Christmas in July

Tonight at Max's Taphouse, or Sunday the 18th at T-Bonz Grille in Ellicott City/Columbia, with pancake breakfast.

More firkins about

Heavy Seas will be sending more firkins out to the following places in July:

7/15 Judge's Bench - Ellicott City, MD (oak cask of Loose Cannon)
7/16 Full Moon Pub - Reisterstown, MD (a new cask ale venue! Loose Cannon)
7/20 Max's Taphouse - Fells Point (Hang Ten firkin, draft & bottle)
7/20 Bluegrass Tavern - Federal Hill (bourbon barrel aged Below Decks)
7/22 Elliott's Pour House - Highlandtown (Hang Ten)

Buy food/drink at the Brewer's Art this Thursday for a good cause

Just a reminder for your calendars: July 15th, at Brewer's Art: Fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. 20% of your check from the night (5 pm - 2 am) will be donated to LLS. More at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/event.php?eid=132533686757710 .

New beer at The Falls

E-mail from The Falls in Mt. Washington:

"Just got in the Sierra Nevada Charlie, Fred, and Ken's Imperial Helles bock on draft. Not sure who else has it in town; come on by and give it a try if you haven't had it yet."

Sounds worth a stop next time I'm up that way--which won't be today, sadly..... more on the beer here.

Chairs and Tables for sale

Alonso's/Loco Hombre just put some tables and chairs up on Craigslist.

News Updates

Resurrection Cans:  Pretty much gone already.  The Wine Source: "We didn't get in as many as we'd ordered, and what we had sold out in a day or two."  Wells: "We got 25 cases, we're down to about six [as of 3 p.m. Saturday]; we're supposed to get in another shipment July.............. 18th."  Grand Cru: "We have them, right there with the other canned beers--21st Amendment, Butternuts, Oskar Blues....."

The promised Resurrection side-by-side draft-and-can taste test, done at Alonso's during yesterday afternoon's World Cup game between Spain and Paraguay:  It's not even close.  Presented to us blind, we could spot the bright-as-a-polished-brass-bell canned version and the slightly cloudy draft version from several feet away.  The taste was that distinctly obvious as well--the draft being a fuller, richer, and more complex and developed beer.  The physical appearance is that they're filtering the beer before canning it at Sly Fox, and if that's the case they're also filtering out a dimension of the crucial Rezzie flavor profile.

Is it a bad beer?  Heck, no.  But to highlight what the critical competition for this beer will be, you're looking to have either Resurrection where you can't get the drafts (many bars or package stores, for example), looking for a quality canned beer to go where you can't take the bottles (many bars in the region, for example, or poolside or to the beach), or you're a Brewer's Art loyalist.  If you're in the first category, more power to you.  If you're in the second category, look at the competition.  There's some good stuff in cans now, even Wittekerke.  Ressurection does stand out as a reasonably good value against, say, Oskar Blues Gordon or Gubna, but might Dale's Pale Ale please more of the party crowd?  As for the third category, I need not say more--rumor (unconfirmed yet) says that Brewers Art sold through 50 cases in one day.

Wild Goose:  The news continues to be conflicting.  A Flying Dog rep at The Wine Source yesterday insisted that Wild Goose Oatmeal Stout AND Amber were both on hiatus, and that the currently distributed batches would be the last to be seen in the market "for the foreseeable future."  This leaves only Wild Goose IPA and their seasonal Snow Goose as the survivors of the Wild Goose brand.  Meanwhile, another retailer pointed to Wild Goose 12-bottle sampler cases, and said "They said they were eliminating the Nut Brown and the XPA too, but they're still showing up in these sampler packs.  And I opened up one to check--the freshness codes say new batches, not just old bottles stuck in the boxes.  So who knows?"

And MORE homebrew fun, and a request.....

Man, at this rate I'll have to brew up another batch of homebrew sometime.

A fellow homebrewer has been asked to crank up a batch of homebrew for a neighborhood festival/party.  He'll donate the beer and effort, but has decided that since the plan is to serve up the whole ten-gallon batch at once, he would be smart to keg the batch in "corny kegs" or a similar draft set-up.

