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Beverages June 23, 2020

The first-ever Crushies are, um, in the can

By GREGORY ZELLER // A little later than expected – but still fresh – the first national competition saluting the best in craft-beer marketing has announced its inaugural champions, including clever campaigns based on Long Island. The 2020 Craft Beer Marketing Awards – a.k.a. “The Crushies” – were presented live June 16 in a virtual ceremony on Facebook. Billed as “the first of [its] kind in the USA,” the competition began accepting entries from smaller…

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Beverages June 7, 2017

Saving the Great South Bay, 16 ounces at a time

By JIM MCCUNE // Our Great South Bay is under grave threat. The main issue is water quality. For generations, the Great South Bay provided half of all clams consumed in the United States, and provided the first oysters exported to Europe by royal request. To this day, Blue Point Oysters can still be found on menus around the globe, coasting on only their good name. Over the years, the Great South Bay has lost a…

Beverages May 9, 2017

Like a Spinal Tap amp, Beer Week delivers a bit more

By JIM McCUNE // Long Island Craft Beer Week kicks off this Friday and, despite its name, runs a full 10 days. Launched by local craft beer entrepreneurs and beer-passionate marketers, the event seeks to raise awareness for the regional craft beer culture and promote patronage at local breweries, bars and restaurants. It also seeks to help out the less fortunate by collecting food and donations for the Long Island Cares food bank through the…

Beverages March 27, 2017

At Garvies Point Brewery, a new can-do attitude

By JIM MCCUNE // Garvies Point Craft Brewery was so excited about its first-ever can release, the Glen Cove-based company decided to double down on the event by premiering both its award-winning Gold Coast Double IPA and the first of a new sour series called Sour Batch Citra. The Double IPA runs 8 percent ABV; the Citra, a wheat ale, tops out at 5.1 percent with a pH of 3.5. Garvies Point is the latest…

Beverages March 8, 2017

In craft brewing, tapping the power of women

By JIM MCCUNE // Though it’s a bit of a boy’s club today, craft brewing was historically a women-run enterprise, first a domestic chore dating back almost four millennia, then a craft, a cottage industry and, eventually, big business. (For some, it was even more: The Sumerians had a beer goddess named Ninkasi.) Brewing didn’t become male-dominated in Europe until the Renaissance, and it changed genders even later in America, where women remained active home…

Beverages September 13, 2016

Cuomo raises a glass to craft-beverage industries

Good news for Long Island Wine Country and the Island’s other burgeoning craft-beverage industries: Albany is updating “archaic” laws to allow vineyards and microbreweries to sell any New York-made “farm alcoholic beverage” by the glass. Recognizing that variety is the spice of the craft-beverage life, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday signed two measures modernizing the state’s 80-year-old Alcoholic Beverage Control Law. Together, the bills allow farm wineries, microbreweries and “cideries” to sell any Empire State-produced…

Beverages June 10, 2016

Kyle Chandler still feels the buzz

By JIM McCUNE June 10 is just another Friday for most of us. For Kyle Chandler, founder and brewmaster of Long Island’s Subtle Tea Company, it’s a major holiday: National Iced Tea Day. Not that he’s celebrating alone. Tea is second only to water as the most consumed drink on earth. In the United States, what’s known as ready-to-drink iced tea makes up 85 percent of total consumption, with sales spiking during the summer months….