The Friday Question Rides Again
August 12th, 2011
It’s been a long time, a very long time but it’s back! The Friday Question rides again! We’ve been up to a lot since I last posted … seasonals have come and gone, my joints hurt more, I have more grey hair etc. etc. In case you haven’t stopped by the Ale House for a while (shame on you) we’re on the last keg of Jacob’s Summer Celebration & Bulldog Bitter so get ‘em while you can. We also have a very limited amount of bourbon barrel aged 3 Lions Ale available at the moment. 3 Lions was aged for 3 months in a bourbon barrel with juniper berries and then blended with a fresh batch of 3 Lions (2/3 : 1/3), carbonated and kegged and voila, it is available for your enjoyment! In my humble opinion it turned out very nicely, soft and smooth with just the right amount of bourbon in the finish. As it warms the juniper starts to show adding an extra layer of complexity.
“Draft Punk” the IPA “commissioned” by the wonderful Punks Grill in Annapolis is going from strength to strength and we’ve just brewed our 4th batch. Expect to see more dry hop variations of Cask Punk in a few weeks (Amarillo/Citra/Sorachi/Centennial). We’ll continue brewing Draft Punk for as long as we’ve got sufficient whole leaf cascade available. We’ll also be entering it into What’s Up magazine’s “Beer Madness” in September. I’ll post further details closer to the time.
I’ve also just brewed another batch of Strongman Pale Ale single hop Sorachi Ace. This time around I’ve managed to secure sufficient quantity of whole leaf Sorachi Ace for use in the hop back and dry hopping in bright tank so it’ll havea slightly different hop profile. I also went a little bigger this time around and it came in at 9% abv. Casks will be in DC next week in celebration of DC Beer Week. Panic not B’more peeps, I will be tapping an oak barrel of the last batch which has been quietly aging in our cask room, again with a handful of Juniper berries thrown in (hey, what can I say, I really like gin!) I’ll be carbonating the draft late next week so it will be on tap at The Ale House shortly.
Speaking of DC beer week, I’m very excited about the release of our collaboration with 3 Stars brewing Co. 3 Stars are a new start up, just in the process of putting their brewery together in DC. I’ve known 3 Stars’ Dave Coleman for a while now as he is also the bar manager of DC beer bar The Big Hunt. They’d recently brewed with Evolution to produce a beer for the recent Savor event so, with DC beer week looming, we invited Dave and his business partner Mike in to brew something special with us. After an intense period of email/text/twitter messages we came up with a recipe for a rye Pale Ale which we’ve named “BW Rye”. It weighs in at 7% abv, is deep amber in color (crystal & crystal rye malts) and has a pleasantly dry finish (accentuated by the use of rye) with an assertive hop presence (generously bittered with Centennial, finished with Cascade and dry hopped in tank with Liberty & Cascade). BW Rye debuts tonight at Meridian Pint and will be at various locations around DC during beer week. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we enjoyed brewing it!
So, onto the business at hand, The Friday Question! Many moons ago I asked what the combined weight of grain & hops in batch # 3500 is? The answer is 645 lbs which makes David Bridges the winner. Congratulations sir, you win a growler of Oliver Ale and a bottle of something from the brewery fridge! This week’s question is simple … what total % of the grain bill of BW Rye did the rye make up? Please post your answer via the comment option below. The winner gets a growler of Oliver Ale and a bottle of something and, will of course be the envy of their friends as they join the friday Question winners club.
have at it & good luck!
