The Ravens lost to the Steelers last night, and my spinning bottles of Natty Boh and Penn Pilsner failed to accurately predict the outcome.

Changes must be made.

From now on, only local beers get spun. I could take the suggestion offered by Cheese and spin Clipper City bottles.

But I am also looking for other possible, spinnable locals. I was thinking of bottles of Brewer's Art beers, but their cages and cork tops would make spinning difficult.

Any suggestions?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

My spinning beer bottle ploy is like an old t-shirt I can't force myself to throw away. It may not be well regarded, but it feels comfortable. 

Its resurrection, from last fall, comes just in time for tonight's Ravens-Steelers game.

How it works: I spin bottles on a piece of cardboard that has equal portions of "us" and "them" landing spots. Where the mouth of the bottle rests ends up being the prediction.

This year, the cardboad spinning zone  is a 12-inch-by-12-inch sign that one of my sons "borrowed" from a pub. It reads "When in the mood for a Boh, Boh for it." The center of the board, the point where the bottle spins, is Mr. Boh's eyeball.

Representing the Steelers was a full bottle of Penn Pilsner, brewed in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Spinning for the  Ravens was a full bottle of National Bohemian, a beer that used to be brewed here.

The results: The Penn Pilsner predicted a win for "them," which I take to mean the Ravens.

The Boh predicted a win for "Us,"  the Ravens.

The record of the spinning beer bottles has been about as bad as economists' predictions for the stock market. But I can't stop spinning...

Any other predictions for the game, or suggestions of what to sip as you watch football?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

October, you could argue, is the prime beer-drinking month, and there seems to be festivals almost every weekend.

Here are a couple:

The Brewers Association of Maryland is sponsoring its 7th Annual Oktoberfest Saturday, Oct. 11, from noon to 8 p.m at the Timonium State Fairgrounds. Promoters promise over 75 beers from 12 brewers.

Tickets are $18 in advance, $25 on site. Each ticket gives you a mug and eight tokens to exchange for beer samples. Additional tokens can be purchased for $1 each.

In the past, crowds have been big, so advance tickets sales are recommended.

Advance sales are also recommended for the 5th annual Chesapeake Real Ale Festival Saturday, Oct. 18, from 1 to  6 p.m. at The Wharf Rat at Camden Yards, 206 West Pratt St. The price is $35 in advance and $45 at the door. 

According to Alan Moore, president of Chesapeake Bay Branch for the Society for the Preservation of Beer from the Wood, there will be 27 cask-conditioned beers from 25 brewers. Details at the SPBW web site.

Anyone know of other beer festivals this month?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Rode out to the Zymurnauts - SPBW - Guild Crab Feast 2008 Saturday at the Goddard Space Flight Center Recreation Center.

Great day, nice setting, really good beer.

The home-brewed watermelon ale was gone by the time I got there, but I did try another home brew, pineapple upside down ale. Let's just say I liked it better than pineapple upside down cake. There was a crisp clean Pils, a hoppy IPA, and very good porter with a questionable name, Leaky Butt Porter. The butt it refers to is the one that plugs up the hole in the brewing vessel, or so I was told.

The beer of the day was the sour ale brewed by Ben Schwalb of Severna Park.  Ben brought two and a half gallons of the ale to the gathering, but it was gone in no time.

This was my first sour ale. It was not quite vinegar, but very close. Nonetheless, I liked it. It had a light body, and yes, a sour taste, but had refershing citrus notes. 

Schwalb told me he had inherited the yeast used to make this ale from the late Ron Kodlick, who was a member of the beer drinking group known as the Cross Street Irregulars. Mr. Kodlick had obtained the yeast from the University of Michigan, Schwalb said.

The yeast has made several prize-winning sour ales, including the one that captured the top prize for home brew at the 2005 BAM beer festival in Timonium, Schwalb said.

This particular sour ale was fermented last winter, Schwalb said, and has been aging since April in an old Heaven Hill whiskey barrel. 

Anyone a fan of sour ales?

They do take some getting used to. The aroma can scare you, right?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Joe Gold, a guy who both knows good beer and is a good guy, has an idea. He is toying with the concept of setting up a social network for beer drinkers.

He is looking for feedback, so I offered to float his idea on the blog.

Here are Joe's words:

"Is there a place for something like a 'Baltimore Beer Club'?

"I know there are numerous home brew clubs, and then there are the mug clubs at various establishments. There are the SPBW (Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood) and the brewing society industry clubs. All of these clubs/societies have a “purpose or focus.”

