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JOSH BERNSTEIN: My name's Josh Bernstein.
I am a Brooklyn-based journalist and author, and
I've been writing about beer, food, spirits, and travel in
New York City for about, gosh, 12 years now.
And that really wasn't my original career trajectory.
I didn't really end up wanting to come to New York
City to be a writer.
But after I graduated college, I went on a road trip across
the country.
And it was one of those failed collegiate road trips.
I ended up getting dropped off in the middle of
Great Falls, Montana.
And which was really poetic--
first day of fall.
So being 21 years old, I was like, this is awesome.
And so, the rest of my life is in front of me.
But I didn't really know what to do.
And so, I had two choices--
I could call friends in--
where was it--
they were in Albuquerque, and friends in Boulder.
So my friends in Boulder picked up the phone first, and
I went there for a few weeks.
But living in someone's basement, drinking beer all
day long is awesome, but also not really a
great career path.
And so my friend in New York City called me up, and he's
like, Josh, we got a spare bedroom in Astoria.
Do you want to come live there for free for two months?
And I was like, sure.
So I got on a bus, travelled across the country.
And then got to Astoria.
And then I didn't really know what I was
going to do, either.
I went to school.
I had a magazine journalism degree, but that doesn't
really mean anything at all.
And really, it means you've graduated from college.
And then, as I quickly found out, a journalism degree
didn't really matter worth a darn in New York.
I went to Ohio University, which is supposed to be a
prestigious journalism school.
But in New York, people are just like, I don't really care
what you did, Ohio boy.
And so I temped.
And I temped, and I temped, and I temped for, gosh,
several years.
I was a temp receptionist, then I was--
well, back track a little bit.
Do you want the real story?
So basically, it's mildly embarrassing, but it's like
the foolhardy choices you make when you're in early 20's.
And so I got a job at "American Baby" magazine for a
few months, basically filing papers.
And so I was like, journalism, "American
Baby," this is great.
But it wasn't very rewarding at all.
And so at the time, my friend was working for a ***
publishing company.
And he was like, Josh, do you want to work at this ***
publishing company as an editor?
And I was like, why the hell not?
I'm 22 years old.
So I spent the next eight months working for a ***
publisher, which, I mean, the initial hilarity of it all
kind of fell away.
I mean, the job was built on three parts.
One was about--
there was a magazine, "Hot Chocolate" and "Cuddles." One
was young black girls.
One was young white girls.
So I was in charge of interviewing *** stars.
And then the other part was there's all these books called
chapbooks--
basically 5 and a 1/2 by 8 and 1/2, black and white newsprint
books filled with all this really terrible
writing about ***.
And my job was to go through them all and modernize it.
It was thematically oriented to *** housewives, naughty
neighbors, family secrets-- terrible,
terrible, terrible stuff.
And so it was my job all day long to modernize it, and also
find the pictures that go with it.
And so after about--
which this is a really terrible job back then.
I was getting paid-- it was like fifteen bucks an hour.
But I was like, I'm making, $15 an hour.
But you'd be in this small office with eight people.
And it was run by this Caribbean woman.
She'd want to come and hug you.
And you'd have to review *** on VHS in her office.
And it was just really wrong in so many ways.
But then I didn't really realize it how long it was.
But then, after-- our offices were below
Canal Street on Broadway.
But then after 9/11, basically we couldn't go to
work for two weeks.
So I came back to work.
And then, my boss was like, oh, it's sucks you
couldn't go to work.
Let's take it out of your vacation time.
And I was like, out of my vacation time?
I mean, there was this natural disaster,
everything terrible happened.
And it was my vacation time, because we are obviously
drinking pina coladas all day long when this is happening.
And so, I started looking for other jobs.
My boss found my resume on my computer.
And then I came back from work-- or from lunch one day,
then all my files are wiped off.
And I was like, I'm not going to get fired from a *** job.
And so she called me in her office, so I quit right then.
