Beer Notes

--- Via Beer In Baltimore, a really informative rundown from Whats Up Magazine of the breweries in the Annapolis/Southern Maryland/Delaware area. Be sure to participate in the voting for best beer award.

--- If you're headed to Fells Point this weekend, be on notice its Fells Point Fun Festival on Saturday and Sunday from 11 AM - 7 PM, its going to be crowded but there's probably many opportunities for great beer both from the establishments and whatever vendors participate.

--- Frisco Grille's Wednesday Pint Night schedule is up for October:

October 7th: Clipper City
October 14th: Flying Dog
October 21st: Otter Creek
October 28th: Smuttynose

PLUS

Troegs' Nugget Nectar will be on cask on Thursday October 15th (while it lasts!) plus a cask stout of Troegs' Java Stout. Mmmmmm ...

--- Also along Snowden River Parkway in Columbia, here's the Baltimore Beer Week schedule of events for Victoria Gastro Pub

- October 8th (TH) North Coast 530 PM
- October 9th (FR) Stoudts 530 PM
- October 10th (Sat) Lagunitas 12 PM and St. Bernardus 7 PM
- October 11th (Sun) Oliver Ales 11 AM & Dogfish Head 730 PM
- October 12th (Mon) Flying Dog 530 PM
- October 13th (Tue) Otter Creek 530 PM
- October 14th (Wed) Unibroue 530 PM
- October 15th (TH) Clipper City 530 PM
- October 16th (FR) Brewdog & Cooper's Ales 530 PM
- October 17th (SAT) Troegs 11 AM & Saranac 7 PM
- October 18th (SUN) Rogue 12 PM & Lancaster 730 PM

'Come taste many unique and rare beer offerings with limited availability and talk with the brewery representatives. The breweries will also be offering many FREE giveaways'

Memo to Self

Hit up the Old Stein Inn biergarten sometime soon with this nice weather.

Don't Try This At Home, Kids

Family friends who live in beautiful New Hampshire came over last weekend. We probably should have done more "touristy" things, but much of the fun centered around beer and food. I won't complain.

Anyway, much beer was consumed over the ~3 days, and unfortunately I didn't do the best job of keeping a collective record of the incredible variety of beers we had. What follows is a 'from memory', partial naming of brews consumed.

From the personal collection (bottles):

Clay Pipe Backfin Pale Ale
Victory Whirlwind Witbier
Clipper City Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale
Russian River/Avery Collaboration Not Litigation Ale
St. Sebastiaan Golden Ale
Hacker Pschorr Weisse
Rodenbach Grand Cru Flemish Sour Ale

Ellicott Mills Brewing Company

Marzen
Dunkel

Pussers (Annapolis)

Magic Hat #9 (bottle)
Heineken

McGarvey's (Annapolis)

Aviator Lager

Bertha's Mussels

Bertha's Best Bitter (cask)
Stella Artois (bottle)

Eichenkranz

Our server was vague as hell, they had two German beers on tap, something dark she called a K-Beer, and some kind of amber.

Slainte

Clipper City Oxford Organic Rasberry Wheat (bottle)
Clipper City Heavy Seas Hop 3 Ale
Some kind of beer shandy
Some kind of Irish cream ale in a can with nitro cartridge
Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier (bottle)
Guinness

Max's (for the Kentucky Derby)

Some kind of farmhouse ale
Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour
Smuttynose something or other
Great Divide Yeti Stout
Cherry Kriek beer from I forget who
Various Hefeweisen's
Boddington's

Anyway, I've forgotten some of what we all drank, but it was a great time and a fantastic opportunity to enjoy various parts of Baltimore and a great variety of beers. I finally made my way to Annapolis and it was a beautiful day despite warnings of bad weather. We watched some soccer at Slainte and saw Big Brown put together one of the most impressive Kentucky Derby victories ever at Max's. Not bad.

As for personal favorites, I've really gotten into sour beers and that Rodenbach bottle was fantastic. Monk's Cafe's version wasn't bad. The Irish Cream Ale at Slainte was interesting, sort of mild and creamy (thanks for letting me have a taste Bob!). The Franziskaner Hef was fantastic. I was sort of neutral on Bertha's Best Bitter, but my curiosity is running wild when it comes to cask beers and I'd definitely try it again. The Marzen is a classic standby at Ellicott Mills and tends to be slightly superior to their other offerings.