Full Tilt Brewing, Baltimore’s newest craft beer producer, is excited to announce their initial release of their flagship beer, “Baltimore Pale Ale”. Their introduction to the ever growing craft beer market will take place on Saturday, December 29th at The Americana in Canton, 900 S. Kenwood Ave, Baltimore, MD 21224. The first pint of “Baltimore Pale Ale” will be poured at 8:00 pm sharp. Baltimore Pale Ale pints will be sold for $2 all night.
Full Tilt Brewing, (FTB) is also launching their Community Support program the night of the release, whereby their portion of the $5 cover charge and subsequent raffle tickets, will go directly to The American Legion’s – “Heroes to Hometowns” non-profit organization. While this is only one event supporting those who have given the most for our country, Full Tilt Brewing will focus on continuing to support local veteran causes in the future. This is the least we all can do for these brave and selfless individuals.
Included in the cover charge each patron will receive a wristband for entry and their first raffle ticket along with a separate ticket for (1) pint of BPA redeemable any time after 8:00 pm. Each additional raffle ticket can be purchased for $5 for the chance to win a FULL TILT BREWING prize package including a BPA tap-handle. The winner will be chosen via drawing at 10:00 pm. Winner must be present to win.
21 December 2012
Full Tilt to Debut Baltimore Pale Ale on Dec. 29th in Canton
Again, the press release pretty much tells it all:
13 December 2012
Gunpowder Falls Brewing: Well, Technically They're Not IN Baltimore, But.....
This blogger has been too busy with other (paid) work to follow up on what he discovered a couple weeks ago in The Wine Source, and it was a gray area, anyway, requiring an out-of-state trip to visit--and as far as Mid-Atlantic Brewing News goes, technically it's the Central Pennsylvania columnist's territory, not ours...
But with a name like Gunpowder Falls Brewing, you just know they're going to market to Marylanders. In addition, founder Martin Virga, from Phoenix, Md., is a familiar name to the region's craft beer scene, as a former co-founder of both Capitol City Brewing and then Ellicott Mills Brewing in Ellicott City.
And The Baltimore Sun has the story of the new lager-brewing brewery, located along Interstate 83 just two miles over the Mason-Dixon Line in New Freedom (closer to Shrewsbury, in reality).
But with a name like Gunpowder Falls Brewing, you just know they're going to market to Marylanders. In addition, founder Martin Virga, from Phoenix, Md., is a familiar name to the region's craft beer scene, as a former co-founder of both Capitol City Brewing and then Ellicott Mills Brewing in Ellicott City.
And The Baltimore Sun has the story of the new lager-brewing brewery, located along Interstate 83 just two miles over the Mason-Dixon Line in New Freedom (closer to Shrewsbury, in reality).
12 December 2012
"Twelve!! Twelve!! Twelve!!"
Can't help myself.....
Guy's walking alongside a wooden fence and hears a crowd of men on the other side chanting "TWELVE! TWELVE! TWELVE!" over and over. He sees a knothole in the fence and peers inside to see what the hubbub is about.
Suddenly his eye is stabbed by a finger poking through the hole, and as he staggers away in excruciating pain, the crowd starts chanting "THIRTEEN! THIRTEEN! THIRTEEN!"
*******************************
Today is the twelfth day of the twelfth month of 2012, or 12/12/12. Normally, to beer geeks this date would reflect the release of the latest (and last) of Stone Brewing's vaunted Vertical Epic series of "extreme" beers, released in the past on 01/01/01, 02/02/02, etc.
To the hard-core beer geek crowd, however, this noted occasion has been completely overshadowed by what is threatened to be a "once in a lifetime" opportunity: the chance to buy bottles of Westvleteren beer from the St. Sixtus Abbey, producers of the world's rarest and most desired commercial beers. And, of course, the beer in question is Westvleteren 12.
"Westy 12," as the beer is nicknamed among aficionados, has been one of those "holy grail" missions for many, as a combination of reputation, notoriety, and scarcity elevated the beer to lofty levels of iconography and idolatry--whether or not it's been sampled by the worshipper. The beer is quite frequently regarded as the "number one" or "best" beer in the world, a subjective and quantitative measure to be sure, and the hype is no doubt heightened by the beer's extreme scarcity: only 160,000 cases are produced a year of the 12, along with similar quantities of the lighter 6 and 8. It has been, until now, sold only at the door of the abbey, where its 21 monks brew the beer, and actually purchasing it apparently resembles buying soup from the "Soup Nazi" of the Seinfeld TV show fame (see for yourself the obstacles to be overcome), for the equivalent of $50 a case of 24 bottles plus about $15 deposit on the bottles and wooden carrier. The monastery insists that "Westvleteren Trappist is sold only to individual customers. Every customer agrees not to re-sell the beer to any third party." (This condition is, of course, completely unenforceable, as a moment's thought will discern.) Thus, there is no reliable or commercial distribution network like there is for the other Trappist beers, or basically any commercial brewery. Bottles, or small lots of bottles, have routinely sold (illegally) on eBay and through back-channel secondhand sales for prices in excess of $25 and even as high as $50+ a 330-ml bottle, and almost no beer bar in the United States would ever admit to stocking the beer, at least officially--places like DC's Brickskeller or Baltimore's Max's Taphouse, if they had any, would only discretely share bottles on special occasions. (The only bar at the moment publicly listing the presence of Westy 12 on the menu, the Downtown Bar & Grill in Brooklyn, is asking $50 a bottle.)
So imagine the reaction when it was announced that Westvleteren 12 was going to be offered at retail in the United States--one time only (so far as anyone is admitting), starting on 12/12/12, for suggested retail of $84.99 for a gift pack of six bottles and two goblets. The beer was imported by Shelton Brothers of Connecticut, one of the noted specialty craft-beer importers, and a great deal of the supply--90,000 330-ml bottles and 30,000 goblets--was snapped up by Total Wine, the Delaware-based chain that now operates 85 stores in 14 states. A total of 144 retail outlets, largely dominated by Total Wine outlets and affiliates, were offering the beer nationwide.
Why did the brewery finally cave and "sell out"? As National Public Radio's Morning Edition reports, they simply need the money.
To the utter amazement of many, no outlets in Virginia or the District of Columbia were allocated any, and Pennsylvania, being its own bureaucratic nightmare thanks to their "case law" and the Pa. Liquor Control Board, also lost out. But Maryland and Delaware each got a supply at two outlets, all Total Wine retail places.
Corridor Liquors in Laurel reported last night that the hype had been building. "Every other phone call for the past two weeks has been about that beer," said one manager last night. "Today we started getting calls like, 'Is anyone camping out in line?' 'Are you taking reservations or handing out tickets?' Nope and nope. First come, first serve, we open at 8:00 AM, and we got fifty-four cases of four packs each. We've been getting calls from D.C. and Virginia, because they didn't get any." They later reported one person attempting to "camp out" at 8:00 PM last night; his name was taken and he was told to go home and wait.
Neither Beltway Liquors in Towson nor the fanatics that went there this morning knew what to expect this morning. Two intrepid customers, one from Columbia, Md. who works in nearby Timonium and another from Lancaster, Pa. were in line at 6:15 this morning, slowly joined by others.
At 7:15, the manager came out, and handed out numbered tickets while taking names. "We'll hang on to them until noon or so," he said. Most of the line dispersed for warmer locations to wait, but the first two and this reporter stuck it out.
At 7:45 the manager decided to open early for the 25 or so people now in line. "It's 33 degrees out there!" he was heard remarking to a fellow employee). Approximately fifty of the gift-packs, out of the 192 (48 cases) they had been allocated, had sold in the first thirty minutes, as many of the shoppers continued to browse the beer aisles for additional new beers or holiday presents. "We think we'll sell at least half today, and the rest by the end of the weekend," said the manager. They tried to call the Laurel location for an update from them, but no one was answering--not a good sign.
*******
This blog has deliberately avoided raising the issue of this vaunted beer's availability until now--there is no need to hype on top of hype, and it's utterly no use extolling the virtues of a fantastic beer that's not available except by preposterous effort.
But it's there. It awaits you for $92.64 in (or arguably close to) Towson or Laurel, or $84.99 if you drive to Delaware.
Is it worth it? That's up to you. There has been perpetual discussion in beer-geekery circles claiming that Westy 12 is simply a hyped version of the far more easily available and highly rated St. Bernardus Abt 12, which supposedly uses the same recipe and almost the same yeast only miles apart (see here and here and here and most of all here.) Certainly, some of this is simply hype, and folks clustering around the latest "must-try-but-can't-get-here" beer (remember when that was New Belgium Fat Tire? FAT TIRE?!?!?!?)
But this beer is certainly on any serious beer expert's short list of "beers to try before you die." And, at least for the moment, it doesn't appear that you have to push aside little old ladies or burly beer geeks, or snipe on an online auction or frustratingly try to grab a "Black Friday/Cyber Monday" deal, to grab a supply. You know where to find them (and if not, Google/Bing/Yahoo/etc. and online maps are your friends).
UPDATE: This blogger suggests you save your money. And reports indicate some Georgia outlets not even on the Shelton Brothers' official sales outlet list sold some packs as much as eleven days early. More from NPR News.
Guy's walking alongside a wooden fence and hears a crowd of men on the other side chanting "TWELVE! TWELVE! TWELVE!" over and over. He sees a knothole in the fence and peers inside to see what the hubbub is about.
Suddenly his eye is stabbed by a finger poking through the hole, and as he staggers away in excruciating pain, the crowd starts chanting "THIRTEEN! THIRTEEN! THIRTEEN!"
*******************************
Today is the twelfth day of the twelfth month of 2012, or 12/12/12. Normally, to beer geeks this date would reflect the release of the latest (and last) of Stone Brewing's vaunted Vertical Epic series of "extreme" beers, released in the past on 01/01/01, 02/02/02, etc.
To the hard-core beer geek crowd, however, this noted occasion has been completely overshadowed by what is threatened to be a "once in a lifetime" opportunity: the chance to buy bottles of Westvleteren beer from the St. Sixtus Abbey, producers of the world's rarest and most desired commercial beers. And, of course, the beer in question is Westvleteren 12.
"Westy 12," as the beer is nicknamed among aficionados, has been one of those "holy grail" missions for many, as a combination of reputation, notoriety, and scarcity elevated the beer to lofty levels of iconography and idolatry--whether or not it's been sampled by the worshipper. The beer is quite frequently regarded as the "number one" or "best" beer in the world, a subjective and quantitative measure to be sure, and the hype is no doubt heightened by the beer's extreme scarcity: only 160,000 cases are produced a year of the 12, along with similar quantities of the lighter 6 and 8. It has been, until now, sold only at the door of the abbey, where its 21 monks brew the beer, and actually purchasing it apparently resembles buying soup from the "Soup Nazi" of the Seinfeld TV show fame (see for yourself the obstacles to be overcome), for the equivalent of $50 a case of 24 bottles plus about $15 deposit on the bottles and wooden carrier. The monastery insists that "Westvleteren Trappist is sold only to individual customers. Every customer agrees not to re-sell the beer to any third party." (This condition is, of course, completely unenforceable, as a moment's thought will discern.) Thus, there is no reliable or commercial distribution network like there is for the other Trappist beers, or basically any commercial brewery. Bottles, or small lots of bottles, have routinely sold (illegally) on eBay and through back-channel secondhand sales for prices in excess of $25 and even as high as $50+ a 330-ml bottle, and almost no beer bar in the United States would ever admit to stocking the beer, at least officially--places like DC's Brickskeller or Baltimore's Max's Taphouse, if they had any, would only discretely share bottles on special occasions. (The only bar at the moment publicly listing the presence of Westy 12 on the menu, the Downtown Bar & Grill in Brooklyn, is asking $50 a bottle.)
So imagine the reaction when it was announced that Westvleteren 12 was going to be offered at retail in the United States--one time only (so far as anyone is admitting), starting on 12/12/12, for suggested retail of $84.99 for a gift pack of six bottles and two goblets. The beer was imported by Shelton Brothers of Connecticut, one of the noted specialty craft-beer importers, and a great deal of the supply--90,000 330-ml bottles and 30,000 goblets--was snapped up by Total Wine, the Delaware-based chain that now operates 85 stores in 14 states. A total of 144 retail outlets, largely dominated by Total Wine outlets and affiliates, were offering the beer nationwide.
Why did the brewery finally cave and "sell out"? As National Public Radio's Morning Edition reports, they simply need the money.
To the utter amazement of many, no outlets in Virginia or the District of Columbia were allocated any, and Pennsylvania, being its own bureaucratic nightmare thanks to their "case law" and the Pa. Liquor Control Board, also lost out. But Maryland and Delaware each got a supply at two outlets, all Total Wine retail places.
Corridor Liquors in Laurel reported last night that the hype had been building. "Every other phone call for the past two weeks has been about that beer," said one manager last night. "Today we started getting calls like, 'Is anyone camping out in line?' 'Are you taking reservations or handing out tickets?' Nope and nope. First come, first serve, we open at 8:00 AM, and we got fifty-four cases of four packs each. We've been getting calls from D.C. and Virginia, because they didn't get any." They later reported one person attempting to "camp out" at 8:00 PM last night; his name was taken and he was told to go home and wait.
Neither Beltway Liquors in Towson nor the fanatics that went there this morning knew what to expect this morning. Two intrepid customers, one from Columbia, Md. who works in nearby Timonium and another from Lancaster, Pa. were in line at 6:15 this morning, slowly joined by others.
At 7:15, the manager came out, and handed out numbered tickets while taking names. "We'll hang on to them until noon or so," he said. Most of the line dispersed for warmer locations to wait, but the first two and this reporter stuck it out.
At 7:45 the manager decided to open early for the 25 or so people now in line. "It's 33 degrees out there!" he was heard remarking to a fellow employee). Approximately fifty of the gift-packs, out of the 192 (48 cases) they had been allocated, had sold in the first thirty minutes, as many of the shoppers continued to browse the beer aisles for additional new beers or holiday presents. "We think we'll sell at least half today, and the rest by the end of the weekend," said the manager. They tried to call the Laurel location for an update from them, but no one was answering--not a good sign.
*******
This blog has deliberately avoided raising the issue of this vaunted beer's availability until now--there is no need to hype on top of hype, and it's utterly no use extolling the virtues of a fantastic beer that's not available except by preposterous effort.
But it's there. It awaits you for $92.64 in (or arguably close to) Towson or Laurel, or $84.99 if you drive to Delaware.
