United Nations of Beer

Beer on the Pier 2006

by Rudy Lasher
(Beer Delegate, NY, USA)

Beer on the Pier 2006 festival report

Beer on the Pier '06, a festival that any true beer lover should never miss, showcased some of the best microbreweries from around the world. With minimal cost for the amount of delicious beer you drank, this festival was by far worth the expense.

As you walked in the front of the pier, each person was handed a tasting cup with the Beer on the Pier imprint on it. After being pleasantly surprised by the nearly unbreakable feature of your cup, then they appeared.

Tables upon tables of microbrewers lined the walls of the hanger-like building. A band played to the left and tables of festival food to the right. It was going to be a good day.

With so many tables to visit and the hundreds of people at the festival, it almost seemed like there wasn't enough time to try all of the beer. The truth is, there really wasn't.

My strategy was to simply start on the right and work my way around the outside, skipping to beers I thought looked good and trying to catch the ones I skipped at the end.

One of the brewers we passed were the Monty Python brewers who were dressed as knights in chain mail. Others brewers consisted of some well known names such as Brooklyn, Heartland, DogFish Head, Penn and Red Hook Ale Breweries. Guinness was also there all well as over 30 other brewers, who handed out different things to remember them by (flyers, coasters, pens etc.).

An hour later, and half way around the tables, my friends and I found perhaps the best beer at the entire Beer on the Pier 2006 festival: Sea Dog Bluepaw Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale. Ever since, we have been searching for places to get it in New York.

It's hard to find in stores, but going to the Sea Dog Brewing site is one way to find it. Other ways are to come across it by chance at a hole in the wall convenient store, or at the Downtown Bar and Grill on Court Street in Brooklyn (which has an international selection of over 250 different kinds of beer).

There were beers for every taste and if you didn't have a favorite before you arrived, you had one by the time you left. One of the brewers even gave a friend some hops to try to brew.

Beer on the Pier 2006 was a great experience. From the food to the beer to the knowledge you gain from the festival, it is an event that all beer enthusiasts should attend.

Check out this year’s festival, as well as information from last year’s at the Beer on the Pier festival website.