Launching the Beer Book Blitz - Volume 1, Day 1

So, aside from using one of my beer book coupons at Lock Yard some time over the summer, I was looking at 27 coupons (out of 28 total), with six days remaining in 2015.

I decided to try to knock out as many as I could with what time was left in the year. It just so happened that I had recently become a fan of Newcastle United and they were playing my daughter Shayna's favorite team, Everton.

Me and Shayna enjoying the match

We knew the game was going to be on at Longbow Pub & Pantry, where I also had one of my beer book coupons. Killing two birds with one stone, as they say. I used my Longbow coupon for either a Tripel from Allagash Brewery or a Yeti from Great Divide Brewing Company (I had both). The Yeti is one of my favorites.

I was just getting a handle on the task before me.

Once the match was over, Shayna headed home and I stopped at the Yellow Hook Grille and had a Single Digit Dubbel from Smuttynose Brewing.

Yellow Hook Grille later closed in April 2016.

After a less than spectacular experience at Yellow Hook - the beer was fine but the ambiance was barely tolerable, I aimed for my third stop, Zito's Sandwich Shoppe, and I learned my first Beer Book Lesson: If you wait until the end of the year, the place may no longer be there.

As seen from the evidence below, where Zito's had been was now a restaurant called Bon Chovie.

It was an inauspicious start to the inaugural Beer Book Blitz, but I still had 9 coupons left for Bay Ridge and Sunset Park, so I was optimistic.