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Long Island Craft Beer Week 2018

24 Long Island craft breweries teamed up to create a Bi-Coastal IPA, for Long Island Craft Beer Week 2018. Beer enthusiasts will be able to exchange two cans of food for a can of Bi-Coastal IPA at breweries and select beer bars to benefit Long Island Cares, a charity that distributes food and supplies to pantries, shelters and soup kitchens in Nassau and Suffolk County. “The Long Island community gives back to us every day we need to give back to them at least once a year that’s what this is all about,” said BrickHouse Brewery’s Brewmaster, Paul Komsic.

The Bi-Coastal IPA combines two popular IPA styles, the New England IPA and West Coast IPA, for the ultimate combination of east meets west. The ingredients used to make this beer were donated, including 200lbs of New York State malt from the Country Malt Group and The Malt Man and 90lbs local hops from Hopyard Northfork and Route 27 Hopyard. This beer packs a punch with a 7.5% abv but it’s smooth and perfectly balanced. “I enjoy having beers that hit both sides of the coin where someone who is just getting into it and someone who is already into it can enjoy it just as much at the end of the day, that’s the idea of a great beer to me,” said Paul Komsic.

Last year, Long Island Craft Beer Week raised over 3,400 pounds of food. This year, the goal is to reach over 5,000 pounds. If the goal is met, Paul Komsic from BrickHouse Brewery, Billy Powell from Sand City Brewing Co. and Dan Moss from Fire Island Beer Co. will cut their beards off. If 5,500lbs is met, Adam Pominski from Barrage Brewing Company will cut his beard as well. “My girlfriend I’ve been with for six years has never seen my chin before so she will be the one chopping my beard off when it happens,” said Komsic.

Did you know that if you buy a Long Island beer, 100 percent of the money stays here? “The craft beer statistic is for every 1 full time position in a brewery it creates 45 other jobs out in marketplace whether it’s other jobs in the tasting room in the brewery, down at the farm, or the waste management people that collect our garbage,” said Komsic. BrickHouse Brewery participates in the Brew to Moo program where they donate spent grains to farms for the animals to eat, a great way to reduce waste, reuse products and help the Long Island agricultural community. “If you buy on Amazon you eliminate jobs all over, if you buy local beer you help create jobs,” said David Schultzer, Co-president of Long Island Craft Beer Week.

One goal of Long Island Craft Beer Week is to get new people involved in craft beer and encourage them to buy local microbrews instead of a macrobrews. Komsic said, “it’s about drinking beer from here, drinking beer from Long Island. At the end of the day the more palates we flip, the more that we can sell. Every palate I flip goes out to Sand City or Long Ireland or Lithology and every palate they flip comes back to me eventually. It’s about giving. We are always there giving a helping hand to each other. It’s about selling more craft, as opposed to selling less crap. Drink Craft not Crap!”

For more information about Long Island Craft Beer Week events and happenings go to www.licbw.us.

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