More than two years ago, a friend turned my mind around, and erased the organoleptic, if not the ontological, difference between wine and beer. I had been prepared for this at a theoretical level by a great article by Ned Behr on the "Real Beer of Belgium," but I had no understanding in experience. That all changed one night when Joe Carroll, who owns the constellation of bars and restaurants orbiting around St. Anslelm in Williamsburg, and who knows and cares more about beer then anyone I know, brought 6 odd-shaped and -sized bottles of beer to my house-- for what I had thought would be a civilized dinner, accompanied, of course, by wine.

The bottles were beer. Joe will join me this Friday to present 3 beers and 3 wines. The beers will be very special and will represent the very heights of brewing. The focus of our tasting will the characteristics of beer and wine that have nothing to do with the vineyard or the source of the hops, but that depend instead on the microbes that live in the medium during fermentation and aging.


Friday January 17, 7 pm at 137 essex st, nyc. Don't show up early.