heavyweight champion of the World Wide Stout

I do loves me some World Wide Stout from Dogfish Head, but hadn't heard this bit of history before:



Former Heavyweight (ABV) Champion of the World, and still respected hardcore veteran.

Evo lived

CC BY-NC-ND image from sheiladeeisme on Flickr

Evo survived his beer and sausage only #BrewDiet in October. In fact, he succeeded not only in sticking to it, but in coming out the other side in better shape than when he started.

His final analysis of the month is here. He also joined the gents at the always excellent Living Proof audio podcast for a detailed discussion of the experience.

D.N.A. - Delaware Native Ale

While I have a baseline level of fandom for Dogfish Head that is well established, and so may be biased here, I am vastly impressed at how they harnessed the Delware community for their new Delaware Native Ale. In particular, I adore their isolation of a "native" Delware yeast strain from the environment to ferment the brew as an awesome bit of science.

Baltimore Beer Week 2011

CC BY-NC-SA image from cizauskas via Flickr

I shall not regale you with flowery prose, for there is no time - today marks the start of Baltimore Beer Week, which is running from October 6 - October 16, 2011. The list of over 300 events is here, so go, drink, and be merry!

If you need any further convincing, here is a preview from WJZ TV:

wait, I already thought all Evo consumed was beer and sausage...

Evo Terra at Stone Brewery, CC BY-NC-ND image by sheiladeeisme via Flickr

So, it seems that during the month of October, Evo Terra is going to go on a medically supervised, 1700 calorie a day diet consisting only of beer and sausage. This should be... interesting.

Here are more details from Evo, and you can follow this potential trainwreck glorious endeavor at his Untappd page or via the #BrewDiet hashtag on Twitter.

email of the moment

CC BY-NC-SA image from camknows via Flickr

I am highly amused by the following missive today from my work Inbox, both for it being a post-Irene "first world problem", and that the foodstuffs involved have something to do with a department including nutrition in it's name:

To: All Hospital Employees
From: xxxx

Hello,

Due to equipment failure at the grill station in Greenspring Cafe, we regret to inform you that we will be unable to offer the following items today:

* French Fries
* Crispy Chicken Sandwich
* Fish Sandwich
* Chicken Wings
* Onion Rings
* Chicken Tenders

We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to have this issue corrected as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,
Food & Nutrition

follow me on Untappd

At the insistence of several associates, I am now playing around with Untappd, a "mobile based social network for beer enthusiasts". Thus far, I find it both cute and amusing, and at the very least it's an easy way to record quick reactions to the brews I'm enjoying. Feel free to check me out there, and play along if interested!

American Craft Beer Week 2011

American Craft Beer Week starts in two short days, featuring over 500 events across the United States, with 25 of those being in the Baltimore area. I'd say more, but really - just find an event near you, raise a pint, and join in the celebration of the glorious craft beer revolution! Huzzah!

in which Brewdogs bones, I mean jumps, the shark?

For whatever it may be worth, I did not find Scottish brewer Brewdog's The End of History to be too over the top. This, I suspect, speaks far too much about my perspective on life than I'd care to ponder. That noted, when I heard about their latest effort, Royal Virility Performance, I was boggled. Brewing the highest ABV beer in existence and bottling it inside of taxidermied mammals? Fine. Brewing a beer with sildenafil (better known by it's brand name, Viagra)? Complete, utter madness. Except the sildenafil piece may not be true. Here's a quote from the Beer in Baltimore post where I first saw the story, which appears to have been taken from a Brewdog press release:

We are going to release a limited-edition beer containing Viagra to mark the forthcoming royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29th. Brewed using various well known aphrodisiacs, the limited edition artisanal beer will only be available to buy from the BrewDog.com website and will be dispatched on the day before the wedding.

According to the specially commissioned label, the Royal Virility Performance contains Viagra, chocolate, Horny Goat Weed and ‘a healthy dose of sarcasm’. The beer is a 7.5% ABV India Pale Ale and has been brewed at BrewDog’s brewery in Fraserburgh.

And here's the current text from Brewdog's site:

A limited-edition beer containing herbal viagra to mark the forthcoming royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29th. Brewed using various well known aphrodisiacs, the limited edition artisanal beer will only be available to buy from the BrewDog.com website.

