New York, city of Awesome

Well, I'm back today from New York city. I had such a great time, which may be evident in the fact that I only added one blog the entire time I was there.

The only thing that I can really say about New York right now that it is just awesome... I'm quite tired and can't articulate any more than that right now. There is just so much to see and do there. I was only there seven days, and I feel as if I was gone a couple of weeks.

I'm sure my opinion of the city was helped by the fact I had a friend living in midtown Manhattan to stay with. In addition, she had lots of excellent friends that I got to know very quickly. By the end of the week, it felt like I already lived there... and living there is tempting. But I think I may just like visiting (and I'm sure my hosts would get tired of a non-rent-paying lump on their couch after awhile).

So, for the next couple of days my plan is to write about my experiences of a day or two per post, along with the beer reviews I did that day.
Speaking of beer, here is a list of the beers I got my hands on while in NYC:
(the *** denotes my picks as best beers of the trip)

Bottles / other draught:
Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
Sierra Navada Stout
Yuengling Lager
Dogfish Head Raison d'etre (spelling??)
Anchor Liberty Ale
Arrogant Bastart Ale
Leffe Bruin
Spaten Oktoberfest

Heartland Brewpub, Union Square:

• Apricot Ale (seasonal)
• Some amber coloured ale, the server forgot which one it was and I couldn't place it (seasonal)
• Smiling Pumpkin Ale (seasonal)
• Cornhusker Lager
• Harvest Wheat
• IPA
• Red Rooster
• Farmer Jon's Oatmeal Stout
• Empire Ale
• Imperial IPA***
• Matrimony Saison

Zum Schneider (East 7th st at Ave C)
An awesome german beer bar...

• Weihnstephaner Hefeweizen (on tap!!)
• Schneider Wiesse
  
• Spaten Dopplebock
• Schlenkeria Racuchbier Marzen (bottle)

Peter's Waterfront Alehouse (Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn Heights)

• Brooklyn Blast
• Magic Hat Fat Angel
• Chelsea Hop Angel

Sixpoint Craft Ales (Brooklyn)
I stopped in to visit these guys for about half an afternoon and had a great time, I'll expand more in the blog post later, but they are quite small and make some AWESOME beers. They gave me a few sample bottles to take home too.

• Sweet Action Cream Ale
• Brownstone Ale***
• Got a tast of their first lager that should be out in a few months.
  

The GingerMan (East 36th St between 5th & Park)
I almost died when I saw the beer selection at this place. Too bad I was getting tired of beer at the end of the week!

• Sixpoint Bengali Tiger Cask Ale
• Belhaven Scottish Ale
• Sixpoint Brownstone*** (again, because it was such a good beer!)
• Victory Old Horizontal Barleywine***
• Rock Art Ridge Runner Barley Wine

Holy crap thats a lot of beer. I didn't bring back as much as I thought I would, but I didn't want to lug it around with me anyway.

Unfortunately I left my digital camera on ISO setting 400 while I was taking pictures, and a lot of them have turned out very grainy and crappy. Plus I didn't take a lot of pictures to begin with. So that makes me a little sad.... but I guess I'll just have to go back.

All in all... like I said, it was awesome. I had such a good time and I'm glad I went. Now stay in tune for my stories and reviews this week (as I won't have anything else very interesting to write about, I will stretch this NY thing for all the posts I can get out of it ;)

Cheers!