Pratt Street Ale House » 3 lions

The Friday Question

Steve — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:01:55 +0000

Well it seems like last week’s question was a tricky one. I received only three answers, all different and none of which were the answer I was looking for although it was very interesting reading about these other breweries. The one that I was actually thinking of was the German Brewing Company in Cumberland, Maryland. The brewery began operations in 1901 but with the U.S. entering the First World War and increasing anti-German sentiment the directors thought it prudent to change the name to The Liberty Brewing Company. With the advent of Prohibition the name was changed to Queeno Co. until brewing operations resumed as The German Brewing Company in 1933. However the Second World War brought another change in name, this time to the Queen City Brewing Company which it retained until the brewery’s closure in the 1970s (although the Old German Beer brand was again used in the post war era). If you’re ever in Cumberland, check out the exhibit at The Allegany Museum, it’s interesting stuff.

On to this weeks question and back to the i-pod for one last time. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts the first thing I do when I get into the brewery in the morning is put the i-pod on shuffle and let it play until the end of the brewing day (about 9 hours later). As I write this “Magic” by Cud is playing … a 80′s Brit indie classic! What I want to know is how many songs on average will be played during the brewing day. Just so you know I will record how many play during next weeks brew days to work out the average. Please enter via the comment section below, one entry per person please. In case of a tie the winner will be selected at random from the tied entries. Up for grabs is a 3 Lions t-shirt and growler of 3 Lions Ale to help keep you warm on these cold Winter nights. Speaking of cold, it’s 46F down here so I’m practically sitting on the office heater as I write this in a vain attempt to stay “warm” (which is very much a relative term down here).

The week is rounding out with an Irish Red. We have a 3 Lions, Dark Horse and Pagan Porter in fermentation so expect to see these in cask in the coming weeks. We’ll be doing some of the Porter casks with vanilla, a favorite of mine and of course we’ll be aging some of the 3 Lions on Oak. Next week we’ll be brewing the Scottish Ale and The Bishop’s Indulgence (yes, you can pay to get to Heaven), our next 2 seasonal offerings as well as the Ironman Pale Ale and Amber Ale.

Have a great weekend.

Cheers

Steve

Roadtrip

Steve — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:03:10 +0000

Yesterday afternoon Assistant Brewer Justin Damadio, co-owner of The Pratt Street Ale House Justin Dvorkin and myself went on a short road trip to D.C. We’ve recently started distributing in the D.C. area so thought it was about time we visited a couple of the bars that have been serving our beer. We met up with our FP Winner rep, Mike, who’s been doing an awesome job for us and headed off to the District Chop House to visit old friend Barret and sample a couple of his beers before visiting our accounts. As usual I had a Bourbon Barrel Stout from the beer engine, an excellent beer with a powerful bourbon presence. As you may recall from an earlier post we will be investing in some Woodford Reserve Barrels in the near future to do some limited runs of bourbon aged strong ales. We then headed down the street to RFD who have featured a number of our beers on taps in recent weeks and had just kicked a firkin of Dark Horse mild. I tried a Brooklyn Manhattan Project which I confess I didn’t particularly care for. We then headed off to Birch & Barley/ChurchKey which I have to say I was particularly excited about. ChurchKey has emerged as the jewel in the crown of the cask beer scene in D.C. with 5 beer engines and I am very pleased that they have been serving a variety of our ales from firkins.

Birch & Barley/ ChurchKey

With 50 regular taps, 5 beer engines and over 500 bottled beers this place is quite the beer mecca. The interior is extremely stylish and the “Beer Organ” in the downstairs bar is a stunning backdrop.

The "Beer Organ"

I had the pleasure of talking with Beer Director Greg Engert who, as you would expect for such a bar, was knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Without doubt this place is a wonderful addition to the beer scene in D.C. We will be supplying many firkins to ChurchKey so expect to see an Oliver Ale on one of the beer engines on a regular basis. Last night they were pouring the Best Bitter (of which we will be supplying more next week). Today they will be taking delivery of a firkin of Oak Aged Winter Warmer (which is the only place you’ll be able to get it outside of the Ale House) so look out for that soon.

Beer Director Greg Engert discusses cask conditioned ales.

Whilst there I had the pleasure of sampling cask conditioned Isle Of Arran Paradox from BrewDog, Harviestoun Schiehallion and of course our own Best Bitter.

Last, but not least we made the trip up to the Commonwealth Gastro Pub in Columbia Heights where we enjoyed many pints of our Dark Horse mild from one of their two beer engines. I must admit that I felt very comfortable at Commonwealth, chatting with the regulars over a few pints and wish that we hadn’t had to brave the early evening rain and make our way back to Baltimore. Bill at Commonwealth will start doing some pins on the bar in the near future so we’ll be supplying a pin of Oak Aged 3 Lions next month, I’ll keep you posted as to when it will be served.

All in all it was a very enjoyable break from the brewery routine and we look forward to returning to do some promotional pint nights in the New Year.

