c/o 3rd Ward

Good news for people who like to drink while shopping! Loreley Williamsburg will be using their spacious beer garden to host a holiday gift market over the next two weekends. As you can see from the list of vendors below, there will be something for everybody on your gift list, from natural cosmetic users to comic book fans and all those chutney lovers in between. More importantly, you can sip on Loreley’s mulled wines and hot cider drinks while you scope out the goods. If those drinks aren’t your thing, there’s always Loreley’s extensive list of German beers to wet your whistle. Feeling ambitious? Pick up a beermaking kit from Bitter & Esters so you can make your own brews all winter long. Oh, the possibilities! (more…)

Here’s a last minute plan for tomorrow night: a nine course beer tasting paired with a German dinner at Lorely Williamsburg from 7-10:30pm.

Rudi Eilers, a German beer expert, will introduce 9 different beers from Germany (list below) and discuss each beer’s origin, brewing method (top vs. bottom fermented) and unique flavors.

7. Köstritzer Schwarzbier – the most popular dark beer in Germany, surprisingly light and fresh

8. HB Strong Bock – a bottom fermented light bock with powerful aromatic flavors

9. Einbecker Winter-Bock – a deep amber red beer with malty sweetness balanced by a hoppy bitter finish

Tickets are $29 and can be purchased here.

Claiborne McDonald, a reader who contributed a review of the Delorean show earlier this week, writes in with a report from the scene at the new Biergarten last night.

On a block otherwise known for… well, nothing; an addition to the family of the Lower East Side biergarten “Loreley” (pronounced Lorelai, named for a Siren of German myth who led boats to crash on the banks of the Rhine) has finally hit the ‘burg, and surprise!: they haven’t changed their prices. Fenced in by a beautiful brick wall (resembling the Storefront for Architecture sculpture on Allen street) Loreley boasts an authentic German beer-garden feeling, replete with a good selection of brews and Essen to match. But at $7 for my Hefe Weiss, the patrons around me agreed– a good happy hour would do the place well. Nonetheless, if you want your German fix and have the cash to spend, this isn’t the worst spot to cool off in this summer (under the shadow of the BQE).

Thanks Claiborne! To the rest of you: if you find yourselves at the front lines of an event, opening, or show, and want to send in a review…do it! You can always find us at mail@freewilliamsburg.com.

Loreley Williamsburg (64 Frost St. at Meeker Ave), the sister Biergarten to the LES’s Loreley Restaurant & Biergarten at 7 Rivington Street, will be opening its Türen tonight for the first time. The first 100 Gästen will be treated to free glasses of Gaffel Koelsch beer starting at 5pm. What a better way than to say, “hey, we’re neighbors!” than giving away some German brews?

Eater’s got the full menu.

World Cup sidenote: “Both the LES and Williamsburg locations will be showing World Cup games and the chef has created special pretzel-dough “soccer rolls” to represent participating countries.”