Well, that was a busy week.
Less than 48 hours after our hero was last seen sleeping on the late train back to NYC from Stratford CT, after surviving the Two Roads 2025 Cask Fest, he was spotted back at Grand Central, stepping onto another New Haven bound train, this time heading to Branchville CT and the IVth installment of the Nod Hill Brewing’s Afternoon of Casks.
Five days later it was the F train to Forest Hills, and one day after that, the Astoria ferry to Brooklyn Navy Yard, all in the relentless pursuit of fresh cask ale.
Yeah, I know.
I could have spun this out for three separate posts.
But then what would I do with the upcoming NERAX?
Yes folks, I will be back on the train again by the time most of you read this, this time Amtrak, for a four-day session in South Boston.
Better to get this done now.
Afternoon of Casks (and Stichfaß) IV at Nod Hill Brewing, Ridgefield CT
Once more I got to enjoy the rail trip to Nod Hill Brewing, especially the segment on the Danbury Flyer from South Norwalk to Branchville CT.
As soon as the old diesel wheezes out of South Norwalk and crosses the Merritt Parkway, it gets to trundle north along this narrow valley with just the Norwalk River (basically a stream at this point) and CT Rt.7 (Ethan Allen Hwy) for company, the three routes weave in and out of each other within the narrow confines of the surrounding hills, like a ponytail or a challah.
Yes, Nod Hill Brewing is in a beautiful location, and I really enjoy my annual jaunt there.
The beers were just as beautiful this year as well.
I would estimate that there were 30-32 beers at the event with a surprisingly large number of them being served from gravity kegs; in the past there has been maybe 2-3 each year served from stichfaß, the usual suspects being New Park and Nod Hill themselves, but this year it was more like 10-15, definitely more than one-in-three came from the wood.
All lagers of course, but not limited to the expected helles/pilsner/light lager range, these were all over the place, including a delicious altbier from Caius Farmhouse and, my favorite of the session, a pale Mexican lager from East Rock Brewing.
I sampled twenty brews overall and three of my top-5 were lagers, with the German Pilsner from New Park Brewing rounding out the lager trio, and bitters from Little House and NewSylum flying the flag for the more traditional casks.
Honorable mention for Fox Farm who brought along their wonderful delicious Faro again; always a winner.
It was a very sociable event for me as I reconnected with some good folks from Long Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts; so much so that I almost missed my train back.
Nemo’s Beer Shop
Shoutout to Strong Rope John for clueing me in on this one.
Nemo’s is a tiny bottle shop/bar on Queens Blvd midway between the Forest Hills and Kew Gardens subway stops on the E/F train.
They celebrated their third anniversary last week, and once again collaborated with Strong Rope Brewing on a 7% old school West Coast red IPA (all NYS ingredients), available on tap at both Nemo’s and Strong Rope.
This year they also put some aside into a pin, which was tapped this past Friday afternoon (4:20 anyone?).
After spending much of last week in my bed with a bad case of the grumblies (I wonder why?), by Friday I had recovered enough to make the trek into Queens, and arrived in time to witness the blessed event.
What an excellent beer it was too.
Dank and piney with the booze dangerously hidden, all on a solid malty base, a Strong Rope signature.
I stopped at two, but did get a sample from the keg to do a side-by-side comparison, which proved quite interesting.
The keg version was a massive nose-bomb with the dankness from the assorted hop products and terpenes hitting straight in the face, so much so that they actually overpowered the other senses, and the hit on the palate was quite short-lasting.
The cask version was a little more subdued and a little more rounded, but it was persistent especially as the beer warmed in the glass; you could taste all of the individual components as you worked your way through the pint.
The perfect solution was to sup my way through the cask pour and then take a quick sniff (and sip) of the keg pour every now and then to revitalize the senses.
They did a very good job of selling the cask, and had a large group of would-be converts by the time that I left, some on their fourth pour already.
I wish Nemo’s the best of luck, and hope that they plan on tapping a pin on a regular basis; the area has sadly been cask-free since the Station House abandoned its handpump.
The Gowanus Brewery Cask Crawl
The main reason that I stopped after two pints at Nemo’s was that I had signed up to join the NYC Cask Crew in a 4-brewery crawl in Gowanus the following day.
My wife tagged along for the walk, the dogs, and the vintage clothing stores, all of which we experienced, in that order.
We took the Astoria ferry from East 90th Street to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, paused briefly to watch some macaroons being prepared at Russ & Daughters, and then hiked over Fort Greene to Gowanus and our first brewery, Strong Rope on President Street.
We missed the 12:30pm tapping by a few minutes (damn those macaroons), but arrived in time to witness the cleanup, a lively cask apparently.
But also a lovely cask.
A Mild Journey, a 3.5% dark mild, deep opaque black (red), big frothy white head, slightly sweet up front, slightly bitter (roasty bitter not hoppy bitter) at the finish.
A perfect starter for the crawl.
Despite our macaroony tardiness, we were actually among the first of the crew to arrive.
John Hanrahan from Strong Rope was already there of course, handling the tapping and mopping duties, as was Kevin Kain who did such an excellent job of organizing the crawl and persuading three of the four breweries to produce or provide a pin for the event, kudos!
Pretty soon we had a core group of 6-8 folks who were ready to move on down the street to Finback.
John enthusiastically tagged along.
My wife reluctantly bade farewell to the brewery pup and tagged along as well.
At Finback we picked up another half dozen crawlers and got to sample our first cask lager of the crawl, the deliciously hoppy Dot Dot Dot (foeder aged pilsner) which was as crisp, clean and flavorful as I remembered it from Strong Rope’s 2024 Caskiversary event and the 2024 NYC Beer Week Opening Bash.
