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Bernie Kilkelly

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Kilkelly is the publisher of the authoritative LIBeerGuide and a frequent contributor to such publications as Ale Street News and The Gotham Imbiber. Reach him via libeerguide@gmail.com.

Barrier Brewing Wins Statewide Best Brews Contest

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Oceanside’s Barrier Brewing Co. took home the prize for Best Brew of New York State last week at a competition held at the Brookfield Place shopping, dining and office complex in lower Manhattan.  

Barrier’s Shadows and Dust, a New England-style IPA, received the most votes from attendees at the final round, beating out beers from two New York City breweries (Harlem Brewing and Bronx Brewery) and two from upstate (Syracuse’s Empire Brewing and Captain Lawrence Brewing from Westchester).  

Barrier Brewing reached the final round of the competition by beating out four other Long Island craft breweries in an earlier round on Feb. 28.  Those breweries were Blue Point Brewing, Greenport Harbor Brewing, Oyster Bay Brewing and Montauk Brewing. Preliminary rounds were also held for five breweries from New York City and five from Upstate New York.

All four rounds of the Best Brews of New York competition were held in the Winter Garden of Brookfield Place, which was transformed into a biergarten highlighting the beers from across New York State paired with food from Brookfield Place’s top eateries. All proceeds from beer sales, which totaled over $60,000, will be donated to Habitat for Humanity.

Barrier has won statewide competitions before, including the F.X. Matt Cup for Best Craft Brewery in New York State at the 2011 Tap New York Festival. Barrier’s brewmasters Evan Klein and Craig Frymark started out as homebrewers but honed their craft working together at Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn.

Barrier moved into its current location on New Street in Oceanside near the East Rockaway Long Island Rail Road station in 2013, just a few months before Superstorm Sandy. The brewery sustained huge damage from Sandy’s flood waters but rebounded quickly with the support of other craft breweries from around New York State.

Barrier expanded production in 2016 and is currently canning several of its beers for distribution across Long Island and in New York City, including its popular Money IPA.

Long Island beer lovers can taste the winning beer and all of Barrier’s wide range of beers at the brewery’s tap room, open every day except Tuesday. Barrier’s beers, including Shadows and Dust, will also be featured at a Taps and Apps event on April 6 at Heneghan’s Tavern in Point Lookout.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

Harbor Head Brewing Company: Brewing Up A Storm

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Bartender Dave Martin and co-owner Candi Schade in Harbor Head's tasting room.

At the southernmost head of Northport Harbor, the aptly named Harbor Head Brewing Company is producing craft beers that are popular with both boaters and landlubbers.

Located in the Brittania Yachting Center, the brewery was founded by Sosh Andriano, the owner of the Whale’s Tale restaurant situated just steps away in the same marina. He recognized the growing popularity of local craft beers and thought a brewery would be complementary to his restaurant. He recruited a few partners and in 2016 started building a five-barrel brewhouse and tasting room in a 1,100-square-foot former bait and tackle shop.  

“We wanted our customers to get an overall experience where they can enjoy a sunset by the water and have a delicious fish taco with a blonde ale that’s made next door,” says Andriano.  “We also thought customers could enjoy a beer at the brewery either before or after a meal at the restaurant.”

Harbor Head was licensed as a New York State farm brewery and began producing beer to be sold on tap at the Whale’s Tale in summer 2017. As a next step, the brewery opened its tasting room in January 2018 and sold growlers and crowlers for takeaway. In July, Harbor Head received approval from the Village of Northport to sell flights and pints in its tasting room, and opened a small beer garden that was a popular hangout in the summer and fall months.

The brewery quickly developed a loyal following for its wide range of delicious lagers and ales.  William Melvin, who took over as head brewer in June 2018, describes Harbor Head’s approach as wanting to produce “drinkable beers that match the classic beer styles.” A native of the Hudson Valley, Melvin got his start in brewing at several brewpubs in the Adirondacks before studying brewing at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago.  

Harbor Head typically has eight beers on tap, which vary according to the season. According to Melvin, he tries to always have a pale ale and an IPA in the rotation, along with a lighter-tasting beer and a dark beer style. Among the IPAs is NoPoCo, named after the Northport Coast, which is a double hopped New England style hazy IPA brewed with Citra and dry hopped El Dorado hops. Other pale ales include moderately hopped Top Sail Pale Ale and the crisp Whaleback West Coast IPA brewed with Columbus and dry hopped with Mosaic.

