The 200-year old festival, widely considered the biggest beer festival in the world, starts in mid-September in Munich and lasts until the first weekend in October. The beer served there is traditionally called Bavarian Märzenbier and is brewed according to strict German recipe laws. The taste is mildly hoppy, copper and usually less than 6 percent alcohol-by-volume (ABV).

According to Oktoberfest’s official website, nearly 7 million people visited Munich this year. While Jersey City won’t see that many people, thousands have already arrived to celebrate Oktoberfest. John Argento, an owner of Zeppelin Hall, says that 2,700 people guests came through the beer garden last Friday.

In New Jersey, Oktoberfest is typically less traditional and showcases people drinking 1-liter mugs of German beer, listening to a German Oompa band, and blonde girls wearing ridiculously slutty dirndls. Pumpkin beer is a seasonal favorite that has become a standard at Oktoberfest events in American craft beer bars like Pint, which hosted a Harpoon event to celebrate last Friday. Zeppelin Hall (88 Liberty View Drive) is also holding weekly events throughout October, according to Argento.

“My vision for Oktoberfest is to impart a feeling of Gemutlichkeit to our guests,” he says. “Gemutlichkeit is a German word that connotes the notion of belonging, social acceptance, cheerfulness, the absence of anything hectic and the opportunity to spend quality time with old and new friends.”

Zeppelin Hall’s Oktoberfest features German bands, Bavarian comfort foods and 50 draft beers. The event has been so successful its been extended until Halloween, and will culminate in a final party called “Shocktoberfest,” during which they will serve a limited edition of Sam Adams Pumpkin and have a costume contest.

While events in town are getting into the swing of things, the season is almost over, and a lot of places already sold out of fall seasonals like Marzen and pumpkin beers last week. Zeppelin Hall has already run out of a few brands and liquor stores like Jersey Wine and Spirits are all out.

Barcade — as a strictly American craft beer bar — is not having an Oktoberfest event, but Maine’s Allagash Brewing Co. is having an event there on October 27.

This Friday, Bar Majestic is also hosting its sixth annual Oktoberfest Parade and Block Party outside of 275 Grove Street. The bar will close off the street and feature beers from Hudson County’s local brewery, New Jersey Beer Co., which is based in North Bergen.

“Our Oktoberfest is special because we transform our neighborhood into a one night Bavarian Style Beer Garden, and back to normal the next morning,” says developer Paul Silverman, who has organized the Bar Majestic Oktoberfest since it began. “We started this tradition of parades and parties on Grove Street a couple of years after we built the Majestic Theatre Condominiums to help bring new life and energy to neighborhood.”

Another noteworthy event — though it’s not in Jersey City — is Hudson County CASA’s Oktoberfest Beer Tasting fundraiser at the Turtle Club in Hoboken (936 Park Avenue) this Saturday (2 to 5 pm). This is the second annual event, and they will feature about 40 beers, and have an extensive wine list and artisan pretzels. All of the beers have been donated by the distributors and go to benefit CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children, which pairs fostered, displaced or abused children with trained volunteers to guide them through legal process and help them find permanent homes. It’s a great cause but be careful — I went to the wine tasting last year and the testimonials almost made me cry.

Photo of Oktoberfest at Zeppelin Hall courtesy of Zeppelin Hall

- Special Council Election: The Insider takes a look at who’s running so far for the two At-Large City Council seats up for grab this fall, and profiles one of them: Imtiaz Sayed.

- Homeless Man Found Dead: The body of a 34-year-old homeless man was found Saturday in the cliffs near Manhattan Avenue off Paterson Plank Road in Jersey City.

- Bergen Avenue Manhunt: Searching for the suspect in a shooting, Jersey City cops surrounded and entered an apartment building at Bergen Avenue and Stegman Street yesterday afternoon but left the building empty-handed.

- Reality Show Coming to Downtown JC: French reality television show Angels of Reality is coming to Jersey City for its third season, thanks to a last-minute lease brokered by two Keller Williams agents. The show, which takes a group of reality TV stars and puts them up in a “dream house” as they pursue careers in the entertainment industry, signed a six-week lease on a home at 361 First Street in the historic downtown section for $60,000.

