The LIBME Imbiber

Since its inception over three years ago on a bumpy train ride to Brooklyn by three friends to see the famed Sixpoint and Brooklyn Breweries, the Long Island Beer and Malt Enthusiasts have blossomed into a multi-faceted group in both Suffolk and Nassau Counties that promotes and and supports the growth and appreciation of the craft beer and malted beverages on Long Island, NY. With an elected body of  able officers leading the way, LIBME is more than a AHA-recognized home-brewer’s club that participates in all of the local beer festivals as it is determined to explore new venues and ideas in our local craft beer world.

One such new adventure that the members of the LIBME are excited to explore is a tour and dinner at The Curry Club of East Setauket, NY whose fabled Indian style dishes and buffets are sure to amuse, excite, and challenge club members’ palates to no end. On Wednesday August 4th, 2010 at 7:30pm, The LIBME will descend upon the spicy venue and take advantage of the funky Velvet Lounge adjoining The Curry Club to enjoy the craft beer taps which are surely paired with the Indian style food to be served.

All are welcome to join us on our social mission that evening and if one doesn’t know anyone there…raise a pint to say hello and make oneself known.

Our adventure into The Curry Club will precede our next act at The North Fork Craft Beer Festival on Saturday August 14th at Martha Clara Vineyards where the LIBME will be staging a “live” brewing demonstration for the attending public in addition to serving a variety of uniquely crafted beers. Our tent will be separate from the normal circus tent and we will be supported by the mysterious Blind Bat Brewing Co. as well as the new Great South Bay Brewing Company and the sages of the Rocky Point Artisan Brewers. All members and friends of a mutual cause on Long Island, NY together one big tent.

We are going to have a fun time as we do every year in one of the best beer festivals on Long Island, NY.

Interested in joining our cause and fun? See us on Facebook as the Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts and/or come to our announced meetings.

Cheers,

Rich

As the elected president (and co-founder) of the Long Island Beer And Malt Enthusiasts, I have proposed and implemented three distinct committees to perform needed tasks for our blossoming group, which is known for its events and volunteer work to corporate entities, breweries, and in the media centers of Long Island, NY. These working committees will define their own objectives and establish their own identities, under loose guidelines written by the Executive and Trustees of the LIBME, as well as serve the greater group’s needs for the future. These three committees will be:

1. Brewing- To establish a unit for quality control of what we display at beer shows. It will work to educate the group’s membership through brewing sessions and will choose the brewers to participate in future events where the LIBME is attending.

2. Membership & Marketing-To establish a unit not only to advertise the LIBME to the greater public, but to care for the existing membership we have.

3. Events- To establish a group to dream up new things for us to do and to make the existing ones better. If we do the same things over and over, I hope that can learn from any mistakes and improve our standing in the next round.

I hope this will be fun and enjoyable to all those valued members who have volunteered even further in our quest to support the growing craft beer culture of Long Island , NY.

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By the way, if you are new to the Long Island Beer And Malt Enthusiasts and looking for the action of the group, you can find us in FACEBOOK or in Google Groups Mailing List, which was where we started because everyone in the group has email: http://groups.google.com/group/beermalt.

Beermalt.org will be re-organized into a working site beyond this page later this year, after a few group objectives have been completed, such as our 501c3 filing.

Tonight, The Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts will be supporting one of the greatest acts of kindness by Dave Schultzer of Bellport Cold Beer & Soda as he presents the 3rd Annual Bellport Charity Beer Tasting at the Bellport Country Club for the benefit of a local Summer camp for disabled children known as Camp Paquatuck, The Lighthouse Mission food pantry, and Bellport High School Scholarships. Bringing as many hands as we can, members of the LIBME will assist in setting up the event, pouring all the way through it, and be there when the last patron leaves to break down the event to leave no trace of its existence, except some good memories.

