Brewer's Alley Seasonal Beer Tappings

"Meet Brewmaster Tom Flores and Head Brewer Maggie Lenz from 4-6 PM at the bar while enjoying one of our fresh hand crafted house beers"

Tuesday November 17th: Pumpkin Ale
Tuesday November 24th: Special Big Beer Tuesday Double Release "Blackfrost" Barleywine & Resinator
Tuesday December 1st: Three Kings Spiced Ale

Be there!

Brewer's Alley Holiday Beer Dinner

Can't forget about Brewer's Alley out in Frederick. They're hosting a Holiday Beer Dinner Tuesday December 1st at their 2nd floor banquet room overlooking downtown Frederick.

Cost is $45/person plus tax and gratuity, first seating at 520 PM, second seating at 730 PM (301)631-0089

Contact them for the full details but they'll be pouring the Nut Brown Ale, the Kolsch, the Resinator, Ginger Beer, a Scotch Ale and Three Kings Spiced Ale to go with an elaborate menu of oysters, pheasant/wild mushroom pot pie, a seafood terrine, venison and a triple chocolate fruit cake.

Max's Tuesday Beer Social (10/17/2009)

Max's

As usual, 6 PM in the Mobtown Lounge. They'll be featuring a brand new beer from Denmark's Wintercoat Brewery called Wintercoat Mols. The ale checks in at 6.4% ABV and uses barley, what, rye and oat malts. Juniper branches are used to strain the mash and wild thyme is added with the hops. It is reddish-amber in color with a malt taste and herbal nose.

Beer Engines
Lagunitas Lucky 13
Stone Arrogant Bastard w/oak chips

New Drafts
Avery Czar
Avery Dugana
Avery Old Jubilation
Doc's Hard Pear Cider
Grado Plato Chocarrubia
Grado Plato Strada San Felice
Hebrew Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah
La Rulles Summer
La Rulles Triple
Lagunitas Dogtown Pale
Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale
Samichlaus Helles
Stone Double Bastard
Stone Sublimely Self Righteous
Weyerbacher Golf
Pauwel Kwak

Back!

Thanks for your patience during that extended break. Lots to come, soon.

Woodberry Kitchen Sausage (and beer) Fest Cancelled

The outdoor sausage (and beer) fest planned for Sunday at Woodberry Kitchen has been cancelled due to concerns about this cold, wet weather we've been having. Bummer.

MOBBIE's Voting Closed

Thank you to everyone who voted for Baltimore Beer Guy for the MOBBIE's awards. I didn't do so hot but maybe next year, your efforts were appreciated regardless of outcome. It was nice to be nominated and also get a look at a bunch of other food/beverage blogs in the area.

Frisco Grille Items

-- Tonight (Wednesday) at Frisco Grille is a 'show us your (Beer) T's event with Flying Dog, show up in your best (preferably vintage) beer t-shirt, there's some sort of competition, 7-10 PM.

-- Tomorrow is their second Firkin Thursday, with special casks of Troegs' awesome Nugget Nectar and also their Javahead Stout. Those will go fast-fast-fast so be sure to get there in time, probably around 7 PM.

Ruddy Duck Items

Can't forget about the guys and gals with Ruddy Duck down in Solomons Island.

Last week they entered six beers into the Maryland Governor's Cup beer competition ... and all six merited awards. Congrats to them and brewer Jonathan Reeves.

The Oktoberfest took gold in just its initial run, silvers were given to the IPA (nobody earned gold this year) and Belgium Trippel. Bronzes arrived for the Helles, Imperial Stout and Belgium Dubbel.

DC Update

From the great email listserv thingamajig at DCBeer.com

Briefly, it looks like there will be ANOTHER DC Beer Week (someone ought to harmonize these various events) at the end of October.

It'll include a Smuttynose beer dinner at Birreria/Pizzeria Paradiso October 26th, Brooklyn Brewing's Garrett Oliver stops by Brasserie Beck October 27th, the Brickskellar has a 'why is there beer' discussion with some great guests October 27th and DC Beer is hosting its own event, 'The Great Pumpkin Beer and Food Tasting' October 28th at The Black Squirrel in Adams Morgan.

Check out his great website for all the details, sign up for the email list to see whats on tap at various DC bars, and other nice resources.

Clipper City Update

Their full list of events is available at the Baltimore Beer Week website, but a couple stand out:

-- "Back to our Roots" (Thursday October 16th 6-8 PM at Ryleigh's in Federal Hill) Clipper City returns to its roots, at Ryleigh's which was originally Sissons. Enjoy oysters while learning the history of brew pubs in Maryland.

-- Pyrates Plan Raid of The Judges Bench (downtown Ellicott City Friday October 16th 5-8 PM). They'll have 10 Clipper City beers on tap along with special cheese pairings. The highlight will be a rare 2008 Below Decks on draft plus its a keep the pint glass event.

Mahaffey's Update

Via email:

Today is Sierra Nevada during the day (Chico Estate bombers) and then Stone and Paulaner/Hacker Pschorr tonight (Stone 090909 and smoked porter bombers). Wings at $0.30 as well.

