Tag: Bacon

Bacon & Bourbon At Astor Center

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The Astor Center is the event space of Astor Wine & Spirits which is located at 399 Lafayette Street in Manhattan. Throughout the year they hold all sorts of spirits, cocktails and wine events and classes at the Center.

On February 17th they held their 10th annual Bacon & Bourbon event. It was a walk-around tasting of over 60 All-American whiskey that was accompanied by copious amounts of bacon and bacon infused snacks (including ice cream). Many of the well-known whiskey companies were in attendance pouring their small production (and expensive) specialty whiskey as well as smaller not as well known producers many of which produced proprietary whiskey for Astor.  The event was open to the consumer and there were two sessions. I attended the afternoon session and it was a nice way to spend a snowy afternoon.

Some of what I sampled:

 

Jim Beam Masterpiece Bourbon

Jim Beam Single Barrel Bourbon

Maker’s Mark Astor Private Select Bourbon

Knob Creek 25th Anniversary Cask Strength Single Barrel (121°-125°)

Wild Turkey Rare Breed Bourbon

Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit Bourbon

Booker’s Sip Awhile’ Small Batch Bourbon

Four Roses Astor Cask Strength Single Barrel Bourbon (122.2°)

Smooth Ambler Contradiction Bourbon

Barrell Bourbon Batch #12 Bourbon

Barrell Bourbon Full Proof Astor Barrel (126° 174 bottles produced)

Black Dirt Bourbon

Black Dirt Single Barrel Bourbon

Charles Medley 12yr Old Kentucky Bourbon

Kings County Distillery Peated Bourbon

Balcones Brimstone Smoked Corn Whisky

Balcones Texas Old Single Malt Whisky

Pikesville Straight Rye

Potrero Single Malt Straight Rye

A.D. Laws Straight Rye

A.D. Laws Bottled In Bond Rye

 

 

Bacon, Beer & Baseball

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This past Friday and  Saturday the Beer and Bacon Classic festival was held in New York City. Another one of the many craft beer fests that are held throughout the year in the city. This one is a traveling beer and bacon fest that tours baseball fields around the country. Here in New York it was held at Citi Field stadium (the former Shea Stadium) at 123-01 Roosevelt Avenue in Corona, Queens and is the home of the New York Mets baseball team.

It featured over 40 local restaurants serving bacon infused dishes and over 40 breweries and cideries pouring their craft products.

I attended the Saturday evening session. I have to admit it was a great venue to have an event, it gave me the opportunity to see the new stadium which is a much more interesting event space than some of the other beer venues.

I generally like the dark beers such as  stouts, porters and cream ales, but since this was a spring time event, not much of the heavier beers were poured but I did find a few ciders. I was lucky to get in to the event before general admission and was able to sample some of the food, when they opened the flood gates at the general admission start times, the lines at the food stands became impossibly long.

 

Some of what I sampled:

Ciders

Bad Seed Cider Co. With 0gms of sugar, about as bone dry as you can get.

Downeast Cider House: Flagship original and summer blend.

Doc’s Draft: Hard pear cider and original.

Strongbow Hard Cider

Northern Spy Hard Cider

Original Sin Hard Cider

McKenzie’s Cider Co.: Seasonal reserve and black cherry.

Ace Cider Co.: Pineapple Cider.

 

Jonas Bronk Beer Co.: One of the few stouts served, nice and creamy.