In the summer months, popular beers include Blonde Ale and Bahia margarita-style wheat beer with agave, lime peel, sea salt and coriander. Fall offerings include Oktoberfest and Pumpkin ales, and Harbor Head’s Pumpkin Ale won first place in the Pumpkin Ale Contest at the Long Island Fall Beer Festival held last October in Farmingdale.  

On a recent visit in January, robust winter styles were on tap including Vienna Winter Lager, a hearty amber lager, Storm Cloud Oatmeal Stout with rich chocolate and coffee notes, and English Oak Ale, a traditional winter warmer aged in oak wine barrels. During the winter, Harbor Head’s tasting room is open Thursday to Sunday.

In addition to producing beer for its own tasting room and the Whale’s Tale, Harbor Head’s beers can also be enjoyed on tap at several beer bars and gastropubs on the North Shore. These include The Lark Pub & Grub in East Northport, Prato 850 in Commack, Burgerology in Huntington, The Bench Bar & Grill in Stony Brook, and the reopened Gunther’s Tap Room on Main Street in Northport Village.  

All the more reason to drop anchor and belly up for a pint.

Harbor Head Brewing Company is located at 81 Fort Salonga Rd. in Northport. For more info visit www.harborheadbrew.com.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

Waterzooi Celebrates 20th Anniversary and Owner’s Knighthood

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Jeff Piciullo, Sir Chris Werle and Chef Ed Davis of Waterzooi, Dan Leeman of Global Beer Network

Waterzooi Belgian Bistro in Garden City toasted its 20th anniversary with a festive six-course dinner on January 28 billed as the Knights of the Round Table Beer Dinner. The packed event also celebrated the Knighthood of Waterzooi co-founder Chris Werle, who was knighted by the Belgian Brewers Guild at a ceremony in Brussels last fall.

Werle, who is also a co-founder of the five Croxley Ales beer bars on Long Island and Brooklyn, was honored for his contributions to promoting Belgian food, beer and culture over the last 25 years. Longtime friends Werle and Jeff Piciullo opened the first Croxley Ale House in their hometown of Franklin Square in 1993 and were on a mission to bring great beer to LI. They opened a second Croxley location in Rockville Centre in 1996 but after a trip to Belgium with their friend, chef Ed Davis, the idea for Waterzooi was born.

“The trip to Belgian really opened our eyes to the variety and quality of Belgian beer,” said Werle. “We were blown away by the culture around beer and food and decided to open a traditional Belgian bistro to bring that culture to Long Island.”

Twenty  years later, Waterzooi is recognized as one of the top Belgian restaurants in the country and has the Island’s largest Belgian beer selection, with 23 Belgian brews on tap. One of the sponsors of the Knights of the Round Table dinner, sales director Dan Leeman of Belgian beer distributor Global Beer Network, said Waterzooi was a pioneer in spreading appreciation of Belgian beer on Long Island and beyond.

“Without Waterzooi we would not have the market for Belgian beer in the U.S. that we have today,” said Leeman.

The dinner featured items from Chef Davis’ original menu at Waterzooi, including griddled wild boar sausages with a sun-dried cherry kriek sauce and salmon wellington topped with fois gras and lobster demi. Of course the menu included Waterzooi’s calling card and Belgium’s national passion, moules frites.

Among the beers that accompanied the courses were a special 20th Anniversary Ale, a robust amber tripel ale, brewed by the Brasserie de Silly artisanal brewery in Belgium. The sumptuous dinner was capped off with warm Belgian chocolate cake paired perfectly with rich Gulden Draak Imperial Stout.

For more information on Waterzooi Belgian Bistro see waterzooi.com.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

New Long Island Craft Brews on Tap in 2019

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Father and son team of Brad and Dave Jordan, owners and brewers at SquareHead Brewing in Holbrook.

The craft beer industry continued to expand across Long Island in 2018, with six new breweries opening taprooms, bringing the total number of brewpubs and breweries with taprooms to 35, compared to just nine at the end of 2012.  

Growth on Long Island is part of a statewide trend, with New York State now having 418 craft breweries, more than double the number in 2012. The main driver of that increase was the farm brewery law that went into effect on January 1, 2013, with more than 200 farm brewery licenses issued, including 27 on Long Island. Even more growth is expected on LI in 2019, with eight more breweries planning to open new taprooms.

“This growth wouldn’t happen without the unprecedented support from Governor Cuomo and state legislators who continue to cut red tape and pass meaningful legislation for the brewing industry,” said Paul Leone, executive director of the New York State Brewers Association.

