1 night - NYC

Solid plan, sounds like a great day to me. I once did something very similar hitting up Rattle N Hum, La Birreria, & One Mile House in the same day. Wanted to add Cannibal, Proletariat, Ginger Man, and/or Jimmy's No. 43 into the mix but didn't have enough time.

 

don't buy anything that's not bottle dated at new beer, not just ipas. there's some truly ancient stuff in there.

 

Top Hops and Bowery Whole Foods are in that same area. I say go to them.

 

If in Midtown I highly recommend the Jeffrey. People here mention RnH and GM all the time but I find the crowds there kind of cheesy and touristy. The Jeffrey is a bit out of the way so has less of that for Midtown. New back deck. The owner is there often, he also owns fool's gold and alewife

 

If I was in your shoes, I'd probably ignore my own advice and cram as much stuff in as possible, but here's my recommendation anyway. The follow doesn't take into account your desires to be in certain neighborhoods due to non-beer stuff (tourism, pizza, etc.). I'd pick certain areas (if not just one) to concentrate on rather than jumping from one part of town to the other.

If you want to do serious shopping, go to the Lower East Side. Start at Whole Foods Bowery (the main beer section has a different street entrance), then New Beer (it's certainly worth going inside... you'll be passing it), then Top Hops. Top Hops is good for singles, Whole Foods is good for sixers bombers and imports, New Beer is good for old stuff you'll never find anywhere else. Use beermenus to see what's on tap at One Mile House, Top Hops, and Fool's Gold. I don't think there are flights at Fool's Gold, but there are at the other two. There's lots and lots of really good beer between these three places. You could just pick one bar, or do all three and ignore the rest of the city if you so desire. Plenty of places to eat in the area. You could hit Katz's deli for an iconic NY tourist food destination.

In walking distance from the Lower East Side, you could hit the East Village. Good Beer is possibly my favorite shop in the city (and you can grab a beer on tap there). For bars, Proletariat is right there (no flights, but they sell smallish pours... expect a much more selective tap list than the other places). You could hit Jimmy's No 43 (I don't think they have flights), Burp Castle (if you are interested in European beers... don't use beermenus for them, they post their list on their own site), and you can tag on McSorley's if you want to (you're right there, and one serving of beer there will go down easy). You'll have fewer tap handles to choose from in this area compared to the other two areas (and no flights). Plenty to eat in the area.

If you want to be in Midtown, you could go to Beer Culture for shopping (and they have a bar with beer on tap as well, but the bottle shopping is slimmer than the previously mentioned stores). Check beermenus to see what's on tap at Rattle N' Hum, Ginger Man and Pony Bar Hell's Kitchen (no flights at this one). Do not even try to go to these bars at 5pm on a weekday. District Tap House and Beer Authority would be B list choices compared to the other three, but it's worth looking at beermenus for them. A poorer area for food than the other two areas.

Beermenus is perfect for helping you determine which bars to go to, but it's very unreliable for seeing what bottles are still in shops. If a place is still selling something like KBS, you should expect it to be ridiculously priced.

Frankly, Ginger Man during the off hours is my favorite bar, and Good Beer is my favorite shop, but unless a specific beer that you want is being poured elsewhere, the Lower East Side will have an abundance of riches and give you everything you need.

 

... and try some Other Half beer if the bars you're at are serving it.

 

I should've given you the heads up - in Burp Castle, you're supposed to keep a low voice... and the midtown places I mentioned are much more spread out than the other two groups.

 

I pretty much agree with this entire thing. only thing I would mention is that fools gold does do flights (just introduced in the past month or so)

 

Good to know. Are they doing the same at Alewife and The Jeffrey?

It doesn't get a lot of love here from the locals, but if there's just a dozen customers (which I've experienced lots of times) and if Phil's behind the bar, then it's such a great place for me. I've also had to walk right out of the place w/o a drink on a couple of occasions because of the crowd... but that's partially due to me being picky and wanting to simply sit down with some beer. I'm no fun.

 

Hard to quantify uniqueness, but Proletariat is definitely up there. Jimmy's No 43 as well in a very different way. @zid 's recommendations are totally spot on

 

Same here. A large segment of the after work crowd isn't there for the beer, but just the scene. You'll sometime see large groups of people standing around drinking wine there.

 

Burp Castle might fit that criteria for you. The bartenders sush people... index finger to lips. It's an interesting gimmick. Of course there's the chance you'll go there and not see a sush, but beer lovers are gamblers. Those East Village bars are your best bet for unusual places but good beer. If you didn't use the urinals when you went to McSorley's, and you decide to go back, make sure you do this time. It's worth the price of admission (two little beers).

 

I would definitely go to McSorley's for a few if I was in the area. It's the kind of place most cities do not have and very well might not always be around. Can't be a beer snob all of the time.

 

Not hard to find on draft at places with decent beers on tap. Not hard at all. Go to Other Half's beermenu page to see what's in their taproom and click on each beer to see other places that have it.

I was just in NYC yesterday for a meeting and had two of their beers. I actually did the LES crawl I recommended earlier. If you try this one, start south and work your way up north. Start with One Mile House and Top Hops, then work your way up to Fools Gold hitting the stores along the way. Fools Gold does in fact offer flights now.

Report back after your trip and tell us where you went.

 

Their beers are all over the city. Even my friend's bar, who doesn't serve much craft beer, got Hop Showers this past week.

Also follow Other Half on Twitter. They usually retweet bars that recently tap their beers.