As an insider to the intensive process of building this annual event, I have seen Dave build this fun event from the ground up. One could not guess how many obstacles he has vaulted and vanquished in the process of presenting this show to the community where 100% of the proceeds are donated to the charities and nothing is taken for consideration of time and effort, unlike some well known charities that purchase limos for their officers or spend enormous amounts of donated funds on “administrative costs”. Bizarrely, even personal politics has tried to cast its evil shadow to sabotage the show after the show’s co-sponsor was changed to a real working partner.

The LIBME has provided the strength of its volunteers and leadership since the dawn of the project and we are looking forward to a great time tonight in service of those who have so little.

If you are looking for something interesting to do this evening, head out to the Bellport Country Club where all of Long Island’s brewers and brew-masters will be in one room to serve their unique beers paired with food offerings from Bellport’s best restaurants. The event will go on from 6-10pm with bands, raffle items, and giveaways.

As it may have been mentioned before, The Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts will be meeting at “The Good Life” in Massapequa Park on Wednesday June 2nd at 7:30pm in the main dining room, behind the bar area. It will be the second official meeting of the LIBME in Nassau County and we hope the meeting will be the start of many more to come into the future. I will encourage every member of the LIBME to attend as I am working on having a guest speaker for the night.

“The Good Life” opened recently with a superb bar featuring an experienced staff serving a very good selection of beers. If the place bears resemblance to “The Lark” of East Northport, NY, in a comfortable post-modern style, it would be no accident as both places were designed and created by the same person, though TJ Finely’s connection is uncertain.

Personally, I like the place very much and I had the distinct pleasure of sampling the wings there in the company of Dan Woody and a 750ml of Abbaye De Bon Chien 2008. The place clearly has the room to accommodate us, so my thinking is…great beer…lots of space….the LIBME plus friends…..time for a party! The owners have offered to put a beer of our choice on tap for the evening…I would like to taste the DCD-DIPA (Double Cream Donut-Double India Pale Ale) or Rocky Point Artisan Brewer’s Mai-bock  or Great South Bay’s Massive IPA off their taps, but we might have to wait a little more time for that to happen.

As with any meeting of the LI Beer & Malt Enthusiasts, the business meeting will precede the regular meeting by one hour. If anyone has a special request or business for the officers of the LIBME to see in advance or consideration, this is the time to show up. We try to keep the business end out of the general meetings, other than on an informational basis, and we have proven successful in this method to date. We also try to work fast, between pints, and try to come to reasonable solutions to problems in the time given.

The Good Life is on 1039 Park Blvd, Massapequa Park, NY 11762, (516) 798-4663. Parking is in the street and the bar is 2 block north of the LIRR rail road station and off Sunrise Highway.

Today (7 May 2010) Spencer Niebuhr from Southampton Public House, Daniel Leeman from Global Beer Network, and Ryan Niebuhr from Manhattan Beer will be hosting The Belgian Experience. They have 13 different beers and local cheeses from the North Fork of Long Island. Call 631.499.3479 to purchase tickets ($10 per person).

The social networking site we’ve been using for a number of years now, the one known as the “Long Island Beer Scene”, will be phased out. I know a number of our members used and enjoyed that site, but the company is deleting all “free” networks in July. The officers decided that the club doesn’t really need to pay for that service.

As always, you can get everything you need here at the LIMBE Imbiber. We’ll be posting the latest updates here.

Now for those of you that want to scratch the social networking itch, we’ve made a LIBME Facebook page. You can become a fan of that page and interact there, if you want. So if you haven’t already, become a “fan” so that you’ll see all the FB updates on your own FB status page.

After a triumphant return to the 6th Annual Blue Point Cask Festival, where our table prominently featured ten unique casks that rivaled any showing from any brewer in the production, I was musing at all of the great press and accolades we have been receiving. It addition to our membership and friends, we have received a generous outpouring from Newsday, The Masters of None podcast: www.MastersOfNoneShow.com, writers, and bloggers  who all seemed to like our exceptional liquid creativity.