Got me two weeks notice there.
She gave me a severance check.
So kind of from that moment forward, I was like, you know
what, I'm really going to make the writing happen.
So I started temping.
I was the world's worst receptionist, making like $10
an hour, answering phones, wearing the
same tie all day long.
But then I was--
kept on trying to pitch magazines, newspapers--
no one cared.
And I really started thinking what I was really passionate.
I've always been a big--
I've always loved food, always been adventuring in the city
to try to find delicious stuff.
And I also liked going to bars.
And so, after pitching [INAUDIBLE], which was an alt
weekly that, unfortunately, expired last year, for a
number of years they gave me a weekly column where I got to
write about my food and drink adventures in New York.
And so that led to working for "Time Out New York" as their
bar reviewer.
Then, like, slowly, bit by bit by bit, I started getting more
and more and more gigs.
Started working for "Gourmet" as their beer writer.
The magazine in Portland called "Imbibe," they hired me
to be their beer writer.
And so my career track kind of slowly, steadily started going
into getting drunk and writing about it.
Which wasn't exactly a bad thing, but then going to bars
all night long is really kind of tough in being
a reviewer of that.
So as the days went on, I tried to find a way to kind of
happen to get out, and go out before 4 in the morning,
because 4 in the morning at 25 is awesome.
4 in the morning at 29, and 30, 31, when you have a wife,
it's just really not as cool as it used to be.
And so, I kind of started moving in to writing more
generally about craft beer.
And this was maybe about 2005.
And at that time in America, we'd gone through, in the
'90s, craft beer--
there was this really big push toward craft beer in the '90s.
There was brands everywhere.
Sierra Nevada was really going gangbusters.
Dogfish Head came on line.
All these great breweries, but then everything kind of burst.
And everyone thought that this was a big trend
that was going away.
And that craft beer is just another fly-by-night fad.
But what started happening in the early 2000s was people
came into it with much better business plans
that, instead of--
and the market was really flooded with all this extra
equipment, because everyone that failed, they spent all
their money on really great equipment, and then they
didn't need it anymore.
And so all these better entrepreneurs bought all this
used equipment with the lower barrier to entry.
And so craft beer really started taking off all across
the country.
And so I started writing about it.
And then, what I soon found out about what I really
enjoyed about writing about craft beer is that you get in
on honest story from people.
I mean, when I was younger, I used to do celebrity
journalism, too.
You'd have to do dumb stuff that sounds really great, like
interviewing Hugh Hefner, the guys from "***."
Which, ostensibly, is a dream thing.
But the more I did that, the more I realized that you would
never really get true conversations with people.
And there was really just a lot of--
it was like going to do an interview, and having--
pushing a button, and people will recite everything to you.
And it was really disheartening.
I mean, as someone that really wanted to talk to people, get
great conversations, and tell their stories, it just--
it never worked out.
And so what I found with craft beer, though, is craft brewing
is such a passionate industry.
It's something that's really about-- it's your personal.
It's DIY.
It's blue collar.
It's something that people are really proud about it.
And the people that are out there doing craft brewing,
they're putting everything on the line.
I mean, these are people that have found a way to turn their
hobby into a career.
And it's something they're so incredibly proud of, and they
want to share their stories.
And so, what I started realizing was it wasn't as
much about the hops, the ABV, the geekiness about these
beers, and more, really, about the people.
And so whenever I decided to write about craft beer, I
always think about craft beer, the people behind the beer,
behind the beer bottle.
And that's really what I started focusing on
feature-wise.
So then, the book came about in a totally random way.
This publisher, Sterling--
I kind of wanted to write a book.
But writing a book and actually doing it are two
different things altogether.
And you have to pitch people.
You have to get queries out there.
You have to get a publisher interested.
I luckily didn't have to do any of that, which I feel
entirely lucky.
What basically happened was this publisher, Sterling, they
were looking to write some--
they were looking to hire some beer book authors.
And they originally came to me.
