Back in the fall I was enjoying a lovely 2-4-$10 Tuesday at Bistro 33 when the rest of my friends decided to drag me to go see the movie that was supposed to “define our generation.” In preparation, I suggested we have some beer, an idea which somehow became we should get some beer and so my friend directed our cab driver to the corner of Ditmars and 29th Street, instructed him to wait at the curb, and we all ran into Fast Break 24. In my Hibiscus Gin Fizz fueled haze I remember thinking damn what an amazing selection before being rushed out with my Dogfish Head Seasonal six packs.
For those of you who don’t know, girls in NYC carry giant handbags out of necessity, like an urban survival kit—one never knows when they may need extra shoes, an entire library, an umbrella, assorted snacks or two six packs of ice cold beer. Sure I had the big bag, but turns out all four of us had bottle openers on our key chains. After the first fifteen minutes of the movie I was thanking the beer gods that these delinquents had convinced me to smuggle those beers and then I looked up at the screen and came face to face with a douchey ex fling from college (ironically he’s not just a douche in real life, he also plays one on the big screen). Blame it on the gin, the Dogfish Head in my hand, or the sudden shock but I blurted out “I took his—“ and then my friend punched me in the arm, and shut me up.
I strolled back into Fast Break 24 the other day and was still in awe of this little corner deli’s beer selection. An abundance of Abita (Purple Haze, Amber, Turbo Dog) on shelves below Lagunitas (CENSORED, IPA, Pils), and above a collection of Sierra Nevada (Pale, Torpedo, Stout, and Glissade). These alone made me pretty happy, but then I noticed the shelf of Anchor Steam six packs and almost couldn’t contain my excitement! Anchor Liberty, Porter, Bock, and could it be?! Anchor Old Foghorn Barleywine! Hell yeah! A bar patron of mine who has been sober for a bit now waxes all too poetically about Old Foghorn with it’s sweet and hoppy taste and 8.5%abv.
Sure Fast Break has the usual suspects of assorted Budweiser, Modelo, Corona, Yuengling, Amstel, Stella but on either side of those are six packs of Brooklyn—they even have some Brooklyn Chocolate lefts!—Rogue, Smuttynose, Troegs, and Full Sail. My bodega has a decent selection but this place has more beer options than they do flavors of Vitamin Water and Gatorade! According to the cashier the owner personally selects the beers according to his taste, and his taste is good.
In addition to six packs, an entire fridge is dedicated to larger bottles. Schneider Weiss and Aventinus Doppelbock—a rich dark wheat beer with hints of banana, honey, and cloves that is as delicious as it is deadly at 8.2% abv. Bluepoint’s awesome Rasta Rye and several others were starting to make me thirsty when I noticed up and to the right a selection of 750mil bottles.
For you fruit lovers out there they have bottles of Dogfish Head Fort and Lindeman’s Framboise Lambic—both rich in fizzy raspberry flavor—and Ommegang’s Three Philosophers, a quadruppel with dark cherry lambic. For those of you who want to cellar a bottle or two, go grab one of Dogfish Head’s Chateau Jiahu. Jiahu is a part of the ancient ale series and is brewed using sake yeast, orange blossom honey, grapes, brown rice syrup and a recipe taken by analyzing ancient pottery found in China. After laying eyes on the Jiahu I thought I had discovered all the wonders Fast Break 24 had to offer. I swept my eyes over the coolers, lest I miss something important, and a bright orange package caught my eye.
I knelt down to examine the absurdity of Mike’s Hard Mango Punch and came face to label with a magnum bottle of Anchor Steam Christmas Ale, vintage 2009 with a $20 price tag. Hell Yeah! So what if my fridge is rapidly turning into a beer cooler, I am the Beer Wench after all.
A big shout out goes to the Ryan and the Astoria Home Brewers for their recent appearance on NY1—yay beer!
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