Name: A Great Day In Harlem
Brand: Hudson Valley Brewery
Availability: InStock

Hudson Valley Brewery has released A Great Day In Harlem, a Sour Double IPA made in collaboration with Harlem Hops, the craft beer bar on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. The beer is brewed with wheat and oat, milk sugar, mango, coconut cream, hibiscus, and Citra hops, and comes in at 8% ABV.

The name and can art reference "A Great Day in Harlem," the 1958 photograph in which dozens of jazz musicians gathered on a Harlem stoop for a single group portrait - one of the most recognizable images in jazz history. Hudson Valley Brewery says it drew on that same spirit of community for the collaboration.

The release is also a nod to an existing relationship: according to the brewery, Harlem Hops co-founder Kevin Bradford has been stocking the bar's shelves with Hudson Valley Brewery beer for years, making the trip down from Harlem to Beacon. This time, the brewery says, they made the trip to him. Harlem Hops opened in 2018 as the first Harlem craft beer bar owned entirely by Black entrepreneurs, founded by Bradford alongside Kim Harris and Stacey Lee.

A Great Day In Harlem is available now through Hudson Valley Brewery's online shop, with free shipping on orders over $100 through the end of August using the brewery's current promo code.

Editor’s Take

There is a specific kind of restraint in naming a beer after a photograph instead of just calling it a tribute or a salute or something with an exclamation point, and Hudson Valley Brewery found it. 'A Great Day In Harlem' has been the title of that 1958 image for almost seventy years, and putting it on a can does the work of connecting a beer to a place without a single word of added hype - the reference either lands for the drinker or it quietly doesn't, and either way nobody had to oversell it.

The ingredient list is doing something similarly understated. Milk sugar and coconut cream are common enough in this style, but hibiscus alongside mango in a sour double IPA is the kind of pairing that could easily read as one fruit note too many - hibiscus tends toward tart and floral, mango toward round and sweet, and stacking them against a hop-forward beer is a genuine balancing act. Worth trying cold, on a stoop, ideally in Harlem.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

A Great Day In Harlem Takes Its Name From the 1958 Jazz Portrait

Hudson Valley Brewery's new Sour Double IPA pays tribute to Harlem Hops, the Harlem craft beer bar the brewery has supplied for years, with a can that borrows its name and imagery from a landmark 1958 jazz photograph.

Source & Editorial