[Company owner David] Benfield said a disagreement with the building's landlord, dwindling business in the winter months and the smoking ban contributed to the decision to shutter the business. The company's other locations will remain open, Benfield said.This sounds hauntingly similar to the huge rent increase that sparked the decision of Capital City Brewing Co. to pull out of its Inner Harbor location several years ago. But there are also recent reports of legal troubles.......
It is with great sadness that we announce the closing of our restaurant in Fells Point on 12/31/2009. While speculation, bizarre conspiracy theories and criticism will run rampant, the simple fact of the matter is that for whatever reason, Fells Point was never quite the right fit for us and vice versa. So, with three thriving restaurants, bottled beer in liquor stores and a franchise location coming soon, now seemed like the right time to pull out of an area in which we never felt truly comfortable.
For the last 5 years, we had some great, loyal customers and employees. Thank you to everyone that ate, drank and worked with us in Fells Point; we’ll miss you. You are all still more than welcome to join us in Bel Air, Arundel Mills and Bowie for the same great beer, food and wine, to use your Pint Club memberships, or redeem gift cards purchased through the Fells Point restaurant. We’re still around, so come see us!
We’ll miss Fells Point, our regulars and staff, but it’s time to say goodbye. You win some, you lose some.
Dave Benfield, President
DuClaw Brewing Company
We are just over a moth away for this year's Belgian Beer Fest. We will have over 120 authentic Belgian Beers on draft, over 150 authentic Belgian beers in bottles, and a full Belgian-inspired food menu. We will also have a free Belgian Breakfast buffet on Friday Feb 12 at 11am.
Winter 2010
HOLY SHEET Über Abbey Ale 9% ABV - A Belgian Abbey style that is both aromatic and full bodied. It will benefit with aging up to two years. Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – limited release. January.
SIREN NOIRE Chocolate Stout 8% ABV - English style imperial stout, fermented and flavored with imported Belgian chocolate nibs. Smooth and easy drinking. Named for the Sirens who lured seafarers off course and ultimately to their demise. Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – limited release. February. NEW
Spring 2010
Big DIPA Double IPA 10.6% ABV – Triple hopped during brewing, well balanced with an earthy hop aroma and flavor. Brewed with 5 pounds of hops per barrel!!! Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – limited release. March.
LETTER OF MARQUE Hop Rye Porter – Winners from our 2009 Letter of Marque Homebrew Competition will work along side our brewers to create this one time special release. Letter of Marque will feature a different beer every year selected from our national homebrew competition. Historically, a Letter of Marque was a document that made a Pyrate a legitimate professional. Hence, our Letter of Marque makes a home brewer a legitimate professional as well! Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – limited release. April. NEW
RED SKY AT NIGHT - Belgian style Saison 7.5 % ABV - country farm house ale. A complex yet delicate ale, brewed with a unique Belgian yeast which develops a spicy, fruity flavor. Pyrate Fleet – 12 oz and draft - available March thru May.
BELOW DECKS (BARREL AGED) – Barley Wine 10% ABV – Our award winning barley wine which has been aged two ways - in wooden bourbon barrels and cabernet barrels. It will benefit with aging. VINTAGE DATED Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – VERY limited release. May. NEW
Summer 2010
SMOKE ON THE WATER – Smoked Imperial Porter - Details are Top Secret. Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz. and draft – limited release. June. NEW
HANG TEN Weizen Dopplebock 10% ABV – A classic German-style weizen bock, slightly cloudy and bursting with flavor. It will benefit with aging up to two years. VINTAGE DATED. Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – limited release. July.
SUMMER ALE - Details are Top Secret. Clipper Fleet – 12 oz and draft -available June thru September. NEW
Fall 2010
PROSIT! Imperial Oktoberfest Lager 8% ABV - Malt focused with five types of grain including Vienna and Munich malts - plus a secret extra malt that we use only in our Prosit! Balanced with 3 kinds of hops. Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – limited release. August.
THE GREAT PUMPKIN Imperial Pumpkin Ale 8.5% ABV - We add the pumpkin during the mash at precisely the right time to create just the perfect balance of malt, hops, pumpkin and spice. Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – limited release. September.
THE GREATer PUMPKIN Imperial Pumpkin Ale 9% ABV tbd - Our Great Pumpkin enhanced by aging in bourbon barrels. Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – VERY limited release. September NEW
Early Winter 2010
WINTER STORM Imperial ESB 7.5%ABV - Brewed with copious helpings of English malts plus US and English hops. Full malty flavors dancing with powerful hop aromas and a lingering, firm hop bitterness. . Pyrate Fleet – 12 oz and draft - available October thru December
BELOW DECKS Barley Wine 10% ABV - Our English style barley wine - rich, malty, and opulent. Great at time of release but will benefit from bottle aging for many years to come. VINTAGE DATED. Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – limited release. November
YULE TIDE Belgian Tripel Ale 10% ABV - Slightly sweet with a complex malty flavor. The spicy flavor comes from our unique blend of Trappist yeast and Belgian candi sugar - making it both aromatic and flavorful. It will benefit with aging up to two years. VINTAGE DATED. Mutiny Fleet – 22 oz and draft – limited release. November
Don't get excited. Any substance like this, because it's designed to alter mental states upon ingestion, would come under the purvey of the Food and Drug Administration, and ergo would end up being more heavily regulated, and thus more expensive, than ordinary booze. And I love their fantasy that "the recovered ethanol (the chemical name for alcohol) could be sold as fuel". Right...... Gasoline would still be far cheaper.An alcohol substitute that mimics its pleasant buzz without leading to drunkenness and hangovers is being developed by scientists.