We fashioned this growing movement for the love of craft beer and brewing it a mere three years ago as an idea shared among three friends on their way to see the fabled Sixpoint Brewery in the Redhook section of lower Brooklyn, NY. Since that time, the group has grown in both its ranks and its followers who make a point of seeing us at every show we participate at. We have been working to make every showing of the LIBME a fun moment in history as our beers’ quality often exceeds that of our commercial brethren.

Presently, the focus of the emerging Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts is on the completion of its official filing for both NY State and Federal recognition as a non-profit organization under the IRS designation of 501c3. This application’s approval will free the LIBME to climb higher and build more events all over LI as the group is also seeking to build a larger presence in Nassau County.

In addition to producing more events all over LI, this group has its sights on two bigger events in the distance. The Bellport Beer/Bellport Chamber charity beer tasting for the benefit of Camp Paquatuck and the Lighthouse Mission on Thursday June 10th, 2010 will be great way  for this group to express its thanks to the community while it brews for the great beer show in August at the North Fork Craft Beer Festival. Simply known to us as “Martha Clara”, after the donating vineyard in which the show happens, it is widely considered by the members of the LI beer community to be the best show on Long Island.

While the LIBME will be working forward on building great showings in the next few months, I would like it to be known that our door is always open to those who simply share our appreciation for great beer and desire to make Long Island, NY a great place for beer and other malted beverages. I would encourage anyone wanting to join us to visit a few of our meetings and shows and then step to join the LIBME as a supporting member.

Cheers,

Rich

In the few days since our appearance at the annual Spring Craft Beer Festival held at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday March 27th, 2010, I have been marveling at the great reception The Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts received at the show and how the follow up to that has continued in the forms of both press and viewer interest. Looking back from where we came from as a shared idea among three friends on a bumpy train ride to Brooklyn, NY three years ago to see the start up Sixpoint Brewery, it is good to see us moving forward with presentations of unique creations in beer and that this group is working to become a viable entity.

I would like to welcome all of the new viewers and members to the LIBME, as well as our existing supporters of our meaningful cause. It is through your interest, effort, and time that this organization is advancing and supporting the appreciation of craft beer on Long Island. As I think you will find, we are an open organization to new ideas and perspectives in relation to what we do, say, and plan upon.

Knowing this, I would encourage every visitor to the LI Beer & Malt sites to come to a few of our meetings and events to see if we interest them enough to become a Supporting Member of the LIBME. Supporting Members of the LIBME  bring us a world of help with advice, beers, clinics, friendly characters, and their time, which is worth far more than the annual dues of $20 could ever cover. These great contributors vote in our government and issues, show off their beers at shows we attend, and are working for a better beer community with us.

With that noted, the LIBME has more events to attend to with the famed Blue Point Cask Festival coming up on Saturday April 17th and the Bellport Tasting on Thursday June 10th for the benefit of the Lighthouse Mission Food Pantry and the Summer Camp Paquatuck for disabled children. On the horizon, I can see my personal favorite show at Martha Clara Vineyards coming up in August.

We have a lot to do this year and we welcome all who share in our mission.

Today was the first time that I had seen our group’s logo in the official listing for the upcoming Spring Craft Beer Festival at Nassau Coliseum. I had thought that because we were not quite a formally recognized organization, that we would be relegated to somewhere in the background with our pack mules loaded with fantastic home brewed ales. Though the image of our logo came through with the lines of website partially obscured, it was good to see us listed with famous brewers of the craft brewed world. There will be some questions about our listing, who we are, and why we should be there.

The Long Island Beer & Malt Enthusiasts will be appearing at the upcoming Spring Craft Beer Festival on Saturday March 27th, 2010, which will be hosted by our friend Andy Calimano and his company, Starfish Junction, and it will be featuring quite an array of brewers. With our small army of home brewers in tow with over 9 unique creations, it is possible that the LIBME  will be fielding more beers than many of the professional brewers on site. In addition to the all the beers we will be bringing, we will be providing a support element for some of the brewers who are sending kegs for the show, but whom are unable to be there themselves.

