Opening Day of the major league baseball season usually provides a good excuse to sip beer in the great outdoors.

However, as soon as I arrived at Camden Yards Monday to watch the Orioles opening the season against the Tampa Bay (Don't Call them Devil) Rays, I took cover in a stadium bar.

The bar used to be called Bambino's and had an Irish theme, but now it is the Bud Light Warehouse. It looks out on Eutaw Street, beyond the right field fence. It felt like cheating, watching the game on the flat screen televisions rather than sitting the stands, battling the elements. But people in the pub were having a very good time. So I stayed put.

Along with the new name, the place had  a few new beers on tap. First I tried a Stella Artrois, a pale lager from Belgium for $7.50. Like the weather, it was cold, registering 40 degrees on my instant-read thermometer.  It reminded me of Heineken, not especially exciting or flawed. But it got the job done.

The atmosphere in the Warehouse was welcoming and skies were threatening, so after a brief excursion around the ball park, I found myself back in the Warehouse, trying another tap beer:  Shock Top, a Belgian White for $6.50. This is an Anheuser-Busch product, with a thin head. It was  43 degrees, which was what it felt like outside. This beer started off with a sweet, citrus note and finished sour. I couldn't finish it.

I went back outside to Eutaw Street and ordered a Wild Goose Pale Ale, $6.50 at the microbrew stand. Good body, nice hop bite. The day brightened, but only temporarily. Soon the Devil-less Rays extended their lead to 6-2 over the Os.  My mood darkened.

I craved a dark beer, a Guinness. So apparently did many other fans.  By the sixth inning, the taps of the Guinness stand on the first level behind home plate had gone dry. No Guinness meant gloom and an Orioles defeat.

Opening Day left me with three questions.

Has anybody else tasted the Stella?

How about the Shock Top?

Finally, is it anti-American to drink beer in the comfort of a stadium pub, rather than sitting outside and sipping brews in the cold weather?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
                    

A correspondent, who wishes to be known as Pat the Brewing Artist asks about tipping the bartender.

He writes:" A question of minor importance, but of not as minor personal interest. What's the proper etiquette on tipping the bartender if you're getting a growler filled? Normal percentage? No tip?"

My short answer is it depends on my mood, both personal and financial. As I recall, a growler of heavenly Pils at the Baltimore Brewing Company was about $8, and if I had a beer while waiting for the fill, would tip the bartender $1 to $2. If I didn't have a glass and had suffered a bad week, I didn't tip.

Perhaps this was faux pas? I have not read any tomes on beer drinking etiquette.

My fellow beer drinkers what do you do with your wallet?

 Any bartenders out there want to weigh in?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
                    

When I should be thinking about big issues, such as the recession or peace in Iraq, I often find myself wallowing in the small stuff, such as reading beer lists.

The other day for instance I got notice of an upcoming beer and bourbon fest at the Timonium Fairgrounds, Saturday, April 5. I went to this Web site for more information, and scrolled the list of beers trying to remember the flavor of each.

But there was one line of beers, from Erie Brewing, that I had not sampled. I wanted some. It is the old relative deprivation game.

Does anyone else do this, read beer lists for pleasure and get thirsty?

Has anyone tasted Erie beers?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

On a recent bright sunny Saturday I spotted a six pack of Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager from Abita Brewing in Covington, La. 

Ordinarily, I shy away from fruited beers, but in the  springtime our impulses sometimes get the best of us. I bought a six pack for about $7, brought it home and poured a glass and passed it around to my family.

My wife liked the aroma, which the label says comes from Ponchatoula strawberries in Louisiana. Not bad, she said. 

Our 23-year-old son, home for the weekend, took a whiff and a sip, then shook his head. He went to the fridge and grabbed a Magic Hat Lucky Kat IPA.

I took several sips of the Strawberry Lager but could not warm up to it. I did taste better, less artificial, than I expected. The aroma of strawberries was pleasing, but a cloying aftertaste left me cold. I dumped out the strawberry beer and grabbed a Victory Prima Pils. Ahhh, bitter beer is better.

Anyone else taste this strawberry lager?

Where do you stand on fruited beers?

Are you opposed to any fruit in any beer, or do you take it on a case by case basis?

Anyone taste other Abita brews?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
                    

Like a lot of twisted Americans, I have been spending way too much time watching the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Not only do I have my final four, but I also have the beers that represent their regions of the country, the ones you would want to drink if you were on campus.

They are the Kansas Jayhawks and Boulevard Pale Ale, the North Carolina Tar Heels and Weeping Radish Black Radish beer, the UCLA Bruins and Sierra Nevada Celebration, and the Texas Longhorns and Shiner Bock.

What are your final four beers and teams?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
                    

Over the weekend I enjoyed a six pack of Phin & Matt's Extraordinary Ale from Lakewood, N.Y. I am told it has been in town about one year. I found it at the Wine Source for $8.50 a six pack. The distributor is Legends.

Pale golden in color, with a creamy head, it had pleasant malty body with zing Cascade hop finish. At 5.6 ABV, it is very drinkable. It is brewed by Matt Robbin and Phineas DeMink at Southern Tier Brewing Company in New York.

This is my first encounter with this brewery, and I am impressed.

The web tells me the beer has won several honors, including best ESB in the MidAtlantic (go figure) at the United States Beer Tasting Championships in Manchester, N.H. The judges may not know their geography-- New York is Mid-Atlantic?-- but they know their brews.

Anybody else taste this one?

