Posts Tagged ‘Real Ale Festival’
Real Ale Festival News
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
I’m very pleased to announce that due to the overwhelming demand for tickets to this coming Saturday’s Real Ale Festival at The Pratt Street Ale House, a further 25 have been made available. They are available through advance purchase ($35) through www.spbw.org . A limited number of tickets may be available on the door ($40) on a first come first serve basis. The beer line-up is as follows:
Oliver Ales : Hot Monkey Love
Oliver Ales : Oak Aged 3 Lions
Oliver Ales : Mocha Java Porter
The Brewer’s Art : Resurrection Ale infused with blackberries
Flying Dog : Gonzo Imperial Porter
Pub Dog : Golden Belgian Ale
Stillwater Artisinal Ales : Stateside Saison
Arcadia : Angler’s Ale dry hopped with Goldings
Arcadia : I.P.A. dry hopped with Cascade
Weyerbacher : Hops Infusion
and providing the container is cleared by customs in time a cask from Craigmill (Scotland).
The festival runs from noon through 5 pm and as always sampling is unlimited (until the casks are empty).
Hope to see you all on Saturday.
March Madness – Firkin Style (revisited)
Thursday, 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!
Real Ale Festival Tickets Now On Sale
Saturday, 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
Friday, 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 Anatomy of a beer festival
Monday, October 19th, 2009
Baltimore Beer Week is over. The dust has settled (or should I try a more beer-centric analogy …. perhaps “the lacing is on the glass”) and we have a few moments of quiet reflection before going about our business. Our business of course is making beer so not much change really except maybe I can get a bit of sleep and spend some time with my son! I have to admit that the 10 days of Baltimore Beer Week were filled with contradictions for me. Much of this has to do with unrelated influences but, nothing exists in an isolated state, so the rigors of daily life imposed themselves on occasion and made for a very tense and stressful time! Without doubt though the Beer Week was a joyous celebration of all things beer. The scope of events was mind boggling and certainly required some careful planning in order to maximize the number of events that one could attend. In terms of scale there is little that could come close to the Oktoberfest at the fairgrounds but most important for me was the 6th Annual Chesapeake Real Ale Festival. This event is close to my heart for a number of reasons. I have a personal involvement with the event as I have been fortunate enough to work with the wonderful people of the SPBW (big shout out to Dominic and Alan) for these last 6 years as the host brewer. Also cask conditioned ale is the cornerstone of my brewing history. The first 6 years of my brewing career were spent with the Firkin Brewery, brewing nothing but cask conditioned ale. I had not even touched a keg until I started brewing for Oliver’s. So, for me, cask conditioned ale is the norm rather than some sort of niche product. You may have noticed that cask conditioned ale is often referred to as “Real Ale” and there is good reason for this. It is ale in it’s most natural form. It has a purity, if you like, untouched by the processing techniques of the modern brewery. The cask is filled directly from the fermenting vessel with the addition of finings (to aid yeast flocculation and ultimately it’s removal from the beer that is served at the bar) and is designed to mature in the cellar. Secondary fermentation in the cask produces a low level of carbonation. The beer is then ready to be vented, tapped and served. Cask ales are not designed to be aged excessively, in fact the opposite is true. Whilst some of the “bigger” beers benefit from aging (for example, our Hot Monkey Love had been in cask for 8 months prior to the festival) most ales should be used within about 4 weeks of the fill date.
So, onto the Real Ale Festival …. preparation started in earnest several months ago when Alan Moore of the SPBW began the laborious task of contacting brewers, distributors and sales reps to gain commitments to supply casks to the festival. Over time a list grew and we knew that this was going to be a very special festival. The placement of the event as one of the closing highlights of the first ever Baltimore Beer Week helped push this celebration of cask ale to an unprecedented scale! Clearly we were going to need more casks than ever before. Fortunately people such as Erin Tyler of Legends Ltd exist and was on board early to help arrange for us to ship empty casks to the Boulder Brewery, Weyerbacher, The Bruery and Lagunitas so that we were able to offer the festival goer a more diverse range of cask ale than ever before. Of course this whole process is never as straightforward as it sounds and the possibility of some no shows sent us scrambling around for more casks (and a big shout out to Casey at Max’s and Clipper City for helping out here!) For whatever reasons casks we had hoped to get from Lagunitas, Magic Hat and Evolution did not happen but we still managed to present the best line-up of cask beer that I have seen for a very long time. Needless to say we had various other logistical issues to deal with from making sure that we had enough tapping equipment, planning where we would put all of these casks to ensure that everybody attending would have the best possible festival experience and so on. Obviously this is still a learning experience and some issues that we hadn’t foreseen will be addressed next year, most notably bathroom facilities to deal with the increased number of attendees. Set up of the actual festival is made easier by the army of volunteers supplied by the SPBW who hauled all of the casks from the basement and placed them all per our set-up plan. Assistant brewer Justin oversaw this part of the deal and I returned later that night (2.30am to be precise) to deal with the task of venting and tapping the 39 casks we had distributed throughout the Ale House.