I forgot to ask about the dry-hopping this time, but it was quite assertive without overpowering the base brew.
My wife managed to find another couple of brewery pups to keep her amused and occupied while I shmoozed, and pretty soon, we were ready to crawl forward to our next destination, Threes Brewing on Douglass Street.
Crossing Sackett Street on Third Avenue, I pointed my missus at the vintage clothing store (No Relation Vintage Store) across from Wild East Brewing, and left her there with a promise to meet up again when I got back to Wild East.
I walked on to Threes, gritted my teeth, and charged in, in search of the other crawlers, a gap at the bar, a cask, or just some standing space.
I was successful, and before long I was the one blocking the passageway of other patrons, but I had my next cask lager in my hands; an undetermined, by me anyway, pilsner.
Flat but tasty, you will not be hearing any complaints from me.
Threes was its usual insane noisy self.
We eventually got fed up blocking the bar, so migrated closer to the entrance, where we could block all ingress and egress.
And when we were done with that we wandered back. individually and in smaller groups, to Sackett Street and our final destination (well, mine anyway) of Wild East Brewing.
Wild East was quieter, but not by much.
It was also full, with all manner of group events going on, including a 30th Birthday Party somewhere alongside the brewery observation windows.
But there was standing space between the entrance and the bar, so that is where I parked myself after purchasing a delicious pint of their Moderance bitter with black tea, my favorite variant; the tea does a wonderful job of drying out some of the sweetness of the cask.
More shmoozing with the Cask Crew, more dogs to delight my returning wife, but no more casks for me.
After the excesses of the last two weeks, I had promised myself (and my darling wife) that I would be limiting my intake to one pint in each brewery.
Hey, this upcoming week is NERAX week, and there are no promises there, only pints.
Scorecard w/e 4/1/25
In the past week the Cask Whisperer has enjoyed the following casks, at the Nod Hill Brewing Afternoon of Casks IV:
Brewed by | Brew | Style |
Vitelius | Alt Bier | |
Ein Helles | Helles | |
East Rock Pilsner | German Pilsner | |
East Rock Brewing | Rocaveza | Pale Mexican Lager |
Faro | American Wild Ale | |
Exit Six Beer | Extra Special Bitter (ESB) | |
Hobbiton Pilsner | New Zealand Pilsner | |
Dahlia | German Pilsner | |
New Park Brewing | Garnet | Red Ale: Maple Syrup and Dates |
Wit’Drawls | Witbier | |
NewSylum Brewing | Young Freckled Rooster | English Bitter |
Beam | German Pilsner | |
Nod Hill | Cozy Snug | Irish Stout |
Nod Hill | Ridge Red | Red Ale |
Friston | British Red Ale | |
Italian Pilsner | Italian Pilsner | |
Arrabiata | Italian Pilsner | |
Watson Farmhouse Brewery | Barn Find | Belgian Farmhouse Ale |
Perpetual Czech | Czech Pilsner | |
O’McCosh | Dry Irish Stout |
The Cask Whisperer also enjoyed the Strong Rope/Nemo’s collaboration beer, Full Circle 3.0 red IPA @ Nemo’s Beer Shop in Forest Hills, NY.
And managed four more during the NYC Cask Crew Gowanus Cask Crawl:
- A Strong Rope Mild Journey dark mild @ Strong Rope, Gowanus NY
- Dot Dot Dot hoppy pilsner from Finback Brooklyn @ Finback, Gowanus NY
- An unnamed pilsner from Threes Brewing @ Threes Brewing, Gowanus NY
- A Wild East Moderance special bitter with Black Tea @ Wild East, Gowanus NY
Upcoming Cask Events (Festivals and Otherwise)
4/2/25 – 4/5/25: 26th Annual NERAX will be held in the South Boston Lithuanian Club, Boston MA.
4/27/25: 2025 Yards Invitational at Yards Brewing Company in Philadelphia PA.
5/4/25: 7th Annual Cask Ales FUNdraiser @ Po’Boy Brewery, Port Jefferson Station NY
5/24/25: New York State British Real Ale Festival @ Seneca Lake Brewing, Rock Stream NY
6/7/2025: Log Jammin’ V @ Human Robot Beer, Philadelphia PA
Upcoming Random NYC Casks
- Nothing spotted yet, but we may get lucky and see one more First Firkin Friday cask at Brouwerij Lane before it gets too hot out there.
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 (First Friday Firkins)
- The Owl Farm
Cask Venues Reachable from NYC by MTA Train
Metro-North Hudson Line
- Draught Industries, Beacon NY (one handpump, Old Glenham beer range).
- Coopers, Beacon NY (one handpump, Old Glenham beer range).
Metro-North Harlem Line
- The Ambleside Pub, Mt. Kisco NY (four handpumps, Old Glenham beer range).
Metro-North New Haven Line
- Marlowe Artisanal Ales, Mamaroneck NY (one handpump tapped Thursdays, Marlowe beer range)
- Nod Hill Brewing, Ridgefield CT (two handpumps, Nod Hill beer range).
This Post Has 5 Comments
I’m tapping a cask of Pub Ale at City Swiggers next Thursday, April 10 at 5pm. I’ll also be pouring free tastes of our cans there from 5:30-8pm. Jason, Daniel and Jessica should all try to slip out and stop by!
Thanks John, I will make sure to post it on the next update.
Hi, I hope night 3 of Nerax is as good as the 1st two. We’re at Fox Farm right now- they’ve got 2 on the engines, Tiddly and Plucky. The latter, an english pale ale, is the best beer we’ve had this week.
Enjoy,
SJ
I haven’t tried Plucky yet.
Get home safe lads.
I am getting ready for NERAX round 3.
Best NERAX yet!
I have the scorecard posted and will be posting the dodgy commentary tomorrow.