BrewDog Punk IPA
Style: IPA
ABV: 5.6%
Find this beer at: Astoria Bier & Cheese, 34-14 Broadway, Astoria, 718.545.5588; $3.99 for 12-ounce bottle
Super Bowl parties are about loud and room-bisecting conversations, halftime show snark-fests, mindblowing end-zone receptions, and, between plays, seemingly endless amounts of Clydesdale horses selling beer and Rocky Mountains getting tapped. It’s an honorary American holiday. So call us subversive for recommending a beer from a place where the word football as we know it must be preceded by the word American to be understood. Punk IPA, by way of BrewDog out of Scotland, is dry and intensely hoppy and aromatic. Overflowing with citrus and tropical fruit, it’ll keep refreshing your palate as you munch your way through four quarters of indulgent — and most likely inadvisable — eating choices. Extra bonus: We’re debuting a collaboration Punk IPA Beer Making Kit with BrewDog due out mid-February so you can actually brew up a batch at home for your next beer-centric sporting event.
—Erica Shea and Stephen Valand, owners of Brooklyn Brew Shop
Element Lunar Eclipse
Style: Black IPA
ABV: 8.2%
Find this at: Carmine Street Beers, 52A Carmine St., West Village, 212.633.2337; $15.99 for 750-ounce bottle.
Of course I’m picking a Massachusetts beer for THIS Super Bowl! The Patriots have gone 10 years without a big-game win, and in that time many great new breweries in MA have opened. Out of those, Element is one of my favorites, and one we always stock at Jimmy’s. The brewery’s Lunar Eclipse is dark, hoppy, and malty — perfect for a winter evening in MA… or NYC, watching the Super Bowl on the television. Let it warm up in your glass, wear your Bill Belichick-style cutoff hoodies and root for New England!
—Jimmy Carbone, owner of Jimmy’s No. 43 and founder of the Good Beer Seal
Brooklyn Brewery 1/2 Ale
Style: Saison
ABV: 3.4%
Find this at: Nolita Mart & Espresso Bar, 156 Mott St., Little Italy, 212.966.8883; $11.99 for six-pack of 12-ounce bottles.
As far as local beers are concerned, I have been really digging the Brooklyn 1/2 Ale when I want to drink more than I should — and the Super Bowl seems like a perfect arena for that. A full-flavored farmhouse ale, at 3.4 percent ABV I can pound them all night and still feel fine the next day. It’s sort of a miniature version of Brooklyn’s Sorachi Ace, although I feel that the lower alcohol allows the yeast funk to dominate more.
—John Lapolla, co-owner of Bitters & Esters
Freigeist Geisterzug Quince Gose
Style: Gose
ABV: 5.2%
Find this at: Bed Stuy Beer Works, 409 Willoughby Ave., Bedford-Stuyvesant, 718.797.1465; $8.99 for 16-ounce bottle
For Super Bowl Sunday, I’m making a Philippine dish called sisig. Its a marinated, braised, then chopped-and-pan-crisped pork belly. It has fatty exuberance from the pork belly, fruitiness from a pineapple juice braise, along with brightness from fresh herbs, and orange zest stirred in at the end. I’m planning on pairing this with a neat gose from Germany fermented with quince. The beer is low enough in alcohol to allow you to make it to overtime (if necessary); it has a light acidity to cut through the richness of the pork belly, and has a background of salinity to match the intensity of Southeast Asian comfort food and notable balanced fruit and spice flavors to mimic those in the dish.
—Anthony Accardi, co-owner of Transmitter Brewing
Victory Brewing Anniversary 19 Session IPA
Style: IPA
ABV: 4.5%
Find this at: Hops & Hocks, 2 Morgan Ave., Bushwick, 718.456.4677; $2.50 for 12-ounce bottle
Since I despise both the Seahawks and Patriots, I’d probably be best-served buying a couple four-packs of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale tall boys and getting blotto before halftime. But having a hangover Monday morning sucks, so I’ll spend the eve with a few sixers of the just-released session IPA, Victory Brewing’s Anniversary 19.
—Joshua M. Bernstein, author of The Complete Beer Course
