. After May 10, however, production shifts solely to Great South Bay Brewery’s 39,000-square-foot building at 25 Drexel Drive, acquired in 2012. The property was previously used for aerospace equipment distribution, but now features a 30-barrel brewhouse.

“We’re ordering ingredients and planning for our first brew sometime in May,” says Sobotka, who also plans to launch 12 oz. bottles in July. “Flagships are our main concern right now, but we’ll also be experimenting with various recipes. We’ve been preparing for this day for a long time.”

The final batch of Greenpoint Beer Works-brewed liquid arrives one day before Great South Bay Brewery hosts Bay Fest on May 11 and releases two new beers: Tell No Tales IPA, the brewery’s Massive IPA (a bronze medal winner at TAP New York in 2010) aged with rum-soaked oak spirals and dry-hopped with Cascade from Condzella Hops; and Golden IPA, a variation of Field 5 Golden IPA from 2012’s Tasting Room Exclusive Brew Series. The latter, a “citrusy, West Coast-style IPA with all pilsner malt,” says Sobotka, was brewed with Great South Bay Brewery’s one-barrel system, initially used at its first location at 2309 Union Boulevard. Golden IPA features Citra and Horizon hops.

“We really like the consistency of Horizon hops for bittering and flavor,” says Sobotka. “This is our third and final test batch. It’s one of the best beers we’ve made.”