LI’s newest brewery is SquareHead Brewing Company in Holbrook, which was founded by father-and-son team Dave and Brad Jordan and is licensed as a New York State farm brewery.  The name comes from a slang term for a Scandinavian, according to Dave Jordan, who is half Swedish. 

The founders live a few blocks from the brewery and built most of the brewery themselves.  Getting permits for the taproom took years, but the Jordans took advantage of the long wait to perfect recipes, including unusual beers such as Pistachio Pilsner and more traditional IPAs and stouts. They also barrel aged several beers, which were served at the grand opening and are available at the taproom, which is initially open on the weekends.   

Other brewery taprooms that opened in 2018 include Harbor Head Brewing in Northport (January), Small Craft Brewing in Amityville (March), North Fork Brewing in Riverhead and Six Harbors Brewing in Huntington (June) and Westhampton Beach Brewing Co. (July).  

In addition to new breweries, many older breweries expanded their production and taprooms in 2018 to keep up with demand, most notably Blue Point Brewing in Patchogue. LI’s largest craft brewery began production last July at its new 60,000-square-foot facility on West Main Street and plans to open a new tasting room and outdoor beer garden in 2019.  

Other craft breweries that expanded last year include Garvies Point Craft Brewing in Glen Cove, which went from a 3.5-barrel system to a 10-barrel system; Destination Unknown Beer Company (DUBCO) in Bay Shore which expanded from 3 barrels to 10 barrels; BrewSA Brewing in Freeport which installed two new 7-barrel Unitanks; and Moustache Brewing in Riverhead, which quadrupled the size of its brewhouse and taproom.   

Looking ahead to 2019, several breweries are producing beer and just waiting on permits to open their taprooms. These include Eastern Front Brewing in Mattituck, Patchogue Beer Project, Secatogue Brewing in West Islip, and HopWins Brewery in Bay Shore. Blind Bat Brewery, which has been brewing small batches of beer since 2008, is close to opening a bistro in Centerport that will serve locally sourced food along with Blind Bat beers. Bellport Brewing has changed its name to Sunrise Ales & Lagers and plans to open its new brewery and tasting room on Sunrise Highway in Bohemia in early 2019.

In Nassau County, Long Beach Brewing and Flying Belgian Brewery have started construction on the new brewery and tap room that they will share in Oceanside, with plans to open in early 2019. Bright Eye Beer Company, formerly Point Lookout Brewing, has signed a lease for a 5,000-square-foot space on Park Avenue in Long Beach across from the LIRR station. The new brewery will feature a 15-barrel brewhouse and a taproom, with plans to open in late summer 2019.

While there seems to be no limit to craft beer’s growth, the market has become more competitive. Two breweries closed in 2018, including Tweaking Frog Brewing, which most recently had been sharing the brewing facilities at Jamesport Farm Brewery. Fire Island Beer Co., which was founded in 2009 and moved in 2016 to space in Bay Shore shared with Great South Bay Brewery, unexpectedly shut down in the fall. However, these situations seem isolated and the rising tide of craft beer seems destined to lift more craft breweries to success in the new year.  

For a complete list of Long Island breweries with taprooms, check out libeergude.com/brewery-tap-rooms.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

The Brewers Collective: Holding The Party Line

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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(left to right) Bartender Rob Cubbon and Co-Owners Mike Stetson and Tim Dougherty at TBC's Tap Room in Bay Shore

Beginning as a homebrew club and growing into an experiment in collective brewery ownership, The Brewers Collective Beer Company (TBC) tap room debut last year in a Bay Shore industrial park scored a coup.

TBC hopes to increase production while maintaining its unique approach under the motto “Revolutionary Brewing.” Several of the original club’s comrades worked together in the information technology sector and enjoyed sampling the homebrew of their colleague Joe Vella.  

“Joe made a really delicious pumpkin beer,” recalls Tim Dougherty, a TBC founding co-owner.  “I got tired of having to wait for him to brew, so I bought equipment and started brewing myself and then with other club members.”

The club’s fiercely independent camaraderie and communal brewing inspired its name and distinctive logo featuring a beer bottle in place of a hammer crossing a sickle — a throwback to the former Soviet Union flag.

“From the start we wanted to share the brewing responsibilities and other work involved in building our brewery,” says Dougherty.  

The club also became known for its focus on herbal ales, including gruit ales made without hops, similar to beers from ancient times.