The Friday Question
June 17th, 2011
I hope you’re all aware that the Strongman Pale Ale single hop Sorachi Ace has returned to the taps of the Pratt Street Ale House. This batch is 8.3% abv and I managed to squeeze a little extra hop into it this time. It really has got wonderful, unique characteristics and if you haven’t tried it yet I urge you to do so soon, it won’t be around for long! I’ve sent some cask & draft out to some of the usual places (Max’s, ChurchKey, Meridian Pint, Punks Grill, Pizzeria Paradiso, T-Bonz, Big Hunt and Churchkey) so if you can’t get to the Ale House seek it out. Also coming soon will be the second batch of Draft Punk. The bulk of the batch is sitting on a couple of pounds of Cascade in conditioning tank. The rest is in cask, some dry hopped with Cascade, some with Citra. Casks will be distributed next week to ChurchKey, Frisco Taphouse, Meridian Pint, The Mount Airy Inn, Pizzeria Paradiso and Max’s. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough to save one for the Ale House <sob> so you’ll probably see me sipping a pint at one of the above fine establishments. Also back on tap at The Pratt Street Ale House is Bulldog Bitter, a classic English amber bitter, 4.3% abv brewed with English Maris Otter, Crystal 45, roasted barley and malted wheat and bittered & finished with Kent Goldings and Bramling Cross. … it’s an easy drinking delight, come get some. It will also be on the beer engine next week. Casks are already out and about and it will be featured at the wonderful Metropolitan Coffee House as their Thursday firkin soon.
Jacob’s Summer Celebration moved from fermentation to conditioning tank yesterday and is maturing on a bed of whole leaf Liberty (y’know, coz it’s being released on July 4th, Jacob’s birthday!) Casks are filled, again, all dry hopped with Liberty and a couple also have oak added. They’ll go into distribution on the 4th. The release at the Ale House on the 4th will feature both cask and draft and we’ll (hopefully) have some logo glassware for the event, watch for details soon.
We’re plotting another collaborative brew with one of our DC friends to celebrate DC beer week in August … can’t say too much about it yet but we should be hammering out the recipe details and announcing it officially next week. It also looks likely that we’ll have our friends from Meridian Pint in the brewery again soon, I’ll post more about that soon.
So, The Friday Question! A couple of weeks ago I told you that I’d be brewing batch# 3500. Needless to say I wanted to make this milestone brew something special … a never to be repeated one-off. I decided upon a red ale … I’m loathe to bandy around the term “Imperial” but you get the picture … a “big” Red Ale. Yesterday was brew day … I packed the mash tun with as much grain as I could squeeze in (for those interested, a base of English halcyon and Canadian Pale Ale malt, malted wheat, a little chocolate malt, crystal 45 and German melanoidin), packed the hop back with as much leaf Cascade & Mount Hood as possible and bittered with English Target and American Chinook. I also added some light brown sugar and Juniper berries to the boil and the brew will be dry hopped in tank with more Cascade and Mount Hood.
Not much chance of getting any more grain into this brew!
... or any more leaf hop in the hop back for that matter!
I’d asked what the original gravity of the brew would be? I received a lot of “near miss” answers but nobody nailed it. The brew came in at a very respectable 1.090 which makes Mike (who answered 1.089) and M. Batley (who answered 1.091) joint winners. Congratulations gentlemen, I’ll be in touch.
This week I’ll stick with batch #3500 and ask what is the combined weight of grain and hops that will have been used in this brew? As usual, please answer via the comment option below. The winner gets a growler of Oliver Ale and a bottle of something! By the way, in case you hadn’t already seen it on the Oliver Ales facebook page I’m running a sort of competition to design the tap logo for the brew (which will simply be know as 3500) … so, any budding designers who want to have a shot at it please email me your idea at steve.oliverale@gmail.com within the next two weeks and you’ll get to be the guest of honor at the beer release!
