The Sun Sets on "Kasper on Tap"

The Baltimore Sun is retiring Rob Kasper's "Kasper on Tap" blog from its website, effective, oh, pretty much any minute now, I guess.  See Rob's announcement here.  Apparently the Sun believes the blog, begun on its website on October 10th, 2007, is attracting insufficient readership to continue.  He will continue to write for the dead-trees and online editions of the Sun, however--more than likely slippin in a sipping of a beer or two in the process.

I'll be truly sorry to see it go.  One of the things I was able to point out to fellow writers that came to Baltimore during Baltimore Beer Week was that Baltimore was one of the few cities in the nation to have a "beer journalist" working for its newspaper (another: Philadelphia's "Joe Sixpack" weekly in the Philadelphia Daily News).  Beer journalism is starting to suffer economic doldrums elsewhere--the Washington Post has relegated Greg Kitsock's beer column in the Food section to monthly status from biweekly.

Does anyone get their beer news from the "mainstream media" anymore?

Want a Side of Music With Your Real Ale?

Full Baltimore Sun story (with lots of commentary below it) here:

The Baltimore City Council voted Monday to allow bars and restaurants in some of the city's trendiest neighborhoods to hire bands, singers and other performers, overturning a decades-old prohibition that City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake says has stifled nightlife in town.

"This is an opportunity in lean times for establishments to expand the entertainment they are able to offer," she said after the measure passed by voice vote. "It also makes us more marketable as a city."

The legislation has excited bar owners across the city who are looking to enhance their establishments. But it has also stirred deep concerns among residents of Southeast Baltimore, Federal Hill and Hampden that the lure of live entertainment would bring even more noise, traffic and parking woes to their already popular neighborhoods.

 More from the Sun's Sam Sessa here.

I'm of mixed opinions here.  There's almost no occasion anymore where I go out just for music--or, for that matter, karaoke, trivia night, poetry slams, or whatever.  Usually, if I'm out drinking, I'm there for the beer, so stop distracting me from the notes of toffee, chocolate, and mellow hops.  But many places and musicians owe their business to entertainment and the mutual support of each other: the Cat's Eye, Ram's Head, J. Patrick's, Mick O'Shea's, and others.  Even Max's Taphouse started out, ages ago, as a music hall.

Fortunately, one band of which I am a fan has long been an enthusiastic supporter of real ale:  Fairport Convention, who I haven't seen in person in years and isn't booked for the States anytime soon.........  "Fairport did for real ale what the Grateful Dead did for LSD!"

What's Up Beer Madness--Final Runoff

What's Up Annapolis/Eastern Shore is on its final playoff round of Beer Madness: Evolution's ESB versus Clipper City's MarzHon.

Let the ballot-box stuffing commence.  You have until Friday night.

Thomas Hardy's Ale: Bye-Bye AGAIN?!?

In carrying out some e-mail trades with a fellow beer aficionado, it came out that apparently Thomas Hardy's Ale, the world-class, world-standard barleywine produced in Devon, England for the past 40 years or so (with interruptions), may once again be in jeopardy:

 

English brewery O'Hanlon's last week announced it would no longer be brewing Thomas Hardy's Ale, a rich, vintage-dated barley wine widely regarded by beer aficionados as a world classic. While another brewery could decide to buy the rights, the beer's future is up in the air – those bottles of 2008 on [liquor store] shelves could well be a collector's item.
The decision to stop brewing one of the world's greatest beers was a painful one, but became necessary because of the time and money it took to produce, said O'Hanlon's sales manager Liz O'Hanlon.
"It really wasn't an easy decision. But in the end, it just wasn't worth it," said O'Hanlon.
Since 2003, O'Hanlon's had been brewing Thomas Hardy's under license for U.S. importer George Saxon [of Phoenix Imports, based in Columbia and formerly in Ellicott City], who had bought the rights to the beer from original brewer Eldridge Pope. Thomas Hardy was created by Pope in 1968 as a tribute to the English author and continued production until 1999, when the company got out of the brewing business. Saxon eventually bought the rights and hired O'Hanlon's to brew it to the original recipe.

