New on cask
March 10th, 2010
Now on the “Brewer’s Choice” beer engine is the Mocha Java Porter, 4.9% a.b.v. and bursting with coffee aroma and flavor. There’s only one firkin so get it while you can.
Mocha Java Porter on cask now!
Beer Dinner at Commonwealth Gastro pub
March 9th, 2010
We’re very pleased to announce details of the Oliver’s Beer Pairing Dinner at The Commonwealth Gastro Pub on Tuesday March 23rd @ 7pm.
Their chef has carefully paired four of our beers with his food to create a mouth-watering four course dinner. Assistant brewer Justin and myself will be on hand to discuss our beer so please come along for an evening of excellent food and hand crafted ales
Oliver Breweries
Beer Dinner menu
First Course
Seared Scallops
w/ fennel cream & toasted bay leaves
Beer Pairing- Ironman Pale Ale (cask)
Second Course
Duck Rillettes
w/ micro greens salad & orange vinaigrette
Beer Pairing- Three Spires Golden Ale
Third Course
Duroc Pork Loin
w/ spring vegetables & smoked red onion mustard
Beer Pairing- Dark Horse Brown Ale (cask)
Fourth Course
Spring Fruit “Cobbler”
w/ crème fraiche sorbet
Beer Pairing- Bishop’s Indulgence Stout
For A beer dinner not to be missed
Tuesday March 23rd, 2010
Fun starts @ 6:30
Dinner @ 7:00
Featuring Cask & Draft Beers
Perfectly Paired with 4 courses
-$55 per person
Bismarck Tasting draw Result
March 5th, 2010
Congratulations to Mitchell Walk who won our facebook fan draw to join us for our tasting of BrewDog’s “Sink The Bismarck” along with some of their other incredible beers. Scott Cover wins a bottle of BrewDog “Tokio” as a “most amusing post” prize!
the winner is #8
.... Mitchell Walk
For those of you interested in the forthcoming Lititz Real Ale Festival at The General Sutter Inn March 12th-14th, here’s the beer list. Impressive!
The Friday Question
March 5th, 2010
Ah, Friday rolls around again so it must be time to foolishly give something away! First off a brief diversion. If you’re one of the facebook generation you may know that I’m giving one fan of Oliver Ales the chance to join myself and a number of local beer bloggers for a very special beer tasting . We will be sampling some of the strongest beers in the world from the BrewDog brewery in Scotland, Sink The Bismarck (41%abv), Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32%abv) and Tokyo(18%) as well as something on the other end of the scale, Nanny State (0.5%abv)! If you want to throw your name into the hat for the draw go to the discussion section of our facebook page but be quick, the draw will be at 1pm today. The beer itself won’t be here for a couple of weeks unfortunately. I just received word from BrewDog that shipping of the Bismarck has been delayed until the 16th.
On to last weeks question. This one was obviously wide open but here’s the actual bottle as displayed in our “Hall Of Fame” cabinet in the brewery….
and the winning number is ....
33, 417 it is. That makes Sandy Mitchell the winner (again!) but again, as it was a close run thing I would like to extend the invitation to the runner up as well so Mr. Graham Green you are also a winner. I will be in touch to organize a date and time for the tasting. Congratulations.
On to this week’s question. As I mentioned last week, Bruce at The Metropolitan Coffee House and Wine Bar has recently celebrated the serving of their 100th cask of craft ale, a fine achievement I’m sure you’ll agree. What I’d like to know is, how many of those casks were Oliver Ales? The prize is this… next week, at 6pm Bruce will be serving our latest cask ale, Three Spires Ale, a hoppy 5%abv golden ale and we’d like the winner to join us for a pint or two. We’ll pick up your tab to the tune of $40 so come along, eat, drink and be merry! As usual, post your answer via the comment section below. First correct answer posted wins. Cheers
Steve
March Madness – Firkin Style (revisited)
March 4th, 2010
Russian nesting dolls, cask style!