Cheers
The Friday Question
June 3rd, 2011
That was a brutal week! As I’m sure you noticed, it was damn hot! We brewed 5 times and the mercury was definitely rising in the brewhouse. I ended the week brewing Bulldog Bitter, a 4.3% abv classic English ale brewed with Maris Otter, crystal 45, roasted barley and malted wheat and generously hopped with Kent Goldings and Bramling Cross. It will be featured on cask and draft at The Ale House. Batch # 2 of Strongman Pale Ale (single hop Sorachi Ace) is currently in conditioning (bright tank) prior to carbonation. Casks (dry hopped with Sorachi Ace) will be distributed next week. Casks are limited of course, expect to see them at ChuchKey, Meridian Pint and one or two other outlets. Next week I’ll be brewing “Jacob’s Summer Celebration” for release on Jacob’s birthday, July 4th. If you want to attach a “style” to the brew I guess it would be classed as an Imperial Amber ale … ie amber, strong (8.8%) and generously hopped. You may recall that the specifics of the brew were determined by Jacob’s birth weight, 8lb 13oz, hence 8.8% abv, with 8lb 13oz of bittering hops and 8lb 13oz of finishing hops. The hop grist is split equally between English and American varieties (reflecting his parentage) and, being as the little scamp was born on July 4th, Liberty is used for dry hopping. Also on the brew schedule next week is a second batch of Draft Punk. I’ll be tweaking the recipe a little, a touch more Chinook here, a dash more Cascade there and I’ll be dry hopping casks with Citra and some with Cascade. As with the first batch, a limited number of casks and sixtels will be distributed to a few select outlets (details as ever will be posted on the Oliver ales Facebook page) but the bulk will of course be divided between the Ale House and Punks Backyard Grill.
So, The Friday Question … Last week I asked you to guess the price
per pint of an Apricot Ale that I brewed with the Firkin Brewery back
in England in the 90′s. The answer was £1.80 which makes Mark the winner with his guess of £1.82 congratulations sir, you win some delicious Porter. This week I’ll be offering another growler of Oliver Ales of course and I’m sure we can find a bottle or two of something interesting as well. The Question will run for a little longer than usual as I won’t know the answer until about June 15th when we brew batch #3500 which is going to be an “imperial” red ale with juniper. The question is this. What will be the Original Gravity of batch #3500? (for example 3 Lions Ale is 1.075) Good luck and, as per usual, please post your answer via the comment option. Have a great weekend.
Third Annual Homebrew Competition Details
May 31st, 2011
OK homebrewers, it’s getting to that time of year again, time for the Annual Oliver’s Homebrew Competition. The premise is simple … it’s tough coming up with so many seasonal one off brews, so why not let someone else do the work! I invite all of you homebrewers to submit a beer that you think would fit well with our line-up at the Pratt Street Ale House … there are no style guidelines, you can brew whatever you’d like, just be aware that we will be judging based on what we think would compliment our other beers and will be cost effective to brew (so if you’re using rare flowers that you handpicked on your recent trip to Kilimanjaro, we’re not going to choose it, no matter how good the brew is!) Obviously we’re probably going to brew it with our house yeast strain unless there’s another strain readily available at low additional cost (and remember, it’s all open fermentation here so we don’t want any crazy yeast strains floating around)! This is the third year we’ve run the competition. The first year’s winner was an American style brown ale, last year’s winner was a bitter brewed with black tea (read more about it here). You could be joining us for 2011′s brew which will be released as part of our celebrations for Baltimore Beer Week in October. The brew will be available on tap at the Ale House and other local outlets such as Max’s and will be featured at our stand at The Brewer’s Association Oktoberfest and The Real Ale Festival. Fame if not fortune could be yours … I noticed that last year’s winner Judy got some screen time on the recent “Brewed On The Bay” documentary as we poured her “High tea” at last year’s Oktoberfest. You also get a keg of the brew to take home. The deadline for drop off is Friday August 19th either here at The Ale House or at Maryland Homebrew in Columbia. Judging will be early the following week and, their schedules permitting, I will again be joined by Brian Strumke and Nick Liechty for the judging. Please submit a copy of the recipe with your brew, we obviously will take into account the nature of the ingredients as well as the beer itself when making our decision. Good luck!
Last year's winner, Judy, with Bruce & myself at last year's "High Tea" cask night at Metropolitan
The Friday Question
May 27th, 2011
The beer festival season rolls on my friends (though not for me, I’m taking the weekend off) with the Brewers Association of Maryland Springfest at the Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick tomorrow. All of your favourite local breweries will be represented with a veritable smorgasbord of craft beer. Go say hello to Justin & crew, who will be pouring Ironman Pale Ale, Draft Punk, Pagan Porter and Channel Crossing #4. Also on the local Beer Fest calendar is Brew At The Zoo in support of the Maryland Zoo. A worthy cause for sure but regrettably we will not be participating as 1) we don’t have enough beer available for the event and 2) the zoo charge a $300 table fee and I am not a fan of the whole “pay to play” thing! Wherever you end up drinking craft ale this weekend, have a safe one!
