Author Archives: Jasmine

Beer Brewery; Coney Island Brewery (Update)

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Have you been to a brewery? I know I never been to one. This was my first time going to a brewery because of this assignment. Although, I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t go to a winery/vineyard, but it wasn’t bad going to a brewery. It was a really fun experience and I got to learn some new things about beer. The brewery I went to is Coney Island Brewery. It is located at 1904 Surf Ave., Brooklyn, NY.

The place is not so big, but can still try to get the most out of it. They also provide free tours from Thursday through Sunday at 2pm, 4pm, and 6pm. At the brewery there are also tasting, but it will cost a fee of $5. It is nice to go on the tour to learn more about beer, but the unfortunate thing is that it is a little difficult to hear the tour guy due to all the noise outside and in the room.

During the tour at the Coney Island Brewery, we got to see the processing room of where they make their beer. It is where they keep their kegs and try to create new type of beers. The room is not really big. It is like going straight in and making some turns and you’re finish. Although it is small, but I still got to learn some things about beer. As I was having the tour in the processing room, I saw many carbon dioxide tanks. The carbon dioxide are used to produce the foam on the top surface of the beer.  I also learned that it was form during the process of fermentation. Before I went on the tour I didn’t know that that’s how they form bubbles and I wonder why is there always so much foam in beer.

Aside from carbon dioxide tanks, there were also many other tanks. The tour guy explained what each buckets and tanks were for and how they process their beer. In the processing room there are yellow buckets that are filled with different grains. After choosing their grain they want to use, they will place it in the grain mill. When all the grains are broken up; it goes into the mash tun tank to mix up the broken grain with hot water. With hot water, it will turn starch into sugar.

After those steps the beer will go into the kettle of hops. I learned that different hops from different places will have different flavors. The next step is to move everything to the heat exchange machine to bring the boiling liquid down to a lower temperature around 55 degrees; depending on what beer. But this doesn’t mean your beer is ready because you don’t have beer until you add the yeast. For the last few steps of making beer, they fill the fermentation tank with yeast including the liquid that was made previously and add any other flavoring or fruits if they want to create a different flavor beer.

When the process of making beer is finished they will go through a filter. After going through the filter they will store the beer in kegs. At Coney Island Brewery, not all beers are filter, only some. For every batch of beer they make, they can fill up 15 kegs. In the processing room, they also had another small room where they keep their kegs. The kegs are used to store their beer and keep the freshness.

At Coney Island Brewery, there are a lot of history. Their brewery is filled with old Coney Island pictures around the place and old ride pictures that Coney Island was known or represented for. I believe same goes for their beer. Beer at Coney Island Brewery can also be a place representing Coney Island. Their brewery also have many different types of beer. There is 8 tap beers that they serve, but it rotates through out the year. During summers the Cotton Candy Beer is a good sell. Although, the most popular beer there is Mermaid Pilsner but when I was there I also notice a lot of people like to get the Flight. The Flight costs $8 and you get four different types of beer. It looks quite interesting. Here at Coney Island Brewery, I had fun and enjoyed my tour. I learned a lot about beers and some day when I get to drink, I will definitely come back and give it a try. I would recommend others to come here and have a nice drink.

References:

Coney Island Brewery. (n.d.). Retrieved May 25, 2017, from http://coneyislandbeer.com/

How To Taste Beer. (n.d.). Retrieved May 25, 2017, from https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/101/taste/

W. (n.d.). Coney Island Brewery’s creative craft beverages. Retrieved May 25, 2017, from http://www.fox5ny.com/news/145001886-story

Retail Beverage Shop

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How many wine stores have you been to? I have been to a few, but never understand how the store display their wine because I never actually walked around a wine store. I been to the wine store when I was little a few time with family, but parents always said to stay by their side which I never got the chance to look around the store. Due to this assignment, I got a chance to look around and ask some questions.

The retail beverage store I choose was Astor Wine and Spirits located at 399 Lafayette Street.

As I was searching for the location, it was not really hard to find. It is a very noticeable big red building. When you walk in, it is quite big and fancy and they have televisions hung up on the walls telling you what promotions and events they have. The employees at the store are very friendly and helpful. In the store their display is nicely organized. They display their wines in different section based on price and taste. The wine is also separated by the type of wine and region with a sign above the wine.

It is interesting having signs of the regions above the wine and provide some information on them about the wine. I had a lot of fun reading the signs because I can learn more things about it. Using the knowledge I earned from class, I practiced reading labels while looking around the store. It was a really fun experience there. Other than the wines displayed on the floor, they also have a cool room for wines that need to be controlled in temperature.

After taking a look round the store, I had some questions for the employee. The employee was really nice and willing to answer all my questions. Their employee answered my questions clearly and phrased it in a way I could understand. They also respond to my questions quite quickly and with a confident, showing me they have the knowledge of knowing their wine and information very well.

First question I asked was, which is the most popular wine and why? The employee said the most popular bestselling wine is their sparkling wine. Sparkling wine is the most popular wine because the price is cheap, under $10 and their store has been promoting the wine for parties, and wine itself is a great value bubble wine. Other popular wines are the ones that are pricing between $10-15.

Seeing the cool room got me wondering about temperature, so next question I asked was, What temperature do you store the wine? The employee respond “it depends on the wine.” For their older wine, they have it in their temperature control room at about 55 degree. On the floor their temperature is around 60 to 65 degrees.

Another question asked was, What is your best value wine? Their best value wines were from France whether they are red or white. The employee did not give me a specific name for the red wine, but as from white wine, Sauvignon Blanc with the price of $9-10.

The last question I asked really curious of what kind of wine it is because I never heard of it before. I asked, Do you see any trends? I got interested when the employee responded “Natural Wine, Organic Wine.” Hearing that really got me interested because I knew there was organic wine.

Not only did organic wine interest me, I also thought it was interesting when I saw display of “Wines that Staff Adore.” I would never expect a retail beverage store to have a section for staff adores. I think this is interesting because if a store has a section of staff adore meaning the company would like to understand and know what the staff likes to drink. It is just like how retail beverage store would always like to know what customers like to drink and buy. Staff are customers too, they like to drink and buy things too. I like the idea of this display because it gives other customers another opinion of which wine to choose.

This trip to the retail beverage store I had fun and learned a lot. I got to see so many different types of wine varieties. As of the store, I think a benefit was their price range which allowed people to purchase some best tasting wine at an affordable price. A drawback about them was that although they had signs with some information about the region, but not information of the wines. And as for the store’s attributes/ weakness, I think they did not show any weakness, but the staff had very nice attitude, friendly and informative. I would recommend others to come and take a look and purchase come wines.