In support of this worthy venture, I would like to personally thank the brewing members of the LI Beer & Malt Enthusiasts for their personal contributions of time, money, effort, and applied knowledge which makes our standing in this show so valuable, as we maybe the only home brewers group presenting our creations at the Nassau Coliseum on Saturday March 27th. The members of the LIBME who are participating in this show are: Adam Crockett, Phil Ebel, Todd Long, Bob Rodriguez, Frank Filacchone, Chris Kelley, Dan Lutker, and Mike Napolitano.

It should also be noted that many of the listed brewers here will also be brewing cask ales for the upcoming Blue Point Cask Festival on Saturday April 17th. With two beer shows relatively close together and other members entering the ranks with their beers too, the party can only get larger. With our name in lights on the billboard, I am hopeful that the LIBME will gain further recognition for its civil cause for celebration and promotion of the craft beer movement on Long Island, NY.

The LIBME monthly meeting on Wednesday March 3rd at Bobbique drew a full house of beer loving people, each grasping a goblet, pint, or a mug filled with their malted beverage of the moment. It was fun to see more people coming on board as I raised my hand to give a the crowd a quiet count of attendance. In the midst of our gathering, we had a young management team from The Social Sports Kitchen of Hempstead, NY arrive to court our business and to ask for our advice in bringing a craft element to their new industry. In the absence of our traditional speaker, the new attendees set off a debate that still smolders within the forums of the Google Groups and may do so here in beermalt.org as well. Aside from some interesting options the Social Sports Kitchen offered, we talked about cask and brewing assignments for the upcoming shows before laying down the foundations for our future leadership, complete with elections.

It was not the first time that a bar had courted our business as we represent a large group of people that don’t mind showing up anywhere for good beer and great food on an off night during the week. What was different this time was that the bar was also asking for our assistance in bringing a craft element to their world, which was dominated by the industrial beers and the blind faith of the masses in beer marketing campaigns. While the LIBME was offered the opportunity to flex its wealth of brewing and craft beer knowledge, speculation and debate surfaced at the meeting as to what we would be doing there and parables to Christian missionaries sailing down the Congo river to uncertain doom were greeted with laughter.

Our reply was that of course we would help the bar find its way into a craft beer element or to whatever their interpretation of it might be. Their query went right to the heart of our stated purpose of spreading the good word about the craft beer movement on Long Island, NY. It was unfathomable to me that we would decline their need for a little education from us or at least our suggestions on how to raise the standard, as we see it, of their “drink-ability”. Not wanting to be their pariah and to push anything on the new bar, we will give them a few ideas and introductions without taking anything away from their ways as they eventually will need to find their own path into the craft beer world. We will be there without any particular axe to grind, nor will be say “Oh you must have this….or that.”

In our own way, the LIBME does not view the industrial beers, such as Budweiser or Miller Lite, as evil industrial barons who have robbed the nation blind of its taste buds, like some of our nation’s financial services companies did to our nation’s economy in the past year (and got a bonus too!), as we all started drinking beer in their houses at one time or another and then found something we liked better. While we don’t mind giving the industrial beer makers a little joke or jab on occasion, they are not the true enemy of the beer movement’s freedom and evolution, but arrogance and ignorance of something new and different are justly aimed upon.

Beyond the invitations of the Hempstead-area bar for us to come visit, the officers of the LIBME are still working on the details of our By-Laws, which will be published for the group’s inspection and benefit when they are basically ready to be polished for legal eyes to read and approve. It is likely that the 501c3 designation we are seeking will be here this year.

The note about elections should concern the members of the LIBME that there will be both continuity and a vote to be seen. The current slate will be continuing unchallenged as President, Vice President, and Treasurer, but there will be a vote for Secretary (3 entries) at the April 7th meeting, which is scheduled to be Mr. Beery’s in Bethpage, NY.

Now the question is how many beer missionaries does it take to turn over a “BMC” bar? The answer will be forthcoming.