Posts Tagged ‘Cask Ale’
new on cask
Monday, September 21st, 2009
New on our Brewer’s Choice cask is the Harvest Ale. The regular Harvest has been selling very well since going on tap last week (almost a keg per day) so make sure you try the Harvest cask soon, I don’t think it’ll be around for long, there’s only one firkin available.
here’s a couple of photos of our cask room
cask dispense at the Pratt Street Ale House (note firkins and kilderkins)
cask dispense at the Pratt Street Ale House (note firkins and kilderkins)
All of our casks are on auto tilt stillage, 2 casks for each beer engine, one being the served and a back-up, vented, tapped and ready to go. The serving casks are hooked up to a cask breather system which allows the head space of the cask to replace beer volume with CO2 at low pressure each time a pint is pulled at the bar. This helps prolong the lifetime of the product as otherwise the head space volume is replaced by air which will result in oxidation of the beer. Pretty cool, eh?
Look out for our Pagan Porter with vanilla @ the Metropolitan Coffee House and Wine Bar at this Thursday’s cask night (upstairs bar from 6pm).
mid-week round-up
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
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
the friday question
Friday, August 7th, 2009
Firstly, a big thanks to all those who went along to the Firkin night at the Metropolitan Coffee House yesterday for our Chelsea Best Bitter. I’m proud to say that the firkin kicked in record time, an hour better than the previous record I’m informed. Speaking of the Chelsea Best that leads me nicely to the answer to last week’s question. The Ale House sold 912 pints of Chelsea Best over the course of the 2 day celebration of the Chelsea vs AC Milan game, so, congratulations to Sam, who guessed 724 and wins a growler of Oliver Ale for getting closest!
So, the results are in for the Champion American Beer at the Great British Beer Festival. Congratulations go to the Cambridge Brewing Co. and there “YouEnjoyMyStout” . That leads me to this weeks Friday question … a particular company supplied firkins from 26 U.S. breweries to this years’ GBBF. What is the total number of firkins that they shipped? As usual please post your answer via the comment option below and you good win something!
Things seem to be hotting up for the Baltimore Beer Week this coming October and I’ve heard lots of talk of events being planned and hopefully some more details will appear on the official website (www.baltimorebeerweek.com) in the near future. I can tell you that we will be participating in meet the brewery pint nights at Metropolitan Coffee House (Federal Hill) on Wed. October 14th and Bertha’s (Fells Point) on Thurs. October 15th. More Oliver events will be announced soon.
Cheers
Steve
Brewery
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Brewing this week… so far Three Lions Ale, Ironman Pale Ale and Blonde Ale are all in fermenting vessel. Today we’re brewing the Summer Light Ale and tomorrow it’s going to be the Irish Red … busy week.
New on the Brewer’s Choice hand pump is the Nut Brown Ale infused with 6 oz. of raw organic cacao nibs. The cacao gives a slight hint of chocolate upfront which fades into the malt body with a little chocolate in the nose as well.
Look out for the regular Nut Brown Ale on cask soon at Frisco Grille and Metropolitan Coffee House (Federal Hill). Coming soon to the hand pumps of Max’s Taphouse, Fells Point will be our Best Bitter, Dark Mild and Vanilla Porter. Also look out for us on tap at The Parkside and Racers Cafe (both on the Harford Road).
For the homebrewer’s out there, Olivers/Pratt Street Ale House will be running a homebrew competition to coincide with Baltimore Beer Week. We’re inviting submissions from homebrewers during the first week of September. You can brew any style you like but remember this, it must be something that we can replicate at our brewery using our English (Ringwood) Ale Yeast and must be a beer that will be commercially viable (ie we need to sell 7 barrels of it!). Judging will be simple, we will taste all offerings and decide which one will be the best fit with the other ales we have on offer. The winner will be invited to the brewery to oversee the brewing process and the winning beer will debut at the Oliver stand at the BAM Oktoberfest at the Timonium Fairgrounds (October 10th), will be on tap at The Pratt Street Ale House throughout Baltimore Beer Week and will be offered on cask at The Chesapeake Real Ale Festival (October 17th). Good luck. E-mail me with comments or for further details.
Cheers
Steve