While
St. Patrick’s Day has become, for better or worse, a celebration of beer, we
sure do some funky things to our beloved brews in the name of the patron saint
of Ireland. The purists may have scrunched their noses, but most everyone
seemed to enjoy the winkingly-titled Gimmicky Green Ale, colored with algae-type-thing
spirulina, in the Captain Lawrence tasting room around this time last year.
The
brewery has outdone itself this year with Kevin’s Bacon Ale, made of Irish
malt, oats, maple syrup and…wait for it…smell it…savor it… Hemlock Hill bacon.
The latter ingredient—heck, perhaps all of them—“makes this a perfect breakfast
beer,” according to the beer menu.
Ryan Kipp’s meaty, malty brew got people
out to the tasting room. Pleasantville’s Mike
Villata, who livened up “Notes From the Tasting Room. Vol. 44”…and “Vol.
70”…first caught a whiff of the Bacon Ale while at the brewery’s Trivia Night a
few days before. “I said, I gotta have
bacon beer,” he says.
He told Casandra Maniotis of the Bronx. She
told Carol Scholl of North Bergen,
New Jersey. Everyone told someone else of this mysterious porcine potion, and suddenly
they had a posse. “It’s got a nice, smoky flavor,” says Casandra. “It’s easy
going down.”
It’s
hard not to smile when speaking with Mike, who has plastered walls from here to
Tipperary with stickers that state, simply, SMILE, part of an initiative he
calls “optimistic vandalism.” Today, Mike and Casandra sport “Kiss Me, I’m
Smileish” t-shirts.
There’s
a colorful array of St. Patrick’s t-shirts in the room, even if they’re all
green. One man’s shows a leprechaun spewing up into his pot at the end of the
rainbow, a fresh take on Irish hurling. One hale fella even sports a Jets’ Tim
Tebow jersey. Some team shirts are legitimate throwback jerseys; others simply
deserve to be thrown back like an undersized scup.
The Captain’s
special St. Patrick’s brews also include the Irish red ale Fiona and the flaked
oats-brewed pale ale Demon Sweat. But Christine
Brown of Sleepy Hollow is here to try Kevin’s Bacon. “It’s got seven pounds
of bacon in it!” she enthuses. “It sounds delicious.”
Her pal Ariel Fox—a real mermaid, she says—of
Rye Brook has started off with the Sun Block, a savvy choice on a warmish day
when people are actually on the patio for the first time in way too long. Her
fondest St. Patrick’s memory involves getting hit on by a dude she describes
with an unprintable noun, only to have the guy snag the couch she was intending
to crash on, thus making him a double unprintable noun. Add in the guy’s gum
sticking to the couch, and we’re not exactly sure what made that St. Pat’s
quite so special.
Christine’s
best Erin Go Bragh memories include their group of friends attending the Sleepy
Hollow St. Patrick’s Day parade in recent years, causing Ariel’s eyes to go
wide as hurling balls. “You guys bitched about it the whole time!” she says.
“We had
a great time,” insists Christine.
They
bicker like old pals, pausing to sip their beers.
Making
his very first St. Patrick’s Day memories is James Jarvis, a wee boy of 4 ½ months, looking resplendent in his
My First St. Patrick’s Day onesie. His folks, who recently moved to Peekskill,
are there with some old friends from New York City. “My husband is a beer
fanatic,” says Kristin, apparently a St. Patrick’s Day fanatic in her green
bonnet. “He loves Captain Lawrence.”
Kristin
will cook corned beef and cabbage Monday. But today, she’s dying to check out
the band, Burke’s Revenge. “My maiden name is Burke,” she explains.
Set up on
palates in the brewery room, the band cranks out a hodgepodge of hits stemming
from the Emerald Isle. The mood is upbeat. The sun is shining. The party is on.
So much
so that a gaggle of Pace seniors has skipped the usual spring break sunspots to
enjoy St. Patrick’s Day where it’s meant to be enjoyed: New York. Griffin Timony of Rockville Center sips
the Amber Rush and Charles Link of
Poughkeepsie the Fiona. Rich Volini
of Queens has the Imperial IPA while Grace
Bueti of Mount Kisco one-ups him with the Seeking Alpha triple IPA. Asked
how the 12% ABV beer is going down, she offers the OK sign and a blissed out grin.
They are
off to Manhattan on Monday for the usual March 17 activities—at least some of
them. “What parade?” says Rich. “Just bars.”
Yet there
is more to St. Patrick’s Day than bars and beer. In fact, Ariel Fox says neither
figures in all that much to her ideal St. Patrick’s Day, though her passion for
the holiday is palpable. “I love
parades—I love getting into the spirit,” she says. “I’m not a big drinker but I
really enjoy the festivities.”
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