Tomorrow is Brooklyn then Troegs (Nugget Nectar!) and for Friday something called 'Boulders, Bombers and Bingo'. They've actually rented a bingo cage. Ahhh, Mahaffey's.

They're also planning a beer breakfast 'very soon' and expect a return of the Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA on draught soon.

Woodberry Kitchen Sausage Festival Update

As noted earlier on here, Woodberry Kitchen is hosting a (don't laugh) sausage festival this Sunday (October 18) from 3-5 PM on its patio. They'll have local and housemade grilled sausages available for $5 (meatless options as well) to go with live music and importantly, regional beers, also for $5.

As a Baltimore Beer Guy reader you're the first to know of the beer selections. Besides their standing taplist they'll also have pours of Troegs Troegenator (Doppelbock 8% ABV), Evolution Brewing ESB (6%) and Victory's Festbier (Oktoberfest 6%).

So head on down, admission is free and Woodberry's the place everyone raves about.

Updates A-Comin'

Baltimore Beer Week is insane, heh.

Notes from where I've gone, plus a massive backlog of links for the next round of Beer Notes.

Baltimore Beer Week Friday Thoughts

Just looking ahead to tomorrow as well ... These events are what I'm most considering for Friday:

Evolution tasting at The Parkside 8-10 PM
Global Distributors (Allagash etc. beers) at Max's 8-11 PM
Widmer Pale Ale $1 at Alexander's Tavern
$0.40 steamed shrimp at Duda's 6-close and all-day Fordham beer proceeds go to military charity
Flying Dog at Alonso's (+firkin) 5-8 PM
1/2 price drafts at Grand Cru 4-6 PM

Why?

Evolution is good beer and I haven't been to The Parkside yet. The taplist looks really good at Max's for Friday. The ad for the Widmer pale ale talks about some citrusy hop they're using, color me intrigued. I love steamed shrimp. Flying Dog is great stuff and like The Parkside I haven't made it to Alonso's yet (one of the perks of Baltimore Beer Week, incentive to try new places that have eluded you). Aaaaand Grand Cru is pretty darn cool, I don't write about them enough, cool concept even though its more of a wine place they're sneaky good about beer and offer some good food.

Happy Baltimore Beer Week!

Today's schedule

I was thinking about heading to the Opening Tap Celebration downtown (someone I know has an extra ticket) but will probably go local and try hitting up Victoria Gastro Pub for their North Coast night and Frisco Grille for their first even 'Firkin Thursday' in which they'll pour the awesome Clipper City Heavy Seas Loose Cannon from a firkin on the bar.

What will you be up to?

Vote For Baltimore Beer Guy!

Bumped -- Please vote again if you have a spare moment today (click on the image below to get to the voting page), MANY thanks!

Oh and just a note, repeated votes will cancel each other out, please vote just once a day.

So I'm nominated for an award best 'Foodie' blog in the Baltimore Sun's 'The Mobbies' awards.

To support, just go to the website and vote once per day (please, please, please) from today (Monday) to 5 PM on Friday October 9th. It does require that you have registered with BaltimoreSun.com but that takes literally two seconds.

Reminder: Clipper City Pint Night at Frisco Grille

From Clipper City's own Twitter account (via Baltimore Beer Guy's):

RT @HeavySeasBeer The crew & Hugh will be at Frisco's in Columbia this evening for a Pint Night from 7-9. Come have a beer w/ us!

You heard the man.

Beer Notes

-- Just added captions/explanations for the bevy of pics in the posts below. I spent last Friday jumping around from Frederick to downtown to sneak in a few beer visits. Its pretty cool what one can do on a tank of gas and with a little energy to enjoy good beer in Maryland.

-- Now on tap at the great Brewer's Art: their new Clamper's Ale, described on their Twitter link as 'draft brewed w/Sorachi Ace hops and lemon peel!' Mmmm. Also: their Coup De Boule, Le Canard Belgian brown and Virgo (see here) the first in a monthly Zodiac series of pale ales. Oh and their new Autumn menu was released not long ago, yay menu variety.

-- Speaking of Twitter, be sure to follow my MDbeerspotter Twitter account, I try to repost interesting items and there's some cool interaction going on with other local beer geeks, beer writers, beer reps, breweries, bars, and so on.

-- Here's the FULL Baltimore Beer Week schedule. Great stuff.

-- Beer and food pairings (so DC!) from Metrocurean -- Orr Shtuhl and Melanie Corbett.

-- The New York Times spends 36 hours in Baltimore and smartly makes a pit stop at Brewer's Art.

-- Alexander Mitchell (Beer In Baltimore) is killin' it this week. Metropolitan Coffeehouse Beer Week events, more info on the opening day events for Baltimore Beer Week, Christmas beers (they're comin'!).