As the homebrew club became more active and gained recognition at local festivals, the idea of going professional took hold. A core group of nine club members incorporated and obtained a New York State farm brewery license in 2014. The new brewery also took advantage of the brewery incubator program at A Taste of Long Island in Farmingdale, where several other LI craft breweries launched.   

After perfecting its recipes on a larger brewing system, Brewers Collective found space in Bay Shore and began construction of a three-barrel brewhouse and a small tasting room, with almost all the work done by the owners. The positive response encouraged them to move to a larger space in the same complex, which opened in February.  

The expanded tap room has become a popular stop for L.I. Brew Bus tours and also features live music on the weekends. With 24 taps, TBC offers a wide variety of year-round offerings and seasonal brews. The five current co-owners — Tim and Sarah Rich Dougherty, Michael Stetson, Terry Gillen and Mike Depietto — all have their own special recipes and share brewing of core brews such as Proletariat Pale Ale and Mattyweizen wheat beer.  

As a farm brewery, TBC uses locally grown ingredients in its beers, including herbs such as sage, lemon balm, heather and hibiscus flower for its gruit ales like Pitcish Heather Gruit. For its fall pumpkin ale, Witchbinder, TBC used roasted and caramelized Long Island cheese pumpkins from Corwith Farms in Water Mill.

According to Dougherty, TBC’s next stage of growth will involve expanding to a seven-barrel or 10-barrel brewing system. This growth will help satisfy the thirst of TBC’s Skeleton Army, its mug club playfully named after an anti-temperance movement that battled the Salvation Army in late 1800s England.  

Like most armies, the Skeleton Army marches on its stomach, including an appetite for tasty craft beers.

The Brewers Collective Beer Company is located at 1460 N. Clinton Ave. in Bay Shore.  For more info visit thebrewerscollective.com.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

BrewSA: Freeport Craft Brewery Donates Proceeds to Veterans Groups

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Head brewer Peter Tripp fills a growler at BrewSA

Freeport’s famed Nautical Mile has become a craft beer destination with the additions of The Craft House, The Beer Garden, the Nautical Mile Craft Brew Fest and a craft brewery, the BrewSA Brewing Company.

Long Islanders Tom Limerick, Steve Walley and Billy McLaughlin — who met while working on Wall Street and bonded over their love of beer — opened the brewery and taproom in 2017.  

“We realized that the most popular lagers in the U.S. are all foreign owned,” says Limerick. “We decided to make a lager with 100-percent American-grown ingredients.”  

The founders also wanted to support veterans, so they donate 25 percent of BrewSA’s profits to veterans’ charities and donate beer to fundraisers for such groups.

BrewSA typically has 12 beers on tap, according to Head Brewer Peter Tripp, who joined the brewery in July after having run Homebrews & Handgrenades, a homebrew supply shop in Baldwin, for the past five years.

The core beers include American Pilsner and Pilsner Light, Wheat and Cherry Wheat, and American Pale Ale and Double IPA. Tripp has begun to introduce his own recipes, such as a New England IPA and a Pumpkin Ale.

BrewSA will soon be installing two seven-barrel Unitanks, which allow brewers to ferment, carbonate and filter a brew all out of the same tank.  

“With the Unitanks we’ll be able to do one-off seasonal beers,” says Tripp, “like a Gingerbread Cookie Brown Ale for the holidays.”  

American Pilsner was their first. After perfecting the recipe and contract brewing the beer in Wisconsin, BrewSA looked to build a brewery on Long Island and quickly settled on Freeport.  

BrewSA took over a large building that housed a boat repair company and installed a 15-barrel brewing system with capacity to produce 10,000 barrels a year. The spacious taproom looks out on Woodcleft Avenue and the canal, with the brewhouse visible behind the bar. Patrons can order food from local restaurants to be delivered to the brewery.

“I knew the Nautical Mile would be perfect for us,” says Limerick. “There are so many great restaurants and people can stop at our taproom before or after a meal.”  

BrewSA Brewing Company is located at 180 Woodcleft Ave., Freeport. They can be reached at 516-721-9332 or BrewSA.com.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

With Beer, Blue Point Brewing Lobbies Congress To Give Voters Election Day Off

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Blue Point Brewing has been active in local community affairs since it was founded 20 years ago in Patchogue. But now that the brewery is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev and distributed in all 50 states, Blue Point is also taking on important national issues such as getting more people out to vote.

Jenna Lally, a Long Island native who took over as Blue Point’s president a year ago, thinks people need time off from work to get to the polls. So Lally launched the Voters’ Day Off initiative to encourage Congress to make Election Day a national holiday.

