mid-week round-up
Firstly, a shout out to Mr. Alexander D. Mitchell IV, venerable scribe for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, author of the beerinbaltimore.blogspot.com and (obviously) beer enthusiast extraordinaire for his “Best Drinking Blog” award from The City Paper. Congratulations Sandy, for some well deserved recognition!
I spoke with Mike @ The Judge’s Bench earlier who informed me that the Dark Horse Ale is currently on tap and selling well and once that kicks it will be replaced by the 3 Lions Ale. Can’t wait to get over there for a pint! Look out for the Irish Red going on tap at NcNevin’s in Canton any day now. It’s a cool bar, well worth checking out. Our Vanilla Pagan Porter will be the featured cask @ The Metropolitan Coffee House soon, again if you’ve never been there, check it out! Cask nights are every Thursday from 6pm at the upstairs bar. Also check out Dego Dames in Little Italy and Sonoma’s in Columbia who will have Ironman Pale Ale on tap any time now.
Things are coming together for The Chesapeake Real Ale Festival (www.spbw.org/realale). We’ve shipped a number of firkins out west so (God willing that the breweries can turn them around in time for delivery to the festival) expect casks from Stone, The Bruery, Lagunitas, Weyerbacher and The Boulder Brewery. We will of course be featuring casks from all your favorite local (Brewer’s Art, Clipper City, DuClaw etc.) and regional (Troegs, Lancaster, Dogfish Head and more) breweries. This year’s festival will be bigger and better than ever and will likely feature 35+ casks throughout the whole of the Pratt Street Ale House including the upstairs bar and function room for the first time. Tickets are available now, $35 in advance/ $45 on the door through the spbw website and will be available for sale at the Ale House later this week. I’m particularly excited that we’ll be offering a very special pre-release of “Hot Monkey Love” and “My Monkey’s Got Wood” (an Oak aged version). Both casks have been aging since April and will weigh in around the 10% abv mark. Only 2 casks of each of these exist so get it while you can!
We’re likely to be experimenting with some bourbon barrel aged 3 Lions in the near future. It’s been a long time since I’ve used bourbon barrels, 2002 I think so it’s an exciting prospect. I’m going to put a batch of 3 Lions in 4 bourbon barrels, stick ‘em in a darkened corner of the basement and then release one every 3 months. Hopefully we can make a bit of an event for each release … should be an interesting experiment in barrel aging!
right, I’d better get back to kegging the Coventry Cream Ale….
Cheers
Steve
Tags: Cask Ale, Hot Monkey Love, Real Ale Festival
Can’t wait for the Real Ale Festival. Sounds amazing.