Is it worth it? That's up to you. There has been perpetual discussion in beer-geekery circles claiming that Westy 12 is simply a hyped version of the far more easily available and highly rated St. Bernardus Abt 12, which supposedly uses the same recipe and almost the same yeast only miles apart (see here and here and here and most of all here.) Certainly, some of this is simply hype, and folks clustering around the latest "must-try-but-can't-get-here" beer (remember when that was New Belgium Fat Tire? FAT TIRE?!?!?!?)
But this beer is certainly on any serious beer expert's short list of "beers to try before you die." And, at least for the moment, it doesn't appear that you have to push aside little old ladies or burly beer geeks, or snipe on an online auction or frustratingly try to grab a "Black Friday/Cyber Monday" deal, to grab a supply. You know where to find them (and if not, Google/Bing/Yahoo/etc. and online maps are your friends).
UPDATE: This blogger suggests you save your money. And reports indicate some Georgia outlets not even on the Shelton Brothers' official sales outlet list sold some packs as much as eleven days early. More from NPR News.
10 December 2012
Another Benefit, TONIGHT at Pratt Street Ale House
In other PSAH news, brewer Stephen Jones says,
". . .
05 December 2012
A Gentle Reminder Re: "Repeal Day"
It seems more people (prompted in part by Facebook posts) are jumping on the beer wagon and using this anniversary of the ratification of the repeal of Prohibition as an excuse to "celebrate" (i.e. sell beer).
Here's last year's post on the topic.
"Those who do not study the past........"
04 December 2012
DuClaw Re-releases Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter, Announces Holiday Events
Once again, the press release pretty much sums it up. Regulars may recognize the "Sweet Baby Jesus" as last year's "H.E.R.O." beer.
The brewery has also announced that it's sending a firkin of "a special Gingerbread EuForia" to the Brewers Art/Pratt Street Ale House Holiday Beer Tasting this upcoming Saturday.
We're not too keen on the proposed Christmas Eve opening, but, hey, there have to be enough fans and employees that don't give a figgy pudding about the 25th, right?
The brewery has also announced that it's sending a firkin of "a special Gingerbread EuForia" to the Brewers Art/Pratt Street Ale House Holiday Beer Tasting this upcoming Saturday.
We're not too keen on the proposed Christmas Eve opening, but, hey, there have to be enough fans and employees that don't give a figgy pudding about the 25th, right?
DuClaw Brewing Company Sweet Baby Jesus release
Date: Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 & December 13th, 2012
Time: 6:00pm at Arundel Mills & Bowie locations, 7:00pm at Bel Air location
First brewed in 2011, Sweet Baby Jesus Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter is a complex, robust porter. It is jet black in color with a tan, rocky head, full body and creamy, luxurious mouthfeel. Its lightly sweet, malty flavor is accented by strong notes of chocolate, coffee and peanut butter, and balanced by a subtle hop character and moderate 6.5% abv. Sweet Baby Jesus finishes smooth, dry and roasty with notes of chocolate, espresso and peanut butter so tasty, you’ll no choice but to exclaim the name!
DuClaw Brewing Company Oak Aged Serum release
Date: Monday, December 24th, 2012
Time: 11:00am – 11:00pm
Beginning 11am on Christmas Eve, DuClaw Brewing Company has an early gift for you, regardless of your current naughty or nice status...
Serum, our medium-bodied, super hoppy, amber XXIPA, aged in charred Kentucky white oak bourbon barrels to create a smoky XXIPA infused with notes of charred oak, vanilla and caramelized sugar to create a truly unique treat for hop heads and bourbon aged beer fans alike!
Supplies of this Bourbon barrel-aged XXIPA are EXTREMELY LIMITED, so get to your nearest DuClaw Brewing Company and have a pint today!
DuClaw Brewing Company Black Jack Stout 2011 on tap
Date: Monday, December 31st, 2012
Time: 11:00am – 11:00pm
Beginning 11am on New Year’s Eve, 2011 Black Jack Stout returns to DuClaw Brewing Company taps! Black Jack pours jet black with a small tan head and full body. This classic, 2011 vintage Russian Imperial Stout boasts a complex swirl of dark chocolate, coffee, smoky malt, and fruit flavors refined by a year of aging and sophisticated enough to conceal a lingering, warming alcohol presence (8% abv). You can’t lose when every glass is a winner, so ring in the New Year at your favorite DuClaw Brewing Company, and score with a sure thing!
29 November 2012
Flying Dog "Brewhouse Rarities" for 2013
The press release pretty much says it all:
On the heels of releasing 40 different beers in 2012, today Flying Dog Brewery announced its 2013 Brewhouse Rarities – a series of innovative, small-batch beers available in the mid-Atlantic only.
“The only criteria that apply to our Brewhouse Rarities is that they are interesting and unusual,” Brewmaster Matt Brophy said. “It has to be something that we are intrigued by and dying to try.”
To determine the twelve releases each year, teams of Flying Dog employees develop recipes and pitch their styles to their fellow peers.
“All areas of the brewery – from our brewhouse to packaging and sales to accounting – are involved in these Brewhouse Rarities pitches,” Brophy said. “It’s important for us to look to everyone at Flying Dog for inspiration on styles that will continue to push not only Flying Dog, but also the craft beer industry as a whole.”
The 2013 Brewhouse Rarities include:
Since both the Vineyard Blonde and Orchard Ale are agriculturally dependent, the November release was intentionally left open.
- Chipotle Dark Ale: January
- Green Tea Imperial Stout: February
- Pumpernickel IPA: March
- Big Black Wit: April
- Easy IPA: May
- Pineapple Saison: June
- Belgian Devil: July
- Roggen: August
- Vineyard Blonde (brewed with local Vidal Blanc grapes): September
- Orchard Ale (brewed with local apples): October
- Cinnamon Porter: December
All of the releases will be in draft only, with the exception of the Green Tea Imperial Stout, Belgian Devil, and Cinnamon Porter. Those will be packaged in both draft and 750 ml bottles.
27 November 2012
Columbia Ale House To Open Dec. 10th
So says Justin Dvorkin of the Pratt Street Ale House in the Columbia Patch:
"We're looking to open on Dec. 10," said co-owner Justin Dvorkin. "And we're shooting for that Friday [Dec. 14] to have a kick-off celebration."
The restaurant, which is located in Dobbin Center just off of Rouse Parkway, has already hired more than 100 staff members, but are still hiring hostesses and servers. Jaun Valdez, the former executive chef of the District ChopHouse, has been placed in charge of the food.
The restaurant has three total bars, all of which will include 30 taps for the beers they have on draft, according to Dvorkin. He said their most popular beer at their sister location in Baltimore (Pratt Street Ale House) is their own Oliver Breweries beer, which they brew in Baltimore. As a result, the main bar in Ale House Columbia has extra taps (50) so bartenders don't stack up pouring one popular draft beer.
In addition, they'll have three cask conditioned beer taps.
23 November 2012
Coming Events UPDATED
- Stillwater Artisanal Ales is debuting their newest beer, "The Perfect Crime," at Of Love & Regret in Brewers Hill at 6 PM on Monday the 26th.
- MONDAY NOV 26, 2012 AT 6PMBRASSERIE BFMWe will have BFM owner/brewer Jerome Rebetez from BFM here with a whole bunch of his great beers. Jerome is coming all the way from Switzerland, so this is something you do not want to miss.So here is the line up:ON DRAFT:BFM DouzeBFM XIV La QuatorzeIN BOTTLES-big bottles will be served by the glass.BFM/Terrapin Spike & Jerome Cuvee DeliranteBFM Cuvee Du 8Eme 2007BFM La MeuleBFM Procrastinator Ice BockBFM La Dragonne(Served Warm)BFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien 2004BFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien 2005BFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien 2011BFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien Grand Cru Vin BlancBFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien Grand Cru RHum BarrelsBFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien Grand Cru TrousseauBFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien Grand Cru Vin JauneBFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien Grand Cru Merlot PianaBFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien Grand Cru Spirit Barrel
- Max's on the Tuesday Beer Social the 27th will be serving very special beers from Dominion: ON CASK: Dominion Scotch Ale dry Hopped w/ Chinook; ON DRAFT: Morning Glory, Baltic Porter, and "a very special Sour Keg".
- DuClaw Tap Takeover at Frosco Tap House in Columbia Wednesday the 28th, 6 PM:
On Tap:
Bare Ass Blonde
Misfit Red
Bad Moon Porter
EuForia Toffee Nut Brown Ale
Mysterium Belgian Spiced Ale
Venom Pale Ale
Black Lightning American Black Ale
Hellrazer IPA
X-4 Macchiato Milk Stout
X-5 Sorachi Ace Imperial IPA
H.E.R.O. 2012 Chocolate Chipotle Stout
Serum XXIPA
Devils Milk Barleywine
Retribution Single Barrel Bourbon Aged Imperial Stout
Repent Belgian Pent
and TWO surprises that are both simply DIVINE
On Cask:
Bad Moon Porter (dry hopped with Mittlefruh Hallertau)
HellRazer IPA (dry hopped with Citra, Chinook, Columbus, Cascade, Simcoe and Amarillo). - Peabody Heights Brewery will offer its first brewery tours and debut its Tasting Room on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 10 AM, with tours lasting until 4 PM.
- The annual Mid-Atlantic Holiday Ale Festival formerly held at The Brewers Art has been moved once again down to the Pratt Street Ale House, from noon to 4 PM on Dec. 8th; tickets are $40 and are available here.
- The Columbia Ale House isn't even officially open yet, and they've announced their own holiday ale tasting on Dec. 21st, with details to follow....
- Several places have planned events centered around the supposed Mayan calendar prediction of the "end of the world" (otherwise known as "we ran out of room on the slab") on Dec. 21, 2012, with offerings that day or the day before of Unibroue's La Fin du Monde, or "End of the World." Flying Dog, meanwhile, will hold an "end of the world" tap takeover at Max's Taphouse with a supposedly record-setting 56 taps to be FD products, on the 21st.
08 November 2012
Fiery Foods & Firkins at Heavy Seas Brewery this Saturday
Winter Storm – ESB with Ghost Pepper, chocolate nibs, vanilla beans, molasses plus local Cascade hops
Below Decks – Barleywine bourbon barrel aged for 2 years
Loose Cannon – with tangerine, cayenne pepper, Red & White oak, Birch wood, wet Simcoe hops
Loose Cannon - IPA with fresh ginger, peaches, lemon peel plus wet Simcoe hops
Heavy Seas Pale Ale – with hand toasted Red & White oaks, Birch woods, fresh Chinook hops
Heavy Seas Marzen – with toasted Red Oak & locally grown Cascade hops
Peg Leg - Imperial stout pouring from a European White Oak barrel with Fuggle & Simcoe hops
Plank II – Dopplebock with added Eucalyptus & Poplar woods plus Liberty hops
Below Decks – Barleywine bourbon barrel aged for 2 years
Loose Cannon – with tangerine, cayenne pepper, Red & White oak, Birch wood, wet Simcoe hops
Loose Cannon - IPA with fresh ginger, peaches, lemon peel plus wet Simcoe hops
Heavy Seas Pale Ale – with hand toasted Red & White oaks, Birch woods, fresh Chinook hops
Heavy Seas Marzen – with toasted Red Oak & locally grown Cascade hops
Peg Leg - Imperial stout pouring from a European White Oak barrel with Fuggle & Simcoe hops
Plank II – Dopplebock with added Eucalyptus & Poplar woods plus Liberty hops
In addition, Heavy Seas will, as is typical of their food fests, present vendors offering more ways to offer "hot foods" than you thought possible, with free portions as part of the price (hint: pack antacids and maybe some milk), plus musical entertainment from Soul Island Rebels.
Fundraisers with Beer in Baltimore in November
A couple fundraising events are coming up in Baltimore over the next few days.
Tomorrow at No Idea Tavern in Federal Hill:
Then, down at No Idea Tavern in Federal Hill next Thursday:
If the winter beers don't appeal to you, there's also a fundraiser at the nearby Baltimore Museum of Industry on Key Highway (near Little Havana--you know, where those cranes are) on Thursday the 15th at 6:30 PM, with beers from Heavy Seas (and Hugh Sisson in attendance) and paired foods from Mick the Pirate/Whiskey Island. $25 BMI members, $35 non-members. Reservations at www.thebmi.org or 410-727-4808 extension 129.
Tomorrow at No Idea Tavern in Federal Hill:
Friday, November 9th from 4-9pm!On Saturday, Sante returns for the third time to the B&O Railroad Museum to raise funds on behalf of the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland. Approximately 600 guests are expected to gather for what is being planned as the area’s premier food and beverage pairing event. With WJZ-TV Anchor Don Scott as emcee, this business/casual fête will feature Maryland’s best cuisine, prepared by some of its most acclaimed chefs, complimented by American and European craft beer; wine and spirits:
It's everybody's favorite celebration of manliness and raising awareness for men's health issues - Movember. Come to No Idea tavern and enjoy fantastic drink specials, fun giveaways and other frivolity, proceeds benefiting the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG Campaign. Yay Movember!
From 4-9pm, enjoy $10 all you can drink Yuengling, rail, and wine plus some special Moustache Ride themed drinks!
https://www.facebook.com/events/418758124845711/ ?fref=ts
The Food Market: Cream of crab soup
The Verandah: Vegan lentil soup and Vegetarian Papdi Chaat and Chicken salad
B&O American Brasserie: Bacon and eggs dish (parsnip flan, smoked trout caviar, whipped chive and bacon crème fraiche, bliss maple syrup)
House of Audré: Beef & vegetable samosas with chili sauce
RA Sushi: Tutsi Maki roll and seared tuna tapas dish
Talara: Asian tartare tuna
Brio Tuscan Grille: Campanelle Carbonara, Chicken & Sweet Potato risotto
P.F. Chang's: Chicken lettuce wraps and Chang's spicy chicken
Richardson Farms: Fall spiced crispy pork belly, with butternut squash soup
Maggie's Farm: Duck Liver Toast with Fig Jam, Mortadella Terrine with house mustard, Chai Ronnie (House-made Chai Bourbon, Limoncello, Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup)
Banksy's Café: Will's famous Mac and Cheese
Barrett's Grill: Tuna sashimi wanton (sesame crusted) with wasabi cream sauce and soy glaze
Cabot Creamery Cooperative: Assortment of naturally aged Cabot Cheddar cheeses
The Corner Bakery: Catering trays - fruit and cheese tray and bakery bites tray
Eggspectation: Butternut squash soup, toasted berry salad, maple glaze rib eye
Bistro Rx: Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes
Clementine: Rumbleway Farm chicken liver and coriander pâté with Balsamic fig caramel
Indigma: Chenna Masala
Don't Know Tavern: Smoked Pork Mac & Cheese on Tortilla with Fresh Jalapeno Salsa
Vegetarian Caterer: Kale Salad and homemade tortilla chips
Chiapparelli's: Chiapparelli's Salad
Cooking with Catherine: White chocolate bark
Natasha's Just Brittle: Various brittles and chocolate with brittle bits
Zia's Café: Pumpkin cheesecake push pops (gluten free, raw and vegan)
Tark's Grill: Pear and custard napoleon
Silk's Restaurant at Bulle Rock: Seafood Chili
WINESUPDATE: As I typed this, it appears they have SOLD OUT.