- Corruption: Some 33 of the 46 defendants initially charged in Operation Bid Rig III have been convicted by a jury or by a plea, two have been acquitted, one died shortly after his arrest, one saw charges against him dropped and one remains a fugitive. Only eight of the defendants — four of them from Hudson County — still have cases pending.

- Hefty Prison Sentence for Murder: The Jersey City man convicted in June of the brutal 2008 murder of a friend was sentenced to more than 31 years in prison Friday in a Jersey City courtroom.

- Accident at Metal Recycling Firm: Hundreds of tons of steel and iron fell from a shipping crane Sunday at Sims Metal Management, with some of the metal landing in waters that lead into the Upper New York Bay.

- Duncan Projects Reunion: Hip-hop stars Biz Markie and Doug E. Fresh were among the people who attended an informal reunion this weekend of those who used to live in the now-demolished A. Harry Moore Housing Complex, aka the Duncan Projects.

- West Nile Virus: The number of mosquitoes that have tested positive as carriers of West Nile virus has plummeted by 75 percent in Hudson County.

- Crime Prevention & Fashion: It’s not often a crime prevention meeting is paired with a fashion show, but that’s what took place Saturday as the members of the Communipaw Avenue Block Association played host to an event at Ercel Webb Park that drew roughly 70 people.

Today’s Best Bet:

- Newport hosts an Indian Independence Day celebration this afternoon (5 pm) if the rain holds off. UPDATE, 9:56 AM: This has been postponed due to weather; it is now slated for Tuesday, same time.

In Statewide News:

- Businesses & Biz Groups Thank Christie with Cash: Corporations, executives and related political action committees have opened up their wallets to the major state Republican committees the past 18 months, helping end the Democratic Party’s long fundraising dominance heading into the fall legislative elections.

- State Police & Minorities: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which settled discrimination claims with the State Police in 2000 to force greater minority recruitment, says it will return to court to argue the state has given only lip service to the problem.

- Recall Effort Targets Christie: Gov. Christie could face a recall election in 2012, if activists are able to obtain the signatures of at least 1,317,000 of New Jersey’s 5.27 million registered voters — or 25 percent of them.

- Small Brewers Hope Bill Will Loosen Restrictions: A bill proposed in the Legislature would revamp the rules governing brewpubs — any restaurant that brews its own beer — and microbreweries, stand-alone beer producers working on a smaller scale than the major companies.

- Mortgage Fraud: New Jersey was among the top states for mortgage fraud last year, the FBI said Friday.

Photos: Rafael Cruz

Brewers, politicians and beer lovers donned their finest formal apparel last Friday for the grand opening of Pint, which was formerly known as Star Bar. The rebranding of Jersey City’s only gay and craft beer bar is meant to reflect the bar’s reputation for microbrews and its diminutive size, as owner Wolf Sterling explained to JCI. At 6’7”, he towered over the crowd in the tiny “pint-sized” bar that holds less than 50 people, many of whom were wearing tuxedos for the affair.

At approximately 7:30 pm, the political odd couple of At-Large councilman Ray Velazquez and Ward E councilman Steve Fulop got behind the bar and cut the ribbon with Sterling, both giving speeches lauding the bar’s success, its impact on the neighborhood and its generosity (the opening was also a benefit for the Hudson Pride Connections Center, and it also regularly holds fundraisers for other local nonprofits).

Velazquez, the only openly gay City Council member on Council, said the bar supported not only the city’s LGBT community, but the entire Downtown neighborhood, helping it thrive in recent years.

“What we need from good business owners is to be good neighbors,” he said. “That’s what makes a city prosper.”

Fulop, who has recently had a number of heated exchanges with Velazquez, said they were putting “politics aside” to “get together to support a business.”

“It’s not a bar in Jersey City; it’s a bar for Jersey City,” Fulop said of Pint. “It’s another destination for beer lovers.”

The bar itself has been around in various incarnations since 1911, and is one of the oldest still in existence in Jersey City.

“This neighborhood used to be Dutch, then Jewish, then Puerto Rican,” Sterling said in his ribbon-cutting speech. “I’m proud that we can all stand here and represent the diversity of Jersey City — that this is the most diverse bar in the city, at least I hope it is.”

