Two beers out this week from New York City breweries are relevant to two very different current events.
First up, Kings County Brewers Collective has released Hardcore Parkour, a beer they collaborated on with their friend Naz Drebot of 2085 Brewery in Kyiv, Ukraine in New York. The brew day with Naz in Brooklyn was less than two weeks before the Russian invasion of his home country, and he has since returned home to a dire situation in the Ukrainian capital. The beer, a Double Dry Hopped IPA with Citra, Strata, Mosaic, and Nelson Sauvin, is out now in cans at the taproom and via shipping in New York and DC. A portion of proceeds from the beer will go to UNICEF’s Ukraine fund to provide support to children and families impacted by the war.
KCBC will also be participating in the Resolve Ukraine Beer — an open-source beer project from 2085 and 42 North Brewing Company outside Buffalo that raises funds to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. Rockaway Brewing in Long Island City has also signed on to brew the beer.
Meanwhile, on a much lighter note, the Major League Baseball season has been delayed, pushing opening day in pro baseball in the United States for the second time in three years. Enter Torch & Crown Brewing Company’s Bat Flip, the brewery’s annual Spring Ale that was first inspired by our collective desperation to fill our baseball void with the bat-flip-filled Korean Baseball Organization in the Spring of 2020. I paired this beer with some late-night overseas baseball viewing during lockdown, and it has evolved to become Torch & Crown’s annual seasonal release. This year, they’re still going on with celebrating the beer on what would’ve been MLB Opening Day, so put April 7th on your calendar if you’ve ever wanted to drink a baseball-themed beer out of a custom-made plastic baseball bat.