Constantine Wines Inc. (Cali): 2009 Worthy "Five Clones" Sauvignon Blanc; 2006 Truth "Lindsey's Cuvee" Red; 2007 Worthy "Sophia's Cuvee" Cabernet Sauvignon
Epicurean Wines (Aussie): 2010 Winner's Tank Shiraz; 2010 Woop Woop Cabernet Sauvignon; NV Chook Sparkling Shiraz
Ole Imports LLC (Spanish): Columna Albarino, A Portela Mencia, Barco de Piedra, Cal Blanca
Peninsula Wines: Totus Tuus Cava, Rogo Godello, Pinyolet Seleccion, Phincas 2009
Susan Fields Wines (Cali): Susan Fields Rudbeckia White Blend, Santa Barbara 2011; Susan Fields Chardonnay, Santa Barbara 2011; Susan Fields Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara 2010; Susan Fields Sumptuous Red Blend, Paso Robles 2007; Susan Fields Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa 2009; Susan Fields Unearthly Rhone Blend, Santa Barbara 2007; Ravens Run Red, Paso Robles 2006
BEER
Heavy Seas Loose Cannon, Märzen, Gold Ale
Breckenridge Brewery: Avalanche Amber, Vanilla Porter, Lucky U IPA, Oatmeal Stout
The Raven Special Lager
Crispin Hard Apple Cider Original Cider
Fox Barrel Pear Cider
Lagunitas Brewing Co. Pilsner
Oskar Blues Brewery Dales Pale Ale
Union Craft Brewing Duckpin Pale Ale, Balt Altbier, Rowhouse Red Ale
DuClaw Brewing Company EuForia and HellRazer
Spirit offerings will include Lucid Absinthe Superieure, Ron Abuelo Rum, Sambuca Molinari, TAP 357 Whiskey and Van Gogh Vodka. On the non-alcoholic side, Starbucks Coffee Company will conduct a coffee tasting and David's Natural Market will provide a variety of organic sodas.
Then, down at No Idea Tavern in Federal Hill next Thursday:
HURRICANE SANDY RELIEF FUNDRAISERIn addition, No Idea is holding a "Winterfest" with winter beers on the 12th and an "end of season Pumpkinfest" on the 28th--not fundraisers, just good beers.
https://www.facebook.com/events/416076928448130/
Join the Baltimore Pain Relief Center and No Idea Tavern to help family's affected by Sandy!
Pay $12 for All-You-Can-Drink at No Idea Tavern Tuesday November 13th from 6-9pm! All Proceeds and donations will be matched by the Baltimore Pain Relief Center!
We will also be collecting the following items, I know you stocked up for the storm, since you don’t need it DONATE IT PLEASE!
...
Water
Batteries
Canned Goods
Dog Food
Diapers
Baltimore Pain Relief Center will also be collecting donations and goods Saturday, November17th from 8-11am @ 5430 Campbell Blvd, Suite 106, White Marsh, MD 21162.
http://www.baltimorepainrelief.com /
If the winter beers don't appeal to you, there's also a fundraiser at the nearby Baltimore Museum of Industry on Key Highway (near Little Havana--you know, where those cranes are) on Thursday the 15th at 6:30 PM, with beers from Heavy Seas (and Hugh Sisson in attendance) and paired foods from Mick the Pirate/Whiskey Island. $25 BMI members, $35 non-members. Reservations at www.thebmi.org or 410-727-4808 extension 129.
01 November 2012
Brewers Art St. Festivus Debuts Tonight at The Brewers Art
31 October 2012
Hurricane Sandy Report for Beer In Baltimore
All right. Go ahead.
Get it all out of your system. Come on, blow it all out.
Meanwhile, this blog's author will point out, probably in vain, that the official list of names for hurricanes for 2012 alternates between male and female names for storms, and "Sandy" is between Rafael and Tony, so is officially a "she." More on the subject of hurricane names here.
Back to our regularly scheduled news roundup: Thankfully, the mural above, a half-block north of (and uphill from) Of Love & Regret Pub in Brewers Hill proved not to be a premonition. As far as can be determined, none of the craft breweries or brewpubs in this area sustained any damage or power outages, although several bars wisely closed up early on Monday as the wind and rain intensified. The biggest worry turned out not to be power outages or falling walls, but driving bans imposed by government during the height of the storm (although a former distillery warehouse, long disused, along York Road in Cockeysville had a partial collapse and will be demolished).
Rain put a serious damper on the grand opening of Gordon Biersch's new Harbor East location, which opened at 11 a.m. on Monday and closed six hours later. Tuesday would be their first full day open.
Many people fretted about Union Craft Brewing, which sits inconveniently close to the Jones Falls and in the same neighborhood as a low-lying bridge prominently featured on TV newscasts because of the spectacle of churning water rising underneath it (because it's a low-lying bridge connecting two parking lots--duh!). But there was nothing to report. The owners were in on Tuesday, brewing as usual. "We have to--the weekend parties drank all our beer!" joked Kevin Blodger. (That wasn't far from the truth--the Friday bicyclists' visitation brought an estimated 1300 riders to the brewery's parking lot party, along with several food trucks.)
Max's Taphouse, which suffered a flooded cellar in Isabel several years ago, was prepared for the worst--which didn't happen.
Heavy Seas shut down production for Tuesday. Flying Dog cancelled evening shifts for Monday but resumed production Tuesday. Even Dogfish Head, much closer to the "action" in Rehoboth Beach and Milton, came through unscathed after boarding up early and closing on Sunday, according to their representatives.
Closer to the action yet, "nanobrewery" Cape May Brewing in Cape May Court House, New Jersey, lost little more than a sign and some power, and even opened up their tap room for service as the storm was approaching. Slightly to the north, Tuckahoe Brewing in Dennisville has not been heard from yet.
As much as folks may be tempted to just sit back and crack open another beer, it bears repeating that many, many others didn't fare as well. Thousands, if not millions, are still without power or transportation, and many folks have lost everything--not just a vacation home or rental investment. Keep your fellow Americans in your thoughts, prayers, and donation allocations.
30 October 2012
1,500 Posts About Beer On the Wall, 1,500 Posts About Beer........
The software that runs this blog has indicated to yours truly that the most recent blogpost is number 1,500 to be posted on this blog since its inception in February 2008. The actual number is slightly higher, as a scant few blogposts, perhaps a dozen or two, have been consolidated or deleted completely over the years.
The question is, will the number of blogposts ever catch up with the number of beers consumed?
Probably not.
The question is, will the number of blogposts ever catch up with the number of beers consumed?
Probably not.
Changes Coming to Heavy Seas "Flotilla"
In the midst of the chaos of the past two days, we somehow--somehow--received a missive from the public relations department at Heavy Seas describing upcoming changes to their product lines, including an overhaul of the Mutiny Fleet line of beers, preliminary plans
for canned beers, expanded cask ale offerings, changes to select
year-round products, and a new seasonal beer. They seem to do as good a job as I can so I'll just excerpt their notes (emphasis added by yours truly):
The biggest change Heavy Seas has in store for 2013 is the repositioning of our line of higher gravity beers (the Mutiny Fleet). This line will now be known as the Uncharted Waters line and all of the beers under that category will be influenced by wood in one way or another. Siren Noire Imperial Chocolate Stout aged in bourbon barrels will come out in January 2013. In March, we will release Oak Aged Big DIPA (double IPA). Holy Sheet Ãœber Abbey Ale aged in brandy barrels will be released in May. Great'ER Pumpkin (our imperial pumpkin ale aged in bourbon barrels) will be released in September. Yule Tide, our November release, will take the place of our ongoing Plank project—aging beers on wood. That style will be determined closer to November of 2013.We have preliminary plans to release three products in cans in 2013. While we haven't determined availability at this juncture, we will be offering Loose CANnon, Davey Jones' Lager, and an Oktoberfest style in cans this year.Year-round, we will continue to offer Loose Cannon, Small Craft Warning, and Peg Leg. In order to better reflect our brand personality, we have renamed our Clipper Fleet beers: Heavy Seas Märzen will now be Cutlass Amber; Heavy Seas Pale Ale will now be Powder Monkey; Heavy Seas Gold Ale will now be Gold. Heavy Seas Classic Lager will be discontinued.As the largest producers of cask ale in the country, Heavy Seas is focused on expanding the number of offerings for retailers. We will continue to offer dry-hopped firkins of Loose Cannon and Powder Monkey (pale ale) year-round. We will also incorporate preset quantities of all seasonal beers and Uncharted Waters beers.Seasonally, we will offer Black Cannon in January through March. We wanted to add a new style to our seasonal catalog, therefore Dubbel Cannon will be replaced by Riptide White IPA, which is currently in formulation; Riptide will be offered April through June. Red Sky at Night, our saison, will be offered July through September. Winter Storm Imperial ESB will be offered October through December. Additionally, the new seasonal lineup will include 12 oz. bottles of Great Pumpkin, offered in Sunken Sampler packs exclusively in August and September.
25 October 2012
The Last Two Days of Baltimore Beer Week: Previews
Of course, now everybody is watching the weather after several days of glorious fall weather for the rest of Baltimore Beer Week. It remains to be seen whether Tropical Storm Sandy (no relation) will impact the weekend's weather; we shall operate under the assumption that it won't, at least severely enough to require the battening down of hatches, emergency runs for milk/bread/eggs/toilet paper/batteries, etc. (besides, doesn't everybody still have a generator left over from the Y2K panic?).
SATURDAY THE 27TH: 40 events. The "big one" for this week, serving as sort of the same symbolic "bookend" to the week as formerly served by the Real Ale Fest and/or the Brewers Assn. Oktoberfest, is the Annapolis Craft Beer & Music Festival at Navy/Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. Meanwhile, back in town, Mark Supik & Co. will reprise their highly successful Tap Handle and Homebrew demonstration at their Highlandtown wood-turning plant, with door prizes donated by Raven Beer. The day starts with several beer brunches (a couple reportedly sold out already; call first before committing); Max's Taphouse will offer a non-beer (and gluten-free) alternative with an evening mead tasting event with terrific meads from B. Nektar, and Wine Market Bistro in south Baltimore will have a beer-pairing dinner with beers from several breweries. Hudson Street Stackhouse goes all-Belgian all weekend, while Mahaffey's nearby offers Belgian waffles to go with the Belgian beers they offer that evening. Alewife offers its only beer dinner of the week, featuring Sierra Nevada and three local chefs. Flying Dog sponsors a music event at the Maryland Science Center. Though not a beer event, Liam Flynn's will be hosting a weekend of Irish music concerts and dancing, featuring former Chieftains flute player Michael Turbridy--free on Saturday, small charge Sunday for the ceili (Irish dancing party). (The Halloween Party at Union Craft Brewing has been canceled.)
SUNDAY THE 28th: 24 events. The big events this day are the almost-sold-out Historical Pub Crawl of Brewers Hill taking in the National Brewery and Of Love & Regret (and more) in "north Canton" in the afternoon, and the midday free tours of the Wiessner/American Brewery on Gay Street. Several places, including Mahaffey's, The Point, An Poitin Stil, and (oddly enough, Heavy Seas Brewery at the brewery!) will be offering brunch events, while others, such as Greene Turtle, Kloby's, Alonso's and others, will bow to the Grand Poo-Bah of the NFL. Metropolitan will close out with a Beer Can Derby (build race cars out of cans and race them on a gravity track), and Phillips Inner Harbor will host a crab feast with Evolution Craft Brewing.
Then we all recover for another year.
SATURDAY THE 27TH: 40 events. The "big one" for this week, serving as sort of the same symbolic "bookend" to the week as formerly served by the Real Ale Fest and/or the Brewers Assn. Oktoberfest, is the Annapolis Craft Beer & Music Festival at Navy/Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. Meanwhile, back in town, Mark Supik & Co. will reprise their highly successful Tap Handle and Homebrew demonstration at their Highlandtown wood-turning plant, with door prizes donated by Raven Beer. The day starts with several beer brunches (a couple reportedly sold out already; call first before committing); Max's Taphouse will offer a non-beer (and gluten-free) alternative with an evening mead tasting event with terrific meads from B. Nektar, and Wine Market Bistro in south Baltimore will have a beer-pairing dinner with beers from several breweries. Hudson Street Stackhouse goes all-Belgian all weekend, while Mahaffey's nearby offers Belgian waffles to go with the Belgian beers they offer that evening. Alewife offers its only beer dinner of the week, featuring Sierra Nevada and three local chefs. Flying Dog sponsors a music event at the Maryland Science Center. Though not a beer event, Liam Flynn's will be hosting a weekend of Irish music concerts and dancing, featuring former Chieftains flute player Michael Turbridy--free on Saturday, small charge Sunday for the ceili (Irish dancing party). (The Halloween Party at Union Craft Brewing has been canceled.)
SUNDAY THE 28th: 24 events. The big events this day are the almost-sold-out Historical Pub Crawl of Brewers Hill taking in the National Brewery and Of Love & Regret (and more) in "north Canton" in the afternoon, and the midday free tours of the Wiessner/American Brewery on Gay Street. Several places, including Mahaffey's, The Point, An Poitin Stil, and (oddly enough, Heavy Seas Brewery at the brewery!) will be offering brunch events, while others, such as Greene Turtle, Kloby's, Alonso's and others, will bow to the Grand Poo-Bah of the NFL. Metropolitan will close out with a Beer Can Derby (build race cars out of cans and race them on a gravity track), and Phillips Inner Harbor will host a crab feast with Evolution Craft Brewing.
Then we all recover for another year.
24 October 2012
Gordon Biersch-Harbor East To Open Monday
Just missing Baltimore Beer Week. (There will be invite-only "test" dinners over this upcoming weekend; it may look open, but don't try stopping in.)