According to the specially commissioned label, the Royal Virility Performance contains herbal viagra, chocolate, Goat Weed and ‘a healthy dose of sarcasm’. The beer is a 7.5% ABV India Pale Ale and has been brewed at BrewDog’s brewery in Fraserburgh.

With this beer we want to take the wheels off the royal wedding bandwagon being jumped on by dozens of breweries; The Royal Virility Performance is the perfect antidote to all the hype. A beer should be brewed with a purpose, not just because some toffs are getting married, so we created something at our brewery that will undermine those special edition beers and other assorted seaside tat, whilst at the same time actually give the happy couple something extra on their big day.

That's just a slight, but important, difference. If one were to brew a beer with sildenafil, I would assume one would use a minimal "look at my stunt ingredient!" dose that wouldn't have any physiological activity. The potential for bad outcomes would be far too great if there was enough to constitute an active dose, and using a licensed medicine openly in a beer product strikes me as being illegalish from a regulatory standpoint.

"Herbal viagra", however, is a colloquialism for any herbal or supplement remedy that purports to enhance erectile function, and as such has nothing to do with sildenafil. Most of those substances don't have any real physiological activity anyway, and so would be safe to include in a brew. Also, being herbal supplements, they aren't subject to the same regulatory rules as a medication like sildenafil, so there wouldn't be any legal barriers to using them in beer.

I am forced to wonder whether the initial press release (if true in terms of it's text content) was overzealous marketing hype, represented an earlier plan to actually use sildenafil, or was merely in error. Perhaps going the "real Viagra" route was their intent, and then the discovered a regulatory or safety reason they couldn't use it, so modified their plan accordingly. Whatever the case, this means that Brewdog hasn't really jumped the shark... yet. I await that glorious day with bated breath.

capturing 'Modernist Cuisine' - photo gallery

Modernist cuisine; using a vacuum pump to make tomato water, a cc by-nc-sa image via George Hackett on Flickr

The New York Times has a lovely photo gallery from the book Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet. The pics are outstanding, and the book sounds like a fascinating reference for odd and inventive food preparation techniques. I don't know the authors and haven't read it, but it seems quite worth checking out... if one has a spare $500.

For now, at least some of the delicious images are free to view!

Saint Patrick's Day 2011 beer brawl: Guinness 250th Anniversary Stout v. McSorley's Irish Black Lager

It is Saint Patrick's Day, and time for an Irish beer brawl. Let's get in on!

Guinness 250th  Anniversary Stout

Vitals:

• Brewery: Guinness and Company
  

• Style: Dry Stout (Category 13A, BJCP 2008 Style Guidelines)

• Alcohol: 5%

• Serving: 12 ounce bottle, served with a single pour into a chilled pint

Scoring (in solidarity with Charlie the Beer Guy):

• Appearance: 8 - A near opaque ruby-brown, with a well-carbonated brown sudsy head that fades into a thick lace.

• Nose: 4 - Teasingly faint, mainly bready and roasty malts.
  

• Taste: 5 - An unassuming bready malt upfront, fading into a faint roasty bitter finish.
  

• Mouthfeel: 4 - Thin and highly carbonated, with a bready, bitter aftertaste.
  

• Holistic: 4 - A perfectly acceptable beer overall, but a bloody disappointment as a 250th anniversary brew from one of the world's oldest, iconic breweries.
  

Overall: 25 - Really, Guinness? This is how you embody 250 years of brewing experience?! Come on.

McSorley's Irish Black Lager

Vitals:

• Brewery: Pabst Brewing Company
  

• Style: Dark Lager (Category 4, BJCP 2008 Style Guidelines)

• Alcohol: 5.5%

• Serving: 12 ounce bottle, served with a single pour into a chilled pint

Scoring (in solidarity with Charlie the Beer Guy):

• Appearance: 8 - Also a near opaque ruby-brown, with a well-carbonated brown sudsy head that fades more quickly into a thin lace.

• Nose: 4 - Again, similar to the Guinness with faint bready and roasty malts.
  

• Taste: 6 - A bready malt backbone with a hit of roast in the middle of the swallow, and again at the end, for a biphasic effect.
  

• Mouthfeel: 7 - Smooth, with moderate body and carbonation, and a pleasant roasty aftertaste.
  