He thanked the staff for helping turn it around from a “getting stabbed” bar to a “getting a beer” bar, referring to the spot’s former divey life. When this writer was growing up in Jersey City, it barely had a floor and served as a prime spot to buy forties to go as a teenager.

Part of Sterling’s behind-the-scenes renovations included building custom coolers for the expanded beer selection of 14 rotating drafts and 40 bottles, since the old cold box was 60 years old. He also expanded the liquor selection to about 50 new choices. New Jersey Beer Company, which will have a dedicated line along with Abita, debuted their newest beer at Friday’s event – the 1776 Abbey Single — after a long hiatus.

The bar also got a facelift; wood paneling now covers the walls, which are lined with tap handles around the perimeter. The look, which kind of evokes a grandpa’s living room, is meant to be a replica of how the bar looked just after World War II — Sterling described it as “a cool, retro, neighborhood feel.”

Sterling said he’d love to expand the bar into a neighboring business and open Jersey City’s first brewpub, but current zoning restrictions make that a long-term project.

“Those plans still exist but won’t happen in the near future,” he said.

Overall, Sterling said he hopes that Jersey City government, and both councilmen in attendance, will work to create a friendlier environment for the city’s small businesses.

“I commissioned a study last year which documented more than 45 percent of Pint’s customers didn’t frequent the Grove Street area before they started frequenting the bar. More than 60 percent of our customers enjoy a meal at a nearby restaurant at least once a week before or after visiting the bar,” he said. “That’s a significant economic benefit to the area, and part of what I hope will be an ongoing trend to develop the potential of Jersey City.”

Councilman Velazquez agreed that Pint and other local favorites keep people hanging out in town rather than getting on the PATH and spending their money elsewhere.

“We don’t have to be New York’s Sixth,” he said, referring to the city’s unofficial nickname of being New York City’s Sixth Borough. “They can be New Jersey’s second.”

THE DETAILS

Pint | 34 Wayne Street | pintbar.com | 201.367.1222

Photos: Eric Brown

After about a year of planning and construction, Barcade Jersey City is set to open to the public next week. Co-owner Paul Kermizian says the highly anticipated American craft beer bar/arcade has officially passed all inspections and will open around April 21, though he says the specific date won’t be known until the end of this week.

Barcade Jersey City will feature 24 drafts, one cask, and 33 vintage video games. The location marks the second in a growing Barcade franchise; the original opened in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood in 2004, and another will soon open in Philadelphia. It begs the question — why in the world did the owners choose this town?

“Hoboken wasn’t our style,” says Kermizian, 36, a New Jersey native who has, among other things, directed the documentary American Beer. Occasionally shuttled around by developer Paul Silverman, who encouraged them and introduced them to different areas of town, Kermizian and co-owner Kevin Beard looked at the different types of bars Downtown. They checked out neighborhood bars of all stripes — from the polished Bar Majestic and Skinner’s Loft to rowdy drunkfests like Zeppelin Hall and dives like Lucky 7 Tavern.

He says they ultimately decided that “Jersey City is a good fit for us.”

Located a block from Grove Street PATH Station on Newark Avenue in the former Washington Mutual bank branch, Barcade Jersey City is on Downtown’s “restaurant row,” which in 2011 is an intersection between old Jersey City and new gentrification.

Walking east on Newark from the PATH, you pass glossy restaurants and abandoned storefronts, as well as a pit surrounded by a collapsed fence and protected only by frayed police tape swaying in the breeze. Several elderly men bring folding chairs to sit on the sidewalk outside Barcade’s still-closed doors daily, hanging out with the hot dog guy on the corner, where the outdoor seating will be.

“That hot dog guy’s been here for 25 years,” Kermizian explains. “That’s his crowd.”

I ask what will happen when the bar’s outdoor seating opens up. “He’ll just have to move a few feet over,” Kermizian says.

Unlike its Brooklyn location, Jersey City’s Barcade will serve food, with a planned seasonal menu – “stuff to eat and have a hand free for a beer or joystick” — featuring 10 to 12 sandwiches, cheeses, pickled vegetables, and delicacies like pickled hops.