Justin Shunkwiller, assistant general manager, chalked up the unfortunate timing to construction delays. Meanwhile, brewer Chris Cashell says "I've been working here nonstop for five straight weeks now...."
Thursday and Friday Baltimore Beer Week Previews and Picks
Clicking on the dates below will take you to the Baltimore Beer Week schedule at their website.
Thursday the 25th: 49 events. Thursday presents a second night of the Sour Beef Dinners at Zion Lutheran Church's Adlersaal Beer Hall (4:30-9:30, last meal seated at 8:00). The Women of Beer event at Heavy Seas Brewery has been sold out! Heavy Seas Ale House is serving chocolate with the brewery's Siren Noire; Kloby's Smokehouse brings together five Eastern Shore breweries and crabs with their BBQ; and Victoria Gastro Pub features high-alcohol beers. Burley Oak will be at Racers Cafe in Parkville; The Brewers Art will have a Beer and Charcuterie Pairing with Twelve Percent Imports; and Max's Taphouse will be competing nine different firkins from Maryland breweries, each finished with jalapeno peppers, for a public vote on which one will be an addition to their menu for three months. If you don't feel like going to a bar, the Enoch Pratt Free Library's downtown Central Library will be featuring author Rob Kasper and his book Baltimore Beer with a program from the author in the evening, along with a display of breweriana from noted Maryland breweriana collector "Turkey Joe" Trabert. Finally, The Americana in Canton will be offering a "sneak preview" of a new brewing project in Baltimore, Full Tilt Brewing, with a "meet and greet" with the future brewers. And, as usual, aside from the above there are many happy hour specials, "pint glass nights," week-long food-and-drink specials, and tastings and tap takeovers scattered throughout the region.
Friday the 26th: 43 events. Friday nights are always problematic for "beer weeks" as the normal Friday night crowds of "amateurs" tend to come out and flood bars anyway, pretty much shoving aside the "beer aficionado" crowd. Nevertheless, most of the "usual suspects" of Baltimore Beer Week are still hosting tastings, brewery representatives, and special beers. Among the more interesting: Metropolitan is holding a "King of the Pins" competition, in which several five-gallon "pins" of cask ale will compete for the honor of being the first to be emptied; Evolution Craft Brewing is once again holding a collaboration beer dinner with and at Pratt Street Alehouse; and Elliott's Pour House will be holding an 80's Costume Contest. The homebrewers attempt to distract folks from commercial brews once again, however, with the sixth Charitably Charming Chilibrew informal, semiannual charity homebrew competition and chili cookoff, this time around benefiting the Baltimore Rock Opera Society, the Indypendent Reader, and Whitelock Community Farm with the $15-and-up suggested donation. Previous installments have each drawn around thirty or more entries each in both beer and chili and 200+ enthusiastic judges, and this time the event returns to the 2640 Space, a converted church at that number on St. Paul Street south of Waverly. Furthermore, another homebrew competition is being held at Brewers Cask in Federal Hill. The planned Saturday party at Union Craft Brewing has been canceled; instead, folks are being asked to swing by for Friday night's visit of 500+ bicyclists. And not an official part of Baltimore Beer Week, but Joe Squared is one of two hosting venues for the Baltimore Folk Fest, with Liam Flynn's Ale House in between the two.
Thursday the 25th: 49 events. Thursday presents a second night of the Sour Beef Dinners at Zion Lutheran Church's Adlersaal Beer Hall (4:30-9:30, last meal seated at 8:00). The Women of Beer event at Heavy Seas Brewery has been sold out! Heavy Seas Ale House is serving chocolate with the brewery's Siren Noire; Kloby's Smokehouse brings together five Eastern Shore breweries and crabs with their BBQ; and Victoria Gastro Pub features high-alcohol beers. Burley Oak will be at Racers Cafe in Parkville; The Brewers Art will have a Beer and Charcuterie Pairing with Twelve Percent Imports; and Max's Taphouse will be competing nine different firkins from Maryland breweries, each finished with jalapeno peppers, for a public vote on which one will be an addition to their menu for three months. If you don't feel like going to a bar, the Enoch Pratt Free Library's downtown Central Library will be featuring author Rob Kasper and his book Baltimore Beer with a program from the author in the evening, along with a display of breweriana from noted Maryland breweriana collector "Turkey Joe" Trabert. Finally, The Americana in Canton will be offering a "sneak preview" of a new brewing project in Baltimore, Full Tilt Brewing, with a "meet and greet" with the future brewers. And, as usual, aside from the above there are many happy hour specials, "pint glass nights," week-long food-and-drink specials, and tastings and tap takeovers scattered throughout the region.
Friday the 26th: 43 events. Friday nights are always problematic for "beer weeks" as the normal Friday night crowds of "amateurs" tend to come out and flood bars anyway, pretty much shoving aside the "beer aficionado" crowd. Nevertheless, most of the "usual suspects" of Baltimore Beer Week are still hosting tastings, brewery representatives, and special beers. Among the more interesting: Metropolitan is holding a "King of the Pins" competition, in which several five-gallon "pins" of cask ale will compete for the honor of being the first to be emptied; Evolution Craft Brewing is once again holding a collaboration beer dinner with and at Pratt Street Alehouse; and Elliott's Pour House will be holding an 80's Costume Contest. The homebrewers attempt to distract folks from commercial brews once again, however, with the sixth Charitably Charming Chilibrew informal, semiannual charity homebrew competition and chili cookoff, this time around benefiting the Baltimore Rock Opera Society, the Indypendent Reader, and Whitelock Community Farm with the $15-and-up suggested donation. Previous installments have each drawn around thirty or more entries each in both beer and chili and 200+ enthusiastic judges, and this time the event returns to the 2640 Space, a converted church at that number on St. Paul Street south of Waverly. Furthermore, another homebrew competition is being held at Brewers Cask in Federal Hill. The planned Saturday party at Union Craft Brewing has been canceled; instead, folks are being asked to swing by for Friday night's visit of 500+ bicyclists. And not an official part of Baltimore Beer Week, but Joe Squared is one of two hosting venues for the Baltimore Folk Fest, with Liam Flynn's Ale House in between the two.
21 October 2012
Tour The Wiessner/American Brewery on Sunday, Oct. 28th!
Yes, this is going up a bit late. Short notice/approval combined with busy people.
Humanim, the owners of the former Wiessner/ American Brewery at 1700 North Gay Street, will offer tours of the historic building for Baltimore Beer Week on Sunday, October 28th from 11 a.m..to 1 p.m. Actual tours will be given every half-hour; last admission will be at 12:30 p.m.
The Wiessner Brewery, or American Brewery as it was later known as, is perhaps one of the most iconic jewels of Baltimore's brewing and architectural history and landscape, so much so that its image was heavily used by Baltimore Beer Week to promote last year's "theme" of the history of Baltimore's beer scene.
The building remains not only a monument to the development of brewing, one of Baltimore's major industries in years past, but also to the Germans who worked and lived in the area. John Frederick Wiessner, a German immigrant, leased the land upon which the current complex sits in 1863 in order to erect a brewery. Although there were already twenty-one breweries in Baltimore City and Baltimore County at the time, Wiessner's brewery rapidly expanded, employing many Germans that had been brewers prior to their emigration to America. In 1887, Wiessner constructed the present building to enlarge and modernize his brewery.
The height of the building and the internal organization of space were determined by the requirements of brewing, but its spectacular exterior reflects the tastes and decorative detail popular during the Victorian age in which it was built. Later renamed the American Brewery, it was one of the largest and finest breweries in the state. The Wiessners were forced to sell during Prohibition; it reopened in the 1930s under the American Brewery name, and the Allegheny Beverage Company was the last company to occupy the brewery. In the mid-1930s, a modern brewery was created behind the old facade. "American Beer" was produced here until 1973, the same year the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. The building was deeded to the City of Baltimore in 1977.
The building, which became part of a large city-owned conglomerate of properties in the neighborhood, sat vacant for three decades--aside from occasional covert use by the Baltimore City Police Department as an observation post for drug investigations--until November 2007, when Humanim, a Columbia-based nonprofit that provides work force development for the disabled, purchased the property for $2,500 from the city. The owners of the American Brewery complex in East Baltimore then secured $22.5 million in grants and financing to renovate and develop the Brewery building, totaling 30,000 square feet, in what was then one of the city’s most blighted neighborhoods. Streuver Bros., Eccles, & Rouse were the developers chosen to make the combined renovation-and-preservation project a reality.
Renovation
of the building was completed in May 2009, and Humanim's offices opened
shortly thereafter. In spite of beer having nothing to do with the
non-profit's mission, Humanim and the site's developers have been
especially sensitive to the building's heritage. Two display cases in
the main lobby hold artifacts from the brewery's history; several
significant details, including a grain elevator, have not only been
preserved, but showcased in a sensitive manner; and even a brewing
kettle has been "carved" into a conference table nook. Added
value: potential spectacular views of the city from one of its highest
accessible points! Bring your camera!
Visitors will be welcomed at the building beginning at 11:00 a.m., and are asked to park on the building site and/or at overflow lot at the corner of N. Gay Street and Patterson Park Avenue (see the blue parking area on the map; click on the map for an enlargement). A television in the reception area will show a slide show depicting the extensive renovation process undertaken in 2008-2009. Tours of the building, lasting a half-hour each, will commence at 11 a.m., 11:30, noon, and 12:30. No additional visitors will be permitted after 12:30 p.m.
Also
scheduled for that day are the Walking Tour of Brewer's Hill (limited to 50 participants), which
will allow you to visit two former breweries in the same day. Also that day is the Union Craft Brewing party at their brewery in the historic Clipper Mill/Woodberry neighborhood.
Humanim's own web page about the building, with links to far more information, is here. More on the brewery's history here and here.
The Baltimore Beer Week Committee is grateful to Humanim, Inc, for graciously permitting this tour opportunity as part of Baltimore Beer Week. See you there!
Humanim, the owners of the former Wiessner/ American Brewery at 1700 North Gay Street, will offer tours of the historic building for Baltimore Beer Week on Sunday, October 28th from 11 a.m..to 1 p.m. Actual tours will be given every half-hour; last admission will be at 12:30 p.m.
The Wiessner Brewery, or American Brewery as it was later known as, is perhaps one of the most iconic jewels of Baltimore's brewing and architectural history and landscape, so much so that its image was heavily used by Baltimore Beer Week to promote last year's "theme" of the history of Baltimore's beer scene.
The building remains not only a monument to the development of brewing, one of Baltimore's major industries in years past, but also to the Germans who worked and lived in the area. John Frederick Wiessner, a German immigrant, leased the land upon which the current complex sits in 1863 in order to erect a brewery. Although there were already twenty-one breweries in Baltimore City and Baltimore County at the time, Wiessner's brewery rapidly expanded, employing many Germans that had been brewers prior to their emigration to America. In 1887, Wiessner constructed the present building to enlarge and modernize his brewery.
The height of the building and the internal organization of space were determined by the requirements of brewing, but its spectacular exterior reflects the tastes and decorative detail popular during the Victorian age in which it was built. Later renamed the American Brewery, it was one of the largest and finest breweries in the state. The Wiessners were forced to sell during Prohibition; it reopened in the 1930s under the American Brewery name, and the Allegheny Beverage Company was the last company to occupy the brewery. In the mid-1930s, a modern brewery was created behind the old facade. "American Beer" was produced here until 1973, the same year the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. The building was deeded to the City of Baltimore in 1977.
The building, which became part of a large city-owned conglomerate of properties in the neighborhood, sat vacant for three decades--aside from occasional covert use by the Baltimore City Police Department as an observation post for drug investigations--until November 2007, when Humanim, a Columbia-based nonprofit that provides work force development for the disabled, purchased the property for $2,500 from the city. The owners of the American Brewery complex in East Baltimore then secured $22.5 million in grants and financing to renovate and develop the Brewery building, totaling 30,000 square feet, in what was then one of the city’s most blighted neighborhoods. Streuver Bros., Eccles, & Rouse were the developers chosen to make the combined renovation-and-preservation project a reality.
Renovation
of the building was completed in May 2009, and Humanim's offices opened
shortly thereafter. In spite of beer having nothing to do with the
non-profit's mission, Humanim and the site's developers have been
especially sensitive to the building's heritage. Two display cases in
the main lobby hold artifacts from the brewery's history; several
significant details, including a grain elevator, have not only been
preserved, but showcased in a sensitive manner; and even a brewing
kettle has been "carved" into a conference table nook. Added
value: potential spectacular views of the city from one of its highest
accessible points! Bring your camera!Visitors will be welcomed at the building beginning at 11:00 a.m., and are asked to park on the building site and/or at overflow lot at the corner of N. Gay Street and Patterson Park Avenue (see the blue parking area on the map; click on the map for an enlargement). A television in the reception area will show a slide show depicting the extensive renovation process undertaken in 2008-2009. Tours of the building, lasting a half-hour each, will commence at 11 a.m., 11:30, noon, and 12:30. No additional visitors will be permitted after 12:30 p.m.
Also
scheduled for that day are the Walking Tour of Brewer's Hill (limited to 50 participants), which
will allow you to visit two former breweries in the same day. Also that day is the Union Craft Brewing party at their brewery in the historic Clipper Mill/Woodberry neighborhood.Humanim's own web page about the building, with links to far more information, is here. More on the brewery's history here and here.
The Baltimore Beer Week Committee is grateful to Humanim, Inc, for graciously permitting this tour opportunity as part of Baltimore Beer Week. See you there!
Baltimore Beer Week Updates and Previews
It has come to this blog's attention that a few erroneous listings have crept into the official printed Baltimore Beer Week guides about town. In addition, a couple of the previously planned events, such as the Brewer's Art beer dinner for Monday night, have been cancelled or changed (the Brewer's Art dinner is now a pay-as-you-go event), and some late events have been added to the schedule, pushing the total from 393 to 412 events. (Granted, many "events" are day-to-day listings of all-week specials.)
Therefore, if you are making major plans for specific events, you might consider confirming with the venue in advance before expending major effort to attend.
With that in mind: More event suggestions/recommendations:
TUESDAY the 23rd: 47 events. The Americana is holding several beer-related games, including a challenge to beer geeks: Name the beers served with no names or tap handles, get them for free. Not too far away, Hudson Street Stackhouse will be serving Italian beers and pizzas; while Joe Squared offers a free small pizza with two craft canned beers. The Wine Market Bistro near Locust Point/Federal Hill offers a prix fixe Boulevard Beer Pairing Dinner for $30; meet brewers at Leinenkugel's Beer Garden (Henry Weinhard's), Max's Taphouse (Evil Twin), and Grand Cru (Starr Hill); Mahaffey's has a costume contest; and Heavy Seas is hosting a Skee Ball tournament at Johnny Rad's. Hop Heads and the Wharf Rat are both doing Beer Trivia with prizes, as are James Joyce and Midtown BBQ and Brew.
