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Beer By the Year
Forget 'born-on dates.' Vintage suds are becoming a popular pour at fine dining joints. But is any bottle of beer really worth $23? We swallowed hard and took the plunge.
 Bill Bettencourt Gramercy Tavern, in New York City, is pouring vintage beers |
Feb. 16, 2007 - I’ve always regarded beer as a pretty democratic drink. It’s cheap, appealing and widely available. Its biggest fans tend to be the sort of simple, straight-shooting lugs who marry implausibly tolerant women and make a lovable mess of things every half hour or so: think Homer Simpson or Norm from "Cheers" or George W. Bush. It is acceptable in certain circles to chug it, “shotgun” it or siphon it into oneself through a long funnel; the same cannot be said, sadly, for wine or piña coladas. It is utterly at home in the restaurant, the bar, the stadium, the fraternity house and the 7-Eleven parking lot. It is an equal-opportunity inebriator. It is the U.S.A. of alcohol.
Which is why it was strange to find myself at Gramercy Tavern in New York on a recent evening ordering an 11-ounce bottle of beer—for $23. But, then again, Thomas Hardy’s Ale is no ordinary brewski. Especially when it’s been sitting in the same bottle since 1992.
In the age of “born on” dates, a 15-year-old ale will likely strike most boozers as, well, past its prime. But vintage beer is not most booze. For centuries, European enthusiasts have quietly “laid down” bottles of full-bodied, alcohol-rich stouts, barley wines, porters, strong ales and ciders to mature in the cool of their cellars. The practice spread to the States during the craft-brewing boom of the 1980s and '90s, and over the last decade a handful of brewpubs—including the Map Room in Chicago, the Brickskeller in Washington, Father’s Office in Santa Monica and Toronado in San Francisco—have added aged beers to their rosters. (Sierra Nevada, Stone, Laguinitas and Anchor all produce age-worthy bottles, and Anheuser-Busch recently joined the ranks with a high-alcohol, vintage-dated beer called Brew Masters’ Private Reserve.)
Still, only aficionados have paid much attention—which is where Gramercy Tavern comes in. A few months ago, the three-star Manhattan restaurant (the “most popular” in New York, according to the Zagat Survey) gave beer-by-the-year its big-league, fine-dining debut with a select 25-bottle list of vintage suds from Europe, Japan and North America. The response, says assistant beverage director Kevin Garry, has been “amazing”—and it could mean more mainstream acceptance to come. “Based on how our guests have reacted, I can totally see vintage beer catching on at other places,” says Garry, who pairs his bottles with cheeses and desserts. “I’d love to see it become the next cool thing in the fine-dining world.”
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