Barcade will only serve American craft beers on a rotating basis, and only on draft to reduce waste and keep the beer fresh. Most pints will be $6, with some exceptions, like Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, which at 18.5 percent ABV will be $8. Beers that are hard to find, like Founder’s KBS, will be $7.

“We don’t have as high a profit margin for how busy we are compared to some bars, but we do that on purpose,” Kermizian says. “For the beer.”

With the owners still loyal to their hometown of Brooklyn, the bar will feature that borough’s resident breweries — Six Point and Brooklyn Brewery — on draft. But Barcade will also regularly feature Climax, New Jersey’s oldest craft brewery, and are excited about carrying New Jersey’s Flying Fish, which is currently not available in New York.

But not everyone is a beer snob, so I ask Kermizian how Barcade will deal with the $2-PBR-loving crowds that pack many of Downtown’s bars most nights.

“You’re never going to find $2 PBR Specials here. You’re paying more for quality, independently owned microbreweries’ beer,” he says. “If you’re paying $6 for a 8 percent Doppelbock, that’s like two or three PBR’s. For beginners, we’ll recommend something like Victory Prima Pils or Climax Helles. Everyone will leave happy.”

As for the video games, Kermizian says there will be 33 vintage arcade games from what he dubs the “golden age” – the late ‘70s and the ‘80s. There will be no fighting or shooting games, he says, since “there was a point in time when those games became popular and creativity was lost.” The rarest games on hand will be original Pong, and Star Wars Cockpit, but the hits will probably be classics like Donkey Kong, Tetris, Burger Time and Galaga. All will cost one quarter and yes, there’s a change machine in house — as well as a high score chalkboard for bragging rights.

“Get here quick if you want to get on the high score board,” co-owner Kevin Beard says. “We have serious gamers.”

Much like other much-anticipated new establishments, Barcade Jersey City took a little longer to open due to the city’s relentless inspections. But Kermizian says he and Beard had heard all about the setbacks faced by earlier comers, and came in ready for whatever was thrown at them.

“There were more steps than we were used to in New York,” he says. “But we heard there would be, and we were prepared.”

The bar is seen as a boon to the neighborhood, not just by local beer and video game lovers, but also by some local competition.

“It’ll be nice for people to bar hop,” Star Bar’s Wolf Sterling says. “People can come here for our 300 bottles, go there for drafts.”

Just down the block from Barcade is Skinner’s Loft, which has a rotating selection of American and imported craft beer. But manager Will Kelly isn’t concerned about Barcade taking business from him; instead, he feels that bringing in more establishments can only help others thrive in the notoriously tough Jersey City market.

“The more the merrier; the more business we can put in the street, the more we can make this a destination neighborhood,” he says. “I’d like to see it proliferate. It’s good to have a happening area — the concept of Hoboken, but done right.”

A longtime bartender, Cinotti comes to the Monkey from a management position at Hoboken’s Black Bear Bar & Grill, where he set up a beer club, brought in a new line of craft beers and held monthly beer dinners.

The restaurant and bar, which is one of Jersey City’s leading spots for craft beer, will incorporate one of its limited-release kegs each time one of its regular draft kegs get tapped out over the next ten days. Its Meet the Brewer series will return this week as well, with a Thursday event featuring Tommy Keegan of Keegan Ales.

Limited Release Beer Selection:

Allagash Curieux (Bourbon Barrel-Aged Tripel)
Allagash Vrienden
Brooklyn Main Engine Start
Brooklyn Monster Ale
Dogfish Head Burton Baton
Dogfish Head Red & White
Founders Backwoods Bastard
Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout)
Harpoon Island Creek Oyster Stout (100 Barrel Series #30)
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid Ale
Left Hand Fade To Black Vol. 2
Ommegang Gnomegang
Rogue Charlie 1981
Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine
Sierra Nevada Brewers Reserve 30th Anniversary – Grand Cru
Sierra Nevada Glissade Golden Bock
Sierra Nevada Ovila
Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard
Terrapin Tomfoolery
Tröegs Nugget Nectar
Weyerbacher (Brewmaster Reserve) Oscar

Want your event listed on our calendar? You can submit it yourself — just click here and follow the simple instructions.