WEDNESDAY the 24th: 56 events. New for 2012 is the addition of Zion Lutheran Church's famous Sauerbraten dinners in its Adlersaal Beer Hall, both Wednesday and Thursday from 4:30 to 9:30, with the last dinner served at 8:00. Bar manager Casey Hard and Yards Brewing owner Tom Kehoe will reprise last year's "boxing" match at Max's, this time WWE-wrestling style. The Brewer's Art will have a sneak preview of their popular St. Festivus holiday beer. DineDowntownBaltimore.com will be offering free samples of Maryland beers and oysters in downtown's Center Plaza; DuClaw will be releasing its 2012 H.E.R.O. charity beer release, a chocolate chipotle stout, at its restaurant locations; and Heavy Seas will have its cask beer dinner at its namesake Ale House in Harbor East. Not to be missed: the Homebrew Extravaganza, for the third year in a row at Little Havana, raising funds for the BARCS animal shelter. For more charity, James Joyce and Flying Dog will have a beer dinner in Harbor East. Raven Beer is teaming up with Center Stage to present a play on Edgar Allan Poe, with Raven beers on draft. Pickle's Pub is serving an Irish Breakfast for dinner, and DuClaw will have the second of its three DuClaw Beer Dinners at its Arundel Mills location.
Therefore, if you are making major plans for specific events, you might consider confirming with the venue in advance before expending major effort to attend.
With that in mind: More event suggestions/recommendations:
TUESDAY the 23rd: 47 events. The Americana is holding several beer-related games, including a challenge to beer geeks: Name the beers served with no names or tap handles, get them for free. Not too far away, Hudson Street Stackhouse will be serving Italian beers and pizzas; while Joe Squared offers a free small pizza with two craft canned beers. The Wine Market Bistro near Locust Point/Federal Hill offers a prix fixe Boulevard Beer Pairing Dinner for $30; meet brewers at Leinenkugel's Beer Garden (Henry Weinhard's), Max's Taphouse (Evil Twin), and Grand Cru (Starr Hill); Mahaffey's has a costume contest; and Heavy Seas is hosting a Skee Ball tournament at Johnny Rad's. Hop Heads and the Wharf Rat are both doing Beer Trivia with prizes, as are James Joyce and Midtown BBQ and Brew.
WEDNESDAY the 24th: 56 events. New for 2012 is the addition of Zion Lutheran Church's famous Sauerbraten dinners in its Adlersaal Beer Hall, both Wednesday and Thursday from 4:30 to 9:30, with the last dinner served at 8:00. Bar manager Casey Hard and Yards Brewing owner Tom Kehoe will reprise last year's "boxing" match at Max's, this time WWE-wrestling style. The Brewer's Art will have a sneak preview of their popular St. Festivus holiday beer. DineDowntownBaltimore.com will be offering free samples of Maryland beers and oysters in downtown's Center Plaza; DuClaw will be releasing its 2012 H.E.R.O. charity beer release, a chocolate chipotle stout, at its restaurant locations; and Heavy Seas will have its cask beer dinner at its namesake Ale House in Harbor East. Not to be missed: the Homebrew Extravaganza, for the third year in a row at Little Havana, raising funds for the BARCS animal shelter. For more charity, James Joyce and Flying Dog will have a beer dinner in Harbor East. Raven Beer is teaming up with Center Stage to present a play on Edgar Allan Poe, with Raven beers on draft. Pickle's Pub is serving an Irish Breakfast for dinner, and DuClaw will have the second of its three DuClaw Beer Dinners at its Arundel Mills location.
18 October 2012
Baltimore Beer Week: Sneak Previews and Picks
ARE YOU READY FOR BALTIMORE BEER WEEK?!?!?!?!
Too bad, because here it comes, ready or not.
As with past years, this blog will go over the schedule of nearly 400 events and highlight events worthy of extra consideration, effort, or admission charge. Be aware that selections are simply a sampling and personal selection of the events out there, with emphasis on the "new," the "different," and the "exotic" or "unique"--a beer dinner at a restaurant or museum that doesn't normally do beer or dinners, for example, will get attention over a brewery tap takeover at one of the "standard" craft beer venues like Max's, Mahaffey's, Metropolitan, the brewpubs, etc. Also, we're looking for geographic diversity--a beer event in Ellicott City may appeal more to someone in Columbia than several beer "tappenings" in Fells Point, as an example.
Beer experience can also be a deciding factor. If you are in your early 20s and new to craft beer, for example, a visit to a "mainstream" beer festival like those at the Zoo or Victoria Gastro Pub may serve one better than the Chesapeake Real Ale Festival. Consider cost as well--a couple inexpensive (or even free) beers may be better for the "starving artist" or college student, whereas those with good incomes need not think twice about a $75 beer dinner.
Finally, be aware that some events, such as the Real Ale Festival and beer dinners, are limited-admission and will sell out.
The hyperlinks on the dates below will take you to the official list of events for the day:
FRIDAY the 19th: 36 events. Obviously, the Opening Tap Ceremony and party at the Power Plant Live will start off much of the first weekend's fun for most people; the ceremonial tapping of the “First Firkin” from Heavy Seas Beer by Baltimore’s Best BEERtender (selected by a poll at the BBW website) will get the party started at 6pm, with an after-party at the adjacent Leinenkugel's Beer Garden after 9 PM. For those for whom a trip deep downtown doesn't appeal,. there are a plethora of "happy hour," "tap takeover," and Friday night beer tastings spread throughout the area. Who officially starts off Baltimore Beer Week? It all depends who opens their doors first; several venues normally open at 11 AM on Fridays, including the Wharf Rat, Alexander's Tavern, and Max's Taphouse in Fells Point, and An Poitin Stil in Cockeysville (with a Natty Boh Bratwurst Lunch special). Next in the queue is Mahaffey's in Canton opening at noon, and Big Jim's Deli in the Cross Street Market offering a "Power Lunch" with Flying Dog Ales. Alonso's in Roland Park features a Union Craft takeover with a firkin they assisted in brewing; and Max's reaches out to the "sick of beer" and gluten-free crowd with a cider tasting at the same time as the Opening Tap, Hellas in Millersville, Anne Arundel County will offer dueling Heavy Seas and Oskar Blues firkins, and the Heavy Seas Alehouse will have their own event after the Opening Tap. But don't stay out too late, because you'll need your rest for.....
SATURDAY the 20th: The busiest, most hustling day of the "week," with 48 events. How many festivals do you want? There's the 9th Annual Chesapeake Real Ale Festival at the Pratt Street Ale House downtown, the "OktoBEARfest" fundraiser benefit at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park, the 11th annual (but "all new") Pigtown Festival on Washington Avenue west of the stadiums with BBQ and Heavy Seas Beer, and the Second Annual Maryland Beer Festival at Victoria Gastro Pub in Columbia. Out in Abingdon, Friendship Wine & Liquors is hosting a small beer "fest" for the second year in a row, and in Fells Point Kooper's Tavern is holding a "Maryland Beer Fest" with a tap takeover by Maryland breweries. Brewery tours will be held at Heavy Seas in Halethorpe (advance reservations required), Union Craft Brewing in Woodberry, and Monocacy Brewing in Frederick. Hop Heads on Pulaski Highway near Middle River will be having a Hop Fest of hoppy beers all day and night, and at the opposite end of the spectrum Liam Flynn's Ale House on North Avenue will be holding its No Hops Gruit Ale Competition that evening, with entries from both commercial brewers and homebrewers, with guest "celebrity" judge Bruce Williams of Fraoch Heather Ale fame. The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House will host a homebrew competition as well with cash prizes, and for something different, an "Autumn Blaze Fire Festival" at Baltimore Clayworks in the Mt. Washington Village neighborhood. Burley Oak's brewers will be "meeting and greeting" at Duda's Tavern in Fells Point that night. Finally, Of Love & Regret and Brian Strumke will be hosting a "celebrity roast" of Max's cellar master Casey Hard (don't fret; he's not going anywhere).
SUNDAY the 21st:: 27 events. The "special" event of the day for the hardcore "geeks" is Stillwater Day at Max's Taphouse with a special release available for purchase only to the first 100-ish folks who line up early, with 20-plus Stillwater and Stillwater-collaboration beers on draft and bottle. Hudson Street Stackhouse will be doing its "Tri-StateTap Takeover" with beers from Heavy Seas, Dogfish Head, and Troeg's; T-Bonz in Ellicott City will be hosting Flying Dog's Freak Show Fest; Kloby's in North Laurel will have a "firkin battle" between Flying Dog and Heavy Seas, while Heavy Seas Ale House will have a "very Berry Special firkin" of some undisclosed sort for the football action. Maryland Homebrew in Columbia will host a women's-only homebrew competition (which all can judge); Alonso's will have a charity fundraiser featuring six New Belgium beers; and Union Craft Brewing will get behind the pins with a Duckpin Day at Stoneleigh Lanes on York Road near the city line, with the namesake Duckpin Pale Ale. In the evening, Key Highway's Little Havana will have a bonfire, Red Brick Station in White Marsh a Chili Smackdown competition, and Blue Grass Tavern in Federal Hill a Beer-versus-Wine Dinner, and Heavy Seas will be a feature of the Haunted Pub Crawl in Fells Point.
MONDAY the 22nd: 39 events. In past years, the Columbus Day holiday allowed many an extra day of sampling or punishment, but not this year. The vast majority of the events this day are tied in to either traditional afternoon "happy hour" (4-7, 5-8, etc. depending on venue) or Monday Night Football. Two notable (and "big-ticket") exceptions: Fleet Street Kitchen in Harbor East will be hosting a Stillwater Beer Dinner, and The Brewer's Art a beer dinner paired with wood-aged beers from New Belgium and the brewery's wooded-beer specialist. If those $90-a-plate dinners are too expensive, The Americana in Canton will offer a $12.50 gourmet grilled cheese sandwich paired with one of 24 drafts. Elliott's Pour House in Highlandtown and Brewer's Cask in Federal Hill will be hosting Beer Trivia Night; JD's Smokehouse will pit East vs. West Coast beers, and Mahaffey's will pit two different staff-brewed firkins against one another. Flying Dog will host a Historic Pub Crawl in Ellicott City with a firkin at Judge's Bench; Dawson's Liquors in White Marsh will be pouring samples from those big "barrel-series" Sam Adams bottles you may have been seeing on the shelves; Hudson Street Stackhouse will feature Evil Twin beers; and Max's will debut Ballast Point beers to Maryland that night.
TUESDAY the 23rd: 46 events. (Stay tuned for updates.)
Too bad, because here it comes, ready or not.
As with past years, this blog will go over the schedule of nearly 400 events and highlight events worthy of extra consideration, effort, or admission charge. Be aware that selections are simply a sampling and personal selection of the events out there, with emphasis on the "new," the "different," and the "exotic" or "unique"--a beer dinner at a restaurant or museum that doesn't normally do beer or dinners, for example, will get attention over a brewery tap takeover at one of the "standard" craft beer venues like Max's, Mahaffey's, Metropolitan, the brewpubs, etc. Also, we're looking for geographic diversity--a beer event in Ellicott City may appeal more to someone in Columbia than several beer "tappenings" in Fells Point, as an example.
Beer experience can also be a deciding factor. If you are in your early 20s and new to craft beer, for example, a visit to a "mainstream" beer festival like those at the Zoo or Victoria Gastro Pub may serve one better than the Chesapeake Real Ale Festival. Consider cost as well--a couple inexpensive (or even free) beers may be better for the "starving artist" or college student, whereas those with good incomes need not think twice about a $75 beer dinner.
Finally, be aware that some events, such as the Real Ale Festival and beer dinners, are limited-admission and will sell out.
The hyperlinks on the dates below will take you to the official list of events for the day:
FRIDAY the 19th: 36 events. Obviously, the Opening Tap Ceremony and party at the Power Plant Live will start off much of the first weekend's fun for most people; the ceremonial tapping of the “First Firkin” from Heavy Seas Beer by Baltimore’s Best BEERtender (selected by a poll at the BBW website) will get the party started at 6pm, with an after-party at the adjacent Leinenkugel's Beer Garden after 9 PM. For those for whom a trip deep downtown doesn't appeal,. there are a plethora of "happy hour," "tap takeover," and Friday night beer tastings spread throughout the area. Who officially starts off Baltimore Beer Week? It all depends who opens their doors first; several venues normally open at 11 AM on Fridays, including the Wharf Rat, Alexander's Tavern, and Max's Taphouse in Fells Point, and An Poitin Stil in Cockeysville (with a Natty Boh Bratwurst Lunch special). Next in the queue is Mahaffey's in Canton opening at noon, and Big Jim's Deli in the Cross Street Market offering a "Power Lunch" with Flying Dog Ales. Alonso's in Roland Park features a Union Craft takeover with a firkin they assisted in brewing; and Max's reaches out to the "sick of beer" and gluten-free crowd with a cider tasting at the same time as the Opening Tap, Hellas in Millersville, Anne Arundel County will offer dueling Heavy Seas and Oskar Blues firkins, and the Heavy Seas Alehouse will have their own event after the Opening Tap. But don't stay out too late, because you'll need your rest for.....
SATURDAY the 20th: The busiest, most hustling day of the "week," with 48 events. How many festivals do you want? There's the 9th Annual Chesapeake Real Ale Festival at the Pratt Street Ale House downtown, the "OktoBEARfest" fundraiser benefit at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park, the 11th annual (but "all new") Pigtown Festival on Washington Avenue west of the stadiums with BBQ and Heavy Seas Beer, and the Second Annual Maryland Beer Festival at Victoria Gastro Pub in Columbia. Out in Abingdon, Friendship Wine & Liquors is hosting a small beer "fest" for the second year in a row, and in Fells Point Kooper's Tavern is holding a "Maryland Beer Fest" with a tap takeover by Maryland breweries. Brewery tours will be held at Heavy Seas in Halethorpe (advance reservations required), Union Craft Brewing in Woodberry, and Monocacy Brewing in Frederick. Hop Heads on Pulaski Highway near Middle River will be having a Hop Fest of hoppy beers all day and night, and at the opposite end of the spectrum Liam Flynn's Ale House on North Avenue will be holding its No Hops Gruit Ale Competition that evening, with entries from both commercial brewers and homebrewers, with guest "celebrity" judge Bruce Williams of Fraoch Heather Ale fame. The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House will host a homebrew competition as well with cash prizes, and for something different, an "Autumn Blaze Fire Festival" at Baltimore Clayworks in the Mt. Washington Village neighborhood. Burley Oak's brewers will be "meeting and greeting" at Duda's Tavern in Fells Point that night. Finally, Of Love & Regret and Brian Strumke will be hosting a "celebrity roast" of Max's cellar master Casey Hard (don't fret; he's not going anywhere).
