Planet Brew

The Smithsonian runs a fund raising event every year called the Brew at the Zoo. I got a last minute ticket for this years event. They had beer from over 20 microbreweries, and served hors d’oeuvres from area restaurants. The price of the ticket included a Beer Glass, Food, and all the beer samples you can drink.

As you can see there was a large turn out from the local brewers

Capitol City Brewing Company, The District Chophouse and Brewery, Wild Goose Brewery, Clipper City Brewing Company, Great American Restuarants, Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, Hook & Ladder Brewing Company, Shenandoah Brewing Company, Gordon Biersch Brewery and Restaurant, Fordham Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, Old Dominion Brewery, Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Cristal, Cusqueña, Aguila, Boston Beer Company, Sierra Nevada Brewing, Harpoon Brewery, Brewery Ommegang, Magic Hat Brewing Company, Paleewong Trading Company, Anchor Brewing Company, Dogfish Head Brewery, EX. Matt Brewing Company, Abita Brewing Company, Allagash Brewing Company, Victory Brewing Company, Rogue Ales, North Coast Brewing Company, Belekus Imports, Premium Distributors, Captial Eagle, Inc., and Global Brewers Guild.

I didn’t have as many beers as some of the people I was there with but my personal beer list was

Clipper City’s Loose Cannon

Ommegang’s Hennepin

Brasserie Lefèbvre SA’s Blanche De Bruxelles

Brouwerij Riva SA’s Lucifer

North Coast’s Red Seal

Cusquena

Dog Fish Head’s 60 minute

Clipper City’s Oxford Raspberry

Sweet Water’s American Pale Ale Thanks Nick for the end of night fill my glass beyond the sample line.

On a recent trip to Toronto we had the good luck to visit the Beer Bistro on King Street. They have a large selection of beers on tap and in the fridges. I started the night with Caledonian 80, then moved on to some of the more local brews from Quebec. I was impressed with the La Maudite and the St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout.

One thing that shocked me was the cost of the American micro brews. I asked the friendly bar man about it and he said they had to special order the beer from the brewers, then have them delivered to the Ontario Liquor board who would take one bottle test it and then release the beer. The Beer Bistro would then have to have the bottles re-labled and shipped to Toronto. This means that a single bottle of Bells costs about the same a six pack in the US.

Notes from Dave at the Brick about two up coming events.

TWO events coming up, both are at the BRICKSKELLER
A SPECIAL BRICKSKELLER EVENT
APRIL 4TH

ONE NIGHT ONLY
Children’s Hospital Benefit Tasting

Join the Tuppers as they taste their 15,000th beer. Bob and Ellie will share highlights as well as the most embarrassing moments of their 30 year quest for great beer. Several brewers are bringing beers so new or so rare that not even the Tuppers have tasted them.

Beers include:

Tiny Tim, a “quirky ale” from Brewers’ Art

A Dry-Hopped Maibock from Jason Oliver at Gordon Biersch Stinky

An exceptionally hoppy beer from Starr Hill’s Mark Thompson

A new beer from Bill Madden’s new brewing home at Vintage 50

Holy Sheet Belgian Abbey style ale from Clipper City’s Heavy Seas selection

A specially dry-hopped-in-cask firkin of Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Al

A sample of 1988 Thomas Hardy’s Ale from the Tuppers’ own cellar. (ThomasHardy is our top rated beer of all time.)

….and more

watch Tuppers webpage for more updates!

All attendees get a souvenir Tuppers’ glass 100% of the admission price will be donated to Children’s Hospital

TICKETS ARE $50 for this benefit event at the good old Brickskeller

Call 202-293-1885 for reservations.

We will try to start the evening as close to 7pm as possible, doors open at 6 for those wishing to order off the menu before the evening starts.

Bruce Williams of Scotlands famous Heather Ale Brewery will appear at the Brickskeller April 10 and 11! We’re doing a cool program as always! Bruce is one of our favorite guests, we like him so much we’ve even stopped asking him to stop lifting his skirt on stage!!!!!

Bruce always has a wonderful program for these events, this one is no exception!

The first half of the show will be a hop Quiz – guess the hop – multiple choice, good fun and it’ll get y’all all lubed up for the second half onslaught of fantastic ales from the land of the kilted gods….. floor show, powerpoint misappropriation and selected abusive remarks will more than likely abound. Guests are warned that swearing may dominate the punctuation towards the end of the evening, but he’s got a good brogue, most of hiswords you can’t understand anyway! As always, doors open at 6, we really do try to start at 7 honest! WE LOVE BRUCE!!!!!!! c’mon down and welcome him back to DC! Tickets for this event are $35.00 and can be had by calling the BRICKSKELLER at 202-293-1885

As always a tip’o’the bottlecap and a please stay safe to all my buddies all over the world from BigPoppaHandPump /aka BeerGuyDave!