They found my columns in New York Press I swear to God, I
mean, the guy, that publisher that picked up my alt weekly
things was sitting on the subway or something, and saw
my column and then wrote to me.
I think it was as random as that.
And then, originally they're going to have me do a book
about stouts, which it wouldn't be the
most exciting thing.
But it was really this great opportunity to
kind of do a book.
But then I was--
I was kind of a yes man.
I was like, sure, whatever you want me to do.
You're going to pay me to be a writer.
This is awesome.
But the more I thought about that, with so much change
going on in the country, and so much change going on craft
beer, that actually writing a book about stouts is really a
disservice to what's been happening.
And so I came back with another idea.
And that was really to tell the story about what's been
happening all across the country, traveling from
Portland to Portland, small towns in Iowa, Texas.
And just talking about the flowering of craft beer, and
showing how America--
America, in a way, we don't make a lot things that the
world cares about anymore.
The cars get slagged, electronics--
but craft beer, in this really weird way, has been something
that's been a guiding light for people
all around the world.
You have--
I was on the radio last night with this
guy, Yeppi, from Denmark.
And basically, he was totally inspired by
American-style beers.
And so he decided to make an entire business plan of
emulating American beers, and making really wild, delicious
flavorful things.
And you see this echoed in Norway.
You see it echoed in England.
And so America, in a great way, is really leading the
world with this product that--
it seems silly, and seems frivolous.
But what I like about beer is beer brings people together.
And that-- what craft beer does, more
than anything else--
it used to be you'd go to a bar, if you talked to someone,
they'd be like, what're you drinking?
Beer.
Beer was beer.
But now, what craft beer is great about, I think, it
really helps people start a conversation.
Because there's so much--
and people want to share their passion it.
And craft beer has such a low barrier to entry.
You can spend two bucks and be transported to a really
flavorful world.
Like, the best beer in the world can be
bought for two bucks.
You can't say that about many other things.
Wine?
Two bucks-- that's Two Buck Chuck is a joke.
You can't even buy-- like two bucks will buy a little
airplane bottle of liquor.
But I mean, beer--
$2.
And that's the thing about it.
It's a great democratizing beverage.
And so that was it.
So I traveled across the country, and really told the
story of all the brewers, their passion, creativity.
And really, their struggle to change the way that America
drinks one beer at the time.
So the beer--
the book on beer came out at November 2011.
So I've been on a book tour pretty much for the last 14
months, give or take.
Which is--
the one thing that no one ever tells you that, when you write
a book is that you have to become a salesman.
You stop being a writer, and you have to go out and
actually do those things.
So I had to go there, go to beer festivals.
Be behind the counter smiling, and hoping
people want take a look.
But it's really been a totally rewarding ride, and it's--
you know, I wouldn't give it up for anything.
It's been really great.
And writing a book is not fun.
Doing the selling is not fun.
But what's really excellent is to see the book in people's
hands, to see the responses, and just get
all this great feedback.
And people emailing me, telling me how
they feel about it.
That really makes it all worthwhile.
The year and a half of writing and editing, it just doesn't
feel like anything.
So that's kind of it in a nut shell.
And one of the other people we have here today is--
the New York craft beer scene is--
used to be kind of crappy.
I'll be blunt.
There were more craft breweries in the '90s in New
York City than there are now.
I mean, you had this place called Nacho Mama's in SoHo.
There was a brewery in Rockefeller Center.
There was even a Times Square brewery.
But all these people, they really failed because they
were terrible beer, bad business plans-- everything
conspired together.
And so, we had Brooklyn Brewery as one of the few
leading lights in the city.
And then we also had--
Sixpoint came along in Brooklyn a few years ago.
And besides that, there was really not much
of anything at all.
But what's really great is, in the last few months, you've
seen about four or five breweries open up in Queens.
You have Rockaway Brewing based in Long Island City.
You have--
oh gosh--
there's a kombucha brewery in Astoria.