Apparently last week’s Friday Question was far too easy … Steve was on it like a bat out of Hell and therefore wins a growler of the Oliver Ale of his choice and a bottle of the wonderful Menagerie #5 from our friends at Evoluton Brewing. Congratulations sir.
This week I’ll have to make it a little more obscure I guess so here goes … Back in the day with the Firkin Brewery in Loughborough I brewed a 4.7% Amber ale with fresh apricots … How much was a pint of said beer at the Fletcher & Firkin in Nottingham (yes, in £ and pence). Up for grabs are a trio of Porters … A growler of our own Pagan Porter, a bottle of Founder’s Porter (not available in MD) and a bottle of BrewDog’s Alice Porter (not available in the US).
Want to drink some porter?
Be warned though, if you win I expect you to review them for a blog post. Simple enough, eh? Have at it then … As usual please post your answer via the comment option. Good luck.
Cheers
The Friday Question
May 20th, 2011
You may have noticed that the Friday question took the week off last week, too much else going on with the whole brewing thing and setting up the Real Ale festival, but we’re back bigger, better, faster, stronger etc! Hope everybody’sbeen having a good time with American Craft Beer Week this week. Lots going on, in fact it’s starting to feel like a dress rehearsal for Baltimore Beer Week! Tonight sees our third new beer release this week with the “HoCo Summer Session” release party at T-Bonz. Don’t be fooled by the name though, this is in no way a session beer. This wheat ale, brewed especially for T-Bonz and Victoria Gastro Pub, is 7.5% abv and was brewed with agave and elderflowers, bittered with Sorachi Ace and Chinook and finished with Cascade. A few casks were also filled, dry hopped with Cascade and elderflowers. Check out Baltimore Beer Guy’s blog for more details of the brew day and tonight’s release.
Tomorrow we’ll be at Clyde’s Inaugral Craft Beer Tasting pouring 3 Lions Ale, Golden Glory (wheat ale with ginger, lemongrass and coriander) and Channel Crossing #4 and we’ll also be at Hudson Street Stackhouseat 6pm for a pint night featuring a firkin of 3 Lions Ale (dry hopped with Kent Goldings & Bramling Cross and with French Oak) and on draft Bishop’s Breakfast stout, Cherry Blossom Ale and Channel Crossing #4. We’ll be giving away some glassware (limited supply, come early), so come grab a pint or two and say hello!
So, in the last Friday Question I asked about a city/venue that the band I worked for played on our US tour. It was an impossible question I guess as I’m not even sure of the accuracy of the information in the tour itinerary (but hey, the tour manager was American so we trusted him!) Anyway, nobody got it, the answer is shown below
Baltimore to Toronto, Lee's palace was the venue.
This week I’ll return to the beer theme. An old advertising campaign boldly asserted that “Beer Is Best” and that it contained “yeast for vitality” and “sugar for energy”. What beneficial properties were assigned to malt and hops? On offer this week is a growler of Oliver Ale and a 750ml bottle of the excellent “Menagerie #5″ (an Imperial Russian Stout aged in bourbon barrels) from our friends at Evolution Craft brewing Co. (courtesy of their man Tommy, follow him on twitter @EvolutionTom) as always post your answer via the comment option, good luck.
Trust me, you want to win this!
The Real Ale Festival is almost here!
May 11th, 2011
Where are you going to be on Saturday? I hope you’ll be enjoying some of the finest cask ales in the land with me at The Pratt Street Ale House. If you haven’t got a ticket yet, don’t delay, go to www.prattstreetalefest.com now. Purchase your ticket, print out the receipt and bring it along with photo ID on Saturday and you’re all set … cask ale nirvana is within your reach! Here’s a list of what we’ll be offering:
Stone Ruination IPA dry-hopped Amarillo,
Evolution Lot 6 Double IPA & a pin (5-gallon cask) of a one-off Bacon Porter (!)
Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale dry hopped with Cascade
Mamas Little Yella Pils w/ rosehips
Old Chub w/ coconut
Weyerbacher Blanche
Flying Fish Exit 4 w/ Centennial & Citra
Hopfish IPA dry hopped with centennial
Brewer’s Art Resurrection
Stillwater/Brewer’s Art Debutante
Stillwater Beaujolais cask Existent (only for VIP hour)
Troegs Javahead Stout (dry hopped with Columbus)
Great Divide Yeti
BrewDog Paradox Isle of Arran
Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Red, White & Birch (red oak/white oak/birch)
Stoudt’s Heifer-in-Wheat w/ kumquat
Yards Saison (dry hopped with Kent Goldings)
The Raven Lager
Flying Dog Gonzo on oak
Doggie Style Pale Ale double dry hopped with CTZ (Columbus, Tomahawk,Zeus) and Centennial
Breckenridge Summer Bright with Simcoe Hops
471 IPA w/ glacier
White Marsh Daily Crisis IPA, A10-Warthog Ale
Brewer’s Alley Oatmeal Stout [a blend of 2/3 Oatmeal Stout aged in a Woodford Reserve Bourbon barrel for 3 weeks & 1/3 "virgin" Oatmeal Stout]
DuClaw 2010 Devil’s Milk aged in Jack Daniels Whiskey Barrel
Dog Brewing Java Stout with French oak, cacao nibs, espresso beans & vanilla
Oliver Hot Monkey Love batch #2 2010 drawn directly from oak barrel (aged 10 months)
Pagan Porter with vanilla
Draft Punk Beaujolais cask w/ Juniper & honey (for VIP hour)
Oliver/Stillwater Channel Crossing #4 dry hopped w/ Tettnanger
I hope you’ll agree, this event is not to be missed.
There’ll be Designated Driver tix available at the door : $10 free soda with a 25% discount on food
The Friday Question
May 6th, 2011
I’m going to keep this post short and sweet. In my last post I detailed our activities for the month but a quick addition is that of a pint night at The Hudson St. StackHouse on Saturday 21st May at 6pm. We’ll be there with a cask of 3 Lions Ale, dry hopped with Kent Goldings & Bramling Cross and aged with French Oak (and a few drafts to boot). If you haven’t been to the Stackhouse yet come and check it out, it’s a great place, good beer list (and they’re adding more draft lines soon) and good food and friendly staff.
So, last week I asked how many Paul Weller tracks (including the Jam) are on my I-pod? For those who thought it would include the Style Council also, NO! They suck! There are a total of 248 songs on there, 108 of the Jam and 140 of Mr. Weller. Again, I realise that it looks like the fix is in but … Dave of Punks Grill wins it with his guess of 258. Congratulations sir, you win a growler of Oliver Ale and a bottle or two of something from BrewDog (when it finally arrives).
This week I’m (sort of) sticking with a musical theme. After abandoning my PhD in Biochemistry I worked for my friend’s band for a couple of years. In 1993 we toured the US for 3 weeks. On Sunday July 25th we played the 8 x 10 in good ol’ B’more and, after a restful night at the Quality Inn on Russel Street we drove (according to my tour itinerary) 501 miles to …. Which city and what venue did we play there? As always a growler of Oliver Ale is up for grabs as well as a six pack of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale …. Sound tempting? Well, get your slide rule, compass and map out and get to it (or alternatively log on to this new fangled inter web thing and let that do all of the work)
What’s Going On
May 5th, 2011
May is shaping up to be a busy month. Next Wednesday I have the pleasure of making another foray into N. Virginia for a cask pint night at Public House #7in Falls Church. We’ll be serving a firkin of dry hopped Ironman Pale Ale … come say hello, grab a pint or two and take home a souvenir Oliver Ales pint glass (while stocks last).