The new substance could have the added bonus of being "switched off" instantaneously with a pill, to allow drinkers to drive home or return to work.
The synthetic alcohol, being developed from chemicals related to Valium, works like alcohol on nerves in the brain that provide a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation.
But unlike alcohol its does not affect other parts of the brain that control mood swings and lead to addiction. It is also much easier to flush out of the body. Finally because it is much more focused in its effects, it can also be switched off with an antidote, leaving the drinker immediately sober. The new alcohol is being developed by a team at Imperial College London, led by Professor David Nutt, Britain's top drugs expert who was recently sacked as a government adviser for his comments about cannabis and ecstasy.
EOS is petrochemical-free, containing only bioderived and organic materials. And best of all, EOS is carbon neutral. The EOS line features a special selection of Blue Marble Energy’s bioester fragrances as the top note, carefully blended with Sweet Anthem’s custom heart notes and low notes. The Blue Marble Energy bioesters used in both EOS fragrances are derived from certified organic brewery grain. All other ingredients are locally sourced from the most reputable distributers [sic] of organic, sustainable, or wild harvested materials.
My birthday today, looking for something to appropriately mark the occasion, and realizing that, you know, the old stuff just could end up being enjoyed at some fantastic wake someday if I don't actually start consuming the stuff, so.... I start reaching into one of the two Thomas Hardy's boxes, both of which hold a wild variety of vintage stuff, and the first random grab is a 1989 bottle of J.W. Lees Harvest Ale. Twenty years old. Out it comes.
Metropolitan is announcing the next in our series of beer dinners to be held next Tuesday, December 15. Chef Ferdinand Farly will be pairing five courses with five beers from the Samuel Smith Brewery in Yorkshire, England. Samuel Smith Brewery is one of the oldest and largest independent breweries in England, producing a variety of classic English ales in a brewery that dates back to 1758. John Brown of Merchant du Vin, the importer of Samuel Smith, will be on hand to talk about the brewery and the beers.
The details:Date: Tuesday, December 15Time: 7:00 pmCost: $50 per person, Limited to 15 people
The Menu:1st Course: Green Pea & Mint SoupPure-Brewed Lager2nd Course: Green Pea & Watercress SaladOld Brewery Pale Ale3rd Course: Curried ScallopsIndia Pale Ale4th Course: Lemongrass LambchopTaddy Porter5th Course: Fried BananaOatmeal Stout
If you are interested and wish to reserve a spot, call Metropolitan at 410-234-0235 or send an email.
Well, if you just count tap handles, it's probably Bud Light. But if you open a bar in town, you might have the big industrial brewers falling over themselves trying to "buy" their way into your place (they'll install your draft system as long as you serve their products, for example).On Nov. 13, the FDA sent a letter to 30 manufacturers warning that "there are no food additive regulations that permit the addition of caffeine at any level in alcoholic beverages." The agency has given the companies a month to present scientific evidence that the combination of alcohol and caffeine is safe. The FDA was prompted in part by complaints from the attorneys general of 18 states that such high-octane energy drinks can be addictive and can create wide-awake drunks who are unable to judge their level of impairment and are therefore prone to engage in risky behaviors such as driving under the influence.
The FDA letter specifically states:To which I will point out: OK, it's not permissible for someone to blend this stuff and commercially package it, but it's perfectly OK if I do it myself, at my own risk. Okay. Fine. Then what of the bartender making Jack and Cokes, or Irish Coffees, or Red Bull and vodkas?
"A10. This FDA action is not directed at products that are flavored with coffee. The beverages that are the subject of FDA’s request for information are characterized by the intentional addition of caffeine to alcoholic beverages by the manufacturer."
Thus, it is not the addition of coffee, a legitimate food product, that they have issue with, but the addition of pure/straight caffeine, a chemical compound. IMHO, and non-legal opinion, they most certainly DO have a right to limit such additions, in the public interest. I realize the caffeine almost certainly COMES FROM a food product, but so does MSG and a myriad of other CHEMICALS which are dangerous in straight concentrated form and therefore regulated.
The odds are that if it happens for wine, it will equally apply to spirits and beer. Imagine finally being able to join a "Beer of the Month" club or getting someone to ship you--legally--some prized beer you can't get here--Goose Island, New Glarus, Lost Abbey, etc. (Not that it's that serious an issue here; there's darned few world-class beers you can't get here in Maryland as long as you go to the right retailers.....)
The issue has fermented for years in the legislature where a bill has been bottled up in committee, but wine producers and connoisseurs see an opportunity in the next session that begins in January. They say they have more funding and support, and they hope to draw votes by casting the bill as a pro-consumer issue that lawmakers can promote to voters before the 2010 election.