And then, you have SingleCut, which is actually New York's
newest and biggest brewery, too.
And so, they are going to be here to pour samples for
everyone, so.
AUDIENCE: What's your favorite beer?
JOSH BERNSTEIN: Oh gosh, that's a question that
everyone always gets.
You know, the easy, dumb answer is, whatever is in
front of me.
But if I'm going to be drinking all day long, I
usually go for a nice, crisp pilsner.
Something like--
I like Victory Prima Pils which is really crisp, fresh,
low alcohol.
And also, the secret weapon at Trader Joe's is Trader Joe's
actually-- their house brand, Mission Street, is actually
made by Firestone Walker.
And if anyone knows Firestone Walker, they're actually one
of the world's best breweries.
And so, you're get-- their beers win medals every year at
the Great American Beerfest, which is kind of
the Olympics of beer.
And so, you're talking, you can get that for $6.99 in a
six pack there for that.
And it's like 4.6%.
And so, I often drink that a parties.
That's kind of--
it's awesome.
AUDIENCE: On that same topic, why do we not see more
consolidation.
I'm always surprised that some of these bigger breweries
acquire someone [INAUDIBLE].
Seems like a really good target for--
I'm not saying I want this to happen.
But like, if I'm InBev or like-- because we see them go
out and buying other brands.
Like, why not acquire some of these craft breweries?
JOSH BERNSTEIN: I mean, we got to-- you have to--
AUDIENCE: Well, yeah, I know Goose Island is like the one
that [INAUDIBLE].
JOSH BERNSTEIN: You have to sell.
You have to want to sell, too.
And so, I mean, it's like if you've built up this project
from the ground up, it's your baby, it's your
dream, it's your life.
And I mean, it's your identity is wrapped up in it.
And so--
I mean, Goose Island was that they were--
Goose Island was a big Chicago brewery, been
around 20-plus years.
They got bought by Anheuser-Busch recently.
And so, what ended up happening was, you can say on
one end that they are sell-outs for doing it.
But on the other hand, it was run by a family that worked
for 20-plus years, and they wanted to try something new.
And so, they got paid a fair value.
And the son went on to run--
start a cider company.
And the dad got out.
AUDIENCE: I'm not going to hold it
against any of the brewers.
It's more--
JOSH BERNSTEIN: You'd be amazed-- you'd be amazed how
much people hold it against brewers.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] is that beer is no longer craft beer.
JOSH BERNSTEIN: You know, craft beer is such a nebulous
term nowadays.
AUDIENCE: Technically that would be [INAUDIBLE].
That term "craft" just implies that from small batches, and
that it's hand-made.
JOSH BERNSTEIN: That's such an interesting thing.
Craft beer--
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
JOSH BERNSTEIN: Yeah, craft beer, the brewers'
association, which is kind of the industry watch-group, has
really been fighting the definition of craft beer, and
what it means for people.
And so, there's a big battle about what to actually call a
beer like that.
And, I mean, it's just--
I like to get to a place where it's just beer that you don't
have to make distinctions.
That it's just like that.
But if you think back to the '90s, it was "microbrew," and
no one uses the phrase "microbrew" anymore.
So you've seen a generational shift in the way that people
perceive it.
And what's interesting, as well, is with the craft beer,
it's just that there used to be no differentiation, that
people are like you just drink beer.
And so now, people that--
what I've been noticing going around and talking to folks,
people that like their crappy beer, they're like--
they call it crappy beer.
Like, oh yeah, I'm drinking my thirty-pack of Busch.
I'm drinking my crappy beer.
And you would never call it crappy beer before.
It was just beer.
So there is this cut in the marketplace in a way people
are thinking about actually how beer is perceived.
And so, by the way, definitely how to call crap
beer, that's a--
people are fighting about that.
They will always, so.
AUDIENCE: I want to get your opinion on breweries like
Mikkeller or [INAUDIBLE]
gypsy that travel around and use other people's
[INAUDIBLE].
