Max's Victory Blowout Event

Thursday August 13th from 5-close

They'll serve over 20+ Victory beers on tap plus some brewery folk along with Susan Greene from Global.

HERE IS THE DRAFT LINE UP:

Hop Devil

Prima Pils

Golden Monkey

Storm King Stout

Festbier

Sunrise Weiss

Whirlwind Wit

Donnybrook Stout

Old Horizontal

Wild Devil

Baltic Thunder

Abbey 8

Rauchbier Porter

Scarlet Fire

Mad Kings Weiss

Helios

Victory Brewing Beer Dinner

From the pages of Mid Atlantic Brewing News:

Victory Brewing Company Beer Dinner to be held Wednesday August 6th at Tuscarora Mill in Leesburg, VA. Special guest Bill Covaleski.

So Far So Good

Went down to Max's Monday, not many people inside probably due to the ridiculous amount of rain we've had until today.

You can keep tabs of their tap list here. Tuesday's theme is Maryland Craft Beers, which should be fun for those who go. If I go again this week I think I'll target Friday for the West Coast beers. Anyone know what Thursday's TBD theme is yet?

It's challenging to review beers on samples so I'll save you the mess of that. What I did try was the Southern Tier Choklat, Southern Tier Gemeni, Smuttynose Brett & I, Allagash Four, Abbaye Des Rocs Grand Cru and Victory's Scarlet Fire. Hard to beat the overall variety and quality being offered at Max's this week.

Stocking Up: The Perfect Pour

Jackpot!

That's how I feel after entering Columbia's The Perfect Pour last weekend. Their beer selection is fantastic, a better version of what I've enjoyed at west coast beer/liquor chain Beverages & More (BevMo) which tends to have an impressive beer collection.

TPP's entire back wall is at least eight feet high loaded with beers from literally every style imaginable. Trying to name the collection would take forever, but trust me all but the most fussy beer nuts would enjoy their selection. From the outside it doesn't look like much, as the tiny doorway wedged into its strip center hides a decent-sized interior. They also carry a modest wine selection, some liquors, and have a respectable fridge keeping various beverages cold.

The place still smells brand new, like that construction dust smell that you either love or hate. Everything is clean and orderly and I found at least one member of the staff to be quite helpful. This store is actually a second Perfect Pour, as they own another shop somewhere else in Maryland that escapes me right now.

Their website offers nothing right now, but I did sign up for their email list. They advertise various beer and wine tastings, usually on Fridays and Saturdays according to the white board near the door as I left with my clutch of beers. On the day I went, they were pouring a Victory Prima Pils and some other Victory offering I've since forgotten. I tried the Pils and found it above average, but it's not a style I enjoy much. Still, that's a nice gesture to get a taste of a good label beer without having to make a purchase and discover it's not very good.

Speaking of tasting, the best feature of The Perfect Pour and something I took advantage of is that they allow you to buy individual bottles from within their six-pack collections. I've heard of this at Trader Joe's (but not in Maryland stores per ridiculous state law --- yet another item to be addressed later), but never seen it in action. Naturally, I grabbed a generic white six-pack holder they offer customers and selected six beers to take home. Oh, and two bombers of other brews to be listed in a moment.

Again, this is a welcome (and in my mind, wise) gesture from the Perfect Pour. Most of their beer selections are available in various four and six packs on the back wall. An employee tipped me off to this individual bottle purchase option, saying it's a way to try other beers without getting stuck with an entire sick pack. Please take advantage of that policy if you find yourself at The Perfect Pour. I wish more beer/liquor stores would be so considerate.

Feel free to argue with me about this, but for now The Perfect Pour's Columbia location gets a high grade from me. They give beer fans options, decent tastings on certain days, a clean store, helpful staff, and a vast selection of good beers. It's basically all you can ask for in the states other than making a stop at those mythical bars and beer stores with selections you wouldn't think possible.

