The Remington Chop

This past weekend I was invited to attend The Remington Chop. Held in Millers Court, this event aimed to bring chefs and brewers from the local neighborhoods together to showcase what goes on under the hood during the day to to day operations of the various businesses. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in classes that included lamb butchery, sausage making, oyster shucking, mezcal tasting, beer brewing, and gazpacho making.

All of the classes sounded interesting, but considering I purchased a Kitchen Aid mixer with the sole aim of making sausage, I figured it made most sense for me to finally learn the art of sausage making. And learn I did. The class was taught by employees of Pen and Quill and on this day we focused on what goes in to making a North African sausage known as Merguez. They took us from the beginning where you're cutting up a mixture of lamb and pork fat to be marinated with a mix of spices including cumin, fennel, coriander, and cayenne followed by what to look for when you're grinding the meat and finally forming the sausages you'll ultimately be cooking and enjoying.

The class was fun in that it was informative and not something visitors to a restaurant get to see on a regular basis. It was also interactive as the leaders of the class took questions throughout and even allowed anyone who wanted to get their hands dirty to try and form a few sausages of their own. I didn't take them up on that, but I did enjoy the sausages they cooked for us (and a few more that they sent us home with a little later) and now have the confidence that with the purchase of a few extra kitchen aid add-ons and a little patience I can reproduce this delicious Merguez sausage for myself.

Outside of the class we were able entertain ourselves  in the courtyard with a glass of mead from Charm City Mead (the basil lemongrass was delicious), a beer from Monument City, and snack on some munchies from a variety of local businesses. I really enjoyed the atmosphere. I'm used to always being packed in amongst a mass of humanity when I'm attending events like this but I never felt that way at The Remington Chop. The class sizes were 20-30 people large and there was plenty of room to spread your legs when you were ready to enjoy a drink after all of the learning was done. I'm not sure if The Remington Chop has anything like this planned for the future, but let me just say that I'd love to see this event continue on. Not only do you get to enjoy the delicious offerings of local business but you're learning along the way and that's something very few events can claim.

Brewmore

Last Thursday, Nick Kovacic of Digital Cave Media premiered his movie Brewmore at the MICA Brown Center to hundreds of local beer fans. Heading to the event, I wasn't sure what to expect of the movie but after it was all said and done I left with a much better understanding of the incredible history Baltimore has within the world of brewing and a sense of excitement that we can get back there with the help of some very talented modern day brewers. 

Brewmore focused a great deal of its roughly one hour run time on Baltimore Breweries from days of yore. Having not grown up in Baltimore I really appreciated being filled in on all of the glorious details of our cities brewing history. It's absolutely astounding to learn that at one time there were roughly 40 breweries operating within the city borders. More impressive yet, National was producing 1 million barrels of beer per year at it's pinnacle. To put that in perspective, you could add up every barrel of beer produced by our  local craft breweries over a span of many years and still not be anywhere near 1 million barrels. 

And speaking of our local craft breweries, it was nice to see Heavy Seas, Brewer's Art, Stillwater, and Union Craft Brewing in the spotlight. I thought a little more time could have spent on the modern day stuff, but what we did get was plenty entertaining and a great way to learn about the history and personalities of the breweries you can't always get otherwise. Personally, I really enjoyed getting a feel for what Brian Strumke of Stillwater is all about in regards to brewing. I knew he brewed great beer, but prior to seeing the movie hadn't learned much about him other than the fact that he's a "gypsy" brewer. Brewmore filled a lot of gaps in for me. 

If you're a fan of our local beer scene but weren't lucky enough to be in attendance last Thursday make sure you find the time to attend their April 19th screening at Heavy Seas Brewery. Brewmore is a great celebration of Baltimore and Beer and it's not to be missed. 

My Perfect Baltimore Beer Week

Coming up in the not too distant future is one of my favorite weeks of the year. Baltimore Beer Week. For 9 days there are smorgasbord of great opportunities for beer lovers to get their craft beer fix no matter their budget. Some of the events cost nothing and some will set you back a few bucks, but they are all sure to provide a good time. Below, I've narrowed down the list to what I consider My Perfect Baltimore Beer Week...the events I'd like to hit up if money and time were no object.

