It is International Beer Day, a Celebration of Worldly Beers!!

Wow so today is International Beer Day.. (http://www.internationalbeerday.com/) August 2nd. It must not be celebrated much in New York City as I just found out about it and it’s a Friday, and its almost 5pm, Happy Hour time.. Only a few bars on the website promoting it have any presence. Well not to worry I will do my best to represent here tonight in New York.
Some of my favorite beers I’ve had from around the world, and I make sure that every country I visit I attempt to have a locally brewed beer. My first trip to Bratislava, Slovakia in July of 2006, I ate at the Slovak Pub restaurant(Obchodná 613/62, Bratislava - Staré Mesto) I ordered their house beer .5 liter draft and the price was 20 kourna. At the time the exchange rate was 30 Kourna for every $1, so this beer was 66 cents. To this day that is still I think the lowest I’ve ever paid for a beer while sitting in a classy place!
My second trip to Slovakia in 2010, I wandered into a garden of the pub and ordered a Bernard Pivo(http://www.bernard.cz/en/). This was a tasty wheat beer, just perfect for a hot day. The country had converted to Euros by then, but the price was still a very reasonable 1.35€ inflation a bit, but well worth the less than $2 USD cost. Here is a picture of the Bernard.

A country that has a big craft beer movement is Brazil, while during my only trip I initially drank much of the mass produced, flavorless crap beer, I eventually found some good stuff in both Sao Paulo and Paraty. In Sao Paulo, the Cerveja Paulistania Premium was a great tasty choice, I don’t remember the price but it was probably “expensive” as we were in a premium beer garden. But this was one of the first YUM taste of beer during my trip. (http://www.cervejapaulistania.com/Paulistania_Beer/The_Beer.html)

In the city of Paraty, known for its cachaça sugar cane rum, it was still possible to find great beer at places, one of my favorites was the Colorado Indica IPA, a decently strong beer it was done in a true IPA style and very refreshing, later on in the night as the samba music player it was Caipirinha time all the way.

Currently in NYC, one of my favorite IPA beers that I’ve encountered is Henry Weinhard IPA. I’ve only found it on tap at Smithfield NYC(215 West 28th Street, http://www.smithfieldnyc.com), one of my favorite soccer bars in the city. According to the website for the beer, its roots are in Oregon but it is currently mass produced. The distribution in the area is not that great as it was suppose to be available in a local supermarket near me, Best Yet Market in Harlem but searching the racks of their self proclaimed Beer World I’ve found nothing. As long as Smithfields keeps it on tap they have a returning customer every once in a while..

Ok its past 5pm, its HAPPY HOUR TIME.. Enjoy your beers on this International Beer Day