"But other than beer festivals, I don’t see anything like a beer drinking “club” of people who get together to have a damn fine beer in a damn fine place – just because.

"I envision something like throwing a mass e-mail out there and saying the Baltimore Beer Club is meeting at this place at this time and see who/what shows up and happens. Kind of like 'f meeting people in a Tavern/Pub setting and enjoying a well-made beer while partaking in stimulating conversation is your thing then please join us.'

" would see this thing having a web presence and a regular e-mail push – but who does all that and where does the money come from?

"hat do you think? Do I just have too much time on my hands? Do I care too much about getting people together over a beer?  Your feedback would be greatly appreciated."

Posted by Rob Kasper at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

The bad thing about going on vacation is that eventually you have to show up back at work, a grim exercise known as re-entry.

Monday, after a week of no responsibilities and going barefoot, I had to put on real shoes, other "professional garb" and show up at the office. No sooner had I signed on and slogged through the e-mail than the fire alarm went off. It was a faux fire drill, the second in less than a week. The entire office workforce trooped outside for 15 minutes, then filed in, with the security guard pretending to check everyone's badge.

The day didn't get much brighter from there. Roofers arrived at my house, indicating they might be there for quite some time.  Wall Street melted down, shrinking the 401K. And on the ride home up Calvert Street there was the clown who, rather than pulling into a spot on the corner, double parked in the middle of the street during rush hour.

It was a two-beer night.

The first was a Paulaner Oktoberfest, one of the picks of our Oktoberfest tasting panel (look for the story in tomorrow's Taste section). It was smooth, but now somehow sweeter than it seemed during the tasting a week or so ago. That is what happens when you sample 42 beers.

My second beer was a Dogfish Festina Peche. That name reminds me of the hilarious Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch, about a failed restaurant called Frog and the Peach. The beer was slighty sour, as was I. I sipped it  while enjoying a big piece of peach pie, made by my wife with Eastern Shore peaches, a remnant of vacation days. My mood brightened; I watched the Monday night football game.  Re-entry was complete.

Anyone else have a favorite re-entry beer? How about a story of seeking solace in suds?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

I am at the beach in Chincoteague, Va., for a short vacation. Yesterday I engaged in one of my favorite beach behaviors: swallowing salt water, then drinking a beer.

Swallowing the salt water was inadverent; a rolling wave caught me. But the salty flavor makes me thirsty, and nothing quenches that thirst like a cold one. I used to bring canned beer to the beach, bury it in the sand, then dig it out and drain it. Colorful, but the beer was usually warm.

The other day I waited until I got back to house, then drained an Oktoberfest, a Sam Adams. This was one of winners of our recent Oktoberfest tasting of 42 beers. The full results will be in my beverage column in The Sun next week.

Anybody else have a favorite beach beer? How about a beach beer custom?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

In response to posts by Eric and Elite Elephant Lover about losing my keg, let me say I think it was an honest mistake.

I have ordered kegs at the Wine Source before and have had no trouble.  What happened this time, I surmise, was that I ordered the keg from workers on one shift, and the word or paperwork did not reach the next shift. So in effect there was a keg sitting in the cooler without an owner. It got sold.

So it goes. I have made plenty of mistakes in my career  and in this case the Wine Source guys quickly admitted the error and helped me find replacement canned beers.

As for the celebrity ploy, that act doesn't fly, especially in a town like Baltimore.  

Posted by Rob Kasper at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

I faced a beer dilemma over the Labor Day weekend. I lost a keg.

I had ordered a small, what I call the mid-life size keg ( 1/6 of a barrel) of Clipper City Marzen for a Sunday afternoon crab feast.  The shindig was set for the neighorhood swimming pool in Bolton Hill, a setting that like most swimming pools prohibits glass.  There were going to be about 12 adults, most of them beer drinkers, so I figured the small keg that serves about 50 12-ounce cups would be the way to go.

I ordered the keg early in the week, but Saturday, when I showed up at the Wine Source  in Hampden to pick it up, the keg was not there. It had mistakenly been sold to another customer who was keg-hunting.  The staff members apologized, saying it was their mistake, and offered to discount any replacement beer I bought.

But what to buy? It was too late to get a replacement keg. The store would be closed the next day, Sunday. Bottles were out of the equation. It had to be canned beer. 

I settled for cans of Dale's Pale Ale and cans  of Yuengling Lager. These beers went over well with our crab eaters, half of whom were in their 20s, the other half over 50.  The hop heads went for the Dale's, the rest liked the Yuengling.

I wondered, has anyone else ever been caught keg-less?

What canned beers would you substitute?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)