Quick Notes Around Baltimore UPDATED

•  A firkin of Stone IPA at Alewife Baltimore (who needs to update their website) Wednesday afternoon/evening.
• Heavy Seas reps remind me that Thursday will see what is supposed to be the first firkin at the Hudson Street Stackhouse in Canton, a cask of Loose Cannon.  Hugh Sisson will be doing the honors starting at 6 PM, though they tell me the cask should be tapped at 5.
• On the other side of the harbor, Metropolitan will be helping Oliver/PSAH brewer Steve Jones celebrate his birthday with a cask of his new Godgifu, a 7.2% nut brown brewed with chestnuts and aged on French oak.  Also on tap: his Strongman Pale Ale; go ask him what the latest twist to this beer is.
• A Light Rail ride north up to Mount Washington, The Falls has installed the first two craft beer "DraftMaster" self-service tap tables in the Baltimore region.  The self-service tables, marketed in the region since last September, typically use the nitro gas mix used to pour Guinness, and other units (one at Tir na nOg in Harborplace) do so, but The Falls is using their two table units to let customers pour their own Troegs, Dogfish Head, or other craft beers.   
• Now on tap at Pratt Street Ale House: Meridian, a 6.4% dark, generously hopped rye ale, available only at PSAH and Meridian Pint in D.C. for a limited time.  Coming soon, according to brewer Steve Jones: "On the brewing schedule for next week ... "eighteen", a smoked porter, to be brewed on the 18th Anniversary of the first Oliver's brew day ... the recipe wrote itself ... 18lbs of chocolate malt, 18 lbs of smoked malt, 18 lbs of crystal malt .... you get the picture!"
  
• Flying Dog is set to release two new beers in February: draft-only Single Hop El Dorado, a 10%  I2PA using exclusively El Dorado hops in the brew kettle and hopback; and Lucky S.O.B, a draft-only Ir.........  no, no, there comes a point when even I'm not feeding the publicity-gimmick monster.  Go see for yourself.