October 18

•          Chilibrew VII
•  I  I love chili and I love homebrew. Having the opportunity to show off my skills and taste that of others sounds like my kind of fun.
•          King of the Pins
•     DuClaw, Heavy Seas, and a host of other breweries are battling out to see who can drain their pin the fastest.
•         BBW Kickoff Party with DuClaw at The Judges Bench
•     DuClaw takes over the taps and offers a special firkin of HellRazor
•          Public Works Ales Debut at John Steven
•     The debut of Public Works Ales. On tap will be Red Cent Amber, Fair-Shake APA, and Knucklebuster IPA

October 19

•          OktoBEARfest
•     Oktoberfest at the Zoo. Beer and Bears. 
•          Monocacy Brewing Co Tour/Tasting
•     A chance to taste and tour one of the areas newer breweries.
•          Das Best Oktoberfest
•     Baltimore does their version of Munich's Oktoberfest at M&T

October 20

•          Baltimore’s Own Beer Tap Maker
•      Sample some homebrew, learn the process of homebrew, and see what it takes to make tap handles.

October 21

•     Beer Hunter: The Movie
•     Watch a movie and drink some homebrew. This is probably the event I'm most interested in as we all should know and thank Michael Jackson.
•     Q&A with Union Craft Brewing
•     Learn what it takes to take your beer to the big leagues
•      Pumpkinfest
•     30 different Pumpkin Beers at Victoria Gastro Pub

October 22

•          Public Works and RavenBeer meet thebrewers at Peabody Heights
•     Meet the brewers and take a tour
•          Homebrew with Brad Smith
•     This sounds awesome. Learn about homebrew during happy hour at Maryland Homebrew. The speaker will be none other than the man behind Beersmith, Brad Smith.

October 23

•          Zion Lutheran’s Saurbraten Dinner Celebration
•     I went last year and had a nice time. Good food, good atmosphere, good beer all in a beautiful church.
•          Four Randalls of the aHOPeclipse
•     A bunch of Dogfish Head IPA's going through Randall the Enamel Animals

October 24

•          Mussels and Cask Ale
•     Heavy Seas and Bertha's
•          Rare Beer Night
•     Hard to find stuff at Victoria's Gastro Pub
•          Vintage Brews from the Cellar
•     Taste some vintage Heavy Seas beers aged in Hellas Restaurant

October 25

•       Seattle Pumpkin Fest
•     A slew of pumpkin beers from Elysian Brewery
•           Think You Know Beer
•     Test your knowledge of Beer with a blind taste test. 

October 26

•          Tour the American Brewery Building
•          Real Ale Fest
•      40 Casks. $40
•          Steins and Shots Vessel Making
•     Make your own drinking aparatus. 
•          Gruit Ale Contest
•     Gruit's are some of the best tasting Ale's I've had lately. 

October 27

•          New Belgium Beer Dinner
• Beer and Food pairing at a pretty reasonable price.

      Now obviously I don't have the time or money to attend all of these events, but in ideal world I'd be there for all of them. Take a look through some of the links and have a good time if you end up there. Maybe we'll bump into each other. And if none of these events sound fun (impossible, i know) or fit into your schedule, fret not for there are a ton of other events not mentioned here that might be perfect for you. Happy Baltimore Beer Week!

Maryland Beer: Baltimore-Washington Beer Works Pendulum Pilsner

I try (and fail) not to get on my high horse when speaking of craft beer and tell drinkers that they need to drink more of XYZ style beer or that brewers should brew more of that style. But, with that said, lagers are a style that I wish received more attention from brewers and drinkers alike.

Up to now, it's my feeling that craft beer has been pushed forward with the attitude of more, more, more. Lagers aren't known for high alcohol, IBU's, or exotic flavors in general. What they are known for is being perfect snapshots of subtle perfection and attention to detail. It's that subtlety that gets lost in translation for the average drinker. It's also why I love them so much. Nothing jumps out at you and says "Hey, I'm a lager baby! Drink me and love me!" Well, some might, but that's Justin Timberlake talking, not the beer. Lagers stand on their own merit. If there's a flaw, you're going to know about it and no amount of dry hopping is going to overshadow the product you produced. Perhaps that's why so many brewers shy away from lagers.

One brewery that apparently  isn't afraid of lagers is Baltimore-Washington Beer Works . In fact, two out of the three beers they produce are lagers and for that they get a tip of the cap. They also get a review. Let's get into it.

Brewery Location: Baltimore, MD

Style: Pilsner

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 4.5%

IBU: 22

Appearance: My bottle of Pendulum Pilsner didn't pour with much head to speak of, but good lord was it crystal clear. The beer was one of the all time beauties to look at. Amber and visually flawless, I'm not ashamed to say I sat in my "man chair" for a good five minutes reveling about how good it looked while Deana sat across from me on the couch shaking her head and second guessing why she chose me.