JOSH BERNSTEIN: [INAUDIBLE], so basically, there's this
concept in craft brewing about gypsy brewers-- which I wrote
about in "Brewed Awakening." But anyways.
So what happens, there so opening a brewery cost
millions of dollars--
I mean, cost tons of money.
You're basically sinking--
you've got to take out a bank loan.
You gotta do everything.
You can easily go broke before even brewing your first beer.
And so, the thing about breweries is that they operate
best like airplanes--
like the more they are-- they should be used as frequently
as possible to the fullest capacity.
And so, for people-- breweries have excess capacity behooves
them to rent out their extra space.
And so gypsy brewers have kind of--
they're finding this loophole where they're able to go on
these systems without actually investing in a big brewery.
But they can go there and brew the beers.
And I think that allows them to have a lot of freedom to
make the beers they want to do without having to--
you know, you can try a one-off batch.
You can do something that allows for a lot of
excitement.
And a lot of these gypsy breweries, they do dozens of
different styles, travel around the world, do a lot of
collaborations.
And, I think, I personally love it.
What was interesting, Yeppi, from Evil Twin.
We are basically-- he's actually-- he moved to
Brooklyn, actually, all the way from Denmark to there.
And he's actually starting, going to be contract brewing
out of Connecticut.
So you're seeing some of the gypsy brewers take root
because, after a while, trying to find space, and always
trying to find--
that can be a full time job trying to
juggle capacity issues.
And what's to say if a brewery gets big, they can be like,
you know what, I can make more money selling my own beer then
of renting out this space to you.
So at its best, a gypsy brewer--
it's a tenuous proposition that could
collapse at any minute.
AUDIENCE: It's gotta be short-term, too.
Gotta get in and get out.
JOSH BERNSTEIN: You've got to get in, get out.
And you have to have a distributor set up, and
distributors that can pick it up from all these breweries,
which, if you're working with great distributors like
Mikkeller or Evil Twin, you can deal with it.
But if you're a smaller person, you have to--
selling the beer is the biggest thing.
And you have to have people that are going
to sell it for you.
You can't just go into a brewery and do it.
What do people think about the beer?
What are you guys drinking?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] did the custom beer for their
Christmas party.
Is that a common theme [INAUDIBLE]
companies or individual [INAUDIBLE] do custom one-off
batches for like weddings or parties?
JOSH BERNSTEIN: I will say, you know, a lot of--
you're going to see--
there's a lot of custom one-off
batches in New York City.
Sixpoint and Brooklyn Brewery do a bunch of stuff with the
Danny Meyer chain.
It's pretty common.
It's a way for them to--
it used to be if you wanted to have your own brand on there,
you just by really crappy beer, and just call it your
house beer or something like that, which-- but nowadays,
restaurants are really seeing a viable--
you know, you want to give your customer the best
experience possible.
So you're finding that it's pretty commonplace nowadays.
You dig down, like Shake Shack.
Shake Shack's got the beer from Brooklyn Brewery.
And I think Brooklyn Brewery did some stuff for our Thomas
Keller's restaurants, too.
And so this is pretty commonplace all across the
country now, you're going to find.
It's a great way to do a different beer.
But as far as for, like a wedding, or something like
that, you have to register all these brands.
So it depends what-- every state has different
registration fees.
And so, most people are not going to brew a beer for your
wedding, unfortunately.
AUDIENCE: So you sort of hinted at that the beer
distributor network thing, which I heard-- there's an
interesting article recently claiming-- well, it's really
the road to high barrier to entry.
But it was saying it also helps protect the distribution
channel for small breweries.
If we didn't have the regulation with all the
distributors, that it would be really be harder to get your
beer into stores.
But of course, barriers to entry are often that, so
[INAUDIBLE].
So do you think it's good or not?
AUDIENCE: All you have to do is watch where the lobbyist's
money is coming from.
It's not coming from the little guys.
