This past Wednesday night while partaking in the VSK event at Blind Tiger Ale House (281 Bleecker St.) I had the opportunity to interview a well known figure in the NYC craft beer scene. Coming to New York 10 years ago from England, Alex Hall has made a name for himself as both a cask ale expert and an avid craft beer advocate. Throughout the interview I gained a deeper insight into Alex’s dedication to craft beer advocacy and tradition. By the time we said good night to each other I had gained an ever greater respect for the mission that he continues to go on daily in the New York City craft beer scene, and also a boost of confidence to continue mine. So here we go...
Alex’s work in the craft beer industry began in 1992 Alex when he was trained in cask cellarmanship and soon afterwards became cellarman at The Evening Star, a then beer bar in Brighton, England. In 1994 a 1 and 3/4 barrel brewing system was installed in one half of the cellar and The Evening Star became a brewpub. The brewing system’s installation marked the birth of the Dark Star Brewery, a now thriving craft brewery that has since outgrown its original home at The Evening Star. One of the many things he is known for is his website (Gotham-Imbiber), where he posts information for the cask ale festivals that he organizes along with lots of other craft beer information. The name Gotham-Imbiber stems from a publication that he founded in England called the Independent Imbiber. His aim for the Independent Imbiber (still exists today in England as the The New Imbiber) and now the Gotham-Imbiber is to give exposure to smaller breweries and educate people who are exploring the world of craft beer. Before being web based The Gotham Imbiber was a printed publication that was distributed in NYC between 2003 and 2006.
As mentioned above Alex is known for his expertise in cask conditioned beers. When I asked him about what makes beer from the cask so special, Alex explained that today for various reasons beer has been influenced by modern technology and moved away from cask ale which is essentially “Beer as it should be." Meaning, originally all beer was put into casks to naturally carbonate and not carbonated through the addition of carbon dioxide gas (draft beer and most bottled beer). To keep tradition alive Alex helps organize many of the cask ales festivals that take place through out the year in New York City. Before his first New York cask festival, Alex started a now yearly cask festival in England (first one in 1996), which he still goes back every year to do the ordering for. The first one that he organized in NYC was at a craft beer bar in Brooklyn called the Brazen Head in 2003. Since then he has helped both Brazen Head (now hosts cask festivals through out the year) and a large amount of craft beer bars do the same quite often. To keep the tradition of cask conditioned beer going, Alex also tries to make sure that as many NYC craft beer bars as possible offer at least one rotating cask beer.
From there I moved on to asking Alex about a new craft brewery which he is a founding partner of called Wandering Star Brewing Co. in Pittsville, Massachusetts. The name Wandering Star actually came from an interesting story. A label had been created with the name Nomad Brewing Co. which showed a wondering traveler looking out into the desert. After some legal issues they changed the name to Wondering Star and added a star to the label to show a nomad following a star in the sky. The brewery’s philosophy is short and straight forward “To brew world class beer”, and also put a lot of beers in cask. The managing partner and head brewer is a man by the name of Chris Post. Chris himself brought in the majority of the investors needed to construct the brewery. One quite interesting fact about the brewery that Alex told me when he went to another bar later that night (over a pint of Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout) is that the brewing system they’ll be using came from a brew pub in Michigan that went out of business. Once the brewery is up and running Alex’s roll as a business partner will be to organize brewery events and manage the distribution of Wandering Star’s beers in the New York City area. Nothing is set in stone, but some of the first styles of beer that Chris hopes to brew are the following. A pale ale, German bock, witbier brewed with lemongrass, stout (type unspecified), and an English Extra Special Bitter (ESB). Alex hopes to have Wondering Star beers initially distributed in Massachusetts and New York.
The final and possibly most important topic that Alex and I discussed was craft beer advocacy. On this topic I only asked him one question. What is your opinion on craft beer advocacy? In his answer to this broad question Alex made many important points. The first point he made was that before trying craft beer most people’s impressions of what beer tastes like stems from the mass-produced lagers brewed by Budweiser, Miller, and Coors. As such it is important to introduce craft beer to people who will appreciate the limitless variety of flavors that it has to offer. Essentially, craft beer advocacy comes down to is spreading the message of what beer is really supposed to taste like. By advocating cask beers, Alex hopes to keep the tradition of beer in its original form alive in the hope that beer should never be totally dependent on modern technology. Speaking like a true craft beer advocate, Alex told me that he takes pleasure in seeing more and more people discovering what beer is supposed to taste like. He especially enjoys seeing people trying cask beers because some are at times hesitant to try it and are usually pleasantly surprised upon tasting it for the first time.
Having spoken to Alex Hall about craft beer many times in the past at various craft beer bars in Manhattan, what made this interview special was that I got a chance to see what it means to be a true craft beer advocate. If you get a chance to make it to any of the cask festivals in NYC through out the year, be sure to approach Alex and thank him for making cask beer as widely available in NYC as it is today. Lastly, if you are already a craft beer drinker make sure to introduce as many of your friends to what beer is supposed to taste like and keep the tradition alive.
Comments
Interesting interview. I've been to the cask ale festivals at the Brazen Head, but didn't know Alex was behind them! Looking forward to hearing about more events he's organizing in New York.
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