• Holistic: 7 - Quite good and drinkable, and a much stronger overall creation than the Guinness.

Overall: 32 - I still can't wrap my head around the fact that Pabst makes this on behalf of the McSorley's name, and puts out something worth drinking. It's a damn solid brew that makes for an excellent session beer on this sacred day.

The Verdict

McSorley's wins. The 250 pound heavyweight Guinness just got knocked out by Pabst dressed as an angry Irish midget. That's crazy... I need a drink.

taste the (double) rainbow (cake)

I was not present for this:

The Innards, image by Vivid Muse via Flickr. All rights reserved, used with permission.

but I wish I had been. Between the previously discussed cherpumple and the above bit of epicness, Viv is rapidly proving herself to be the only candidate for the title of Mistress of Epic Baked Delights after the Overlords complete their plans for world domination.

Head over to Vivid Musings in order to check out the backstory behind how this splendid, tasty colorgasm was conceived and the subsequent recipe, result, and reception, with more glorious pictures.

Someday, I too may eat this. I may immediately shapeshift into a My Little Pony, but it would be totally worth it.

only 3 short months until American Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week for 2011 isn't until May, but that doesn't mean we can't drool in anticipation of the events ahead. This well produced (and a tad inspirational) video touches on the importance of craft brewing in philosophy, fun, and American life.



Bring it on, May. I'm thirsty.

a couple of quick notes

• I'll be attending Farpoint this weekend, notable here for the fact that the bar tends to have crazy experimentation with sci-fi inspired beverages. I may have to throw back one or five, and report back.
• Breezy Willow Farm is getting set to start up it's spring CSA season, which I'll be participating in again. Ignoring the fact that my reporting here dropped off the map - I'll get a post-mortem up shortly - it was a very positive experience for us, and something we'll be partaking of on a regular basis.

a fortnight of food in Howard County

SWC Employees Enjoy a Happy Hour at Ram's Head Tavern, cc by-nc-sa image via blunck2 on Flickr

If I were Grand Thane of Howard County (which could benefit immensely from having a Grand Thane, mind you), I would christen the uncomfortably-monikered Howard County Restaurant Weeks to the more awesome and precise Howard County Restaurant Fortnight. I'd leave the food the same, though. Grand Thane Cmar needs to get his food and drink on, and during the next two weeks, it shall be done.

Dogfish Head 2011 release schedule

Dogfish Head's 2011 release schedule is posted here. A few notes:

• This year reflects some excellent choices in terms of marketing and availability of their different beer niches. I particularly applaud the inclusion of both the Midas Touch and Palo Santo Marron as seasonal brews with year-round availability - both are unique drinks to Dogfish, being both some of their best beers and staples that define the company in the growing craft beer marketplace. Also, I get better access to two of my favorites, so THERE. Nyah. :P
• The categories they've made to segregate the "intermittent but not seasonal" releases are rather inspired (such as the "Ancient Ales" and "Agreeable IPA's") and hopefully will be something they build on in future years.
• I am confident enough in my beer geekdom to note that I am looking forward with bated breath to the unveiling of Brand X. YES.

Raise your glasses, baby.

gustatory libation ahead for 2011

Hang Loose Cask (02), cc by-nc-sa image from cizauscas on Flickr

The Trigger Agency is once again bringing a host of touring brew and beverage events to the Baltimore area this year. Mark your calendars, baby:

• The Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ Festival will be hitting the Timonium Fairgrounds in Timonium, MD on April 1 and 2.
  

• The Great Grapes! Wine, Art, and Food Festival will be taking place at Oregon Ridge Park in Cockeysville, MD on June 11 and 12.
  

• The Maryland Brewers' Oktoberfest will be happening at the Timonium Fairgrounds in Timonium, MD on October 8.
  

Heavy Seas Brewery has also listed it's excellent roster of events for the upcoming year, all being hosted at the brewery itself:

• The Heavy Seas Oyster and Beer Festival is on February 5.
  

• The Heavy Seas Real Ale and BBQ Fest will be on March 26.
  

• The Heavy Seas Beer and Bacon Fest is scheduled for September 17.
  

• The Heavy Seas Chili and Cheese Fest is on November 12.
  

Let the gustation and libation of 2011 commence!