Late news, I guess, but I wasn't paying attention at the right moments, apparently. Does anyone have any updates, or should I head out to that northern Wisconsin liquor store and bait and tackle shop where I scored a case of 1998 and 1999 Hardy's for $2 a bottle and see what they're selling it for now?

UPDATE:  Quoting George Saxon of Phoenix Imports at another beer blog from Indiana:

"We are in the process of interviewing other brewers to brew Hardy's and Royal Oak Pale Ale but, given the time involved in that process and in brewing Hardy's, it's quite likely that there will not be a 2009 vintage. And, obviously, no more 2008."

More Belgian Brewers at Max's

One of the things I love about Max's Taphouse is its propensity to hold events like this (from its e-mail list):

THURSDAY OCT 29TH, 2009

TIME: 5PM

NO ENTRANCE FEE

LOCATION: MAX'S MAIN BAR

This Thursday we will have Jack van Antwerpen, the brewer from Brewery Bosteels, from Buggenhout, Belgium here. Jack makes some of the best Belgian beers in the world.We will also have Lanny Hoff here from Artisanal Imports.This is a great chance to talk with one of the best brewers in Belgium.

We will be featuring:

Deus Brut Des Flandres

Pauwel Kwak

Triple Karmeliet

Straightforward, come by and have a drink or three and meet with the brewery representatives.  No fancy $50 beer dinner or $25 tasting or reservations......   info on the brewery here.  Note that one of the featured beers is Deus Brut des Flandres, a champagne-like beer in special corked 750-ml bottles that usually commands a retail price of ca. $25-30 a bottle.  Here is a chance to sample this beer for less than the price of a full bottle......      and a review/visit of the brewery by fellow writer/blogger Lew Bryson here.

Get Your Cardiologist First......

The Baltimore Sun website has this gallery of "beers with food" available locally.

Hint, folks:  "Beers with food" is not restricted to beer-battered, deep-fried whatever.  (Though there are a couple exceptions on that list......  only two, though.....)

(Photo of beer-battered pickles--we kid you not--from Pickles Pub by Lisa Wiseman from BaltimoreSun.com)

Random Good Beers I've Had Lately

I won't torture you with terrific but one-of-a-kind beers you're never going to see again, such as District Chop House's wet-and-dry-hopped bourbon-barrel-aged Trippel (I copped the note sheet for this firkin from the Real Ale Fest).  Instead, a few, random, if-you-see-them-try-them suggestions, in no particular order:

*Clipper City did an experimental batch of The Great Pumpkin aged in a bourbon barrel.  I know that I saw exactly 12 22-ounce bottles at the brewery.  One surfaced at the Hugh-Sisson-returns-to-Ryleigh's event during Baltimore Beer Week.  As Hugh himself told us:  "Now, I don't usually like pumpkin beers.  And I don't like bourbon beers, as a rule.  But this works!"  I beg of you, Clipper City: DO MORE.
*Brooklyn Brewery's Manhattan Project, a strong rye.  Nice.
*The Bruery Rugbrod.  My wife's new favorite.
*Olivers My Monkey's Got Wood, the wood-aged Hot Monkey Love.  If you like oak-aged 3 Lions, you'll like this.
*Williams Bros. Fraoch 20th Anniversary.  "Heather ale matured in single malt whisky casks. 11% alc/vol, triple version: matured in ex-sherry casks previously used to mature single malt speyside whisky for 20 years. The resulting ale has a unique oak / sherry / whisky character, which is best appreciated slightly chilled in a large wine glass.  Ingredients: malted barley, oats, wheat, natural heather flowers, myrtle leaves and hops."  Limited to 7500 750-ml bottles; one opened for immediate pre-Opening Tap toast among BBW committee aboard the Constellation.

More to come.....................

UPDATE:  Fraoch 20th Anniversary will be served at Max's Taphouse's Tuesday Beer Social on Oct. 27th.