"We've got a lot of things going in our favor, and this issue will finally have its day," said Adam Borden, executive director of Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws, an organization whose membership has grown tenfold with increased outreach over the past year.
The Antarctic name inducing schizophrenia of this uber-imperial stout originates from the amount of time it spent exposed to extreme cold. This beer began life as a 10% imperial stout 18 months ago. The beer was aged for 8 months in an Isle of Arran whisky cask and 8 months in an Islay cask making it our first double cask aged beer. After an intense 16 month, the final stages took a ground breaking approach by storing the beer at -20 degrees for three weeks to get it to 32%.
For the big chill the beer was put into containers and transported to the cold store of a local ice cream factory where it endured 21 days at penguin temperatures. Alcohol freezes at a lower temperature than water. As the beer got colder BrewDog Chief Engineer, Steven Sutherland decanted the beer periodically, only ice was left in the container, creating more intensity of flavours and a stronger concentration of alcohol for the next phase of freezing. The process was repeated until it reached 32%.
Of the 500 330ml bottles released, 250 will be available for £30 [$48] with a further 250 available for £250 [$400] – the latter will include a share in the BrewDog company as part of its ‘Equity for Punks’ campaign which is aiming to raise £2.3m [$3.7 million] to build a new eco-friendly, carbon-neutral brewery in Aberdeen.I'm not certain about the international investment laws, but I'm reasonably certain the offer of alcohol with an investment share has to break some Federal investment laws here in the States.......
I asked last year about this reported phenomenon: Thanksgiving Eve purportedly being the biggest drinking or bar-traffic day of the year, ahead of even St. Patrick's Day, Super Bowl Sunday, Mardi Gras, New Year's Eve, etc.
They pour, sip and, with passion and snobbery, glorify or doom wines. But studies say the wine-rating system is badly flawed. How the experts fare against a coin toss.
From the Chippenham Gazette & Herald (UK):
The world record price for a bottle of beer was smashed in Devizes today when a bottle of Lowebrau lager sold for over £10,000 [$16,680].Lot 206 and 207 are shown in the online catalogue here. Earlier Beer in Baltimore post on the topic here.
The bottle was recovered from the wreckage of the German airship Hindenburg after it burst into flames as it moored at Lakehurst, New York, on May 6 1937. It was part of the collection of survivor Richard Kollmer.
The previous highest price for a single bottle of beer is thought to be around £2,500 and auctioneer Alan Aldridge started bidding at £3,000 [$5,006]. There was fierce competition from telephone bidders all over the world, mainly from the US. Mr Aldridge eventually knocked the item down for £9,400 [$15,687]. With buyer's premium, the bottle will cost the purchaser £10,810 [$18,039] .
An electro-plated milk pitcher, also recovered from the wreckage, went for over £9,000.
The prices for the Hindenburg memorabilia dwarfed those for items connected with Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, Peter Sellers and Paul McCartney.
A blackened bottle of beer found in the wreck of the Hindenburg zeppelin is expected to fetch thousands of pounds at auction. The bottle was found by a fire-fighter cleaning up the American airfield where the German airship exploded in 1937. The bottle will be the most expensive ever bought if it meets its estimated price of £5,000 ($8,337) on Saturday.
The airship was engulfed by flames as it landed in New Jersey, killing 38 people and injuring 60. New Jersey firefighter Leroy Smith found six bottles of Lowenbrau beer and a pitcher intact on the scene of the crash.
He buried his secret find so he could collect them later, as the area had been sealed off by the authorities.
Mr Smith gave the other five bottles to his colleagues. Most of the others are now lost, although one was given to the Lowenbrau company after the death of Mr Smith's friend.
The bottle and jug were passed on by Mr Smith to his niece in 1966 and are now to be put on sale by auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son.
The beer would have gone off within a year of being bottled. "You wouldn't want to drink it - it is probably quite putrid to taste," auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said. Some of the liquid has evaporated from the bottle and the label is burned, but the logo is still visible.
The previous record price for a bottle of beer was a limited edition sale of a Carlsberg lager which cost £240 ($400).
This Thursday, November 5, Muggsy's is featuring Harpoon Brewery. We will have four of their best beers on tap and with your first purchase you get an official Harpoon pint glass to take home with you; the beers featured will be Harpoon IPA, UFO Hefewizen, Winter Warmer, and Brown Session Ale.
This is not for want of supply: from a lifesize cardboard cutout to gold jewelry to a bottle of special vintage champagne bearing the president's name, the list of Obama tchotchkes and high-end souvenirs is long.Two questions: Are these shopkeepers legally licensed to sell such booze, or is this non-alcoholic "champagne" being mis-identified by the reporter? Second, where is the swift, heavy hammer of authority from the White House and ATTTB that stopped Ommegang from marketing "Obamagang", a special one-off beer for the inauguration earlier this year (but not, mind you, a sugar-laden soda)? After all, we don't want "the President to be seen as promoting intoxication," now, do we?