JOSH BERNSTEIN: So the barriers to entry can be--
the barriers to entry to get your-- to go with a
distribution chain can be really crazy.
One of the great things is, for smaller breweries, you're
able to do--
I think it's up to--
I can't remember what it is in New York-- where you're able
to self-distribute up to a certain amount, so you get to
bypass that.
And so, ideally, once you grow big enough, you'll jump into
that chain because, you know, distributing beer yourself
gets you more money per keg and all that.
But you also have to distribute it yourself.
And so, you have to figure out what the best use of your
resources are.
Is it getting into a truck and driving it someplace?
Or is it paying someone else to get in a truck
and drive it someplace?
But I really believe if you're--
distributors are snapping up brands left and right, because
they want to have variety.
They want to have scope.
They want to have the hot, new brand in New York.
And especially in New York City, I think of how New York
is kind of a weird show pony city.
That we do have 8 million people in town, 19 million
metro area, 50 million tourists coming through.
And you can reach a lot of eyeballs with your brand if
you get your beer into New York City.
And people-- what Mark was talking about, where you out
before the morning people come to New York to go out and
enjoy themselves.
And so, I mean, it's a market where you push a lot of beer.
And the other interesting about the New York City
market, though, is that we're not really a town that buys
beer and goes home as much as we drink most of
our beer out in public.
And so, with the city as our living room, and the bar as
our living room.
And so that's really been a big--
a lot of brands that come into New York City, it's kind of
rude awakening that they're not going to sell beer in
bottles as much as they're going to sell beer on draught
and in growlers, so.
AUDIENCE: Do you homebrew?
JOSH BERNSTEIN: I'll answer your question first.
No, I don't homebrew I know, it's like
I'm a terrible person.
But you know what, I I've been doing these homebrew tours for
3 and 1/2 years now.
And everyone's always like, why don't you homebrew?
And I'm like, do you know how much of my days to beer-- and
I have a very lovely, tolerant wife.
But you know, I spend all of my days writing
about beer and food.
And at the end of the day, I just don't have it.
And it's just like--
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] one more thing.
JOSH BERNSTEIN: It's like one more thing.
It's like, I want to relax and have a beer.
But you know what, I've homebrewed with friends
before, and it's pretty awesome, but I just--
I'm not doing it right now.
But it does, it makes me seem like a bad
person to some people.
You're not really authentic.
It's truly is.
And things are like--
it's wild.
But I'm always, like, does everyone who writes about
spirits make their own bourbon?
Do wine writers crush all their own grapes?
But it's kind of like, I think, that it's just because
homebrewing is something everyone can do, that people
expect you to do it, too.
Because they can do it, you should be doing it.
You should be doing it better than them.
But I don't.
So, that's one of the ways I fail.
Your hand was up?
AUDIENCE: So between a good craft beer [INAUDIBLE].
Have you seen this happening for other foods, like cheese
and bread, [INAUDIBLE]?
JOSH BERNSTEIN: Oh, I mean, it's like, yeah.
I mean, I can just--
I live in Crown Heights, and I've been there 10 years, back
when it was just--
your corner bodegas, you're lucky to get a $0.99 can of
Coors Light, and you're just like,
awesome, this great variety.
Nowadays, their stocking Bear Republic IPAs, and like a
really good, sprouted organic bread.
And I mean, it is a general upswing, this idea that we--
people are understanding that great products don't cost a
lot of money, and there are stigmas in a way that's--
you're paying $2 for a loaf of Wonder Bread, and $4 for a
loaf of great bread.
I mean, it's people are realizing that like these
little luxuries really make a big difference in life.
And so I think they really do go hand in hand.
AUDIENCE: It seems somewhat common, too, but I'd like to
just know what your thoughts are on limiting distributions
as a marketing technique.
I mean, the Heady-Topper is a perfect example.
It's a number one-rated beer around the world.
You can only get it in northern Vermont.
I've had it.