“We know many Americans are eager to vote,” said Lally. “But in the last midterm elections, 60 percent of eligible voters didn’t vote because of work or school conflicts. We all deserve time to be able to exercise this fundamental right.”

In true Blue Point fashion, the initiative centered around a special beer, Voters’ Day Off, a hoppy brew that Lally described as a hybrid East Coast/West Coast IPA. The beer was sold at Blue Point’s tasting room in Patchogue and at several events on Long Island and in Brooklyn, with proceeds going to benefit the nonprofit voter registration group Rock the Vote.

The beer can’s label featured a petition to Congress with a place for the drinker to sign. Blue Point collected thousands of the cans, which Lally and Blue Point’s co-founder Mark Burford delivered to the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC on Oct. 24.

Blue Point also took out a full page ad in The New York Times announcing the initiative and launched the petition on Change.org, where it has garnered 50,000 signatures.  

“I’m very encouraged with the response to the initiative,” said Lally. “We plan to continue doing this every election season until Congress makes this change.”

In the meantime, Blue Point’s employees will have Election Day off to exercise their right to vote.

For more information on the Voters’ Day Off petition see change.org. For information on registering to vote see rockthevote.org

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

Blue Point Brewing Celebrates 20th Anniversary

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Blue Point Brewing
Blue Point Brewing Co. released this artists's rendering of their new, expanded brewery slated to open in 2018 in downtown Patchogue.

One year after breaking ground on its new West Main Street brewery in Patchogue, Blue Point Brewing Company will hold a party on October 13 celebrating its 20th anniversary and its move.  

The party will be at the new brewery a half mile from the original River Avenue brewery, which is scheduled to close at the end of the year. Blue Point, bought by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2014, was founded by Long Island natives Mark Burford and Pete Cotter in 1998. At the time, it was the first brewery to open on LI in 40 years, since the closing of Linden Brewery in 1949.

“We thought the time was right because there were people out there who wanted fresh, high-quality beer,” says Burford, who is now Blue Point’s brewmaster emeritus. “Other parts of the country had local microbreweries and we saw an opportunity to meet the demand in the market between Montauk and Manhattan.”

After perfecting its flagship Toasted Lager beer, Blue Point began contract brewing it at a Maryland brewery and distributing six-packs to retailers in 2000. Popular beers soon followed, including Winter Ale, Summer Ale, Hoptical Illusion double IPA and Blueberry Ale.

The beers gained widespread recognition, including medals at the prestigious Great American Beer Festival and a gold medal at the World Beer Cup. Distribution steadily expanded from New England to Florida.   

The new 54,000-square-foot brewery cost $35 million and was built on the site of the now-closed Briarcliffe College. Its annual brewing capacity is 60,000 barrels with room to grow to reach 150,000, Burford says. Production began in May and according to Burford, the facility now produces all of Blue Point’s seasonal beers, which had formerly been contract brewed.  

Construction begins soon on a second-floor tasting room overlooking the Patchogue River and an indoor beer hall/restaurant overlooking the production facility. Plans include an outdoor beer garden and public tours of the brewery.

In addition to great beers, Blue Point became known for its deep involvement in the Patchogue community through its support of the Alive After Five downtown summer festival and events at the brewery, including the annual Cask Ale Festival.  

“One of the best things about the new brewery and the growth that it will bring is that we were able to do it in Patchogue,” Burford says.

For more info on Blue Point Brewing Co., visit bluepointbrewing.com.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

Long Island Craft Breweries Serve Up Oktoberfest Beers

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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Oktoberfest season is in full swing and a major attraction at festivals across Long Island is special Oktoberfest beer brewed in accordance with traditional German styles. The most familiar style is Marzen, a lager beer notable for its copper-red color, full-bodied malt flavor and light spiciness from the use of German noble hops. Breweries in Munich also brew a style called Festbier, which is a lighter, breadier lager beer that is closer in taste to a pilsner lager.          

Long Island craft breweries are getting in the spirit, including Garvies Point Brewing in Glen Cove, which recently introduced Tauktoberfest, a traditional German Marzen lager brewed with caramel malts and spicy hops. Garvies Point will be pouring its beers at the Oktoberfest at the Mansion at Glen Cove on Sept. 29 and 30, including a special cask ale, Prybil Pale Ale in a 10.8-gallon firkin, that will be used for the ceremonial tapping of the first keg on Saturday. The Oktoberfest at the Mansion will feature live German bands, a Stein Hoisting contest on Saturday and a Best Dressed contest on Sunday.