SUNDAY the 21st:: 27 events. The "special" event of the day for the hardcore "geeks" is Stillwater Day at Max's Taphouse with a special release available for purchase only to the first 100-ish folks who line up early, with 20-plus Stillwater and Stillwater-collaboration beers on draft and bottle. Hudson Street Stackhouse will be doing its "Tri-StateTap Takeover" with beers from Heavy Seas, Dogfish Head, and Troeg's; T-Bonz in Ellicott City will be hosting Flying Dog's Freak Show Fest; Kloby's in North Laurel will have a "firkin battle" between Flying Dog and Heavy Seas, while Heavy Seas Ale House will have a "very Berry Special firkin" of some undisclosed sort for the football action. Maryland Homebrew in Columbia will host a women's-only homebrew competition (which all can judge); Alonso's will have a charity fundraiser featuring six New Belgium beers; and Union Craft Brewing will get behind the pins with a Duckpin Day at Stoneleigh Lanes on York Road near the city line, with the namesake Duckpin Pale Ale. In the evening, Key Highway's Little Havana will have a bonfire, Red Brick Station in White Marsh a Chili Smackdown competition, and Blue Grass Tavern in Federal Hill a Beer-versus-Wine Dinner, and Heavy Seas will be a feature of the Haunted Pub Crawl in Fells Point.
MONDAY the 22nd: 39 events. In past years, the Columbus Day holiday allowed many an extra day of sampling or punishment, but not this year. The vast majority of the events this day are tied in to either traditional afternoon "happy hour" (4-7, 5-8, etc. depending on venue) or Monday Night Football. Two notable (and "big-ticket") exceptions: Fleet Street Kitchen in Harbor East will be hosting a Stillwater Beer Dinner, and The Brewer's Art a beer dinner paired with wood-aged beers from New Belgium and the brewery's wooded-beer specialist. If those $90-a-plate dinners are too expensive, The Americana in Canton will offer a $12.50 gourmet grilled cheese sandwich paired with one of 24 drafts. Elliott's Pour House in Highlandtown and Brewer's Cask in Federal Hill will be hosting Beer Trivia Night; JD's Smokehouse will pit East vs. West Coast beers, and Mahaffey's will pit two different staff-brewed firkins against one another. Flying Dog will host a Historic Pub Crawl in Ellicott City with a firkin at Judge's Bench; Dawson's Liquors in White Marsh will be pouring samples from those big "barrel-series" Sam Adams bottles you may have been seeing on the shelves; Hudson Street Stackhouse will feature Evil Twin beers; and Max's will debut Ballast Point beers to Maryland that night.
TUESDAY the 23rd: 46 events. (Stay tuned for updates.)
Scotland Reclaims Strong Beer Crown, But Not BrewDog
The dubious honor of a record-setting strong beer (using freeze-distillation, as have all other recent contenders to the "crown") swings back to Scotland and Brewmeister in Banchory, along the River Dee west of Aberdeen, with a 65% alcohol-by-volume beer, Armageddon. £40.00 ($65) a 330ml bottle, two week waiting period for order fulfillment. The name is an obvious play on BrewDog's The End of History (55%) and Dutch brewery 't Koelschip's "response" from 2010 called Start the Future at 60%.
The Deeside brewery also make a Deeside Pale Ale, a Lochnagar Spray, and a Blonde. All 4%.
The Deeside brewery also make a Deeside Pale Ale, a Lochnagar Spray, and a Blonde. All 4%.
17 October 2012
"b"/Baltimore Sun Selects "Maryland's 20 Best Beers"
If you're out getting the usual free weekly papers, you'll notice that the City Paper has the usual center insert pull-out with an almost-complete Baltimore Beer week schedule.
Not to be outdone, the Baltimore Sun's "b" weekly freebie features a cover story listing its editors' picks of the 20 "best Maryland beers"; it's also available as an online "slide show" here.
Disclaimer: I was asked, late in their selection process, to review their preliminary list, and found a great many beers they had missed or had forgotten about. We also had a discussion regarding their restricting the list only to beers that were bottled. Ultimately, it's their list and their methodology ("we kept this list to beers you can find in stores"), so find all the fault you want with them. They honored Oliver Ales/Pratt Street Ale House with a mention with regards to the lack of draft-only beers, but it still seems an afterthought.
On the one hand, they were smart enough to summarily rescind National Bohemian to "Honorable Mention" status because it's no longer brewed in Maryland. However, they included the recently-revived National Premium (#14), which is brewed at Fordham Brewing in Dover, Delaware.......
The print edition also includes a "Pumpkin Pick," Heavy Seas Great Pumpkin, which edged out its only real competition, Evolution Jacques au Lantern and Heavy Seas' Greater Pumpkin (the bourbon-barrel-aged version of the Great).
Ultimately, any such list, be it by a college newspaper or the Great American Beer Festival, is subjective, and there's enough there to please just about anyone and turn off someone or another. Beer geeks and aficionados may have rated "fancier" or hoppier beers higher and other beers lower, but all in all it's not too bad. I would have subbed Raven Lager for National Premium just on the technicality of the brewing location, but......
Not to be outdone, the Baltimore Sun's "b" weekly freebie features a cover story listing its editors' picks of the 20 "best Maryland beers"; it's also available as an online "slide show" here.
Disclaimer: I was asked, late in their selection process, to review their preliminary list, and found a great many beers they had missed or had forgotten about. We also had a discussion regarding their restricting the list only to beers that were bottled. Ultimately, it's their list and their methodology ("we kept this list to beers you can find in stores"), so find all the fault you want with them. They honored Oliver Ales/Pratt Street Ale House with a mention with regards to the lack of draft-only beers, but it still seems an afterthought.
On the one hand, they were smart enough to summarily rescind National Bohemian to "Honorable Mention" status because it's no longer brewed in Maryland. However, they included the recently-revived National Premium (#14), which is brewed at Fordham Brewing in Dover, Delaware.......
The print edition also includes a "Pumpkin Pick," Heavy Seas Great Pumpkin, which edged out its only real competition, Evolution Jacques au Lantern and Heavy Seas' Greater Pumpkin (the bourbon-barrel-aged version of the Great).
Ultimately, any such list, be it by a college newspaper or the Great American Beer Festival, is subjective, and there's enough there to please just about anyone and turn off someone or another. Beer geeks and aficionados may have rated "fancier" or hoppier beers higher and other beers lower, but all in all it's not too bad. I would have subbed Raven Lager for National Premium just on the technicality of the brewing location, but......
16 October 2012
Transit/Travel Tips for Baltimore Beer Week, 2012 Edition
First of all, the Baltimore Beer Week Committee encourages you to travel
(and drink) responsibly while partaking of Baltimore Beer Week. Do not drink and
drive. Take a designated driver (many events have discounts and/or special deals for
designated drivers), pool together to take a taxi or van, or ride public
transit. If in doubt, call a cab or have one called for you--even a
long taxi ride is cheaper than a car accident or arrest. Heck, hire a
limo or van if you must--several limos showed up at Baltimore Beer Week
events in 2009 and 2010!
First things first: BUS and RAIL transit (MTA Metro and Light Rail) use for downtown events, especially at the Pratt Street Ale House, is strongly encouraged whenever possible.
Downtown Baltimore has a FREE "circulator" shuttle bus service, the Charm City Circulator. Four routes are currently in service: the north-south Purple Route which operates from Amtrak/MARC's Penn Station south to Federal Hill; the east-west Orange Route, which operates from Hollins Market/the B&O Museum east to Harbor East; the Green Route connecting City Hall/Fallsway motels, Harbor East, Fells Point, and Johns Hopkins Hospital Campus; and the Banner Route, connecting Inner Harbor with Fort McHenry via Fort Avenue. With the Circulator, it's easy--and free--to ride from Penn Station or downtown hotels to Federal Hill, or to go from Federal Hill to Mount Vernon or Fells Point. The southeasternmost stop of the Orange Route (#225 on the maps) is seven blocks from the heart of Fells Point, approximately a (relatively safe) ten-to-twelve-minute walk; you can also change from the Orange Route to the Green Route in Harbor East. Buses are scheduled to operate every ten minutes during operating hours.
Circulator Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 6:30am-9:00pm
Friday: 6:30am-midnight
Saturday: 9:00am-midnight
Sunday: 9:00am-9:00pm
The Water Taxi: Baltimore's Inner Harbor is served by a flotilla of passenger boats called the Water Taxi. These boats do not just stop when flagged as the name implies, but operate over designated routes between designated stops like a bus (weather permitting--strong winds or thunderstorms will suspend service). Passengers pay a flat $10 day pass (children $5). Throughout Baltimore Beer Week, Water Taxi service starts at 10 A.M. every day, and ends at 8 P.M. every day except Friday and Saturday when service continues to 11 P.M. The Water Taxi can be an ideal way to travel from downtown locations or Federal Hill to Fells Point or Canton, especially for the Chesapeake Real Ale Festival!
Baltimore MTA in general: http://www.mtamaryland.com
MTA's Transit Trip Planner (how to get from one address to another via transit): http://www.mtamaryland.com/transit/
Google Maps http://maps.google.com
MTA City Buses: http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/bus/
MTA Light Rail (BWI Airport/Glen Burnie-Downtown-Timonium/Hunt Valley): http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/lightrail/
MTA Metro Subway (Owings Mills-Downtown-Johns Hopkins Hospital): http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/subway/
MARC Commuter Rail (weekday only, Perryville-Baltimore-D.C.): http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/marc/
Baltimore Super Shuttle (airport van): http://www.supershuttle.com/bal.htm
BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport: http://www.bwiairport.com
DC Airports: http://www.metwashairports.com
Amtrak (Penn Station, north of Mt. Vernon): http://www.amtrak.com
Greyhound (Terminal between M&T Stadium and I-95): http://www.greyhound.com
BoltBus (stops next to Penn Station) http://www.boltbus.com
Megabus: http://us.megabus.com (NOTE: Megabus uses White Marsh, Md., northeast of the city proper, as its stop for the city. Riders can ride downtown on the MTA #35 bus, or they can just proceed directly to Red Brick Station, the brewpub on The Avenue at White Marsh.....)
More Transportation: http://www.baltconvstr.com/pages/transportation.htm
General hints: An MTA Day Pass, good for all modes, is $3.50--cheaper if you're a senior. It's only thirty cents more than the cost of two bus trips, or any round trip on the subway or Light Rail, so it's best to get said pass if you anticipate any use other than a simple round trip. Baltimore has also instituted a "smart card" electronic card reader program called the Charm Card, similar to Washington DC's SmartCard; in fact, they are interchangeable, and DC's SmartCards will work on Baltimore's MTA and even carry over cash balances between systems.
Routes: If you're trying to get to Fells Point from downtown or vice versa, you should seek out the #10 bus line, which drops you off at the Broadway Market at Broadway and Eastern, three short blocks from Max's and less than that for Alexander's, etc. The #11 route also stops in Fells Point at Broadway and Aliceanna. Bus routes 7, 11, and 13 will get you to various points around Canton, with varying success depending on your origin and exact destination. Routes 1 and 64 will get you to Federal Hill, with the former also getting you to Locust Point. Several routes will get you between downtown and Mount Vernon/Station North/Penn Station, including the 3, 11, and 64; simply remember that Charles Street is one-way northbound and the streets to either side east and west (St. Paul and Maryland/Cathedral/Light) are one-way southbound. Light Rail can get you from the north and south to Pratt Street Ale House for the Real Ale Fest on the 20th, and can also be useful for Alewife, The Brewer's Art, and other downtown locations.
Try the MTA Trip Planner at: http://www.mtamaryland.com/transit/ Enter a start and destination address and time you plan to start, and the website calculates the best (or several optional) ways to get between the two points by MTA, even including walking between connecting routes if need be.
First things first: BUS and RAIL transit (MTA Metro and Light Rail) use for downtown events, especially at the Pratt Street Ale House, is strongly encouraged whenever possible.
Downtown Baltimore has a FREE "circulator" shuttle bus service, the Charm City Circulator. Four routes are currently in service: the north-south Purple Route which operates from Amtrak/MARC's Penn Station south to Federal Hill; the east-west Orange Route, which operates from Hollins Market/the B&O Museum east to Harbor East; the Green Route connecting City Hall/Fallsway motels, Harbor East, Fells Point, and Johns Hopkins Hospital Campus; and the Banner Route, connecting Inner Harbor with Fort McHenry via Fort Avenue. With the Circulator, it's easy--and free--to ride from Penn Station or downtown hotels to Federal Hill, or to go from Federal Hill to Mount Vernon or Fells Point. The southeasternmost stop of the Orange Route (#225 on the maps) is seven blocks from the heart of Fells Point, approximately a (relatively safe) ten-to-twelve-minute walk; you can also change from the Orange Route to the Green Route in Harbor East. Buses are scheduled to operate every ten minutes during operating hours.
Circulator Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 6:30am-9:00pm
Friday: 6:30am-midnight
Saturday: 9:00am-midnight
Sunday: 9:00am-9:00pm
The Water Taxi: Baltimore's Inner Harbor is served by a flotilla of passenger boats called the Water Taxi. These boats do not just stop when flagged as the name implies, but operate over designated routes between designated stops like a bus (weather permitting--strong winds or thunderstorms will suspend service). Passengers pay a flat $10 day pass (children $5). Throughout Baltimore Beer Week, Water Taxi service starts at 10 A.M. every day, and ends at 8 P.M. every day except Friday and Saturday when service continues to 11 P.M. The Water Taxi can be an ideal way to travel from downtown locations or Federal Hill to Fells Point or Canton, especially for the Chesapeake Real Ale Festival!