The hits just keep on coming. To add to the already busy cask festival friendly March our friends at Yards Brewery are also holding an event. Check out the details @ http://yardsbrewing.com/events_real-ale-invitational.asp . A good time guaranteed. We’ll also have some information regarding developments for our own festival on the 20th in the next couple of days. Also, as already posted by Tom @ http://www.yoursforgoodfermentables.com/2010/03/national-cask-ale-week-in-us.html March 29th sees the start of National Cask Ale Week in the U.K. Being a Brit and an advocate of cask ale I could not let this event pass without some celebration at The Pratt Street Ale House so for the duration of cask ale week (March 29th – April 5th) all of our 3 cask ales will be offered at the special price of $3/pint between 5pm and close. Also on Friday 2nd April we will have the famous glass-head firkin on the bar serving $2 pints, oh yeah!
Mid-week round up
March 3rd, 2010
I have to say, it’s been a very frustrating start to the week. We’ve sold a lot of beer out of FP Winner’s warehouse over the last couple of weeks and The Ale House had a great week last week and we ended up stocking the pub with 24 kegs, 8 sixtels, 2 firkins and 2 kilderkins over a seven day period! So, it was always going to be a busy week (we’re brewing Amber, Ironman, Old Habit and Red Ales) but the planets have aligned just so to add maximum inconvenience to the mix! Monday was kegathon day as we spent the day processing and kegging beer for delivery to the warehouse. Of course when the truck had arrived the tail lift was broken so the driver had to return to the warehouse and dispatch another truck. Ho hum. That sort of set the tone for the week! Slightly more serious in nature, the glycol system failed (again!). Ho hum. Fortunately all the fermentations had been crash cooled over the weekend but we needed it up and running again as soon as possible for this weeks brews. Even as that was being repaired one of the conditioning tanks that I had prepped to receive beer started to leak so I had to abandon that tank and swap around an extra batch to free up another tank. Ho hum. I’ve managed to find a gasket which looks like it will do the job, so fingers crossed it holds out today as we’re maxed out on tank space. This morning has also been “fun”. It’s so windy out back of The Ale House that the wind has been blowing down the flu of the brew kettle and extinguishing the pilot light of the brew burner. Ho hum. I’ve re-lit it some 10 times already! So, if you’re ever in the dining room here and look down into the brewery and see either Justin or myself sprawled across the floor with our head seemingly stuck under the brew kettle we’re (probably) not trying to end it all by gassing ourselves, we’re just trying to light the bloody pilot light! I wait with baited breath to see what will happen tomorrow! Being a brewer is not quite as glamorous as it might seem! Here’s something I saw on the Flying Dog website advertisement for a brewery position:
Working Conditions:
Brewer needs to be able to work on their feet for over eight hours at a time, repeatedly lift up to 55lbs, work in extreme temperatures for extended periods of time, in loud production environments, with chemicals of varying composition, work from heights, work in damp and wet areas and work in confined spaces.
That about says it all really!
O.K., I’ll stop whinging now, just needed to get that out of my system.
Tickets are selling well for the Real Ale Festival on March 20th. If you haven’t already got yours I suggest you move quickly. Check out www.spbw.org/springraf/ for details. As well as the firkins we’ll have set up upstairs our three cask ales at the bar will be included in the festival. As with the September festival you’ll be able to fill up a growler of any beer left in the firkins at the end of the festival for a low price of $5 so bring a growler with you (or we can supply a growler for a small charge). Food specials will be available for festival attendees.
If you’re in the DC area check out ChurchKey for more Best Bitter and the Brickskeller will also have the Best Bitter and Oak Aged 3 Lions on cask in the near future. Closer to home look out for the Biere de Garde and Strongman Pale Ale @ Max’s and the Three Spires on cask @ Metropolitan on March 11th.
Ah, 10am, must be time to sample the Bishop’s Indulgence!
Cheers
Steve
Real Ale Festival Tickets Now On Sale
February 27th, 2010
O.K. folks, the tickets for the Real Ale Festival are now on sale. To purchase them follow this link
http://www.spbw.org/springraf/
Remember tickets are strictly limited to 110 so get ‘em quick, it’s going to be a blast!
Real Ale. From this ....
to this ....
to this! Fresh and delicious!