Liftoff, and Real Ale Fest Leftovers

I added the yeast--Fermentis Safale S-04--to my beer, all six or so gallons of it, last night, after running to John to borrow a hose for blow-off.  Original gravity 1.085, potential alcohol around 10%.

For any newbies to homebrewing, a blowoff tube allows the vigorously fermenting wort--and do I mean vigorously, almost explosively--to throw off not only carbon dioxide, but also excess yeast foam, and the foam carries with it the bitterest and worst of the hop resins.  Homebrewers learn REALLY quickly that the biggest jar or bottle possible should hold your blowoff bubbling water--I've already dumped off perhaps a quart or more of excess blowoff, and sadly it actually tastes better (even though it's watered-down foam) than a lot of American beers I've had.

Let's look inside the fridge for a minute, and we'll see the down side of $5 growlers at the end of a Real Ale Festival.  From left to right: Troegs Javahead Stout, Brewers Alley Woodford-bourbon-barrel-aged Oatmeal Stout, Olivers/PSAH My Monkey's Got Wood, Dogfish Head Chicory Stout primed with gourmet licorice candy, and The Bruery Rugbrod rye beer.  Shoved way in the back is a growler of White Marsh Batch 1000 and a split bottle of a friend's mead......  in the foreground is a Wild Goose glass with some leftover wort from the Christmas beer, which my wife found makes terrific malted milk.........  and, yes, that's a real can of Moxie soda on a lower shelf, and a stray bottle of Erie Railbender to the right..

Bad Decision Beer?

I've been invited to a shindig at Bad Decisions, the relatively new bar across Fleet Street from Ale Mary's.

I think I should bring a "bad decision" beer.

The only one I can come up with is Cave Creek Chili Beer.  Well, that or any variation of the low-taste carb/calorie North American industrial lagers.

Got any better ideas?

Baltimore Beer Week Redux

So, all in all, how was it?

I'm happy.  And I think a whole lot of other beer buffs were as well.  Well, unless you were a Ravens fan watching the game on Sunday. (I told y'all that they were gonna blow it in the last seconds--that's been the pattern all year, from what I've seen.)

I spent Thursday and part of Friday hosting Steve Shapiro, a beer blogger from San Francisco who had blundered into the city with fortuitous timing.  We thought we might hit four or five places; we hit.....  let's see, Max's, a run through the neighborhood, Brewers Art, then Ryleigh's Oyster where Hugh Sisson was holding court in his former brewpub, then J. Patrick's in Locust Point (because a Guinness doesn't taste right without a session in front of it, and the session was still going strong at 10 PM), then back to Fells Point for one last round.......

Saturday, of course, was the Chesapeake Real Ale Festival.  I picked up the oak-aged cider from Reid's Orchard at the Waverly Farmers Market, ran it down, returned home, took the Metro down, and stayed for a terrific and expanded real ale fest.  Favorites?  My wife loved the new Bruery rye beer, Rhubrod, sent out specially for the Real Ale Fest, while I liked the new Olivers oak-aged Hot Monkey Love, tentatively named "My Monkey's Got Wood"--but it was all an embarrassment of riches.

Sunday: our homebrewing demonstration at Pratt Street Ale House.  John (of Ten Hills Brewery, on the west side of town in the neighborhood of that name) and I cranked out a high-octane spiced honey ale, while others cranked out a London Porter, a pumpkin ale, and lord knows what else.  Unfortunately, what with the fourth day of cold rain, brewers handily outnumbered spectators and customers.  We started around nine and were pretty well all done by three.

That was enough time for me to race John and his gear home and then race back to Max's Taphouse for what would be the final (for me) BBW event, the Ravens & Rare Beer event, with the game on a projection TV in the upstairs lounge and rare beers of all sorts being opened and shared (for a price, of course--for example, $6 for a 5-ounce serving of 1999 Thomas Hardy's Ale).  After the Ravens' last-second loss, however, out came a magnum of Stone Double Bastard for a final toast to the initial Baltimore Beer Week.

More photos and reports to follow, possibly updated from the Baltimore courthouse tomorrow--wish me luck, I get paid $15 to cool my heels all day on jury duty.