One last post on the beer summit.  Professor Gates fooled the beer watching media by switching from a Red Stripe to a Sam Adams Light.

Magic Hat issued a statement complaining that the president should not be serving beers -- Bud Light and Blue Moon -- that were owned by companies "outside of America"s borders." Perhaps the sentiment is right, but that is a tough call in today's global economy.

Finally, I thought it was great for the world to see guys drinking beer at the White House.

Any final thoughts?

Photo of Beer Summit: Getty Images

Posted by Rob Kasper at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

To mark the beer summit at the White House and to celebrate "the depth and diversity" of the American craft beer movement, Dogfish Head is proposing a nationwide toast at 6 tonight. Check back here right before 6 to see that toast.

Free video streaming by Ustream

Posted by Rob Kasper at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Events
        

Several news sources are reporting that the brews for today's White House beer summit are as follows.

President Barack Obama: Bud Light

Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Red Stripe

Sgt. James Crowley: Blue Moon.

I am not a light beer guy, but in a 2007 taste test,  Consumer Reports said Bud Light lagged behind three types of Michelob light brews, Budweiser Select, Coors Light and Sam Adams in flavor.

Red Stripe, a lager from Jamaica, got an overall grade of  "C" when it was rated by beer drinkers on the Beer Advocate web site.

Blue Moon Belgian White, made by Coors, got a B minus when it was rated by Beer Advocate.

Forced to pick from among these three, I would go with the Blue Moon, but drink only one.

What would be your pick?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Citing an anonymous administration source, Bloomberg reported Wednesday afternoon that  President Barack Obama (at right) will have a Bud Light when he sips beer with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley at the White House Thursday evening.

Bud Light is the best-selling beer in America. 

It is, however, owned by In-Bev, a Belgian brewer.

No word on what brand of beer the guests, Gates and Crowley, will be served.

I am disappointed. I was rooting for a local beer. In this case, No-drama Obama picked a bland beer. 

Photo: Associated Press

Posted by Rob Kasper at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

It is getting close to vacation time for me.  I will be headed to Chincoteague, Va., for a week of sand, suds and too much sun. I will be there dodging those ^%$*! ponies  Aug. 10-17.

That means I am once again in the market for guest bloggers. The crew that filled in when I was traveling in Taiwan this summer  was very good -- job-threatening good.  They and other contributors are welcome to submit guest blog posts. But remember, there is no pay, and journalism is said to be a dying profession.

Guest posts should be relatively short, 10-12 paragraphs at the most. Shoot them to me this week and the next  via e-mail. They will be edited. That is life.

Photo of ponies on Chincoteague Beach: The Baltimore Sun

Posted by Rob Kasper at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Washington is abuzz with beer talk.

Politico, the ultimate inside-the-Beltway source of political news, reports that  the expected reconciliation meeting over a beer between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the Cambridge police sergeant who arrested him,  James Crowley, will take place Thursday evening at the White House. 

President Barack Obama, playing the role of the nation's top host, will serve.

Gates is said to have a taste for Becks and Red Stripe.

Crowley favors Blue Moon.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs, parrying with reporters about which brew will be served, noted that Obama had a Budweiser at the All-Star Game in St. Louis.

Of course he did. St. Louis is the hometown of Bud.

So, if you were president, what beer would you serve to these two gentlemen?

I think I would you go for a compromise hometown beer, something from Sam Adams or Harpoon. Both are from Massachusetts, the state where these men reside.

Another option is a hometown brew from the D.C. area.  I guess the closest brewery is Hook & Ladder in Silver Spring. Perhaps they should have a Backdraft brown, a mellow beer for a mellow moment.

If you were the leader of the free world, what beer would you serve?

Photo of The White House: AP

Posted by Rob Kasper at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

I am not sure this is a good idea, but I found a recipe for cookies made with beer on the Food Network Web site.

You take two bottles of Belgian beer (the recipe recommends Hoegaarden) and reduce it over medium heat to about 1/3 of its original volume.

The beer will, the recipe warned, begin to "aggressively foam" and produce very big bubbles.

Once the beer has been reduced, it is allowed to cool then mixed with conventional cookie ingredients, such as butter, sugar, egg and vanilla.

Eventually flour and orange zest are added.

The recipe also called for a favorite ingredient in Belgian brews, coriander.

Why is it that brewers of Belgian beers are so drawn to coriander?

Has anyone ever made cookies with beer?

How did they turn out?

This, I assume, is not something you can give to the kids.

Photo of Cookie Monster from Baltimore Sun files.

Posted by Rob Kasper at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Stopped by the Evolution Brewery in Delmar, Delaware during my recent tour of breweries near the beach. I will be writing more about them for an upcoming piece in the travel section of The Sun.

It  was heartening to watch customers roll up to the brewery toting empty growlers.

These growlers are glass jugs that resemble the ones once used at Sisson's in South Baltimore. The Sisson's growlers were clear, these are dark.

The routine however is the same,

The empty vessel, which holds about a six pack, is slowly filled from the taps.  Pleasantries and  $7 are exchanged.