Anyone had any other Southern Tier beers?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
                    

I know it is a cliche, but on Patrick's Day I do like to drink Guinness.

 When I was in Dublin last spring, I drank a lot of Guinness stout on draft, switching from time to time to Murphy''s . A glass was "dear" as the Irish say, or expensive. I think I paid the equivalent of $5 a glass.

When I toured the Guiness Storehouse , the most visited site in Dublin, both the bread and the black pudding served in the brewery restaurant had as their central ingredient, the Guinness stout.

I do recommend taking the Guinness tour, but do NOT pose for photo with old man and his picturesque horse and cart outside the entrance, he will hit you up for money. Moreover, according to staff at the storehouse, this guy is well-to-do. A character, in other words.

There is an art to pouring a Guinness, which the Irish barkeeps have mastered. It also helps that the kegs that they tap usually reside in a cool cellar. In the United States we seem to have a cellar shortage. I have been in American bars where the Guinness draft is cooled by running the beer line through some jerry-rigged ice chest behind the bar. Happiness is not glass of a warm, foamy stout.

There are a lot of Eastern Europeans working in Dublin. The Academy Award-winning movie "Once," which I also recommend, was shot in Dublin and picks up on this phenomenon. There are also some good pilsners in those Dublin brewpubs. A benefit, no doubt, of the Eastern European influx.

I know that Guinness stout has an extra strength version, but I have not tried it.

Any reports, lads?

So my question on this St. Patrick's Day weekend is, who has the best Guinness in town?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
                    

I was in a dour mood after returning to work from a week of vacation when I made my way late Tuesday into the Brewer's Art on Charles Street in downtown Baltimore.

There I sampled the seasonal, a malty ale known as "Petroleuse." Volker Stewart, the proprietor, moved toward the bar and sampled a glass as well. Always a good sign when the proprietor drinks his own stuff.

Volker, who was on his way to an important engagement, his 4-year-old daughter's ballet class, paused and enlightened me and my companion, Richard O'Mara, a fomer Sun foreign editor, on the orgin of the name "Petroleuse."

It was falsely applied to the women who supported the short-lived (March-May) uprising of the Paris Commune of 1871. Legend had it that the women  tossed fire bombs made of petrol  and parrafin into the cellars of buildings. The truth, it turns out, was otherwise. Buidlings burned down, but the women known as the "petroleuse" did not do it.

Nonetheless the term now has come to mean something like "Red Hot Mamas." 

This beer, at 7 percent ABV, lives up to the name.

If only my history classes in school had been beer-based, I might have paid attention.

Any other beer-based history tales out there?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

Getting my baseball game beer-drinking self in shape for the coming season, I attended a(sold-out) Red Sox-Dodgers spring training game in Ft. Myers Florida last week.

Initially it was great to see the greensward, to hear the crack of the bats and sit in the sunshine. That feeling lasted for about three innings. Then I got hot, clammy and a little bored.

I kept score, and once the teams started running in guys numbered 78, 80 , and 77 into the lineup, you knew the "invitees" were replacing the likes of Manny, Big Papi and Mike Lowell.

The heroes of the day were Dodgers subs Luke May, who hit a 3-run blast to tie the game at 5-5 and Jason Repco, who hit a grand slam in the 9th to seal the win.

The beers at City of Palms Park were not as inviting as the name of the ballpark. They were all mainline domestics. The only Boston touch was a Sam Adams Light. I had a Heinken, and spent a lot of time staring at the tattoo of two red socks that adorned the neck of a woman sitting in front me.

About the only thing that felt like regular season baseball beer was the price, $6.50 for 12 ounces. This got me thinking about developing a beer drinking strategy for Camden Yards.

Do you down a few quality brews at the Wharf Rat on Pratt Street, walk over to the game and then avoid the ballpark brews?

That is a long time to abstain. Or do you have a favorite ball park beer?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
                    

Down here in the land of sunshine and 80-degree temperatures, I am still searching for a satisfying local beer.

Went to the Everglades the other day, saw plenty of dolphins, egrets, and eagles, and of course, many napping gators. Had lunch at the Oyster House in Everglades City, a friendly joint that a picture of Joe DiMaggio on one wall and a rattlesnake skin on another. Had a good grouper sandwich, and a mug of Key West, a brew made in Melbourne. It was okay, not much of a head, light body, a little metallic.

The next day I went up to Sarasota to see the circus museum. Had lunch at the Hyatt, where they served a beer called Tarpon Spoon. It was a pretty thin version of pilsner, made by that craft brewer, Anheuser-Busch, in Jacksonville. This beer, I read, is part of AB's effort to brew specialty beers crafted to local tastes.

Do we think this effort by big brewers to make local beers is a good idea, or a marketing ploy?

I don't care as long as the beer is good, and so far it has fallen short of expectations.

Posted by Rob Kasper at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

I am down in Florida with family for a few days, trying to avoid alligators and sip good beer. Here in Naples the weather is gorgeous, but the traffic can be fierce. Mostly I have been sitting in the sunshine, fishing and sipping.

So far I have caught one fish, using a piece of leftover ham as bait, and have sipped Landshark Lager, from Margaritaville Brewing in Jacksonville. It is in a clear bottle, and looks and tastes like Corona.

 Later this week we are scheduled to go to a spring training game, Red Sox and Dodgers in Fort Myers. There I will get back into my ballpark beer drinking mode. Anyone got suggestions on Florida beers I should seek out?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)