March madness, Firkin Style
February 26th, 2010
As I’m sure you know by now, I consider a good pint of cask conditioned ale to be the Nectar of the Gods. It’s with great pleasure therefore that I’ve seen how the March calendar is shaping up in terms of cask events. As well as all of the usual cask nights at various bars in the region there are also 3 cask festivals on the horizon. The first is to be held at The General Sutter Inn in Lititz, Pa on March 12th through the 14th. Paul Pendyck of UK Brewing is running the festival in conjunction with Alex Hall, veteran organizer of many such festivals so a well organized festival with an interesting line-up of beers is guaranteed. Check out www.gotham-imbiber.com for details. The following week (March 20th) we will be holding the Real Ale Festival at The Pratt Street Ale House in conjunction with the folks of the SPBW. Tickets will be priced @ $35 for unlimited sampling and will be limited to 110 tickets only. The event will run from noon until 5pm and will be located throughout the first floor of The Ale House. As well as our own Hot Monkey Love, Oak Aged 3 Lions and Mocha Java Porter there will be casks from Arcadia (Anglers Ale w/ Goldings and IPA w/ Cascade), Weyerbacher (Hops Infusion)and casks from Stillwater, The Brewer’s Art and Flying Dog and one other to be confirmed. Tickets will be on sale through the SPBW website in the next couple of days. The weekend after that will be the Heavy Seas Real Ale Festival We really are spoiled for choice with cask conditioned ale right now, a very pleasant situation to be in!
The Friday Question
February 26th, 2010
First off a big thanks to everyone who came to Metropolitan for the 100th cask served at this long standing Thursday Firkin Night. It was a great honor to have one of our casks there for this milestone event and it was gratifying to see it kick before 9pm, kudos to everyone involved.
On to the Friday Question…. there was fierce competition for the ticket to the Real Ale Festival (March 20th @ The Pratt Street Ale House). This is the part where I normally say that “there can only be one winner” but this time there was a tie! Both LaurenW and Brad were just 2lbs away from the correct answer of 62 lbs. Normally speaking the first posted answer wins but as Brad has press credentials (see the wonderful Beer In Baltimore blog) I figure we’d better let him in for sure so both of you are winners this time, congratulations.
On to this week’s question. If you saw my mid week post you’ll already know what the prize is…. the chance to come along to the Ale House and sample 3 consecutive years of the incredible Fullers Vintage Ale starting with the very first year it was brewed, 1997. We’ll try all 3 vintages side by side for comparison and accompany them with some fine English cheese. Fullers Vintage Ale is one of the World’s truly great beers so it should prove to be an interesting experience. The question is this … when I came to the states I brought with me one bottle of beer …. of course Fullers Vintage Ale 1998. Each bottle of this limited edition brew is numbered, so what is the number of my bottle?
Not the Holy Grail, but close to it for me!
Good luck
mid week round up
February 24th, 2010
We had a very enjoyable trip to D.C. yesterday. We started off at The Commonwealth Gastro Pub where we met with the chef and staff to discuss the forthcoming Oliver Ale Beer Dinner to be held there on Tuesday 23rd March. They’ll be pairing 4 courses with our Dark Horse, Ironman Pale Ale, Three Spires Ale and The Bishop’s Indulgence. I’ll post full details as soon as the menu is finalized. We then visited The Wonderland Ballroom who have been featuring our casks on gravity pour on Wednesday evenings. It’s a cool little place, go check it out. The day of course finished at The Brickskeller where Bob Tupper hosted the Strong Beer Tasting featuring a staggering array of exceptional beers including our own Hot Monkey Love. Standout beers for me were The District Chophouse’s American Hop Tripel , Sweetwater Tavern’s Barrel Aged Imperial Stout (2008) and Flying Dog’s Dog Schwarz but there really was an embarrassment of riches on offer! If you’ve never been to one of these tastings I suggest you mark your calender for next year’s event now! As usual the evening ended with a charity auction of some rare beers …. here’s what I walked away with…..
yeah, that's right... '97, '98 and '99
Needless to say, I am a huge fan of Fuller’s Vintage Ale. When I first moved to the States in October 1999 I had with me two suitcases of clothes and cds, a guitar, snowboard and a bottle of ‘98 Fuller’s Vintage Ale! These won’t be gathering dust for long, I intend to drink them very soon. I can’t guarantee how well these have aged but if you’d like to join me in sampling these rare ales then check out The Friday Question this coming Friday.
Don’t forget that tomorrow night is Metropolitan’s 100th cask anniversary and will feature our Biere de Garde (fermented with Belgian Ale Yeast) so come join us for a beer or two.