Black Forest Brew Haus, the German brewpub in Farmingdale, recently tapped its Oktoberfest beer which is a traditional Munich Festbier. Black Forest also serves house-brewed versions of other traditional German styles including Marzen, Hefeweizen and Rauch Doppelbock, a higher alcohol malty beer with smoky favor. The beers will be flowing at the brewpub’s Oktoberfest celebrations with live German bands beginning this weekend and running through Oct. 20.  

Related Story: Long Island Oktoberfest Celebrations 2018

Westhampton Beach Brewing Company, the new craft brewery located in the industrial park at Francis S. Gabreski Airport, will release its Oktoberfest beer, a traditional Marzen lager, in mid-October. On tap now at the brewery’s tasting room is brewmaster Dave DeTurris’ Hampton Pumpkin Ale, a malty brew spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

Croxley Ales will have a week-long celebration of Oktoberfest at its four locations on Long Island from Oct. 5-14, with a special menu of German food and Oktoberfest beers from Germany and local craft breweries. The celebration will kick off with a party on Oct. 5 in the beer garden at Croxley’s Farmingdale location, where Farmingdale Village Mayor Ralph Ekstrand will tap the ceremonial first keg.   

Plattduetsche Park in Franklin Square, voted Bethpage Best of LI’s Best German restaurant for the past six years, will feature Krombacher beers from northern Germany at a special Oktoberfest party on Oct. 11.  Krombacher is best known for its crisp Krombacher Pils lager but also brews a rich Krombacher Dark beer made with roasted malts. The party will include an Oktoberfest feast and live music, and advance reservations are required.  

For a complete listing of Oktoberfest events on Long Island visit www.LIBeerGuide.com/li-oktoberfest.

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

Long Island Oktoberfest Celebrations 2018

By
Bernie Kilkelly
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The 185th Munich Oktoberfest will not kick off until Sept. 22, but here on Long Island the fun will start this weekend.

T.J. Finley’s in Bay Shore will hold its 11th annual Oktoberfest party this Saturday, Sept. 15 from 3 to 9 p.m. The first 300 guests will receive a free stein with their first beer and if you buy a ticket in advance you also get a Bavarian pretzel. The party will feature a stein holding contest, German music and food, and Oktoberfest beers from German breweries and local craft breweries including Blue Point Brewing.

Plattduetsche Park in Franklin Square, voted Bethpage Best of LI’s Best German restaurant for the past six years, will hold its annual Ompahfest on Sunday, Sept. 16 from noon to 9 p.m. The festival, held in the enormous Plattduetsche Biergarten, is always held the day after the Steuben Parade in Manhattan and features music from bands that march in the parade, including many direct from Germany and Austria. Plenty of Oktoberfest beer will be served with authentic German food.

Oktoberfest celebrations will continue across Long Island throughout September and October, including several at local German restaurants. Das Biergarten, a German restaurant and beer garden in Long Beach, will celebrate Oktoberfest on two weekends, Sept. 22 and 23, and Sept. 29 and 30, with a festival tent, live music and traditional German food and beer. Black Forest Brew Haus, a German brewpub in Farmingdale, will celebrate Oktoberfest with live German bands for four weekends beginning on Sept. 28 and 29 and running through Oct. 19 and 20.

On Sept. 29 and 30, the Mansion at Glen Cove will hold its 4th annual Oktoberfest featuring live German music and dancing, a stein holding contest and traditional German food. On Sunday there will also be a competition for ‘Best Dressed’ Oktoberfest costume and special family activities for kids.

The Rotary Club of the Moriches will hold its 10th annual Oktoberfest celebration at Camp Pa-Qua-Tuck in Center Moriches on Sept. 28 to 30. The festival will feature traditional German music, food and beer and similar to the Munich Oktoberfest will have carnival rides for the kids. Proceeds from the event will benefit Camp Pa-Qua-Tuck, a summer camp for children with disabilities.

The Baldwin Civic Association will hold its 2nd annual Oktoberfest on Sept. 29 at the Community Gardens in Baldwin. The festival will include German food, games, craft vendors and beer from local craft breweries.

For a less traditional take on Oktoberfest, check out Punktoberfest on Oct. 13 at Great South Bay Brewery in Bay Shore. This annual festival celebrates the best of fall beers from Great South Bay and other local craft breweries, along with brats and other German food from local restaurants, accompanied by music from local punk rock bands.

For a complete listing of Oktoberfest events on Long Island visit LIBeerGuide.com/li-oktoberfest

Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.

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