American Craft Beer Week

It's a big week for brewers and beer fans alike. All this week, from Monday May 12th to Sunday May 18th it's American Craft Beer Week.

American Craft Beer Week (May 12-18), which is celebrated annually, highlights
the industry and culture of craft beer. This year, breweries and beer makers
will also recognize their collective charitable contributions. For the first
time ever, the Brewers Association announced U.S. craft breweries' charitable
contributions, and for 2007 they are estimated to be more than $20 million.

Changed to a weeklong event in 2006, the inaugural American Craft Beer Week
was recognized by the U.S. Congress with House Resolution 753 (PDF file). The week has continued to grow with interest and support from beer enthusiasts and the media. In 2007, more than 150 brewers registered their community celebrations at http://www.americancraftbeerweek.org/.

So, uh, celebrate!

Be sure to get out this week, there's an incredible amount of interesting beer events in the area, and they should be taken advantage of.

All week long at Max's in Fells Point will be their 2nd Annual Craft Beer Fest. They'll have an incredible amount of good beers on tap, and will feature a brewer or style each day of the week. That looks incredible.

In D.C., many of the nation's most prominent brewers will offer their selections and lecture in various salons at the SAVOR "An American Craft Beer & Food Experience" event. Tickets are pricey ($85/day), but it will run from Friday through Sunday. Again, that looks like an incredible event.

With all these great brewers in the area, we're fortunate that some will host a handful of interesting events. Notable:

Tuesday 5/13 and Wednesday 5/14: The Lupulin Reunulin/Kill Dave Tasting featuring five great brewers at D.C.'s The Brickskeller. Pizza Port/Lost Abbey, Russian River, Avery, Allagash, Dogfish Head. Tickets are $35, I believe.

Thursday 5/15: Sierra Nevada Fresh Hop Ale Tasting at the Brickskeller in D.C. They'll present their "Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale", which is much-anticipated.

Thursday 5/15: Stone Brewing Company Pint Night at Axis Bar & Grill in D.C. Stone's a personal favorite of mine, from my old hometown of San Diego. Giveaways, pint glasses, reps, and brews like the Stone IPA, Arrogant Bastard and Smoked Porter (which is delicious).

Friday 5/16: Samuel Adams Beer Dinner at Mie N Yu in D.C.

And, unrelated but important, it's the Preakness on Saturday! Maryland is privileged enough to host the second leg of horseracing's Triple Crown and Kentucky Derby winner (and potential dynamo/Triple Crown winner) Big Brown will be running.

Saturday 5/17: Pints for Pets Brewfest in Hollidaysburg, PA. All proceeds benefit the Central PA Humane Society. Tickets are $25 to $30, and they expect upwards of 50 brewers and distributors to attend.

Saturday 5/17: Brandywine Valley (PA) Craft Brewer's Festival. Tickets are $30, hosted by Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant.

Saturday 5/17: 7th Annual Virginia Beer Festival in Norfolk. Tickets are $25-$30.

Saturday 5/17: 1st Annual Yardley (PA) Beer Fest supporting the Yardley Flood Relief Mitigation Fund. Tickets are limited.

Some Basics

At present, this blog will have a fairly open format. What that means is that the focus will be on beer, but I may wander from time-to-time (see snowballs entry below).

Personally, I conduct most of my business west of the city. As much as I like downtown, it's a bit of a hike. Most of what is known to me is in the Ellicott/Columbia area. We can still discuss establishments around town and around the state (and even D.C., Pennsylvania, etc.), but I won't always hit them up immediately if at all. And, I have a bias towards avoiding crowds (except at sporting events). Don't ask. The more relaxed the place, the more positively I tend to respond to it.

In that same spirit, I tend to respond more positively to variety when it comes to beer. I have my favorite styles, but nothing is more damning to a beer nut than a row of taps with 90% Bud/Miller/Coors. Throw us a bone. A Sam Adams or Yuengling or Blue Moon is nice, but go crazy and throw in 2-3 unique pours if you can afford it. Same with your bottles.

Finally, it's a given that anything involving food/beer/wine will have an air of snobbery. I am not immune to this. Not everyone is in the same place when it comes to beer. I'll do my best to moderate such tones and make this place as accessible as possible to any and all people who enjoy beer and are willing to look beyond the stuff marketed to us on football Sundays.

$1 Beer

If you're a beer person that headline is never a good start. That's usually Miller/Bud territory at some densely pack joint. I don't mind paying a fair price for a decent beer and some actual oxygen so these kinds of deals are generally avoided.

So it comes as a decent and welcome surprise to find the Turf Valley Golf Resort offering $1 beer (and half-priced burgers) on Tuesday nights after 4 p.m. at their Terrace on the Green Clubhouse Grill. Turf Valley is in Ellicott City, accessible from the 70 or the 40. There's four beers on tap, notably Sam Adams Boston Lager and Blue Moon.

Sammy is old hat for me at this point, but it was one of those introductory beers everyone finds that moves them from the Bud/Miller world into craft beers. It's a good beer, especially at a dollar. Blue Moon is produced by Coors (boooo!), but it has a decent taste and is refreshing and also hard to beat for a buck.

Sometimes the Terrace's bar can get a little crowded on Tuesday nights because of this special, but for the most part you can grab a seat or two and watch some ESPN behind the bar. The clientele is distinctly older, more of the golf crowd for obvious reasons.

Some warning concerning those burgers: twice now out of my several recent trips my medium-rare burgers have come out a little rare even by my tastes and I've had to send them back to get a little more cooked.

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