Is there a reader or a reader's friend that would be willing to loan my friend the necessary set-up for the occasion, possibly for only a week or so?  Maybe some leftover beer will be part of the bargain.  Cotact me if interested.  He's located in western Baltimore/Catonsville/Woodlawn area, if location matters.

Second, fellow beer writer Lew Bryson has posted a "Homebrewers Mad Lib" at his blog.  Funny (and the predictability is part of why I dread certain press releases of that general category).  Enjoy!

And now, Heavy Seas' homebrew contest winner......

From the Heavy Seas website:

Thank you to all the homebrewers who took the time to participate in our Heavy Seas Letter of Marque Contest.  Each of the beers submitted were surprisingly good, not a single bad one in the batch. A variety of styles were entered from Scotch Ales to a Wheat Pale Ale. There’s was even a beer brewed with honey grams!

Judging was done by the full crew at the brewery. In the elimination round, brews were judge for adherence to style and overall drinkability. Thirteen beers moved on and then there were 5.  Merits of each were discussed and the beer re-sampled. Here are the final results.

Winner:

 David Edmundson and Doug John - Forest, VA

Style: Dubbel

Submitted name: Bastard Child

Runner Up:

Joe Frederic – Alexandria, VA

Style: Scottish Heavy

Submitted name: Thor’s Hammer

Honorable Mention:

Bill Beshorner, Brian McFee and Shawn Poore -  Catonsville, MD

Style: Wheat Pale Ale

Honorable Mention:

Daniel Self and Ryan Ward

Style: Dark American Wheat

David and John will be coming to the brewery to work along side our brewers to brew their beer next year. Watch for the winning beer in our Heavy Seas Mutiny Fleet in early spring 2011. Thanks again to the homebrewers who participated and we hope you try again next year!

Pratt St. Ale House Homebrew Competition

Steve Jones, in what I might brashly presume is one of his last posts before a bit of a personal break looming, has posted details of the brewpub's upcoming hombrewer's competition at his PSAH blog.  To quote:

For those of you new to the blog follow this link http://www.prattstreetalehouse.com/2009/09/home-brewing-but-not-at-home/ . We’re doing the same this year, inviting all you homebrewer’s to brew something that would fit in with our tap line-up at The Pratt Street Ale House. You can brew as an individual or group, doesn’t matter to us. What is important is that the beer is commercially viable. We’ll brew 7 barrels of it and it will be launched at the start of Baltimore Beer Week at the Ale House on cask and on draft. It will feature at the B.A.M. Oktoberfest and no doubt at a few bars/events around town. Think about the types of hops/grain/special ingredients in terms of availability and cost with regards to a 7 barrel brew length. Obviously we do English style ales here although we have used Belgian Ale Yeast a couple of times recently so that isn’t out of the question, as long as we can get the yeast at the right price (ie free!) I’d like to have all of the entries in by mid August. Judging will be held the following week with a view to brewing mid September. We won’t be judging to any set style parameters, what we’re looking for is a great product that will compliment our existing range of brews on tap. Ideally I’d like to have at least a dozen samples to judge, you’re not restricted to one brew, if you want to brew a couple of different options, that’s fine. We ask that you provide a recipe with your entry and brews MUST be all grain, no extract! You may use our yeast if you wish, contact me to arrange to pick up samples. If you have any further questions please e-mail me @ steve.oliverale@gmail.com.

 I wonder if John and I can brew fast enough............

In the meantime, final judging of the Heavy Seas Letter of Marque homebrew competition is occurring, with a winner to presumably be announced shortly........

Beer of the Week

Heavy Seas' new Smoke on the Water "imperial smoked porter."

Rich enough in flavor to be a stout.  The smoke is subtle; you might not even get the smoke if you weren't told about it.  8%, but dangerously drinkable, not too heavy for Baltimore's steamy weather.

Seek it out. Max's has it on cask tonight.