Sputen Duyvil is Joe Carroll’s first establishment in Brooklyn, and is a beer “mecca” of sorts, as he’s constantly getting kegs and bottled beer from breweries you wouldn’t think he should be able to procure. Such is life when you’re well-known and well-liked in the beer world. It’s not much for food, aside from meat and cheese platters. For “real” food, head across the street to Fette Sau — his second establishment in the city — and get some of the best barbecue around. There are also several inexpensive, well-chosen beers on draft there, plus a surprisingly robust bourbon selection. Or go next door to St. Anselm, his newest place, which serves up sausages and sliders, among other delicious bites, but as yet has not received an alcohol license of any sort.
On this evening, Ballast Point’s beers, all the way from San Diego, were tapped front and center at Spuyten, in honor of Dave Levonian, friend of Joe and also of the folks at Ballast Point, who brewed a beer in his honor at his untimely passing in 2007. Available for indulgence were the Brother Levonian Saison, Navigator Dopple Bock, Long Fin Lager, Yellow Tail Pale, Sculpin IPA, and Wahoo Wheat. I wasn’t planning to tick off each of the six, but I did manage to try a couple in addition to my beloved Sculpin IPA.
Let me go on record right now and say that I believe Spuyten must have procured a keg straight from the fermenting tanks, as this Sculpin IPA was the freshest I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. This includes drinking at bars in San Diego. The enormous pithy grapefruit aroma dominates everything in its path, and pretty much defines what I want from an IPA. When you see a brewery touting its IPA as “balanced,” it can mean “balanced for an IPA,” which I personally prefer, or “there’s a lot of malt aroma and flavor here because we were afraid of making it too hoppy.” I’m happiest when the brewer lets the hops pound everything else into submission, and only allows the malt to back it up just enough to prevent the beer from getting astringent.
Sculpin IPA is the latter.
You can kind of see in the picture (the bar is dim, sorry!) that it’s hazy orange-amber in color, and topped by a collar of off-white foam. This foam is a good trap for the grapefruit, and anyone in my vicinity could have smelled this beer. It’s so fresh the pith and rind aroma is also a little “dope-y”. This always bodes well for the taste, and true to form, Scuplin is bracingly, enamel-strippingly bitter, a mouthful of citrus in every sip, with a touch of sugary sweetness barely noticeable for a moment. The whole roughness of the bittering hops makes the beer feel more carbonated than it is, which works just fine here. No trace of the alcohol — 7% by volume, fairly normal for an IPA — can be found in and around all the tasty hops. Unsurprisingly, the finish is dry and raspy, cleansing the palate for another sip. This is a world-class IPA, and I can be counted on to choose it whenever, wherever I see it.
I enjoyed that Sculpin so much, I had another one, only this time in a bigger glass than they normally serve. While I waited for that, the Navigator was offered to me to sample. Not knowing enough about the beer, I took a whiff and was confronted by the effects of bourbon-barrel aging on a doppelbock: gone were the bready, malty notes of goodness, replaced by sickly-sweet bourbon, vanilla, and a thick cloud of alcohol. I was not a fan of this, and it just served as another data point for my anti-barrel-aging manifesto.
After Sculpin number two, I decided to round out the Spuyten evening with a glass of the Brother Levonian Saison. At 5.5% alcohol by volume, it’s a bit of an easier drinker, and saisons in general tend to be drier, spicy from the yeast, not additives, and highly carbonated. This one poured roughly the same color as the Sclupin, but with a smaller white head. Peppery, herbal aromas abounded, with a fairly significant sticky sweetness taking up space. Hmm. All was definitely not lost, however, as the slightly fruity taste was doused in those spice notes, a little bitterness to combat the sweetness of the malt, and a dry, haylike taste that I think was more about the yeast in suspension. A rather good saison overall, and one I’d try again if the rumors are true and Ballast Point will start distributing here soon.
I don’t normally review bars in this space, but for atmosphere and selection, Spuyten Duyvil gets about the highest marks in the city. If the draft list isn’t to your liking, they always have a ton of Belgian beer, including a raft of Cantillon and other lambic breweries, a wide selection of German beer, and interesting selections (mostly large-format bottles) from the United States and other parts of the world. Be prepared to shell out though, as importing these beers is not cheap. The back yard is spacious, and/but smoking-friendly, and links St. Anselm with Spuyten, so you can get food next door and drink out back while you eat (or bring Fette Sau purchases over). Spuyten is really just everything to everyone who enjoys craft beer and high quality meats.
Ballast Point Brewing deserves heaps of praise too, for supplying us with an excellent sampling of their West Coast wares. If they show up at your local craft beer store, I’d expect to see Scuplin for sale around $9 for a 22-ounce bottle; the last place I purchased it was in North Carolina for $7, so it’ll be more than that. In the meantime, fresh Green Flash West Coast IPA is a close substitute for Scuplin and usually on shelves year-round. But certainly give Ballast Point beer a look if you see it on tap. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Lyman Grenet says
That looks like some great beer chilled straight from the fridge just hits the spot