TODAY

Art lovers can revel in three opening receptions tonight in Downtown Jersey City. _gaia gallery hosts the opening for Viewpoints, which features photography by Danielle Fotopoulos and Roxana Marroquin (6 pm). Over at Made with Love, there’s Postcards 4 My Love, featuring 14 new works by Beth Achenbach; tonight Joanne Simmons — aka the Silver Sculptor — will also be on hand presenting handmade jewelry pieces (7:30 pm). And last but not least, 58 Gallery hosts the reception for Color Continuum, a show of new works by David Bentz; the reception includes musical accompaniment by the avant-garde group known as Audio Artists (7 pm).

Elsewhere, the Actors Shakespeare Company kicks off a three-day run of Shakespeare’s Queens, an exploration of women and power. The show is part of ASC Labs, so it is free (7:30 pm; 3 pm Saturday and 1 pm Sunday at Congregation B’nai Jacob). And the JC Slam is taken over this week by the ladies, with the top-ranked women of the slam scene competing for the opportunity to represent the venue at the 2011 Women of the World Poetry Slam (9 pm).

SATURDAY

In the morning, there’s a bird walk in Liberty State Park (10 am). If you’re looking for an excuse to get out of Jersey City to other parts of Hudson County, why not hit the first-ever International Great Beer Expo in Secaucus (noon to 9 pm)?

The evening is reserved for laughs, with The Laugh Tour coming once again to Art House Productions. The night of stand-up comedy will feature Veronica Mosey and Rich Kiamco (7 pm).

SUNDAY

Guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk performs for free at NJCU (3 pm).

Although “punk rock cookies” sounds like an oxymoron, Sewer shows you how to combine the two. For example, the signature Rock-Out Cut-Outs — guitar-shaped sugar cookies — is paired with “This is Rock and Roll” by The Kids. A guitar-shaped cookie cutter is included with the book. “Slap your favorite rock ‘n’ roll slab on the ol’ turntable and fix yourself a cocktail,” the recipe reads. “Now fix yourself another drink and flip that record.”

Here’s the description of Loft Party Make-Outs, a delicate walnut tart:

You know the loft party drill. You’re moochin’ all the booze. You’re hopin’ to get a little smoochin’ in before the cops bust up the place. But this time when the cuties don’t put out, there’s no need to pout. Just lip-smack a few Loft Part Make-Outs and yer face will be covered with sweet jam kisses. Added bonus: no mono.

Since no one ever invites me to loft parties, I decided to go for the next best thing and bake my dreams. I also tried the Peanut Butter Slackers, a no-bake chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookie, and the Rock-Out Cut Outs. These are big cookies, overloaded with sugar and heavy-handed vanilla extract, so the beer had to have enough flavor to compete and complement them. I sampled hundreds of this season’s beers and new releases to find the best pairings, courtesy of Jersey Wine & Spirits (more disclosure: I work there). I limited my choices to bottled beer by American breweries and beers accessible for anyone (in Jersey City) to pick up at the liquor store and bring them for dessert.

For the guitar-shaped Rock-Out Cut-Outs, I tweaked the included Dead Beat Delight frosting recipe a little and added bourbon whiskey as the liquid base, which I felt would be in the spirit of Sewer — and also because I’d run out of milk and butter. The bourbon added spice and heat to the sugar cookie. My guitar cookies had a warped, melted look, not at all like the elaborate decorations Sewer puts on hers, but they paired perfectly with Nectar Ales’ Black Xantus, a Russian Imperial Stout from Paso Robles California made with organic, fair trade coffee. This October 2010 release boasts an alcohol content of 11 percent. It’s not overly sweet, but the dominant brown sugar taste complemented the white sugar in the cookie, and the bourbon in the frosting with the bourbon notes in the beer. The smooth and mild coffee taste makes it great for ending a meal with cookies. Black Xantus retails at $13.99 for a 750 ml bottle, which is pricey for beer — so only bring it if you really love someone.

Admittedly, I messed up the recipe for Loft Party Make-Outs and added twice as much sugar and put the nuts in wrong — probably because I was too much drinking Weyerbacher Quad. My Make-Outs had the consistency and flavor of walnut short bread. I used Chantaine strawberry preserves to make the tongues on this lip-shaped cookie, although they came out looking like vaginas (the strawberry jam in the middle only added to the visual). I chose one of Weyerbacher’s most decadent beers, Quad, because it’s thick, sweet, and sometimes tart. Flavors of rum, dark cherries and dried fruit in the beer complement the jam and nuts in the Make-Outs — and at 11.8 percent alcohol-by-volume, it’ll make you hot with “no mono,” as Sewer says. Available yearly in November, it will set you back about $10.99 for a four-pack.

