Local Brewery Takes Bite Out of Beer Festival

Holbrook-based brewery Spider Bite Beer Company showed up at the Beer Fields festival at Pennysaver Amphitheater on Saturday with two offerings from its micro-brewery.

The festival combined craft beer sampling with two stages of music. Headliners were reggae legends, the Wailers, performing classic Bob Marley tunes and Dirty Head, a Southern California punk/reggae band. Some larger and more well-known names in the beer game were on hand mixed in with smaller guys like the folks at Port Jefferson Brewery and Spider Bite serving hundred of thirsty festival-goers.

Spider Bite had their White Bite and Eye Be Use beers flowing and the crowds lined up at their tent for a taste. The former is a wheat ale with 4.5 percent alcohol content and the later is a 9.8 percent double IPA. According to co-founder Anthony LiCausi the White bite is available in bottles at some local supermarkets.

The name of the brewery, according to LiCausi, is from the early days when he and his partner in the brewery (and also his neighbor) Larry Goldstein were home brewing.

When Goldstein would walk across to LiCausi's house he'd always get tangled in spider webs between their two homes. When it came time for a name, the choice was obvious to the pair.

With the explosion of craft breweries on Long Island over the past few years, we asked LiCausi what he thought about the phenomenon. He said beer drinkers have a unique palette that makes them seek out different kinds of beer.

"I think people demand a better product," said LiCausi.

Check out the video of Spider Bite Beer Company explaining the brews they poured at Beer Fields on Saturday. Did you go to Beer Fields? Which beers did you sample? What did you think of them? Tell us in the comments below.