The Gothamist is one handy Web site when it comes to keeping tabs on the many, many trends, fads and foibles in the Big Apple. Considering the size and activity level of the place, I can use all the help I can get in keeping up.
The latest drinking-related item it reports puts beer right up there with those ridiculously priced spirits and wines that crop up with great regularity. It's a $95 beer. Not for the keg or the case or the six-pack, but for "a" beer.
It's a 17-ounce Baladine Xyauyù being served at the
Beer Table, an establishment in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. Reports The Gothamist:
"The beer ... cannot be found anywhere else in New York, and takes three years to brew; something that Paul Kermizian, beer connoisseur and co-owner of Barcade and The Gutter, tells us factors in to what may seem like an inflated price tag.
"Iy is an extremely rare beer from a tiny artisanal brewery in Italy. Many craft breweries brew small batch beers such as this that are extremely time consuming and labor intensive. That, plus the skyrocketing costs of ingredients, puts the brewery in a position to have to charge a good deal more than they would for a typical pale ale. Often, breweries brew these beers for enjoyment and will likely only break even once all of it is sold.
"One thing to consider is that if a brewery makes a beer that takes three years to age, the beer is probably taking up precious tank space in a brewery already working in too small of a facility. Of the 22 bottles made available at the bar, four have been purchased so far.
"And if you want a taste of the top shelf for slightly less, there's also a rotating collection of about 100 obscure and artisanal beers (that) also includes a $64 Danish beer that changes its ingredients with each new batch and a handful of $50 brews."
ON THE WEB•
NYC Beer Guide•
Dowd's Guides
A renovated 10-story warehouse is home to the newest museum in the German port city of Hamburg.
