SPUYTEN DUYVIL GROCERY!

So I was checking out Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the first time in my life the other day, wandering through the beards and the big hair and the legwarmers, when I stumbled into this mini-mall thing with a cool bookstore. Turned the corner once I was inside, and there was a sign hanging up in front of a store saying SPUYTEN DUYVIL GROCERY. Spuyten Duyvil??!? You mean the famous Brooklyn beer bar that serves the rarest of Belgian beers? I was sorta searching for this bar anyway, and I stumbled on their grocery store instead – which was better since it was 12:30pm and not quite beer o’clock yet. So the bar opened their own small beer store, and beyond beer they sell mustards, jams and a few sundries – but mostly rare beer from around the globe. It’s on a pretty small scale, but you’re bound to find some knockouts there.

I of course totally started dorking out with the guy who runs this place, and he told me about some of the finer east coast beers I needed to take home. Greg, I think his name was – totally cool guy. We decided that I needed to bring home something from SOUTHERN TIER above all else – perhaps the most-hyped east coast brewery this year, by my reckoning. I chose their Imperial Hefeweizen, which is called HEAVY WEIZEN. We also agreed that it was important that I spend a little bit of cash to get this limited-run CAPTAIN LAWRENCE BREWING beer called XTRA GOLD, an “American-style Tripel”. I am, as they say, “psyched beyond belief”. We talked a little bit about Russian River beers and how they are like manna from heaven on the east coast – of course I had to tell him that their taphouse is about a 75-minute drive from my house. In any event, this place is great and I’m sure will make many a local and weary beer traveler happy. Go there! 132 North 5th Street, right off of Bedford in Brooklyn - (718) 384-1520.