The final recipe I made was the no-bake Peanut Butter Slackers. Peanut butter is a slacker staple, according to Sewer, plus you don’t have to bake them. And you probably still live with your mom. The recipe is from Sewer’s grandmother, and it was her favorite cookie growing up. It’s a rich, super chocolatey peanut butter oatmeal cookie that has the consistency of delicate fudge. They took about 15 minutes to make and about 30 minutes to harden (luckily my apartment is unburdened by heat, so they chilled quickly). They looked like cat diarrhea, and I playfully molded them into logs. Because they shared a lot of the same ingredients, it was a no-brainer for this beer pairing: Founder’s Breakfast Stout, one of the most beloved and highly anticipated beers from this Michigan-based brewery. At about $10.99 for a four-pack, this “double chocolate coffee oatmeal stout” is available starting in November each year. The bitterness of the coffee on the backend goes well with the oats and peanut butter and balances the sweetness from all the sugar that give the cookie it’s fudge-like structure. Or try it with Founder’s Kentucky Breakfast Stout, a super-version, if you can find it.

These slacker cookies with ‘tude look great plated on doilies — or, perhaps more appropriately given the punk rock spirit, on a broken radiator. My cookies all came out delicious, although they looked like something you’d buy in a prank store.

You can order Cookie Chaos! from punkrockkitchen.com or on BUST Magazine’s Bustoobtique. The book costs $8 directly from Sewer ($13.95 from BUST) and comes with a guitar cookie cutter. Sewer says would love to have them for sale in some Jersey City shops, but the first print run is starting do dwindle, so you should order some from her now so she can print more. You can buy the beer from any decent liquor store, but I got mine from Jersey Wine & Spirits (492-498 Jersey Avenue), where the staff (me) is knowledgeable and will help you with any pairings, if you decide to make any of the other cookies in the book or want cheaper beer alternatives. (Also, my boss donated beer to me to write this article.)

When it comes to beer events, Iron Monkey has the most in Jersey City. Period.

In October, for example, the bar hosted weekly Meet-the-Brewer nights on Thursday and Friday nights — Weyerbacher, SlyFox, Brooklyn Brewery, Blue Point and other semi-regional craft brewers graced the three-floor establishment and Jersey City staple. The bar supports 24 drafts and carries a beer list of about 300 bottles. Iron Monkey frequently enlists Founders and rock-star breweries like Dogfish Head for tap-takeovers, often showcasing hard to find seasonals with limited distribution in the state.

Oftentimes, one of the perks of these events include personalized beer tours and brewery history lessons, as was the case earlier this month when I stopped by for Maryland’s Flying Dog Brewery. Vice President Jim Lutz, with Flying Dog’s winged logo stamped on his arms, guided me through the flight — six tasters for $8 — and provided me with insight into some of my favorite beers.

“There’s no swishing and spitting—we’re drinking,” he commanded.

Lutz talked at length about the history of the beers, like the Raging Bitch Belgian IPA (“Some people think it’s named after my ex-wife but it’s because in the fermentation the carbonation went aggro”) and Gonzo Imperial Porter (“I drink it nightly” — Hunter S. Thompson was reportedly a friend of the brewery).

He also told me the origin of the brewery’s name, which involved climbing the world’s 2nd-largest mountain, sherpas, donkeys and, of course, contraband. His philosophy?

“Make friends and sell beer,” he said. “Between the beer and the dope I’m happy. Don’t write that. Well, I guess you can write that.”

Lutz said it was a no-brainer to do an event at the Iron Monkey, considering its long history of being craft-beer-friendly.

“My first visit to Iron Monkey was in ’95 or ’96 when this was the ‘hood; they were the only guys in Jersey City doing funky beers. I sat here and looked over the abyss,” he said referring to the swamp and construction that used to be the waterfront.

