DISH OF THE WEEK: Barrier Brewery’s Money IPA at BROOKLYN POUR

Every week, I document another dish that impressed and satiated me during my food adventures around New York City

Last weekend, Village Voice hosted another one of their monster tasting events. These are endlessly fun and allow somebody as indecisive as me to taste as many things as my body can handle. This event was the annual Brooklyn Pour at Skylight One Hanson in Fort Green and it was a huge succes. The only problem I had is that I’m a lightweight and I can only taste so much beer before my shirt ends up over my head.

With more than 60 breweries represented, I had to have a game plan. Naturally I decided to try as many of the local brews as possible and then maybe move on to some others if I could see straight at that point. I skipped standby breweries like Sixpoint, Brooklyn, Kelso, and Bronx Brewery just because I’ve had their offerings in the past and I needed to pace myself. Instead I explored some of the new undiscovered territory in the NYC beer world.

And what a wonderful thriving world of beer we have in this city! In the last year, a handful of new breweries and projects have started making beer.

Brooklyn Brew Shop, which sells homebrewing kits, turned out a beer of their own: a sweetly mellow Oatmeal Raisin Cookie stout. An interesting new brewing project called Grimm Artisanal Ales (a gypsy brewery) offered a perfumey Belgian blonde with rose hips.

I thought 508 Gastrobrewery, the city’s smallest brewery, did a much better job with their floral Belgian blonde called Love Jones. Two other newly arrived beers were a quaffable pale ale from City Island in the Bronx and a very promising flagship lager from Queens Brewery.

But my favorite beer of the evening came from one of the best local breweries. I have sung the praises of Barrier Brewery in the past and now that they are fully recovered from a massive hit by Hurricane Sandy, I will sing once again.

I loved their seasonal SaazSquash (a butternut squash beer, not a pumpkin beer), but I couldn’t get over how money their West Coast-style IPA was. It’s fittingly called Money. Much brighter and juicier than most of the east coast IPA’s, this had all the tropical fruit and grassy notes one expects from the best of the west. It’s loaded with aromatic hops, but balanced with a slight sweetness and overwhelming smoothness. Stellar versions like Green Flash and Lagunitas might have to watch their backs.

Thanks to the Village Voice for organizing such a fun and intoxicating event. Each year I discover new local beers and each year, once my hangover subsides, I look forward to the next one.