I need to stop shopping. This time I am in Whole Foods in Arlington and they are carrying large selection of beers that you might find interesting. For Clipper City they are carrying, Mchenry beer, Peg leg and the Oxford branded beer. They also have Dogfish Head: 60 min, 90 min and indian brown. For Smutty Nose: Shoals Pale Ale, IPA. Dominion: Hop Poocket and Ale. Legend had had 5 of the beers on the shelf. They also have Arrogant Bastard Ale and Ruination IPA from Stone Brewing Company and finally Avery’s Hog heaven and Rogue’s Brutal bitter. I probably missed a few on the shelf 🙂

A trip to World Market in Tysons Corner turned up and interesting selection of beer.They have 15 types of rogue beer in 22 oz bottles. Including the familiar dead guy ale. They also have some beer I have never had before including Spanish Peaks Brewing Company, Left hand Brewing, Green Flash Brewing, Nectar Ales, Affligem. I ended up with a six pack of Honey Raspberry from Spanish Peaks, a six pack of Black Dog also from Spanish Peaks and finaly a 500ml Golden promise from my favorite brwewery in Edinburgh, Caledonian. I think I should leave now.

Dave sent out the following email about the Larry Bell tasting.

Tickets for the March 7th and 8th
Larry Bell tasting are now on sale!
Larry is the founder of Michigan’s great Bell’s Brewing Company (formerly Kalamazoo Brewing) and an old pal of the Brick. Join us as we welcome the lad back to the scene of his underage drinking! Larry always brings GREAT beers to these events, as soon as the list is confirmed I’ll send out a list that I promise you my friends my dear, dear friends is a list of beers so fine so wonderful so overly tastified so posolutely slurperific it is guaranteed that’s right I said guaranteed to stun the converts and bewilder the uninitiated!
This is going to be an extremely popular event, don’t be a sadeyed little wipey cheeks at the door cause you waited too long to call for tix! Our casually disaffected doorpersons will politely turn their deafest ear to your pleas. Please please you and get your tickets SOON! Doors open at six, we never start at seven. (but we try! Honest! We DO!) Tickets for this event are $30.00 and can be had by calling 202-293-1885.
This event is at the BRICKSKELLER. Call the BRICKSKELLER for tickets PLEASE!!!!! 202-293-1885!

This is always an extremely popular event. If you have other people joining your table you must give us a name to hold the table under. We set the room according to reservations and cannot guarantee your group will be able to sit together if your friends don’t ask to be seated with the proper table. We will accept no cancellations within 24 hours of the event. We don’t want to turn someone away because sales indicated the house was sold out then have empty seats during the event! Help us out peeps!. hopppppss. . . hopppppssszzzzzz . . .you need hoppppsssszzzzzzzz . . . . . As always a tip’o’the bottlecap and a please stay safe to all my buddies all over the world from
BigPoppaHandPump /aka BeerGuyDave!

The

Washington Post; is reporting that Coastal Brewing Co, which is made up of Anheuser-Busch and Rams Head Tavern have applied for the Old Dominion Brewery license. The article doesn’t go into a lot of detail other than saying this is a sign that the sale is close.

One of my favorite DuClaw beers is back. Naked Fish. With a rich, dark color and subtle hints of gourmet chocolate raspberry coffee.

If you want to be one of the first people to taste this years batch check out the release parties below

Arundel Mills http://www.duclaw.com/contact_arundel.asp
Wednesday, February 7th (6pm – close)
Thursday, February 8th (6pm – close)

Bel Air http://www.duclaw.com/contact_belair.asp
Bel Air CLOSED for Fire Rehab

Bowie Town Center http://www.duclaw.com/contact_bowie.asp
Wednesday, February 7th (6pm – close)
Thursday, February 8th (6pm – close)

Fells Point http://www.duclaw.com/contact_bond.asp
Wednesday, February 7th (6pm – close)
Thursday, February 8th (6pm – close)

Philly.com is running a story about the replacement for Sir Hops a lot. They are building a new brewery and needed to upgrade the device that continuously adds hop to the beer. The new device has been christened Sofa King Hoppy. The new device will be used for brewing their IPAs and Golden Era beer.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Lovefest Brickskeller beer tasting.

Rob Tod from Allagash Brewing and Vinnie Cilurzo were on hand to talk about the wonderful selection of beers they brought from with them for the tasting.

Rod on the left and Vinnie on the right
The Happy beer tasters
Vinnie
Both the Allagash and Russian River Breweries brought a wide selection of Belgian style beers. In total there were 11 samplings, 5 from each pub and a special JW Lee Vintage Harvest Ale from 1999 in a real cask.

Allagash Brewing Company brought

Tripel (9%)

Dubbel (7%)

Interlude (9 1/2%)

White (5%)

Curieux (11%)
Russian River Brewing Company brought

Damnation (7 -7 1/2% depending on if it is in a bottle)

Salvation (9%)

Diefication (7%)

Perdition (6.1%)

Temptation (7.25%)

Overall my favorites were the Allagash triple, a nice fruity beer, the taste comes from the yeast rather than adding any fruit. The Allagash Interlude which had a smooth tart taste. Finally the Russion River Temptation which has a lovely wine taste.