Islanders Themed Beer Released For Team’s First Game Of Season

OYSTER BAY, NY — Bagels and coffee are a must the day after a hockey game. But bagels and coffee during a hockey game? Not so much, though maybe now as a new beer with a New York Islanders theme made its debut Thursday just in time for the team to hit the ice in their first game of the 2021 season of the National Hockey League.

“The Islanders really made a good push last year,” said Gabe Haim, co-owner of the beer’s distributor, the Oyster Bay Brewing Company, noting that the season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. “We wanted to rally around the start of the season again.”

The light and creamy libation was a collaboration dreamt up a few days before New Year’s Eve by Haim, his co-partner at the brewing company, Ryan Schlotter; and fellow Blue and Orange Army members and business owners Wayne Cafariella of Kings Coast Coffee in Bohemia, Don Rosner of the hockey-themed Blue Line Deli and Bagels shop in Huntington, and Devin Robinson from Yes Men, an apparel shop in Oyster Bay.

The super-fan beer brewing company has a licensing agreement with the team and released the beer through its Identity Line. The beer, which is dubbed the Coffee Cream Ale, mixes bagels dyed the team’s signature colors of blue and orange straight from Blue Line and Lamplighter Blend coffee from Kings Coast. The bagels are used in the mash and then cold-brewed coffee is blended in as part of the brewing process, but the final product is not bitter and thick in its consistency.

“It has a very subtle coffee taste,” said Haim. “Quite frankly, it is a cream ale by heart.”

The beer, which contains six percent alcohol by volume, comes in a can with a blue jersey design and features the Islanders’ fisherman logo and a smaller version of the company’s own at the nape of the neck. The 16-ounce cans come in a four-pack and sell for $16 from the brewery.

“If I was being cheeky, I would say pair it with bagels from the Blue Line Deli,” said Haim. “It’s the perfect tailgating beer — it doesn’t matter whether it’s burgers or hotdogs.”