My second year of the Beer Book Blitz concluded on a Thursday. I took the day off and planned accordingly.
I started first at an eatery in Red Hook, called Hope & Anchor. The beer selection wasn't great, but I was able to wet my whistle with a Hofbrau Dunkel.
Getting to Red Hook involved taking a bus, so I bused back to Gowanus in Brooklyn and discovered Threes Brewing, a shining example of a place I have returned to numerous times, had I not discovered them in the Beer Book.
The bar and beer garden was still closed that early on a weekday (about 1:15 P.M.), but they have a coffee shop attached with a small tap and shop built in, so I was able to launch my as-yet-unknown love affair with Threes Brewing with their Chronic Myopia IPA.
From there, I headed to Building on Bond, an establishment in Boerum Hill that had been too busy with the Sunday brunch crowd the last time I had tried to go. Again, this was more of an eatery with a decent beer selection than a beer-centric place. Nonetheless, I tried something new (to me), a traditional English ale called Old Speckled Hen. I wasn't terribly impressed.
From there I headed to Fort Greene, but No. 7 Restaurant was closed, so it was on to Clinton Hill, where I was delighted with Mekelburg's, which looked like a basement grocery, until you find the taproom in the back, serving up a wide eclectic assortment of New York microbrews.
I enjoyed a Short, Dark & Wired, from Other Half Brewing.
From there, I was going to head to The Emerson, but it wasn't open, and Covenhoven in Crown Heights was also still shuttered. By the time I had reached Covenhoven, I could have waited twenty minutes and gone in, but I was bladder-full, cold, and it was getting dark. I decided to try one last place in Crown Heights, and finally found warmth, a bathroom and a beer at Catfish, a New Orleans-themed establishment.
I rounded out the night with a Rockaway Black Gold Nitro Stout.
And that concluded the 2016 Beer Book Blitz. 16 out of 30 establishments. That was 2 more than 2015, but still a little underwhelming - considering the places that weren't open. Planning is key! Nonetheless, still a valiant effort for this old man. 2017 looked to be a better year!
