Posts Tagged ‘Real Ale Festival’
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