I mentioned that back then I was in high school my friends and I would drink forties around here down by the water at the construction sites. “I was in 6th grade then,” said P.J. Sievering, the boyish ginger-haired sales rep for beer distributor Hunterdon. After we tasted all the beer Sievering carried Lutz away saying, “A bunch of nerds want to talk to you,” referring to the crowd of beer enthusiasts hovering around the bar.

Sievering, the Hudson County rep for Hunterdon — which is the primary distributor of American craft beer in New Jersey — coordinates the breweries for Iron Monkey.

“We always have a really good turnout—clientele has changed. People are here to meet the brewers and ask questions about beer—compared to other crowds that aren’t as sophisticated or beer nerdy enough,” he said. “Plus they have flights, which lets newbies try different styles and opens up conversation.”

The beer events were originally owner Steve McIntyre’s idea.

“I didn’t know anything about beer,” he said. “Then I did a lot of research…I think I went blind.”

He personally picked out all 300 beers in the massive basement cold box. “Melissa you’ve gotta try this beer,” he said, shoving the last bottle of Liefman Kriekbier in my face.

McIntyre has been running it since 1995, with a little help from his family: his brother Larry is a floor manager and his sister Karen and brother Brian often stop in to help out.

“We’ve been here and watched the community and buildings around us build and grow,” Brian said. “Bringing in these beers is a testament to Steve for supporting the community.”

One of the ways the Iron Monkey supports the community is through its yearly free Thanksgiving Dinner, which this year will be the 15th annual. In a new twist this year, McIntyre has incorporated craft beer into the charitable mix, with a Meet the Brewer event featuring Hudson County’s New Jersey Beer Company on Wednesday evening (7 pm to closing). The brewery will donate $1 from each of its beers sold to the next day’s Thanksgiving meal, which will be served from noon to 5 pm.

Want your event listed on our calendar? You can submit it yourself — just click here and follow the simple instructions.

TODAY

A jam-packed weekend of great stuff from Art House Productions starts today with an opening reception for Art is a Feeling Language, a group show featuring work by students from Jersey City’s St. Joseph’s School for the Blind (5 pm). Elsewhere on the visual art scene, there’s an unveiling of Jersey City: Then and Now and a reception for the nonprofit Walls That Talk Mural Arts Program at the Cosi in the Goldman Sachs building near Exchange Place (6 pm).

Over at the Grassroots Community Space, Insurgo Stage Project is presenting Art in Motion: Dance Your Art Out, an event combining improvisational dance, music, live art, video and poetry to explore “the artistic process and the sacrifices artists make when they say ‘yes’ to their creative instincts” (8 pm). Following that at Grassroots is the JC Slam, which this week features slam poet Seth Walker (10 pm). In India Square, the Navrati Festival celebration enters its final weekend (begins at 7 pm tonight and Saturday). And on the live music front, famed folkie Lucy Kaplansky plays the Brennan Coffee House (7:30 pm) and the Crosstown Country Allstars are scheduled to play a free show at the Lamp Post (10 pm).

SATURDAY

Saturday is your first chance to check out a 42,000-year-old baby mammoth, as the Liberty Science Center opens the doors to its new exhibition, Mammoths and Mastodons, which will be on view through January 9, 2011 — however, the baby Lyuba is only on view until November 9. Saturday also marks the kickoff of the month-long Art Harvest festivities at Hamilton Square; Art House Productions has put together three weekends full of plays, arts & crafts, music and family activities like a hay-bale maze. Today’s festivities include songs and spooky stories by the Theatre Company, live music from Roland Ramos, theater by Art House Productions and several DJs (noon to 5 pm).

In the evening, there’s a viewing party for The Chakra Show group exhibition at the Mary Benson Gallery if you missed it during the Artists Studio Tour (7 pm), and Star Bar hosts a special Octoberfest celebration featuring a bunch of American craft brews (5 pm).