Just finding storage space for all of the casks was a challenge
It turns out that venting and tapping that many casks is quite an undertaking and I didn’t leave the Ale House until 6.30am. It felt like managed to get to bed just in time to get up and go back to work! I’ll have to plan this one a bit better next year. Of course, the proper stillaging, venting and tapping of the casks is of paramount importance to quality of the product. We wanted to ensure that all of the beer was presented in the correct way so that the beer had time for the yeast to settle and excess carbonation to vent. Tapping can sometime be hazardous as a few casks were excessively lively and in one case there was so much pressure that the tap was blown from my hand and I was left wearing a few pints of pale ale! Not fun.
the lounge area. Mmm .... Hot Monkey Love
side patio
side patio
upstairs bar area
upstairs bar
upstairs function room
Once the final beer line-up was in place Alan made laminated signs for each one and Sarah our events coordinator printed out a list of all of the beers with room for the discerning beer fan to make notes and we even provided pencils … that’s how much we love you guys! The event was staffed by volunteers who did a wonderful job, cheerful and enthusiastic one and all! The Ale House provided a special festival menu for the day, as the weather negated the possibility of using the outside grill that we have used in previous years. Speaking of the weather, the cold rain didn’t seem to dampen anybody’s spirits. The outside areas were well covered and I hardly even noticed the rain (but hey, I’m English so I’m used to it!)
Mr. Alan Hew, member of the SPBW or English Country Gentleman ... you decide?
Bad weather can't keep people away from good beer!
under the tent on the side patio
side patio
Current president of the SPBW Alan Moore (left) and former president Dominic Cantalupo without whom these events wouldn't take place
Erin of Legends Ltd (supplier of many of the great beers present) and some brewer guy!
Alexander D.Mitchell lV (Correspondent for The Mid Atlantic Brewing News)(left) and Justin Dvorkin (Co-owner, Pratt St. Ale House)
the aftermath
So that’s it. The Real Ale Festival has come and gone for the 6th year. Bigger and better than ever before with more beer from more breweries than ever. More people than I could possibly mention were involved in making this event such a success. You know who you are. Thank you. Here’s to next year!
Cheers
Steve
Real Ale Festival Update
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Preparations for the Real Ale Festival are going well. It looks as if the weather isn’t going to co-operate this year but the side patio will be tented in preparation for rain. This year will also be the first year that we will be using the first floor bar and library room for firkins to help ease congestion …. it’s going to be a busy one …. advance sales have already hit the 400 mark! Firkins are being delivered daily. There are some real treats for you this year such as the Stone Oak Aged Arrogant Bastard (well named considering the hoops they made us jump through to get it here!) and excellent selections from Flying Dog, Clipper City, Du Claw, Troegs, Lancaster and many more. I will post a full list after tomorrow’s delivery. Our cask room is fit to burst with all the additional firkins crammed into it!
Got Firkins?
This really is going to be an incredible festival and testament to the popularity of cask conditioned beer. If you haven’t already got a ticket, get one NOW!
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 sunday question !?
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
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
What’s happening ….
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Today I brewed an old favorite of mine, a 4.3% abv Best Bitter which is to go on tap as “Chelsea Best” to celebrate the forthcoming soccer match beween London’s Chelsea FC and AC Milan at the M & T Bank Stadium on July 24th. The Pratt Street Ale House will be the official headquarters of the Chelsea In America Supporters Club (see the events section of the site for more details) so it seems only proper that we honor them with a truly unique British brew. This bitter is deep amber in color, medium bodied with a bold, but balanced, hop presence. It is brewed using English Halcyon Pale Ale, Crystal and Chocolate malts along with malted wheat and is hopped with Kent Goldings and English Fuggles. This was a regular brew when I worked for the Firkin Brewery in England but I have brewed it just once in the U.S., to celebrate my 14th anniversary as a brewer in 2008. On that occasion I was myself honored by this beer being recognized as The Best Of Baltimore by The City Paper. “Chelsea Best” will, of course, be available as both a cask-conditioned and carbonated ale.
Speaking of unique beers, I conducted a taste test of the “Hot Monkey Love” winter seasonal today. The HML was brewed back in April and has been conditioning since then and will remain in conditioning until early October. The transformation since I first sampled it just a week after entering conditioning is remarkable. The harshness of the high alcohol (approximately 10%) has given way to a more mellow warmth with some sherry type undertones and a lingering sweetness. This beer is well worth the wait! Of particular interest this year is the fact that I’ve aged some firkins with American Oak (and some without the Oak). These will have been sitting in a quiet corner of our cask room for some 6 months before their debut tapping at the Chesapeake Real Ale Festival in October. It’ll be interesting to see how the vanilla and coconut flavors that the oak impart combine with the complexity of the beer.
Don’t forget, Tuesday night is Cask Night at The Pratt Street Ale House, with pints of all three of our cask-conditioned ales being only $3 after 5pm.
Cheers
Steve