Miscellaneous

Pabst Blue Ribbon, on tap? Hmmmk.

Dog Pub has remedied their website and it looks much improved and useful. Nice work.

A year/beer in review post? Might be a good idea. BTW I tried that Hoppy Otter IPA tonight ... yeeeeeech. I hope the problem was that it was skunked. Beautiful label but that was about as far as the pleasant experience went. Hopefully the Nogne O IPA I also purchased at The Perfect Pour is an improvement.

Red Brick Station's current seasonals on tap include a Scotch Ale and a Schwarzbier.

Looks like Franklin's has a legitimate website for once. They were briefly featured in a D.C. area public television program about "local" dining/drinking.

Victoria Gastro Pub's website has added some pictures, so you can get a feel for the overall layout and vibe. Personally I love the setting and bar and can't wait to try the outdoor patio in the summer.

As noted by Beer in Baltimore, Blob's Park will reopen for a New Year's Eve Party, $50 with music, a traditional German food buffet, doors open at 6:30 and festivities until 1 AM or so.

I've been reading this in bits and pieces. It looks like I'll be making a collaborative brew with my friend Steve who writes Summer of Beer the next time I'm out in California. Should be interesting. I tried homebrewing once when I lived in Florida and it was a disaster, but hopefully this experience sharpens my awareness of the process and I can make a batch or two of my own this year.

The old man gave me two beer books for Christmas: Microbrewed Adventures by Charlie Papazian and Michael Jackson's Eyewitness Companions book Beer. Can never have enough beer reading material around.

Downtown Baltimore Beer Report

Went on a little excursion last night. Some findings:

The Brewer's Art is great as always. They have the usuals on tap, plus their seasonal Cerberus Tripel served in a smaller snifter type glass as its a potent one at 10% ABV. They also have a guest beer on tap, which is the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, a Christmas IPA that is a cult favorite with the beer crowd.

Downtown at Max's, they're clearing the decks this week to make room for their Rare Beers event (Thursday night, FYI). Even with a leaner beer menu I found plenty of solid choices and enjoyed a rare winter Saison from DuPont.

Elsewhere, Ale Mary's had the usual six taps, one of them being I believe a Sam Adams chocolate stout or porter of some kind. I passed on that but did enjoy some steamed shrimp. Of course after that I reeked of Old Bay. As an aside, this city does great steamed shrimp, just delicious. I thought I had it great when I was living in the Florida Gulf Coast and several places down there had fresh steamed fish as well, usually with more of a Cajuned-up version of Old Bay. Baltimore does it equally well and they seem to be a staple on the menu most places in town.

While wandering around I also peeked into several small, almost-invisible places, several of which would have maybe one tap. The big winner among those places seemed not to be Bud or Miller but Dogfish Head. Nice to see. I also finally took a quick peek at Todd Conner's, which has a small row of handles including Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA I think it was. There were some boring standards but its nice to see they have a craft option or two in there as well.

Part of the appeal was walking around in the cold and wind. I'm a bit of a reptile and am at home in fairly high temperatures, but a brisk walk around our old city in fresh -- albeit crisp and cold -- air is good for the soul. I'm a cheerful sort, but its easy to imagine a more tortured, restless Edgar Allen Poe possibly walking the same streets albeit at a later hour and deep in thought, cold air chilling his face and fingers. Here's thinking a great brew at Max's in modern day might've settled him a bit.

To learn of other great beer options in and around downtown Baltimore, be sure to consult Baltimore Beer Guy's custom map, Downtown Baltimore Beer with links and addresses in a useful Google Map.

Brew Review: Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA

This puppy is a classic. Not that I've sampled many, but this is easily the best east coast IPA I've consumed. Today's sampling was a 12oz bottle served in a standard pint.

It was caramel-amber in color, with a fluffy head and a wonderful hop aroma. With something like wine the nose does a lot of the tasting, but you can get away with a more mouth-driven flavor experience with beers. That said, this beer just smells good.

There's not much to detail about the flavor: it's a delicious, consistent IPA that is one of the standard-bearers for what a well crafted IPA should look like, smell like and taste. To me it's got sort of a slightly creamy consistency, just a little more thick than your standard IPA.

DFH's "minute" series of IPA's are well-respected, with the 120 Minute IPA a fairly expensive and sometimes hard to find option. I've yet to try it so your word is as good as mine when it comes to the 120. However, and mind you this is just my opinion and it might change: I like the 60 minute more than its well-respected kin the 90 Minute IPA. Both are worthy of repeat purchases.

Regardless, DFH's IPA's are hard to dislike. As a bonus, the original brewhouse is in Delaware (Milton/Rehoboth Beach), only a modest drive from most areas of Maryland. Dogfish Head actually has a handful of brewery/restaurants, one of which is located in Gaithersburg (closer to D.C. than Baltimore, although I'm not finding anything online about the G-Burg location, did it close?). They seem to have decent national distribution, although Summer of Beer Steve has had some difficulty locating bottles in California. It's a cinch finding them in Maryland, and they even distributed down in the craft beer averse Florida panhandle where I used to live.

Although I poured a bottle today, the Mangia nearby has the 60 Minute IPA on tap, so be sure to hit that up if you're looking for a fresher pour.

This IPA is well-respected at BeerAdvocate, with a 4.07/A- average rating. Summer of Beer Steve didn't enjoy his first go-round with DFH, but later came around after a second tasting.