Baltimore MTA in general: http://www.mtamaryland.com
MTA's Transit Trip Planner (how to get from one address to another via transit): http://www.mtamaryland.com/transit/
Google Maps http://maps.google.com
MTA City Buses: http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/bus/
MTA Light Rail (BWI Airport/Glen Burnie-Downtown-Timonium/Hunt Valley): http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/lightrail/
MTA Metro Subway (Owings Mills-Downtown-Johns Hopkins Hospital): http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/subway/
MARC Commuter Rail (weekday only, Perryville-Baltimore-D.C.): http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/marc/
Baltimore Super Shuttle (airport van): http://www.supershuttle.com/bal.htm
BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport: http://www.bwiairport.com
DC Airports: http://www.metwashairports.com
Amtrak (Penn Station, north of Mt. Vernon): http://www.amtrak.com
Greyhound (Terminal between M&T Stadium and I-95): http://www.greyhound.com
BoltBus (stops next to Penn Station) http://www.boltbus.com
Megabus: http://us.megabus.com (NOTE: Megabus uses White Marsh, Md., northeast of the city proper, as its stop for the city. Riders can ride downtown on the MTA #35 bus, or they can just proceed directly to Red Brick Station, the brewpub on The Avenue at White Marsh.....)
More Transportation: http://www.baltconvstr.com/pages/transportation.htm
Baltimore City Taxi Cabs
Yellow Cab (410) 685-1212
Baltimore Taxi Company (410) 327-7777
Royal Cab (410) 327-0330
Yellow Cab (410) 685-1212
Baltimore Taxi Company (410) 327-7777
Royal Cab (410) 327-0330
Anne Arundel County Taxi Cabs
Cab Connection (410) 766-1000
Cab Connection (410) 766-1000
Baltimore County Taxi Cabs
County Cab (410) 339-0000
Jimmy’s Cab (410) 296-7200
County Cab (410) 339-0000
Jimmy’s Cab (410) 296-7200
Howard County Taxi Cabs
Columbia Taxi Service (240) 210-6688
Columbia Taxi Service (240) 210-6688
Downtown Hotels: http://baltimore.org/hotels-and-accommodations/
General hints: An MTA Day Pass, good for all modes, is $3.50--cheaper if you're a senior. It's only thirty cents more than the cost of two bus trips, or any round trip on the subway or Light Rail, so it's best to get said pass if you anticipate any use other than a simple round trip. Baltimore has also instituted a "smart card" electronic card reader program called the Charm Card, similar to Washington DC's SmartCard; in fact, they are interchangeable, and DC's SmartCards will work on Baltimore's MTA and even carry over cash balances between systems.
Routes: If you're trying to get to Fells Point from downtown or vice versa, you should seek out the #10 bus line, which drops you off at the Broadway Market at Broadway and Eastern, three short blocks from Max's and less than that for Alexander's, etc. The #11 route also stops in Fells Point at Broadway and Aliceanna. Bus routes 7, 11, and 13 will get you to various points around Canton, with varying success depending on your origin and exact destination. Routes 1 and 64 will get you to Federal Hill, with the former also getting you to Locust Point. Several routes will get you between downtown and Mount Vernon/Station North/Penn Station, including the 3, 11, and 64; simply remember that Charles Street is one-way northbound and the streets to either side east and west (St. Paul and Maryland/Cathedral/Light) are one-way southbound. Light Rail can get you from the north and south to Pratt Street Ale House for the Real Ale Fest on the 20th, and can also be useful for Alewife, The Brewer's Art, and other downtown locations.
Try the MTA Trip Planner at: http://www.mtamaryland.com/transit/ Enter a start and destination address and time you plan to start, and the website calculates the best (or several optional) ways to get between the two points by MTA, even including walking between connecting routes if need be.
Baltimore Beer Week: Sneak Previews and Picks
ARE YOU READY FOR BALTIMORE BEER WEEK?!?!?!?!
Too bad, because here it comes, ready or not.
As with past years, this blog will go over the schedule of nearly 400 events and highlight events worthy of extra consideration, effort, or admission charge. Be aware that selections are simply a sampling and personal selection of the events out there, with emphasis on the "new," the "different," and the "exotic" or "unique"--a beer dinner at a restaurant or museum that doesn't normally do beer or dinners, for example, will get attention over a brewery tap takeover at one of the "standard" craft beer venues like Max's, Mahaffey's, Metropolitan, the brewpubs, etc. Also, we're looking for geographic diversity--a beer event in Ellicott City may appeal more to someone in Columbia than several beer "tappenings" in Fells Point, as an example.
Beer experience can also be a deciding factor. If you are in your early 20s and new to craft beer, for example, a visit to a "mainstream" beer festival like those at the Zoo or Victoria Gastro Pub may serve one better than the Chesapeake Real Ale Festival. Consider cost as well--a couple inexpensive (or even free) beers may be better for the "starving artist" or college student, whereas those with good incomes need not think twice about a $75 beer dinner.
Finally, be aware that some events, such as the Real Ale Festival and beer dinners, are limited-admission and will sell out.
FRIDAY the 19th: Obviously, the Opening Tap Ceremony and party at the Power Plant Live will start off much of the first weekend's fun for most people; the ceremonial tapping of the “First Firkin” from Heavy Seas Beer by Baltimore’s Best BEERtender (selected by a poll at the BBW website) will get the party started at 6pm, with an after-party at the adjacent Leinenkugel's Beer Garden after 9 PM. For those for whom a trip deep downtown doesn't appeal,. there are a plethora of "happy hour," "tap takeover," and Friday night beer tastings spread throughout the area. Who officially starts off Baltimore Beer Week? It all depends who opens their doors first; several venues normally open at 11 AM on Fridays, including the Wharf Rat, Alexander's Tavern, and Max's Taphouse in Fells Point, and An Poitin Stil in Cockeysville (with a Natty Boh Bratwurst Lunch special). Next in the queue is Mahaffey's in Canton opening at noon, and Big Jim's Deli in the Cross Street Market offering a "Power Lunch" with Flying Dog Ales. Alonso's in Roland Park features a Union Craft takeover with a firkin they assisted in brewing; and Max's reaches out to the "sick of beer" and gluten-free crowd with a cider tasting at the same time as the Opening Tap, and the Heavy Seas Alehouse will have their own event after the Opening Tap. But don't stay out too late, because you'll need your rest for.....
SATURDAY the 20th: The busiest, most hustling day of the "week." How many festivals do you want? There's the 9th Annual Chesapeake Real Ale Festival at the Pratt Street Ale House downtown, the "OktoBEARfest" fundraiser benefit at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park, the 11th annual (but "all new") Pigtown Festival on Washington Avenue west of the stadiums with BBQ and Heavy Seas Beer, and the Second Annual Maryland Beer Festival at Victoria Gastro Pub in Columbia. Out in Abingdon, Friendship Wine & Liquors is hosting a small beer "fest" for the second year in a row, and in Fells Point Kooper's Tavern is holding a "Maryland Beer Fest" with a tap takeover by Maryland breweries. Brewery tours will be held at Heavy Seas in Halethorpe (advance reservations required), Union Craft Brewing in Woodberry, and Monocacy Brewing in Frederick. Hop Heads on Pulaski Highway near Middle River will be having a Hop Fest of hoppy beers all day and night, and at the opposite end of the spectrum Liam Flynn's Ale House on North Avenue will be holding its No Hops Gruit Ale Competition that evening, with entries from both commercial brewers and homebrewers, with guest "celebrity" judge Bruce Williams of Fraoch Heather Ale fame. The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House will host a homebrew competition as well, and for something different, an "Autumn Blaze Fire Festival" at Baltimore Clayworks in the Mt. Washington Village neighborhood. Burley Oak's brewers will be "meeting and greeting" at Duda's Tavern in Fells Point that night. Finally, Of Love & Regret and Brian Strumke will be hosting a "celebrity roast" of Max's cellar master Casey Hard (don't fret; he's not going anywhere).
Too bad, because here it comes, ready or not.
As with past years, this blog will go over the schedule of nearly 400 events and highlight events worthy of extra consideration, effort, or admission charge. Be aware that selections are simply a sampling and personal selection of the events out there, with emphasis on the "new," the "different," and the "exotic" or "unique"--a beer dinner at a restaurant or museum that doesn't normally do beer or dinners, for example, will get attention over a brewery tap takeover at one of the "standard" craft beer venues like Max's, Mahaffey's, Metropolitan, the brewpubs, etc. Also, we're looking for geographic diversity--a beer event in Ellicott City may appeal more to someone in Columbia than several beer "tappenings" in Fells Point, as an example.
Beer experience can also be a deciding factor. If you are in your early 20s and new to craft beer, for example, a visit to a "mainstream" beer festival like those at the Zoo or Victoria Gastro Pub may serve one better than the Chesapeake Real Ale Festival. Consider cost as well--a couple inexpensive (or even free) beers may be better for the "starving artist" or college student, whereas those with good incomes need not think twice about a $75 beer dinner.
Finally, be aware that some events, such as the Real Ale Festival and beer dinners, are limited-admission and will sell out.
FRIDAY the 19th: Obviously, the Opening Tap Ceremony and party at the Power Plant Live will start off much of the first weekend's fun for most people; the ceremonial tapping of the “First Firkin” from Heavy Seas Beer by Baltimore’s Best BEERtender (selected by a poll at the BBW website) will get the party started at 6pm, with an after-party at the adjacent Leinenkugel's Beer Garden after 9 PM. For those for whom a trip deep downtown doesn't appeal,. there are a plethora of "happy hour," "tap takeover," and Friday night beer tastings spread throughout the area. Who officially starts off Baltimore Beer Week? It all depends who opens their doors first; several venues normally open at 11 AM on Fridays, including the Wharf Rat, Alexander's Tavern, and Max's Taphouse in Fells Point, and An Poitin Stil in Cockeysville (with a Natty Boh Bratwurst Lunch special). Next in the queue is Mahaffey's in Canton opening at noon, and Big Jim's Deli in the Cross Street Market offering a "Power Lunch" with Flying Dog Ales. Alonso's in Roland Park features a Union Craft takeover with a firkin they assisted in brewing; and Max's reaches out to the "sick of beer" and gluten-free crowd with a cider tasting at the same time as the Opening Tap, and the Heavy Seas Alehouse will have their own event after the Opening Tap. But don't stay out too late, because you'll need your rest for.....
SATURDAY the 20th: The busiest, most hustling day of the "week." How many festivals do you want? There's the 9th Annual Chesapeake Real Ale Festival at the Pratt Street Ale House downtown, the "OktoBEARfest" fundraiser benefit at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park, the 11th annual (but "all new") Pigtown Festival on Washington Avenue west of the stadiums with BBQ and Heavy Seas Beer, and the Second Annual Maryland Beer Festival at Victoria Gastro Pub in Columbia. Out in Abingdon, Friendship Wine & Liquors is hosting a small beer "fest" for the second year in a row, and in Fells Point Kooper's Tavern is holding a "Maryland Beer Fest" with a tap takeover by Maryland breweries. Brewery tours will be held at Heavy Seas in Halethorpe (advance reservations required), Union Craft Brewing in Woodberry, and Monocacy Brewing in Frederick. Hop Heads on Pulaski Highway near Middle River will be having a Hop Fest of hoppy beers all day and night, and at the opposite end of the spectrum Liam Flynn's Ale House on North Avenue will be holding its No Hops Gruit Ale Competition that evening, with entries from both commercial brewers and homebrewers, with guest "celebrity" judge Bruce Williams of Fraoch Heather Ale fame. The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House will host a homebrew competition as well, and for something different, an "Autumn Blaze Fire Festival" at Baltimore Clayworks in the Mt. Washington Village neighborhood. Burley Oak's brewers will be "meeting and greeting" at Duda's Tavern in Fells Point that night. Finally, Of Love & Regret and Brian Strumke will be hosting a "celebrity roast" of Max's cellar master Casey Hard (don't fret; he's not going anywhere).
13 October 2012
Maryland GABF Winners
Yeah, that's all we have.
Silver: Chocolate Beer X-1 DuClaw Brewing Co.
Gold: German-Style Altbier Balt Altbier Union Craft Brewing Co.
Silver: Chocolate Beer X-1 DuClaw Brewing Co.
Gold: German-Style Altbier Balt Altbier Union Craft Brewing Co.
09 October 2012
Bardo Returning to Washington D.C.?
If you were around the Baltington-Washingmore beer scene in the 1990s and 2000s, you probably remember Bardo Rodeo, one of the most eccentric and eclectic brewpubs in the nation, which closed as Dr. Dremo's Taphouse in 2008.
Well, it may be returning, to Bladensburg Road (U.S. 1) in Northeast Washington D.C.
The Washington Post's Fritz Hahn and Prince of Petworth have more details on the application, including photos of the intended site (which looks even rougher and more disreputable than the original Bardo site, if that's even possible).
Well, it may be returning, to Bladensburg Road (U.S. 1) in Northeast Washington D.C.
The Washington Post's Fritz Hahn and Prince of Petworth have more details on the application, including photos of the intended site (which looks even rougher and more disreputable than the original Bardo site, if that's even possible).
Events BEFORE Baltimore Beer Week: Md. Oktoberfest, DuClaw Beer Dinners, International Arms Race
Yes, Baltimore Beer Week is coming up starting October 19th, and lots of folks had best be resting up their livers and/or bank accounts for the occasion. But a few events are coming up before then.
The Great American Beer Festival. If we have to explain, you really shouldn't be reading this. But it's in Denver this upcoming weekend, which will explain the absence of quite a few brewers and representatives at:
The Brewers Association of Md. Oktoberfest at the Timonium Fairgrounds this Saturday. This show, along with the annual Springfest in Frederick, has typically been the "one-stop tasting" festival that allows attendees to sample the best from virtually every brewery in Maryland (amazingly, at least one brewery manages to not show for whatever reason--Rock Bottom of Bethesda and Gordon Biersch of Rockville, being outlets of chains, are not BAM members; Baying Hound of Rockville and the still-embryonic Fin City of West Ocean City are also not listed). New for this year are Frisco Tap House/Push Craft, Ruhlman, Evolution (now a Maryland brewery again), Union Craft Brewing, and the Baltimore-area debut of Burley Oak, founded by Essex native Bryan Brushmiller. Whether you're a newcomer to craft beer or a long-time veteran of the scene, this festival becomes a must-attend, no matter the weather.
(The GABF is also the reason Baltimore Beer Week has been pushed back a week this year--too many of the participating beer industry people have either a business need to be out there, or just love it that much.)