As you should already know, Saturday May 14th is Real Ale Festival day at the Pratt Street Ale House (www.prattstreetalefest.com). We’ll have some awesome casks on offer including the likes of Oskar Blues Old Chub with vanilla beans, Yards Saison, Heavy Seas Loose Cannon (with Red oak, White oak & birch), Flying Dog Gonzo with a spin, Stoudts Kumquat Hefeweizen, Flying Fish Exit 4, Hot Monkey Love batch #2 drawn directly from oak barrel (aged 10 months), Brewer’s Art Resurrection, Sillwater/Brewer’s Art Debutante and many more! Don’t delay, get your ticket today (available via the website).
Monday 16th sees the start of American Craft Beer Week. We kick it off with the release of “Draft Punk”, a 7% abv IPA brewed for Punk’s Backyard Grill in Annapolis. They’ll have both draft and cask available at a special price of $3/pint for the release event and we’ll be there with some glassware to give away.
Tuesday 17th will see Channel Crossing #4, our collaboration with Stillwater as the featured American Craft Beer at my local, The Falls in Mt. Washington. CC#4 is a Belgian style take on an English ESB, 6.8%, dry hopped with German Tettnanger.
Wednesday 18th we’ll be at Union Jacks in Columbia with a firkin of “17″ our classic English Session Bitter, come talk beer with us, enjoy a few pints and take home a souvenir pint glass (while stocks last).
Friday sees the release of the as yet unnamed beer we brewed for T-Bonz and Victoria Gastro Pub. It’s a wheat ale, 7.5% abv brewed with agave and elderflowers … I’ll post more details about the releases when they’re confirmed!
On Saturday 21st Clyde’s of Columbia are holding a craft beer event 1 -5pm. I’m not sure of the details yet, again, I’ll post more when I know.
Saturday 28th is The Brewer’s Association Springfest at Frederick Keys … a great event featuring all of your favorite Maryland breweries … tickets available through the website link.
The Friday Question
May 2nd, 2011
Apologies for my tardiness with Friday’s scheduled post … tried to do it Friday evening but after a 5 brew week I just couldn’t muster the energy. I got as far as writing the title but then stared at the blank screen for 10 minutes before giving up! Anyway, better late than never!
Thanks to all who stopped by for a beer at The City Paper Beer Festival on Saturday, as usual it was a great start to the Festival season. Don’t forget that the Spring Real Ale Fest is coming up on the 14th (www.prattstreetalefest.com). As the casks start rolling in over the next week I’ll post updates on the Oliver Ales facebook page. I’ve added a little bonus for the VIP ticket holders … there’ll be a 4 gallon beaujolais nouveau cask from Stillwater Ales and one from myself available only during the VIP preview hour.
Tomorrow evening we’ll be at Mahaffey’sfor a pint night 6 -8pm with a pin of Ironman dry hopped with Cascade and draft “17″, 3 Lions Ale, Golden Glory and Cherry Blossom Ale. Stop by for a pint or two and say hi to Derek, who has bravely joined the Oliver Ales crew!
For last week’s Friday Question I asked how many songs are on my i-pod? The i-pod is an important part of my brewery routine … it plays throughout the course of each 10 hour brew day and helps me maintain a degree of sanity … anyone who has ventured into our dungeon brewery knows what I mean! I’ve got a lot of songs on it, after all, I don’t want the same tunes popping up on shuffle all the time, in fact I have 28001 at the moment (though a weekend trip to Record & Tape Traders means I’ve got a few more cd’s to rip now … and yes chwi, there is a lot of Paul Weller)
That makes Dave G the winner with his guess of 25613, congratulations sir, a growler of Oliver Ales is yours for the taking (and I think I’ve got a delicious Ommegang in the fridge as well). This week I’m sticking with the i-pod theme and, inspired by the comment from chwi (bmorebottleaday.blogspot.com), I’m asking how many Paul Weller tracks are on there (including The Jam) … I’ll be offering the traditional growler of Oliver Ale plus a bottle of something tasty (I’m expecting a delivery from BrewDog any day now) … this one should sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak … good luck