SUNDAY

Get out and enjoy the fall weather at Stevens Cooperative School‘s 12th annual Harvest Festival in the Newport neighborhood; the event — which doubles as a fundraiser for the school — features food, fun and kids games and activities (11 am to 4 pm). Or head back to the Art Harvest at Hamilton Square for more live theater, spooky stories and dance from the Insurgo Stage Project (noon to 5 pm). If you haven’t been by to check out Curious Matter‘s latest, Psychopomp, today’s a good day to check it out, since they are only open to the public on Sundays (or by appointment) (noon to 3 pm). Over at NJCU, the legendary tabla player Badal Roy plays a free concert as part of the university’s InRealTime series (3 pm). And Hoboken’s Paul Vincent Gallery hosts an opening reception for a rare solo show of work by Jersey City painter (and 58 Gallery owner) Orlando Reyes (3 pm).

Exterior photo: Rob Healy/Jersey City Bar Guide | Other photos: Melissa Surach

With the craft beer resurgence going strong, several Jersey City bars have beefed up their obscure selections in efforts to lay claim to the title of Jersey City’s best craft beer bar. Perhaps the most unlikely of the bars to take this route is Star Bar, a hole-in-the-wall gay bar tucked away on Wayne Street right off of Grove.

But Star Bar is making a go of it, with a menu that currently boasts over 60 beers, many of which are special releases with limited distribution. It is also hosting more beer events, like last month’s Harpoon party and this weekend’s Octoberfest celebration.

The Boston-based Harpoon was showcasing five draft beers for its Octoberfest promotion — including 100 Barrel Series Glacial Harvest Wet Hop and two beers from the Leviathan line: Triticus and Big Bohemian Pilsner. They were reasonably priced at $5 a pint (even Triticus, a wheat wine with 11.5 percent alcohol by volume) or $6 for a flight of 4 — a steal considering that these beers are hard to find in New Jersey.

According to Matt Przygoda, Harpoon’s Garden State rep, at most seven New Jersey accounts get any of the 100 Barrel Series, and as for the Leviathans, Star Bar was only one of four to get it.

“Star Bar has been really good to us,” he explained, “It has a great following and a lot of knowledgeable craft beer people that we’d like to get in front of. It was a no-brainer for us. They run a great bar.”

I heard someone around me who couldn’t stop talking about beer. It was Wolf Sterling, a tall, handsome and tattooed man with salt and pepper hair who, according to his business card, is Star Bar’s “Chief Astronomer and Guy in Charge.” I asked him why he thought Star Bar was Jersey City’s best craft beer bar.

“For one, there’s not many craft beer bars in Jersey City,” he said. “Two, we focus exclusively on American craft beer. Three, we rotate every three weeks so everything’s fresh. Four, we train our staff. We’re nazis with the way we treat our beer.’”

Star Bar now regularly hosts brewery-sponsored and other fancy beer events, although it took awhile to get them going. “Because of our diminutive size, it took awhile for breweries to pay attention to us,” Sterling said, referring to the occupational certificate stating 47. “But now they do.” Star Bar does at least one big beer event every month and hopes to so more frequently in the future, as well as expand to 24 drafts.

Sterling said his favorite beers currently at the bar are Dogfish Head Bitches Brew, followed by Blue Point’s Howling Bastard. But the man is clearly beer crazed, confiding in me that he was “hiding Rogue’s Double Chocolate and Little Sumpin’ Wild in the basement. I might take them out later, if there’s room,” he winked, referring to one of the chocolatey-est beers on the market and the newest in the Lagunitas “Little Sumpin’” line, a Belgian Stong Pale Ale.

Notable upcoming events are Star Bar’s Octoberfest on October 16, which will feature this season’s five best Octoberfest beers, as chosen by Sterling (all American, hence no “K” in Octoberfest). Also, the bar will feature puppies at the “Pints for Puppies” event in conjunction with Liberty Humane Society. The shelter will bring in adoptable dogs and a portion of all pints sold will go to it.

“Last year we got a dog adopted out of the bar!” Sterling said, smiling proudly. In mid-October, the bar will be one of the first and few to get one of the most highly anticipated new pumpkin beers of the season, Sixpoint’s Pumpkin Brewster, brewed with honey and ginger.

“How do you get all this crazy stuff?” I asked.

“When I hear about something new, I’m on the phone with the distributor making sure we’re the first on line,” he said. In a state where it’s often hard to get the fancy good ones, Sterling makes it an imperative to stay ahead.

“We fight for our beer,” he said. Indeed, the bar’s promotional postcard reads: “Draft beer not people.”