There’s a new trend on tap in New York City: boutique beer bars. And the venue leading the pack is Treadwell Park, which serves a $185 craft beer.
Oud Beersel’s Bzart Lambiek is priced at US$125 a bottle, which is believed to be the most expensive bottled brew on pour in the city.
What makes it so special? The natural, sparkling lambic merges two brewing traditions: the “Méthode Traditionnelle” for sparkling wines and the spontaneous fermentation for lambic beers. Spontaneously fermented in oak barrels and aged for one year, it’s then bottled by with sparkling wine yeast and sugar for a nine-month secondary fermentation.
Ann Becerra, the beer cicerone at Treadwell Park (above), told The Australian that wine has long been marketed as a drink to be savoured, while the beer industry has been dominated by giant brewers who “don’t necessarily want you to do that”.
Marketing campaigns have encouraged the idea that you drink lots of it quickly, and “if you savour it, you are a douche”, she said. “We are fighting against that.”
Lower Manhattan’s Pretty Ricky’s has a 20-tap bar plus a “reserve list” that includes craft beer such as Deus from Belgium’s Brouwerij Bosteels, on the menu for $AU135 a bottle.
Also on its reserve list is Gueuzerie Tilquin’s Oude Gueuze Tilquin à l’Ancienne for $US60, a ‘New York Flanders red ale’ courtesy of the Catskills Brewery for $US50 and Maine-based Allagash Brewery’s Bourbon barrel-aged Belgian triple called Curieux at $US45 a bottle.
Co-owner Ryan Gleason told Cool Hunting: “My approach to any beer menu is to offer something for everyone. With 20 tap lines, it’s difficult for someone not to find something either they recognise, or be introduced to a new example of a beer they previously enjoyed. There are a lot of New York beers on tap at the moment, but that’s less favoritism than it is a nod to the re-emergence of New York’s brewery scene.”
“What is really special and unique is our reserve list—mostly large format bottles that are often small-batch productions, rarely offered outside of super beer-forward places. A personal favorite standout is the Deus Brut des Flandres a champagne yeast-brewed Belgian Ale.”
And the preferred way to serve it is in a champagne flute!
Can you see those craft beer prices flying at Australian brewhouses?