I'm not saying it's not an amazing beer.
But I think there's some element of hype to that.
JOSH BERNSTEIN: Oh, that's all.
That's why was I talking about--
preaching locally, drink.
I mean, there's a million great beers
out there right now.
And I mean, there's these things they call the white
whales, which every goes after them.
Like, Three Floyds has a beer called the Dark Lord, an
imperial stout.
And Russian River's got Pliny the Elder, this
amazing double IPA.
It's almost like a geek feedback loop, like the more
people rave about it, the more people want to get it, and
everyone wants to drink it and so--
They're great beers, but never-- you know, I've got
this thing, I'd never wait in line for a beer.
I mean, that's a terrible thing.
And I never jump through hoops for that.
They're great if you can try them, don't get me wrong.
But it's just there's so many other beers out there that are
worth trying I think.
Like, I was up in Vermont.
I did get some Heady-Topper, but it was a pain
in the *** to get.
And I was like, why the hell?
I'm not going to drive to the brewery 40 minutes
just to get his beer.
And I had to go to the co-op right when they got the
shipment in.
I'm like, this is silly.
I did it anyway.
But I was in Vermont.
I was like, I have to do--
and it was actually a snow-- there was a blizzard that day.
I'm like, I have to get drunk in a hotel room.
But anyway, yeah, don't ever go after it.
That's my advice.
If you get it in your hands, great.
If not, there's a lot of other beers that are going to make
you really happy.
AUDIENCE: You're going to a new city, how do you find
local beers?
Do you do your research beforehand?
Or just kind of contact friends there?
JOSH BERNSTEIN: A little bit A and B. For finding great local
breweries, I do a fair amount of research.
And I also go into my network of friends, and
just check it out.
I think craft breweries, in a sense, really get a--
you really get a great flavor.
The little brew pubs in town, the great flavor of people.
And so you can find out so much by bending elbows at the
bar, and just talking to people.
So I do a ton of research before I ever get to a city.
I use a lot of social media aspects.
I go on Twitter, and that's great for crowd-sourcing
suggestions, and so on.
Which I did for my trip to Vermont.
And then also, it's like I reach out to brewers that I
know, and I ask them like what's worth seeking out
there, and so.
My trips now are basically beer and food-based.
Which is not a bad thing, but I try to round it out a bit.
But really, it is, it's so exciting to go to these new
cities, and try all the beers.
And I want to--
it really just gives a great scope of what's been happening
across American.
And I really enjoy it.
Beer tourism is growing by leaps and bounds everywhere.
And I think--
I mean, cities are smart, and they're doing great things
like having ale trails that are doing--
and gosh, Vermont, you can get a punch card for all the
breweries you should go to.
Same thing in Portland, Maine--
Oregon, I mean.
Beer tourism is really-- it's an awesome way
that things are going.
I don't have a beer in my hand and everyone's
drinking around me.
This is like the exact opposite of how
things usually are.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
JOSH BERNSTEIN: I'll start with the Olympic White.
Thank you so much.
AUDIENCE: You know where you can get one.
JOSH BERNSTEIN: What?
AUDIENCE: You know where you can get one.
JOSH BERNSTEIN: I know.
We got 'em.
So how did you come up with the path that's [INAUDIBLE].
JOSH BERNSTEIN: Oh yeah.
If anyone hasn't-- if anyone picked up a book, and saw, we
actually have a--
we'll do with that.
Which, actually the cover comes out, becomes a map, so
look at that.
Oh.
The cover comes off, becomes a map.
And so, the idea of was, it's this company
called Pop Chart Labs.
At Pop Chart Labs, they basically do information-based
hierarchical charts like this.
And so, they were the ones that designed the cover of the
book, as well.
And they'd done a previous version of this map, and so we
were really trying to find a way to maximize
space on the book.
Because in this day and age, if you're going to have a
printed product, that you should have something that's
going to be something you want to hold that's going to be a
bit more permanent than just another thing.
