Belmar Beer on the Pier

        This past Saturday, September 25th, I attended the 1st annual Belmar Beer on the Pier festival on the pier on the Shark River in Belmar, NJ.  Fellow blog contributor, Josh, and I decided to purchase the VIP tickets that allowed us early entry and access to a special VIP tent that was to feature some rarer beers, a small buffet, and a commemorative beer on the way out.  We pretty much learned that all of that was BS.  Yes there were more beers in the tent, yes there was a small, VERY SMALL, buffet and yes there was a commemorative beer, for some people, on the way out.  The special beers were brought out to the general admission ticket holders after the VIP period ended.  The buffet was enough for maybe 20 people and they did not brew enough of the commemorative beers.  All in all they just underestimated how many people purchased VIP tickets.  They should have limited the VIP tickets to the amount of gift bags they had available and then planned food accordingly for that many people.
         Ok so that was the one negative of the event.  Everything else was overwhelmingly good.  The beer selection was limited to two drafts for every brewery represented, most breweries were just represented by Hunterdon Distributors sales reps.  A few of the local breweries and brewpubs sent actual brewers or other brewery employees.  Of those two beers per brewery, the selection was amazing.  Our consensus overall beer of the day was Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, with a close 2nd for Oskar Blues GUBNA.  A few of the other rarer beers included Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog, Lagunitas Maximus IPA, Stone Cali Belgique, and River Horse Hippolantern.  There are way too many pictures to post so just click here for a picture of every beer sampled between the two of us.  The big surprise of the day was newcomer East Coast Beer Company with their Beach Haus Pilsner.  East Coast has only been brewing for a few months and this is their first offering, available on tap and in bottles, but it tasted like they've been doing it for years.  It was a very clean, simple, crisp pislner.  I've never really been wowed by a pilsner, but this was as close as it gets.  I'd absolutely recommend picking up a 6-pack of this very drinkable pilsner.
       i'd absolutely recommend this event to anyone who loves hanging out down the shore with some great beer.  Next year's event is already scheduled for September 24th.  I'll definitely attend, but might think twice about shelling out the extra $10 for VIP.  Although VIP ticketholders have received an email about another special gift to be picked up at a later date.  I'm thinking it was the beer that was being brewed during the event as part of what was supposed to be a homebrewing demonstration, but looked more like a few guys making beer quietly and answering questions if asked.  I'm giving the event 3.5 pints out of 5 but I'm assuming there were just some first year glitches.  Next year promises to be bigger and better and its a must attend event in my book.
        

DeCicco's Ardsley, NY

     This place was like walking into heaven.  Full of gourmet foods, prepared, packaged, and fresh, and  hundreds of varieties of beer.  Being New York, they only sell beer and not wine or spirits because they would have to obtain a different liquor license.  The beer section is not huge and it doesn't need to be.  They carry a little bit of everything so they can satisfy everyone and rotate stock fast enough that it does not go bad.  The few summer beers I saw that were left had huge clearance price cuts.
      The most interesting thing I found was the set of taps in the back.  I had been to a few New York beer stores so I was familiar with their ability to fill growlers of draft beer.  In New Jersey you can only have that done at bars that have a takeaway license.  In New York almost any beer store can have a tap setup to let you take home fresh draft beer.  I was perusing the taps when an employee came over to help and offered me some samples of a few of the drafts including my selection and a beer made for their store.  The growler prices were very very reasonable.  As a non-growler owner I needed to purchase an empty bottle.  They were $2 for a 16oz or $3 for a 32 or 64oz.  Most other places are around $10 for an empty 64.
       The beer I chose was Brooklyn Detonation Ale from the Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster's Reserve collection.  I'll review that here in a few days.  DeCicco's actually has a beer made and bottled for them (Captain Lawrence Birra DeCicco) exclusively by Captain Lawrence Brewing.  On this occasion they also had a draft offering, Sierra Nevada Camp Ghidorah, that was made through Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp.  The Beer Camp invites people from the beer industry around the county to come to Sierra Nevada Brewing, in small groups, and create and brew a beer to be distributed only to the establishments affiliated with people from those groups.  Generally its representatives from bars, beer stores, or distributors that are invited to participate.  Ghidorah (Ghidra to Godzilla fans) is an American Double IPA and is only available in a handful of locations around the country, with each location only getting a few kegs so if it sounds interesting to you then get up to Ardsley soon.
     The store is on beermenus.com so I won't go into any real detail on what else is available because the stock rotates quickly, making for good fresh beer.  The staff, and other customers for that matter, were very friendly and loved to talk about their beer and beer in general.  Some prices were a bit high but there were bargains out there.  Some of the older beers that age well were priced well below what I've seen anywhere else.  I can understand why you would lower prices on 6-packs of summer beers, but there were some big beers, meant to age, that were at clearance prices so a deal can be had.  I'm going to give DeCicco's a 5 pint rating.  It's a mecca for beer lovers and gourmands alike.  DeCiccos has 5 locations in New York state including one on this side of the Hudson in Rockland county just a few miles north of the Thruway.  It's an absolute must visit for any beer snob or someone who just wants to see alot of good beer and good food in the same place.  A link to the website is above.  Stay classy San Diego.