Off the customer goes with a growler of fresh beer.

All is right in America.

I still have my Sisson's growler, and my Baltimore Brewing Company one as well.

Anybody else still have a growlers?

Do you use them?

Photo of Baltimore Brewing Company Growlers from The Baltimore Sun

Posted by Rob Kasper at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

I just got a tour of the Dogfish Head brewery in Milton, Del.

I will be writing in detail about it and other beery spots at the beach in an coming piece for The Sun's travel section.

I recommend the tour. It is free, and there are samples, but you must sign up for in on the brewery Web site.

Sam Calagione (at left), the exuberant president of Dogfish, gave me the tour. He remains a font of energy and ideas about brewing and about enjoying life.

He pilots a tour boat on Saturday nights out of Lewes. On Mondays, he takes guitar lessons with his 10-year-old son, Sammy. Sammy plays acoustic, his dad plays bass.

Photo: Courtesy of the Associated Press

Posted by Rob Kasper at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

A 32-year-old  Muslim woman, a model, was sentenced this week to six strokes with a rattan cane for drinking a beer in a nightclub.

Word of this event, reported by the Associated Press in Australia and picked up The Huffington Post, comes from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Consuming alcohol is a religious offense in Malaysia only for Muslims, who make up nearly two-thirds of the population, reports say. Offenders are prosecuted in Shariah courts, which handle cases mainly related to family and moral issues for Muslim.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was sentenced Monday to six lashes and a fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,400) for consuming alcohol.

Earlier news sources reported the woman would appeal the sentence. But yesterday the blog  Nuraiana A. Samad's 3540 Jalan Sudin said the woman had decided not to appeal.  There seemed to confusion, however, over who would strike the blows. Technically, she has to be in prison to be caned. She is not in prison.

The caning inflicts more shame than corporal punishment, a Malaysian official claims. Easy for him to say.

Posted by Rob Kasper at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Weird beer stories
        

We all recognize that pizza and beer is a match made in heaven. But a Chicago-area home brewer has taken that combination another step.

Tom and Athena Seefurth of Campton Township, Ill.,  a community about 70 minutes west of Chicago,  have made a beer using pizza ingredients. It is bottled by a brewery outside Milwaukee.

 Called Mamma Mia Pizza Beer, the beer making process is outlined on the company Web site.

It goes like this: "The Margarita pizza is put into the mash & steeped like a tea bag. A whole wheat crust made with water, flour & yeast is topped with tomato, oregano, basil & garlic. The essence of the pizza spices is washed off with hot water and filtered into a brewpot, where it is boiled for a long, long time. During the process, we add hops & spices in a cheesecloth type bag & filter the cooled liquid into a fermentation vessel. (big glass 6 gallon water jug). After a week or two, the beer is good to go. Keg it or bottle."

I looked on the Web site for a location near Baltimore that sells it.

The closest spot listed is Beer World in Pittsburgh.

Jeff Cribbs, manager of Beer World, told me in a brief telephone conversation that he has tasted Mamma Mia Pizza Beer. "It is real crisp and has a garlic aftertaste. I like garlic, so I like the beer," he said.

Cribbs also said it was on sale, at close to $20 a case marked down from about $42 a case.

So if you are headed to Pittsburgh, or Chicagoland,  try Pizza Beer and let me know what you think.

Photo of pizza and beer: The Baltimore Sun

Posted by Rob Kasper at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

For a good read, check out novelist Henry Shukman's travel piece in July 19 The New York Times. He revisits the pubs of his youth in England's Cotswald area.

Here is his lyrical description of a particular pub, The Pear Tree Inn in Hook Norton, an establishment  that, he says, characterizes the perfect pub experience. 

"I doubt you could walk in here and not feel better, no matter what you’re going through. The very air is thick with over 200 years of soul-soothing. It’s everything a pub should be: a fabric of mercy, a haven from the preoccupations of post-industrial life, a timeless space more connected with the fields and springs, the repeating cycle of generations, than with the particular troubles of our own times. It has been softened by the goodwill of different eras."

I have not visited the Cotswald.

But I had a glorious pub experience in London at the Nags Head at 53 Kinnerton St. in the Knightsbridge section of the city.

It, too, was a "fabric of mercy".

So understated. So soothing.

Any other outstanding English pubs?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Tom Cizauskas writes that the phrase "Yours for Good Fermentables" was a valediction he used at the end of letters, one with "beery poetic license." And he chose the phrase as the name for his blog because it implies "a responsibility for honest communication from me about beer (and wine, whisky, and other good fermentables)" to his readers. 

Cizauskas has been in the beer business since 1992, serving as a brewpub owner, brewer, brewery manager and brewmaster.  He currently works for Select Wines, a beverage distributor in Northern Virginia.  

"When I began blogging (in September 2002) I didn’t really know what a blog was for and what you could do with it.  At first I fell into the trap of thinking you had to write essays, and if you fall into that trap, you’re not going to blog very often.  Eventually it grew into more of a beer travelogue.  At the time I started I was working for Legend Distributing in Maryland, and I would talk about beer dinners I would help arrange.  Then I began at Clipper City in 2004 and I was their Southeast U.S. Territory Manager and I was constantly on the road.  That's when it really became a travelogue."