Ok, so my beer haul from that night (remember last week, "what's in your fridge?"):

12 Oz Bottles

Lancaster Hop Hop IPA (PA)
Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA (PA)
Urthel Hop It Blonde Ale (Belgium)
Ommegang Three Philosophers Belgian Style Blend (NY)
Troegs Troegenator Doublebock (PA)
Smuttynose Robust Porter (NH)

22 Oz Bombers

Southern Tier Unearthly Imperial IPA (NY)
Avery Collaboration Not Litigation Ale (CO)

All of the following will be new tastes, outside of the Collaboration, which I've had multiple times on tap at Stone's World Bistro & Gardens in beautiful San Diego, California.

Map It (For some reason Marie Curie Dr. isn't on the various map services. It's across from the Costco/in that center if you take the 95 South and exit onto the 175 East, first right and then another right)

(Image: Clara Natoli/MorgueFile.com)

Brew Review: Victory Hop Wallop

Cool name, cool label art, intense taste.

I tried a 12oz bottle of the Downington PA's "Very Hoppy Ale" tonight, poured into a standard pint glass. The aroma reminded me of Bridgeport's IPA, as it poured a cloudy, pale-yellow/gold color with a clumpy but otherwise standard head.

Ok that's getting into too much inside baseball when it comes to description and that's something we'll discuss down the road.

My impression? It tasted like a watered-down Oggi's Hop Juice which isn't a bad thing. The southern California natives in the readership should have an idea what I'm talking about. This is a strong, hopped-up ale, although the flavor still came across a bit faded/light. The bottle had been sitting in my fridge for ~6 weeks so that might have had something to do with it. The taste improved after a few sips, which is ideal and sort of wine-like in its ability to improve with some oxygen and warm air.

The alternative is an increasingly bad-tasting beer the more sips you have, which is never good so we're headed in the right direction here. This isn't exactly something you want to have on an empty stomach (guilty), so throw some food in the gullet before having a taste. Overall I enjoyed this beer, and was swept in by some of the bottle art and well-chosen name. However, it wasn't a great beer experience either.

Verdict: can't complain, an above-average extra-hopped beer from a well-respected, Mid-Atlantic label. By comparison, here's a review from BBG's good friend, Summer of Beer Steve.

For my handful of readers out there, what do you have to say about Victory's Hop Wallop? Beer Advocate readers have given it a 4.08, which rates an A-/excellent. In other words it is not all that far from classification as a world-class beer.

What's In Your Fridge?

Since Baltimore Beer Guy is new and has maybe one reader, it's doubtful anyone will reply to this query. We press on, however, since content is king.

What's in your fridge?

It's an ever-changing situation in my fridge as the supply is occasionally drained and the assets liquefied. At present are 1-3 bottles of the following:

La Fin Du Monde (Unibroue/Quebec)
Hop Wallop (Victory Brewing Co./PA)
Hoegaarden (Belgium)
Blue Moon (Coors/CO)
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (Dogfish Head/DE)
Troegs Nugget Nectar Ale (Troegs/PA)
Green Flash West Coast IPA (Green Flash/CA)
Stone Ruination IPA (Stone Brewing Co./CA)
Guinness Extra Stout (Guinness/Ireland)

There's nothing particularly special about this group of beers other than they are all quality brews. What I do find interesting is the variety within the group. In a single sitting we can go from Belgian Wit styled beers to massively hopped West Coast IPA's and a fantastic East Coast IPA to the classic Irish stout and then a finely crafted golden ale. These beers span the states and the world.

Thanks to the creativity and craftsmanship of brewers through history and into today our society has developed a taste for quality beers and an amazing variety of them. In turn, this demand has created a fairly efficient market and marketplace that makes their collective nationwide and worldwide availability possible. But a market will always live and die with the consumer, so my message in closing is to consume!

Buy locally, but also buy globally. Try new beers (do your research so the names at the store aren't overwhelming) and keep that market alive so everyone can continue to enjoy this unique time in the history of beer consumption.

(Image: Stuart Whitmore/MorgueFile.com)