Attending the 2015 thanks to scoring a couple of free passes through Yelp (Thank you Drew and…read moreYelp!) was a great opportunity to sample what Long Island and the Northeast has to offer since the event had many breweries from these areas.
We arrived for the second session (5:30pm start) at around 5:45pm and the line was moving quickly as they were checking bags and IDs. We received our tasting cups and we were on our way. Belmont is great space for this event with the vendors being laid out nicely and also, more importantly, plenty o' bathrooms!
The signs say the 2oz pours are strictly enforced, but honestly it is not a big deal. There are so many samples to be had that a 2oz pour from all of them would probably give most people alcohol poisoning! There are a lot of great beers to sample here!
I am not going to point out the beers I didn't like, but I will say in general there were a lot of flabby, overdone IPAs, which seems all breweries trying to stay on trend, but I prefer to see less common and different brews offered.
I found a couple of aged in barrels brews interesting - One from Two Roads, out of CT, offered Contucky Lightnin', a sour mash ale aged in bourbon barrels, to impart a whiskey feel and complexity. From Scotland, Innis and Gunn had oak aged beer that went for a similar finish of smoothness along with vanilla, toffee and of course, oak. I appreciated what they were trying to do and the complexity of their lush samples.
Handgrenades Homebrew Club, an amalgam of different home brew enthusiasts had some great samples on offer (I saw 8, I think), my favorite being "Uncle Joes Breakfast Stout" - A coffee stout: two great flavors that work amazing together. It would make for a perfect start of the day. Speaking of stouts, I found Bluepoint's Armchair to be the best milk stout I tried at the event - creamy, balanced and perfect flavor.
Crooked Ladder from Riverhead, had a delicious Gypsy Red ale, although unfortunately named for the politically correct crowd. Spiked Seltzer had a low carb, 6%ABV flavored seltzer, which was interesting and helped to refresh my palate.
I LOVE a RYE beer, but I found most vendors doing a RYE IPA, which did not work for me. I feel they just did not come together with the typical IPA flavor overpowering. Which leads me to my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE of the night, which was from SAND CITY BREWING CO. out of Northport. A small operation, whose brews are offered at their tasting room and a few local north shore restaurants. They had an AMAZING Rye pale ale called "Ryes N Tide" - I could have drank this all night long (I did try and they were amazingly generous with 3 samples for me!) the pale ale allows the flavor that rye provides to shine. Completely drinkable and refreshing. I have to get there and hope they have it on offer when I do!
A couple of caveats: Eat before the event here since the food offerings are typical Belmont vendors (It would be nice to see some local food stands participate here). Also some of the smaller vendors ran out of brew half way through the 2nd session so if you are dead set on trying everything perhaps come down for the 1st and early session. As with any event with alcohol involved the night got sloppy as it went on, but most people were very cool.
Excellent event, great venue, amazing beers, cool activities happening through out - This expo is well worth it! You will get access to so many vendor offerings that you will be sure to up your beer drinking knowledge!