The International Arms Race Face-Off, Mid-Atlantic Tour, will be appearing at events in central Maryland just before BBW. In the "race," brewers James Watt of Scotland's maverick BrewDog Brewery and Matt Brophy of Maryland's Flying Dog Ales produced variations of an India Pale Ale with Zero Hops. That's right, a no-hop IPA. To cite Flying Dog's highly irreverent publicity:
I've sampled the FD version and await a chance at the BrewDog version; you can share at the following locations, at which both Brophy and BrewDog Captain James Watt will be appearing:
Monday 10/15 at Max's Taphouse in Baltimore
Tuesday 10/16 at RFD in DC
Wednesday 10/17 at Frisco Taphouse in Columbia
Each of the Zero IBU IPAs will be on tap and unlabeled for attendees to taste blind and vote on their favorite. Matt and James will be on hand all night and the results will be announced at the end of each event. A supply of the beer is also promised for the Liam Flynn's Ale House No-Hop Gruit Competition on Oct. 20th at the North Avenue pub of that name. More information (irreverent, as always) here.
The Beer In Baltimore Editorial Team is tempted to don both a kilt and a Wild Goose shirt for the occasion.
Meanwhile, DuClaw is marketing a five-course beer dinner for $65 at its Bel Air location on the 17th and the Bowie location on Nov. 7th; the Arundel Mills dinner during BBW is already sold out.
The Great American Beer Festival. If we have to explain, you really shouldn't be reading this. But it's in Denver this upcoming weekend, which will explain the absence of quite a few brewers and representatives at:
The Brewers Association of Md. Oktoberfest at the Timonium Fairgrounds this Saturday. This show, along with the annual Springfest in Frederick, has typically been the "one-stop tasting" festival that allows attendees to sample the best from virtually every brewery in Maryland (amazingly, at least one brewery manages to not show for whatever reason--Rock Bottom of Bethesda and Gordon Biersch of Rockville, being outlets of chains, are not BAM members; Baying Hound of Rockville and the still-embryonic Fin City of West Ocean City are also not listed). New for this year are Frisco Tap House/Push Craft, Ruhlman, Evolution (now a Maryland brewery again), Union Craft Brewing, and the Baltimore-area debut of Burley Oak, founded by Essex native Bryan Brushmiller. Whether you're a newcomer to craft beer or a long-time veteran of the scene, this festival becomes a must-attend, no matter the weather.
(The GABF is also the reason Baltimore Beer Week has been pushed back a week this year--too many of the participating beer industry people have either a business need to be out there, or just love it that much.)
At the end of March, Flying Dog and BrewDog decided on the terms of their combative collaboration. Hops were banned from the battlefield, but after 84 hours of negotiation, a host of other weapons to impart bitterness – spearmint, bay leaves, rosemary, juniper berries, and elderflower – were agreed on. Then, it was decided that each brewery would craft it’s own version of the beer, which highlights the human element of the brewing process and does not require the Flying Dog staff to socialize with any Scots.A "taste-off" competition at five pubs in the U.K. resulted in Brophy/Flying Dog's version barely winning; the competition is irreverently described in unflattering detail here at FD's website.
“Collaboration was never an option,” Brophy said. “It’s a long word that takes entirely too long to type. So, we challenged BrewDog to a battle of the brewing arts and they accepted. Now, it’s time to face off.”
I've sampled the FD version and await a chance at the BrewDog version; you can share at the following locations, at which both Brophy and BrewDog Captain James Watt will be appearing:
Monday 10/15 at Max's Taphouse in Baltimore
Tuesday 10/16 at RFD in DC
Wednesday 10/17 at Frisco Taphouse in Columbia
Each of the Zero IBU IPAs will be on tap and unlabeled for attendees to taste blind and vote on their favorite. Matt and James will be on hand all night and the results will be announced at the end of each event. A supply of the beer is also promised for the Liam Flynn's Ale House No-Hop Gruit Competition on Oct. 20th at the North Avenue pub of that name. More information (irreverent, as always) here.
The Beer In Baltimore Editorial Team is tempted to don both a kilt and a Wild Goose shirt for the occasion.
Meanwhile, DuClaw is marketing a five-course beer dinner for $65 at its Bel Air location on the 17th and the Bowie location on Nov. 7th; the Arundel Mills dinner during BBW is already sold out.
08 October 2012
Is Maryland Ready for Booze in Grocery Stores?
It's always easy to tell someone from Maryland--or, for that matter, Pennsylvania or Delaware--in a grocery store in much of the rest of the nation.
They're the ones doing double-takes at coolers or aisles full of beer, wine, and sometimes even spirits in grocery stores, and in some states even drug stores, warehouse club stores, and convenience stores. if you really want to watch their heads explode from confusion, show them a "drive-through" liquor store.
(Photo from And Away We Go 2010)
Marylanders may be next to join the vast majority of states--44 out of 50-- that allow some form of booze, mostly beer or wine, in grocery stores, though some states put further restrictions upon those laws (Colorado, for example, only allows "3.2%", or 4% by volume, beer in grocery stores).
Technically, a scant few non-liquor-store locations in Maryland offer booze, such as a particular Rite-Aid drugstore downtown and a few single-location or few-locations gourmet grocery stores such as Graul's that have "deli" take-out licenses. (Another offbeat exception: The Old World Delicatessen & Market on the western fringes of Randallstown.) But "beer/wine in grocery stores" is generally understood by most Americans to mean you can walk into any Safeway, Giant, Albertson's, Walgreen's, Piggly Wiggly, 7-Eleven, or the like and find six-packs of beer and/or bottles of wine. (Piggly Wiggly, a denizen of the South, even has its own brand of beer, Pig Swig.) That is most assuredly not the case in Maryland.
Tonight, news made the airwaves and webpages of a poll, commissioned by Marylanders for Better Beer & Wine Laws:
Ellicott City Patch got a similar response in an unscientific survey of its readers in May 2012.
Should Marylanders enjoy a wide-open market for at least beer and wine, like most states enjoy?
Not so fast.
When asked about this in the past, we've typically responded "Be careful what you wish for--you just may get it." The idea of booze "available anywhere" brings with it a multitude of problems, for the fans of finer products at least.
For this discussion, we'll disregard the arguments about supposed lax enforcement of age restrictions, liberal availability equating increased intoxication and drunk driving, etc. supposedly resulting from a more free market for alcoholic beverages. These arguments are typically framed in a larger pro-alcohol or anti-alcohol agenda, driven almost exclusively by emotion, control, and dollars rather than reason or rationality, and are typically riddled with seriously questionable "science" and "studies."
What would happen if Wal-Mart, Target, Giant, Safeway, 7-Eleven, Royal Farms, and others got into at least the beer and wine trade in Maryland? If experience based on other states is any indication, several things would happen:
But once distribution focus shifts from serving a multitude of independent liquor stores (and that's what they are here--no chains like Total Wine, Spec's, BevMo, or Beverage Warehouse) to grocery chains, the game changes. It's no longer important who can load up a van and run from store to store, or running a truckload to the distributor; now it becomes who can deliver by the trailerload, or even the railroad-car load, to the grocery chain or big-box-store distribution center. Unless a local or regional manager is diligent enough to work the extra effort to be inclusive ("We Sell Local!" or the like), craft products get lost in the shuffle. The shops, either specialty grocery or liquor, that focus on a wide diversity of product will likely become fewer and further between, offering the average consumer less exposure to the "new and different" and making the craft drinkers harder to find and interact with. Fewer outlets could well equal less consumption, especially if beer and wine go more "mainstream" with availability in groceries and major chains.
Now, none of the above is a given. If there is a way, any way, to mess with the basic economic theory of the marketplace, American governments have found it, considered it, and probably tried it, at least when it comes to "control" products like alcohol. The alcohol marketplace is among the most distorted in economics, with efforts at government control and the various ways to circumvent and abuse said controls all rampant. Our neighbor to the north, Pennsylvania, has their bizarre "case law," where beer has to be purchased at retail by the case except in "take-out" six-packs at inflated prices, and an antiquated "State Store" system that survives like North Korea in spite of enormous unpopularity and numerous efforts at its killing (a whole blog does nothing but advocate the end of the Pa. Liquor Control Board). But Pennsylvania still has a terrific brewpub scene, with brewpubs not only in places like Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Erie, but in little towns such as Manheim, Selinsgrove, Millheim, Danville, and Duncansville. Delaware, the "No Sales Tax State," has excise tax levels on beer that elevate its retail prices without sales tax almost up to Maryland prices with taxes.
Do we want the ability for "one-stop shopping" for beer and food? Sure. But this writer wants far more the ability to not have to flog to multiple stores to find something he wants to drink. And he doesn't trust the grocery stores to carry it.
Not that we're buying that much retail booze locally. Between the increased sales tax and the Baltimore bottle tax, we're buying more cask in bars, growlers, and out-of-state bottles anyway.
They're the ones doing double-takes at coolers or aisles full of beer, wine, and sometimes even spirits in grocery stores, and in some states even drug stores, warehouse club stores, and convenience stores. if you really want to watch their heads explode from confusion, show them a "drive-through" liquor store.
Marylanders may be next to join the vast majority of states--44 out of 50-- that allow some form of booze, mostly beer or wine, in grocery stores, though some states put further restrictions upon those laws (Colorado, for example, only allows "3.2%", or 4% by volume, beer in grocery stores).
Technically, a scant few non-liquor-store locations in Maryland offer booze, such as a particular Rite-Aid drugstore downtown and a few single-location or few-locations gourmet grocery stores such as Graul's that have "deli" take-out licenses. (Another offbeat exception: The Old World Delicatessen & Market on the western fringes of Randallstown.) But "beer/wine in grocery stores" is generally understood by most Americans to mean you can walk into any Safeway, Giant, Albertson's, Walgreen's, Piggly Wiggly, 7-Eleven, or the like and find six-packs of beer and/or bottles of wine. (Piggly Wiggly, a denizen of the South, even has its own brand of beer, Pig Swig.) That is most assuredly not the case in Maryland.
Tonight, news made the airwaves and webpages of a poll, commissioned by Marylanders for Better Beer & Wine Laws:
The latest Gonzales poll done in September shows that 64 percent of those surveyed said they favor being able to buy beer and wine at shops like grocery, drug or convenience stores.The full poll report is here (PDF from WBAL-TV website). The support was spread across every region of the state, and across gender and party lines.
The survey shows that 31 percent were opposed to the idea, while 5 percent offered no response.
Those who were surveyed were pulled from every region of the state, and the findings show that women like the idea slightly more than men.
The poll indicates that voters in the Baltimore suburbs feel the most strongly about it, followed by those on the Eastern Shore.
Ellicott City Patch got a similar response in an unscientific survey of its readers in May 2012.
Should Marylanders enjoy a wide-open market for at least beer and wine, like most states enjoy?
Not so fast.
When asked about this in the past, we've typically responded "Be careful what you wish for--you just may get it." The idea of booze "available anywhere" brings with it a multitude of problems, for the fans of finer products at least.
For this discussion, we'll disregard the arguments about supposed lax enforcement of age restrictions, liberal availability equating increased intoxication and drunk driving, etc. supposedly resulting from a more free market for alcoholic beverages. These arguments are typically framed in a larger pro-alcohol or anti-alcohol agenda, driven almost exclusively by emotion, control, and dollars rather than reason or rationality, and are typically riddled with seriously questionable "science" and "studies."
What would happen if Wal-Mart, Target, Giant, Safeway, 7-Eleven, Royal Farms, and others got into at least the beer and wine trade in Maryland? If experience based on other states is any indication, several things would happen:
- A large part of the "North American Industrial Lager" retail trade--the "suitcase" cases of Bud Light, Coors, Natty Boh, and the like--would shift from liquor stores to grocery stores and/or convenience stores. Ditto mass-production wines. Ditto big imports like Corona and Heineken.
- The reviled "corner store"--the one selling 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor, flasks of Night Train Express, cigarettes, lottery tickets, and the like from behind bullet-proof glass--won't go away. At best, that "scene" will just shift to the 7-Eleven or the Kwik-E-Mart, or the current corner stores will expand.
- The best of the liquor stores--the ones carrying the exclusive wines or beers, the ones with climate-controlled "wine cellar" rooms or growler-fill taps, tastings, single-malt Scotches and single-barrel bourbons and gourmet cheeses, will remain, but they may have to strategize to replace the now-lost traffic in mass-market booze--which typically has a larger profit margin and "carries' the store and its ability to offer the exotic.
- The ones in the worst position will be the most ordinary liquor stores, the ones in small towns in rural areas or not large or trafficked enough to offer a wide range of product. They are the ones most likely to lose in a head-to-head battle with a well-placed, well-organized "big box" store or grocery chain.
But once distribution focus shifts from serving a multitude of independent liquor stores (and that's what they are here--no chains like Total Wine, Spec's, BevMo, or Beverage Warehouse) to grocery chains, the game changes. It's no longer important who can load up a van and run from store to store, or running a truckload to the distributor; now it becomes who can deliver by the trailerload, or even the railroad-car load, to the grocery chain or big-box-store distribution center. Unless a local or regional manager is diligent enough to work the extra effort to be inclusive ("We Sell Local!" or the like), craft products get lost in the shuffle. The shops, either specialty grocery or liquor, that focus on a wide diversity of product will likely become fewer and further between, offering the average consumer less exposure to the "new and different" and making the craft drinkers harder to find and interact with. Fewer outlets could well equal less consumption, especially if beer and wine go more "mainstream" with availability in groceries and major chains.
Now, none of the above is a given. If there is a way, any way, to mess with the basic economic theory of the marketplace, American governments have found it, considered it, and probably tried it, at least when it comes to "control" products like alcohol. The alcohol marketplace is among the most distorted in economics, with efforts at government control and the various ways to circumvent and abuse said controls all rampant. Our neighbor to the north, Pennsylvania, has their bizarre "case law," where beer has to be purchased at retail by the case except in "take-out" six-packs at inflated prices, and an antiquated "State Store" system that survives like North Korea in spite of enormous unpopularity and numerous efforts at its killing (a whole blog does nothing but advocate the end of the Pa. Liquor Control Board). But Pennsylvania still has a terrific brewpub scene, with brewpubs not only in places like Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Erie, but in little towns such as Manheim, Selinsgrove, Millheim, Danville, and Duncansville. Delaware, the "No Sales Tax State," has excise tax levels on beer that elevate its retail prices without sales tax almost up to Maryland prices with taxes.
Do we want the ability for "one-stop shopping" for beer and food? Sure. But this writer wants far more the ability to not have to flog to multiple stores to find something he wants to drink. And he doesn't trust the grocery stores to carry it.
Not that we're buying that much retail booze locally. Between the increased sales tax and the Baltimore bottle tax, we're buying more cask in bars, growlers, and out-of-state bottles anyway.
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