And design was such an important thing for us on the
book, and so we tried to maximize every last inch.
And so, what we did was, these are basically all the beers--
I wish we could do the entire chart, but you only have the
upside down part of a book over.
But it's basically my favorite picks and styles, and how they
kind of go to one another.
And it was a really--
I will tell you, I about went crazy making
this with the guy.
And it was not fun.
But at the end--
because it was like totally crazy, jibber jabber
scrabbling.
And I was trying to show him to do and where to go, and I
was like, yeah.
It was fun.
But in the end, it turned out great, and I'm very happy
about that.
But yeah, the book actually won at the New York Book Show
awards, it won second place for a graphic design.
Which was something really rewarding.
And people were like, I like the fact that it
has pictures in there.
And so I didn't realize pictures were
such a boon for people.
I don't know if that's supposed to make me
feel good or bad.
I was like, I wrote all these words, but you
really like the pictures.
That's great.
AUDIENCE: What's your favorite beer bar in the city?
JOSH BERNSTEIN: My beer bar in the city?
Since I'm a cheap ***, I like Beer Craft, because you
can buy a growler of beer, and then you can share with
people, and it's like--
as far as in the city, beer bars I like going to--
you know, Blind Tiger is nice, but I can never
actually get in there.
And I don't like--
it's always so crowded on that.
Yeah, I don't like Ginger Man at all.
Rattle & Hum's is OK.
Yeah, if you're nearby.
Other things--
Barcade's still a classic, I think, for that.
And then, because I live in that I neck of the woods,
sometimes I'll go down to 4th Avenue, go up to Pacific
Standard, or Mission Dolores, which are over
there in Park Slope.
And those are actually where that 4th Avenue no man's land.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
JOSH BERNSTEIN: Yeah, The Gate's good, too.
AUDIENCE: You been to City Swiggers?
JOSH BERNSTEIN: I've been to City Swiggers.
It's nice.
But living in Brooklyn, going up to Upper East Side, for a--
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
JOSH BERNSTEIN: Oh, so easy for you.
For me, I got to--
I work out of my house, so it's like, Upper East Side for
a beer, it's not exactly my--
AUDIENCE: We go to Pony Bar now, too.
JOSH BERNSTEIN: You go to what?
AUDIENCE: Pony Bar.
JOSH BERNSTEIN: Oh, Pony Bar is open open up there, too.
Yeah, Pony Bar is great, as well.
And that's the thing, the fact that we can have a discussion
about what a great beer bars there are in New York City.
It used to be 10 years ago, it was The Gate, Blind Tiger,
Ginger Man and a few other places.
But it's just that things have been going gangbusters in such
a great way.
I always liked, too, New York City--
sometimes, they get behind in certain fields.
But New York City always plays catch up in a big way.
So I think that's why you're going to see craft beer really
take off here, that you're going to see so many bars
popping up, and I mean--
I can't even tell you how many projects are coming online.
The folks behind Heartland just opened up a new brew pub
over on West Houston Street a couple days ago, where they're
brewing a new line up of beer specifically for that.
And so--
AUDIENCE: Is that part of the Heartland diner thing that's--
JOSH BERNSTEIN: Heartland Brew Pub yeah, a chain.
But those are more--
Heartland Diner, they did the Heartland Brew Pub chain.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
serve food and stuff, too, right?
JOSH BERNSTEIN: Yeah, there's a bunch of them.
There's like six of them.
They're in [INAUDIBLE]
South Street, Seaport, Times Square and stuff.
Just one of the few ones that's not so overly
touristy-based, so.
Yeah, but it's every--
like, every week, a new thing pops up.
And we're going to see a ton new--
a ton new breweries coming online, too,
this year, I think.
Especially within the New York--
not just in New York City, but around in Long Island,
breweries coming in upstate New York that are going to be
coming into the city.
It's a pretty great time to be a craft beer
fan in New York City.
Let me tell ya.