Session Beers and Blogger Meetups

Geez! More than a month has gone by since I last posted. Getting married is time consuming business! I'm still not there yet, but I'm drawing near the finish line and you can expect regular postings in the very near future. While it's true that I've taken a short sabbatical from writing, that hasn't stopped me from taking little trips and discovering the best that Maryland Beer has to offer.

One such trip involved a meetup a few weekends ago with a blogger I've been following since way back before I really knew what proper beer even was. That blogger is pictured above on my right and he is Tom Cizauskas of Yours for Good Fermentables. But Tom isn't just any old blogger. Tom is a guy that has played a substantial role in Maryland's beer scene over the last 20+ years and it was a privilege to pick his brain for a few hours. He's an encyclopedia of local beer knowledge. Oh, and any time you come across Cask Ale locally it's in no small part to the efforts of Tom and the people he's worked with in the past to help pave the way.

While talking with Tom I learned an abundance about local beer history, but something beer related struck me on the ride home after our meeting that had nothing to do with our actual conversation. Our discussion lasted a solid two hours and spanned three or four beers. Not only was driving not an issue, but I realized I was able to give our conversation my full attention and that's something that's not always possible when the ABV of beers are running a little higher than I'd like.

As fate would have it, we met at Pratt Street Alehouse where there were multiple beers weighing in at less than 3.5% ABV on tap. The first beer was the DuClaw collaboration Back to Basix which is fantastic Ale made with Pale Malt and Amarillo hops. At 2.8% it maintains a surprisingly full body but played the part of the perfect session beer as Tom and I discussed Maryland Beer. Also on offer was the 3.2% Spring Session Ale. This beer is made with English Lager Malt, flaked oats and corn,and hopped with Mt Hood and Citra hops. It was the perfect beer to bring along to a conversation as Spring Session Ale was delicious but unobtrusive, just as any quality session beer should be.

One of my biggest hopes for Maryland beer is for low alcohol beers to become more and more prominent across our region. Beer is a social drink no matter the level of alcohol, but the coherency of conversations has an inverse relationship as the ABV creeps higher. High alcohol beers have their place, certainly, but so to do the little but delicious beers like Back to Basix. So, here's to another...and another...and another. Cheers to Session beer! And Cheers to Tom!