-- Gilly's down in Rockville is hosting its second annual 'Gillys-Tober-Fest on Saturday October 10th from 4-7 PM. All listed beers (below) will be available to sample free. Some of the craft brews will only be sold by the pint. There will be sales, tons of glassware, and a fun overall experience. Seriously this is a cool little sandwich shop/deli with a couple rotating taps and a really cool selection of bottled beers (and glassware) and wines. They even let you open any purchased refrigerated beers to go with your food (for a small corking fee, free on Thursdays)

Brooklyn Oktoberfest & Post Road Pumpkin
Southern Tier Pumpking
Dogfish Punkin
Sam Adams Octoberfest, Imperial White, Cherry Wheat, Boston Lager
Clipper City Prosit!, Big DIPA, The Great Pumpkin
Flying Dog Dogtoberfest, Double Dog Pale Ale, Tire Bite Golden, Doggie Style Pale Ale
Becks Oktoberfest
Starr Hill Festie & Northern Lights

-- Bad Decisions' raved-about 'Bacon & Beer Happy Hour' is returning (Edition VI) on Tuesday October 20th from 2-close. Its a big party with an all-bacon menu and bacon themed libations.

-- Just ... dammit. On Monday DC's Brickskeller let loose a couple bottles of Lost Abbey's Red Barn, a Saison style and one of my favorite beers, ever.

-- OK that's all for now, Baltimore Beer Week is finally here! Keep the emails, Tweets and other communication going, cheers.

Brewers Art

1)And finally from last Friday, a stop at the great Brewer's Art. I just had to try their new pale, first in a 'Zodiac' series (Virgo). Not bad, nice malt/hop balance plus that distinctly odd flavor Brewer's Art beers have (is it the water?). Also, a taster of the '13', hard to describe.

2)The handles. I just love their handles (L to R) Coup De Boule, Le Canard, '13', Ozzy and Resurrection.

3)Zoomed in Le Canard, its a devil duck! Love it.

4)The somewhat new Banh Mi sandwich, really good although it took me forever to chew through the bread. Basically a pork loin sandwich with daikon slaw, butter lettuce, sriracha aioli, cilantro.

5)A zoom-in of the ingredients, came out blurry.

Barley and Hops Part I

1)Another Frederick stop from last Friday: Barley and Hops (first time). Jake and Elwood were waiting inside.

2)The beer tote board. Nothing on cask that day, but I had the Double Deuce Double IPA. They also had a stout, an ESB, a pale, a nut brown, a light lager and a Oktoberfest beer. Good mix.

Barley and Hops Part II

1)The outside, great entrance!

2)Enjoying my double IPA at the bar, growler and candle (surrounded by barley husks) in the background. It was a solid effort on the DIPA but I thought it was extremely sticky sweet and the hops were resinous without the nice bright citrusy feel to offset. Almost tangy sour like grapefruit. They nailed the body and consistency though.

3)Tote board of their offerings.

Flying Dog

1)Sooo along with the Brewer's Alley stop (below) I swung by the Flying Dog brewery in Frederick last Friday and got a growler fill of the Snake Dog IPA as well as a taster of their winter seasonal, K-9 Cruiser. The Cruiser isn't on taps yet but its now at the brewery/tasting room if you make their Saturday tours. Its delicious, tremendous malt flavor, not too big on the wintery spicing, robust, just good stuff.

2)Several of the taps. I'd drink any of those, no questions asked.

3 &4)Enjoying the growler Saturday at home watching the USC game. The beer was spectacular. Brewery fresh beer just tastes a little different, its still pretty good in bottle and tap around town but fresh its just about as good as some of the truly great IPA's from masters like Russian River and Alpine.

Brewer's Alley

1)Sitting at one corner of the bar, looking at the tap handles

2)My glass of the '21 Cherries' cherry beer. Not bad, definite cherry flavor but not like one of those tart lambics either, mild, watery body

3)A taster of the '1634' ale commemorating the early days of Maryland, lots of spices and herbal flavors in there.

Notes: Brewer's Alley makes good beer, its just a difficult place to get to since downtown Frederick can be such a pain getting through and parking. Fortunately their Kolsch is seen on several taps around town and several of their other offerings can be found in bottled six packs.

Max's Tuesday Beer Social (10/6/2009)

Hot off the (electronic) presses, so no ink stains.

As usual its on Tuesday starting at 6 PM at the Mobtown Lounge. The theme this time is a 'biere de champagne social', special beers that are all produced in the champagne method. They'll be served by glass from their bottles

FROM NEW ZEALAND

Moa Noir

Moa Original

Moa Blanche

FROM BELGIUM

Malhuer Biere Brut

Malhuer Dark Brut

Dues Brut Des Flanders

FROM BRAZIL

Eisnbahn Lust

ON THE BEER ENGINES:

Brew Dog Paradox Isle of Arran

Olivers ESB

NEW DRAFTS

Great Divide Fresh Hop

Great Divide Hibernation

Hebrew Bittersweet Lenny RIPA

Allgash Interlude

Evolution Lot #3 IPA

Southern Tier Oat

Baltimore Beer Week on TV!

So it begins ...

Via the Baltimore Beer Week Twitter