I wish I was talking about cask ale in NYC, but unfortunately, I am talking about the significant recurrence of Covid.
It seems to be everywhere, and it seems to be infecting everyone again.
Relatives in Florida?
Yep, they are dealing with it.
Friends and neighbors in NYC?
Again, yep.
Cask Whisperer?
So it would seem.
Not my first bout but definitely the crappiest.
Crappy enough to keep me indoors all week, and crappy enough to resort to Paxlovid and stay off of the beer.
A bufflehead for a couple of days, chewing razorblades for another three, a reduced sense of smell (it played havoc with my cooking), and a permanent taste of bitterness (not in a good beery way) on my tongue.
Not crappy enough to require hospitalization, but there have been others in my circle who have not been so lucky.
What amazes me with this particular viral uprising though, is just how nonchalantly the guardians of our safety (politicians and press) have been taking it.
Are we all so done with it now, that we no longer feel the need to protect ourselves and others, or is it just that there are other more pressing “end of civilization” matters around, and Covid has just become a nuisance?
I cannot just put the blame on the authorities for not doing their jobs, when I myself no longer consider the need for a mask when out and about in the city, or on the ferry, or even the subway.
Alright, I do still cover my nose and mouth when sneezing in public, but I always did that, my parents taught me to do that, it is just common courtesy and common sense.
But we have all come a long way since those heady days of 2020; forward or backwards, who knows and who is not afraid to tell?
So let us briefly jump into the way back machine (if not the way-way back machine) and enjoy a beer or two.
It used to go by the name Covid-19, but it was March 2020 by the time its presence started to be felt in NYC.
2020 started the same as any other year for me: cask events on Long Island’s North Shore and at Fifth Hammer, and a long rail trip to San Antonio and back to visit my son and granddaughter.
I had surgery scheduled for March but that was the first thing to change; delayed until May as the NYC hospitals started to struggle with the epidemic.
Instead, I took the opportunity to go grab a couple of pints of Dutchess Auger Porter at The Ginger Man on March 15th; little did I realize that they would be the last pints that I would experience there; I still really miss that place.
One week later, we were all locked down in our homes, and I was reorganizing my bottled beer cabinets, and sipping on a 2014 bottle of Transmitter S6 Rye Saison.
Within another week we had figured out that our local Whole Foods had a good selection of KCBC cans, usually four different beers at a time in rotating four-packs; we would mask up and line up (six foot apart) every other week and pick up two packs of ever-differing styles to supplement the diminishing bottle cache.
Well, I would.
My missus would be there to actually do some food shopping.
And that was it for exercise for us, except for a daily, sometimes twice daily, walk around the Reservoir and/or the Great Lawn and/or the North Meadow in Central Park: getting in some distance walking while keeping our distance from other humans.
The city was quiet with the exception of the constant sound of ambulance sirens, but there would always be a few scattered souls getting in similar exercise to ourselves: we would nod and keep on walking.
They were interesting walks, walks of discovery.
We looked on from a distance as the emergency tent hospital in the East Meadow was constructed, utilized and dismantled again; the same East Meadow where our boys used to play during school recreation periods.
We saw the seasons change by closely observing the lifecycle of the trees and plants that we would pass daily.
We saw new-growth pine needles and many different varieties of pinecones: who knew?
We found a Robin’s nest close to the path in the northwest corner of the Pinetum and followed the daily adventures of the small family from nest building to egg incubation to hatchling feeding, until one day the nest was empty, and they were gone.
Back at home, I discovered that if I carefully pealed off the colorful labels of the KCBC cans, I could reuse them for small “wallpapering” projects around the house.
And so a cottage industry was born, with all manner of storage boxes, and even the doors of a bathroom cabinet, enhanced by Earl Holloway’s amazing artwork.
By August 2020, the beer runs to Whole Foods diminished as KCBC started to deliver their products directly to our doorstep, or at least the street outside the apartment building, where they were gingerly passed from gloved hand to gloved hand with a nod and a muttered “cheers!” through the masks.
Not just cans, but bottles as well, sours and farmhouse ales and imperial stouts; I have one left and will be cracking it open as soon as I am done with my current course of medications.
Our last KCBC care package arrived on May 2nd, 2021, and the following week New York City’s bars and restaurants were tentatively reopening, kind of.
Jones Wood Foundry had opened up its distanced and partitioned back dining room, but more importantly, it had begun its first weekly cask tapping event; I got the tail end of a Dutchess Telios IPA cask, which was ugly but awesome.
It was the start of a long association, a long friendship.
Strong Rope had also resumed their Friday pins on the bar at Gowanus and my wife and I would swing on by on the following Saturday and sit outside and watch the life finally return to the city.
We survived fourteen months in lockdown and here I am complaining because I haven’t had a beer in ten days.
My apologies for the somewhat downbeat nature of my post this week, but when your mouth tastes like the inside of a jockstrap, you would probably have the grumblies too.
Overall I chalked up about zero miles total walking; not quite the weekly exercise that I envisioned, but sometimes you just have to recharge.
It will be good to finally get off of my butt this week.
I still sense a road trip coming up.
Scorecard w/e 08/20/24
In the past week, The Cask Whisperer has enjoyed the following casks:
- Zippo
Upcoming Cask Events (Festivals and Otherwise)
9/7/2024: Noah Webster House Real Ale Harvest Festival, West Hartford CT
11/2/2024: 20th Annual Blue Point Cask Ale Festival, Patchogue NY (30% Early Bird Discounts until 8/23/24)
11/8/2024: Two Roads Cask Fest at Area 2, Stratford CT
Upcoming Random NYC Casks
8/23/24: Petrini pilsner cask being tapped at noon, at Strong Rope Brewery in Red Hook.
NYC Cask Venues
Known Operational/Active Beer Engines
- Jones Wood Foundry (x2)
- Fifth Hammer
- Wild East
- The Shakespeare (x3)
- Cask Bar & Kitchen
- Drop-off Service
Occasional Pins (worth a follow on Instagram)
- Strong Rope
- KCBC
- Tørst
- Blind Tiger Ale House
- Threes Brewing
- Brouwerij Lane
This Post Has 2 Comments
Hope you get well soon! Sounds like you might miss it but your readers might like to know we’re tapping a cask of Pilsner on the bar at Strong Rope Brewery Red Hook tomorrow (Friday 8/23) at noon.
Cheers John, I am about to update the latest post and plan on coming by on Saturday to sample the cask. Feeling much better finally and ready to get out and about again.