Aroma:  I was a bit disappointed with the nose. I tried my best to sniff something out, but overall I wasn't getting much more than just a note of sweet malt here and there. When I wasn't gazing lovingly into my glass I was sniffing like a Basset Hound so it wasn't without effort that nothing special was detected aromatically.

Taste: Pendulum Pilsner drinks incredibly smooth, but that's about as far as I can go with the compliments. There was mellow malt taste with nothing on the back end to bring everything full circle. Personally, I would like to see the Saaz hops have a slightly bigger role. A crisp, snappy, dry finish would be the perfect way to balance out the sweet malty experience you being your sip with.

Final Verdict: As a huge fan of The Raven and an even bigger fan of Tale Tell Hearty Ale, I was ready to LOVE Pendulum Pilsner. We were going to be boys and spend many an evening together in perfect harmony. But, as it stands, we're probably going to settle for being acquaintances. Sure, he's cool and I don't have any real problem with him, but I don't see us having enough in common to spend extended hours together.

BBB Beer of the Week: Baltimore Washington Beer Works Tell Tale Hearty Ale

The second I heard the makers of The Raven were coming out with a new Edgar Allen Poe themed beer I was excited. Not only have I enjoyed hell out of The Raven in the past, but the literary dork in me was excited to partake in anything Poe. I picked up a bottle of Tell Tale Hearty Ale a few weeks ago and after reading nothing but good things, I decided I shouldn't wait any longer to taste the sweet nectar. 

Style: IPA
ABV: 7.25%
IBU: 50

Appearance: Tell Tale Hearty Ale is quite the looker. She pours a beautiful golden amber color mimicking the classic IPA appearance we've all come to know and love so much. I didn't get a massive head out of my pour, but there was at least a finger of the good stuff on top.

Nose: Grapefruit, tropical fruit, a little bit of resin and pine all make their way from the head to your nose. There is plenty of hop presence, but not in an intimidating way. A lot of times the first whiff of an IPA has me bracing for a bitter hop bomb, but with all the fruit in Tell Tale Hearty Ale, the aroma is very inviting.

Taste: Everything that the aroma hints at shows up in the flavor profile. You get the all the fruit flavors with just a little bitter smack. Happily, the hops never completely take over your palate and that's something I can definitely get behind.  At a little over 7% ABV this isn't a session beer, but Tell Tale Hearty Ale's easy drinking ways makes it very easy to keep going back in for another sip.  All of these delicious flavors are rounded out with a slightly dry finish.

Final Verdict: Tell Tale Hearty Ale is a beer to behold. It's an IPA with plenty of hops, but one in which you won't find yourself looking to the sidelines for coach to call a timeout and give you a breather. I can easily see myself downing pint after pint of this fruity Ale all summer long. If you life in Maryland, get out there and find you some! Maryland, there's a new king of IPA in town.

Beer Tastings: Union Craft Brewing Blackwing Lager

Finally, I got my hands on a Union Craft Brewing beer after many months of hearing nothing but good things about these guys. And after hearing that they won a gold medal at the GABF a week or so ago I knew I needed to get my act together and hunt some down sooner than later.

Tonight, I got my hands on their Blackwing Lager. I don't know what my expectations were pre-sip, but as soon as the beer touched my tongue I automatically became a fan of Union Craft Brewing and will definitely be making their beer a bigger part of my life. B the site just put out a Top 20 list of Maryland beers and I can say with full confidence that the Blackwing Lager could easily hang with anything in the Top 5. It's that good.

Enough pumping them up, though, let's get on to the taste. The Blackwing Lager lives up to it's name and pours a beautiful black color with a fairly substantial creamy head. The aroma is wonderful. Initially, I thought it smelled a lot like a Stout with roasted coffee coming to the forefront. Not surprisingly, once you're done taking in the color and aroma and finally taste the beer you get a bitter coffee flavor with dark chocolate notes. At times I even thought I was picking up hints of black licorice. And while this beer is full of delicious flavor it lives up to the Lager name and drinks very smoothly.

If you live in the Baltimore area and you see Union on tap, do you yourself a favor and try them out. Considering the Blackwing Lager was a winner and their Gold Medal winning Altbier is already getting national attention I think it's safe to assume that this new brewery is top notch.

Style: Black Lager
ABV: 4.9
IBU: ?