Happiness is a warm… beer

Steve — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:51:14 +0000

Well, not warm exactly but not cold! It turns out that a great way to spend a cold, wet Thursday night is to sup a few pints of Oak Aged 3 Lions served straight from the cask on the back bar at Bertha’s! With the beer at about a perfect 52F I can’t think of too many places I would rather have been last night. The only thing missing was a roaring open fire and it would have been heavenly. At 7.5% alcohol by volume the alcohol warmth of the 3 Lions is perfect for such miserable weather but it ‘s really the hints of coconut and vanilla that the oak aging imparts, the open malt flavors that the correct serving temperature allows and the calm, subtle carbonation of the cask conditioning that really bring this beer to life! Of course as many of you already know the Chesapeake Real Ale Festival tomorrow will offer an abundance of such delights. It really is going to be one of the most important events of the festival season so make sure you don’t miss it.

Cheers

USQUE AD MORTEM BIBENDUM

Steve

the sunday question !?

Steve — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:00:15 +0000

O.K., as you may have noticed, Friday came and went without the Friday question. Sorry about that but we were buried in the brewery and I couldn’t find time to log on! On a positive note though, our new kilderkins arrived (just in the nick of time) so I spent the morning cleaning casks and filling them with E.S.B.

Saturday too came and went in a blur … this time courtesy of the DuClaw Real Ale Festival. All of the usual suspects were there with a couple of notable additions in Troegs with their Nugget Nectar and Javahead Stout and Stone with their Oaked Arrogant Bastard and Cali-Belgique. It was a very well run event as you’d expect from DuClaw and a good time was had by all. A special thanks go out to Brandon for helping serve our beer and of course to all those thirsty real ale fans for all the great feedback about our beers. My only criticism would be that maybe people should have been offered the chance to fill growlers at the 4pm cut-off … it was heartbreaking pouring away those last couple of gallons of Oak 3 Lions and dry hop Ironman Pale Ale!!!

Anyway, on to business …. There was only one correct entry to the last Friday question so instead of it being a 2 part question as I had originally intended, I will give a pair of Oktoberfest Tickets to last weeks winning entry and another pair of tickets to this weeks winning entry (Achtung! Our generosity knows no bounds!) As per usual, the first correct entry received via the “comments” link below wins, judges decision is final blah, blah, blah. The answer to last weeks question was …. drum roll … answer c) Ironman Pale Ale so congratulations go out to Mr. Scott Scharf, the winner of 2 tickets to Oktoberfest at The Timonium Fairgrounds on October 10th.

This weeks question …. as you may well know, the bitterness of a beer produced by hops is measured in terms of International Bitterness Units (IBUs). This seems to be of particular interest to some of my American colleagues who proudly proclaim their latest Double Imperial pale ale or whatever to contain 140 IBUs as if some sort of badge of honor! In context, an English Mild ale will typically have around 20 IBUs.

So the question is this … What is the IBU value for the Ironman Pale Ale, is it …

a)30

b)35

c)45

d)70

e) How the Hell would I know, the brewer has never calculated an IBU value in his life!

Good luck.

Steve

Three Lions and Tattoos

Steve — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:56:17 +0000

Please join us at The Pratt Street Ale House on the evening of Wednesday 12th August for a very special 3 Lions event. Come and see the brewer cry like a baby as he’s tattooed at the Ale House with the 3 Lions logo by local artist Norm of Art With A Pulse Tattoo Studio (www.awaptattoo.com). Fortunately, to ease the pain a kilderkin (that’s over 20 gallons) of Oak Aged 3 Lions strong brown ale will be available on cask. We’ve been aging this one for over 2 months so it’s going to be full of wonderful oak flavors! We’ll have beer specials all night long as well as giveaways (t-shirts, glassware etc) from 8pm. Come along and support your local brewery.

What’s happening ….

Steve — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:51:39 +0000

We racked the Chelsea Best today (see earlier post for details), firkins are filled and the rest of the brew will condition for a week before being carbonated. I’ve got to say I can’t wait to have my first pint of this one, quickly followed by my second pint of course, after all it is a session beer! Check out the logo for the tap handle, pretty cool, eh?

We’re going to raffle off the 2 tap handles at the post game celebration at the Pratt Street Ale House. Come along, buy a pint of Chelsea Best and you could walk away with one of the most unique souvenirs of this incredible event!

On the Brewer’s Choice handpull now is 3 Lions Ale, a 7.5% strong brown ale. If you’ve tried the regular 3 Lions tap you’ve got to try the cask version. You’ll be amazed by the malt flavors that come to the forefront of this complex beer when served on cask. Writing this is making me thirsty, I’d better go up to the bar and get one …. ah, that’s better, delicious! Keep an eye on the brewery news posts for details of a 3 Lions brewery celebration at the Ale House sometime in late July/early August. We’ll have a Kilderkin of Oak Aged 3 Lions on the beer engine (yep, you read it correctly … a kilderkin… 21.6 gallons, oh yeah) and a few special things going on! More details soon.

Don’t forget, enter the Friday competition …. you never know what you could win!

Cheers

Steve