I went down to Queens this past weekend to see my friend’s band Scarboro open for one of my forever favorite hardcore bands: Agnostic Front! I can’t remember how many times I’ve seen AF, but the last time was 14 years ago when I saw them play their 20th anniversary show at CBGB. I knew I wanted to at least try to hit SingleCut Beersmiths, Finback Brewery, and LIC Beer Project; since Finback was the closest one to my friend’s apartment, I went there before the show on Saturday. All of their beers were top notch, but I kept coming back to Meridian, an IPA dry-hopped exclusively with - you guessed it - Meridian hops. Juicy orange, melon, pineapple, and lemon all day. Definitely going to have to brew with this hop!
After several stops for incredibly delicious Chinese food for lunch in Flushing on Sunday, I went to LIC Beer Project and immediately noticed some similarities between it and Finback - notably being more open/relaxed spaces in areas where parking is easy - similiarities that carried over to my next visit to SingleCut Beersmiths (pictured above). As I had a near three hour drive ahead of me, both visits were quite short with one pour at each, but between all three stops I came back with almost two cases of beer!