BREWERY REVIEW in New York: Daleview Biscuits and Beer

SADLY, DALEVIEW BISCUITS & BEER IS NOW CLOSED.

Daleview Biscuits and Beer is in some ways my favorite kind of brewery. It’s a brewery that most people have no idea is actually a brewery.

It’s one of the few places that only neighborhood locals or the very dedicated New York beer drinkers have even heard about. It’s really a restaurant specializing in biscuits and Southern comfort cuisine and strangely enough the food is all gluten-free.

Biscuits and beer actually make a lot of sense being paired together, but I can’t necessarily say the same for beer and gluten free biscuits due to the high level of gluten in beer.

But turns out the owner Christopher Gandsy is somewhat similar to me in that he really loves beer and he happens to be married to someone who follows a gluten free diet. So the pairing might make more sense than you think.

And, of course, that’s where his unlikely concept came from. My wife and I had a nice brunch here a few months ago and I was really impressed with their gluten free biscuits.

Now on to the beer, which is not gluten free.

There is no flight available here, but the bartenders, I’m sure, would allow you to taste some of the few beers on tap at any given time. This is a modest operation using a two barrel system. It also happens to be the city’s only Black owned brewery (now that Island to Island moved to Texas) and that in of itself is a reason to seek them out.

I was eager to take home cans of the two offerings they had when I visited and I finally got around to giving both of them a try.

Daleview has a little shop next door to the bar where cans can be purchased for take away. I was not able to peek at the brewing equipment as it is not accessible to the public.

Both beers I purchased were named after female activists.

The can of the first beer, named for civil rights activist Diane Nash, features both a photo of the woman and a short paragraph documenting some of her work.

Amazing that the beer is honoring and documenting a name less often spoken in the history books, but I don’t think it immediately has any influence on the beer itself, which is an IPA brewed with Zeus and Cascade Hops.

It poured with a lot of foam, almost taking over the volume of the cup. When it settled, I could see the beer itself was golden and opaque. The nose was mostly full of toasty bread aromas and not much fruit.

For an IPA, it was very subtle with a heavier focus on malt than hops. I did get a little bit of orange rind and bitter grapefruit at the end, but again it’s not what most casual IPA drinkers would be expecting.

The second beer I purchased didn’t have an elaborate photo on it – just a simple logo and label. It also cost $11 which I thought was pretty expensive for a single can of beer purchased at the source. But I wanted to support them so I forked over the cash.

This one was an intriguing sounding sour named for Mamá Tingó. No description of her activism was present on the can but a little googling revealed that she was a Dominican activist who fought for farmers and the poor in the 1970’s.

Perhaps her connection to farming is why this fruit and vegetable sour bears her name. Mango and red pepper are not the two ingredients that come to mind for a sour – especially together. It was unclear to me if the pepper was of the spicy variety or the sweet kind. I would soon discover the answer.

There was way less head here but lots of effervescence and bubbles throughout. The wild yeast gave off a very distinct sour smell that I couldn’t quite place. Wish I knew my yeasts a little better.

The red pepper was definitely a bell pepper with an herbaceous vegetal quality up front with a subtle sourness st the end. The mango was very restrained but the beer was balanced. It was a pleasant interesting vegetable sour, but not something I would pay $11 for again.

Note that both beers were purchased a few months ago and the line-up has changed. Unfortunately I don’t find myself in this neighborhood terribly often and these beers are not yet widely available across the city. And in many ways, that’s the charm of this under-the-radar brewery.

 Is Daleview Biscuits and Beer the best brewery in NY? It’s really worth visiting for so many reasons, but don’t expect a true production brewery experience The full quality of their beers remain to be seen, but they still get a  7  out of 10 for being a true local community-based beer maker.

Is Daleview Biscuits and Beer’s Diane Nash the best beer in NY? It gets a 7 out of 10 for an IPA – I found it a bit too malt forward with a very subtle hop experience.

Is Daleview Biscuit and Beer’s Mamá Tingó Sour the best beer in NY? I have to give it another 7 out of 10 partially for the high price tag, but also for a slightly out of balanced vegetal quality with a mostly undetectable amount of promised mango.