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…
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To give spirits-focused startups a chance to properly ferment, two East End entrepreneurs have launched a “distillery incubator” – and the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency is picking up the first round. The Suffolk IDA has approved a 10-year, $120,860 tax break for the Matchbook Distilling Co., the brainchild of East Enders Leslie Merinoff and Brian Kwasnieski. Their plan: help regional beverage-makers break into the small-batch market through with a complete farm-to-bottle distillery incubator. “We…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Consider it a home-brewed version of Kickstarter. Riverhead’s Moustache Brewing Co., which launched following a successful 2012 campaign on the group-funding site, is once again appealing to its growing fan base – this time, to help fund new fermenting tanks essential to the microbrewery’s expansion plans. Building on their successful Growler of the Month Club, owners Lauri and Matthew Spitz have created The Moustache Brewing Co. Society for Fine Liquid Provisions,…
By JIMMY MCCUNE // Several years after opening A Taste of Long Island, a shared commercial kitchen and local-specialty food market, home brewer and foodpreneur Jim Thompson and his daughter Courtney have launched New York State’s first co-working brewery, an incubator located on Main Street in downtown Farmingdale. The brewing incubator is accessible to all aspiring brewers and fosters the development of local craft breweries by providing a pilot brewing facility, business consultation, storage, tap…
Mark Squires, a former Philadelphia attorney turned full-time wine obsessive, is taking his new assignment on Wine Advocate’s Long Island watch seriously. Beginning in June, when he released some of the best reviews ever of local vintages, Squires has shown a clear thirst for Long Island wines, with a second round of reviews just released and more coming in December. In all, 26 wines scored 90 or above, with Paumanok Vineyards the big winner with…
The Blue Point Brewing Co. is going to the World Series. A pint (or six) of the Patchogue craft brewery’s flagship Toasted Lager is on the line – along with other spoils from across the Empire State – as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s World Series bet with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. In addition to wearing the other team’s jersey to work, the loser will deliver a care package of home-grown goodies. In Cuomo’s case, that…
The State Liquor Authority has approved a host of improved rules aimed at helping craft beverage manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers. The changes come in the wake of the third annual Beer, Wine, Spirits and Cider Summit, at which craft beverage makers had the chance to bend government’s ear on issues affecting the industry, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo has promised to support as a key New York job-builder. Chief among the changes is authorization of contract brewing, allowing small breweries to use…