While more than 300 of Cizauskas's posts have chronicled his travels in the U.S. and abroad (the vast majority pegged to the mid-Atlantic region), the blog has evolved through the years and also pays due dilligence to other topics, most notably the beer business and culture.

"Over time, the blog evolved into what it is now, not just about what I’m doing personally, but what I can extrapolate about what I’m observing about beer and occasionally wine and distilled spirits.  The name is “Yours for Good Fermentables,” so I have to include the others as well.  So now I would say it’s more a look at the business and the art of beer and of brewing, rather than just personal opinions and a travelogue."

One thing you won't find a lot of, though, are beer reviews. "I don’t review beers very often.  It’s done to the nth degree.  Anybody can write a review.  I think it’s done enough so that I don’t need to do it.  At the end of the day, how many ways can you describe the flavor of a hop?  To me, beer is much more about life, about culture.  And if you’re just talking about 'I just had a beer,' that’s the end of the story.  That’s your blog. Beer to me is much more of a cultural thing.  It’s how you have it, where you have it, with whom you have it, what you were eating when you had it, what you felt like.  There’s a lot more to it. "

And there's a lot more to this blog. It's heavy on events notices and coverage. A regular feature called "Clamps & Gaskets" offers a compendium of beer-related news.  And there's the random history lesson.  To find out Albert Einstein's notable connection to beer history, check YGF on October 5.  Cizauskas says that anybody who hangs out with him long enough can attest to the fact that with him, everything all comes back to beer.

Another recurring theme for Cizauskas is the importance of local beer, food and business. "It's  a freshness thing, and thus crucial to flavor. But I also see it as a quality of life issue and a social issue: support the local economy, reduce environmental impact."  He recently added a feature called "Veggie Dag Thursday," which is a nod to both Cizauskas' vegetarian preference (he's been meatless since 1991) and the recent growth of interest in eating locally grown food.

Perhaps atop his list of passions is fresh beer, aka cask-conditioned beer.  "To me, that style of beer is as fresh as a beer can be.  Even if it's designed to be aged, there's still a freshness of flavor that won't be there 3 years later.  But there's a freshness, an almost "high-definition television" aspect of the beer as it comes out of a cask. The cask alone won't make it a good beer.  Garbage in, garbage out.  If it's not casked well, not served well, not transported well, or not good beer to begin with, it's not going to be good.  But when all four of those things come together, to me that is the best beer you can have."

Posted by Steve Sullivan at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Beer blogs
        

I am headed to the beach later this week looking for craft-beer watering holes.

Any suggestions?

Have lined up a few spots  to visit in in Delaware, but so far have nothing in Ocean City.

Favorite spots?

Warnings?

Speed traps?

Photo: The Baltimore Sun

Posted by Rob Kasper at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Unlike Jeff and Matt, it took me a while to find a local craft beer at Artscape. It was not available at the beer stands; I had to hunt off the beaten path. 

I came up dry Friday and Saturday, but by Sunday afternoon I learned that 16-ounce cups of Hook & Ladder on draft, $5, were being served in the lobby of the Charles Theatre. 

I got a Backdraft Brown. This is an artful mix of malt and hops, slightly sweet, with a 4.5 percent ABV. Not too big, an ideal, middle of the afternoon brew. I sipped it as I wandered back down Charles street, watching the human foosball game. The Charles street section of booths by the train station, which had a combination carny-artsy feel was, to my mind, the best part of Artscape.

Hook & Ladder, by the way, just broke ground on its new brewery in Silver Spring.

Good for them.

Historically, a trouble with Artscape has been that locals get pushed aside by the nationals. 

This seems to have happened on the beer front.

Coors, Killian and Blue Moon, the beers poured everywhere at Artscape, are not made in Maryland. 

Why, I wonder, can't Artscape, which is supposed to celebrate local artisans, pour locally brewed beers?

Any ideas?

Photo: The Baltimore Sun

Posted by Rob Kasper at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Events
        

Word came out of Seattle this weekend  that Starbucks is going to open a pilot store that sells beer and wine.

The new store , called the 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, is an attempt by the struggling coffee company to boost sales especially during evening hours, USA Today reported. If the first beer selling location in Seattle is successful, others will follow, a Starbucks source said.

This got me thinking about what ordering a beer at a Starbucks might be like.

If you wanted a 16-ounce IPA,  I bet you would have ask for an "IPA Venti".

If you wanted a 12 ounce pilsner, you might have to say  "gimme a Grande Pilsnercino."

If wanted a short beer, an 8-ounce ESB, I bet you would have to ask for a"tall" Extra Special Bitter, with no latte.

Any other ideas of what ordering beer at Starbucks would be like?

Is there a Lambic latte is our future?

Photo: Starbucks handout

Posted by Rob Kasper at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

According to Sam Sessa, our Midnight Sun whiz, The Sun tent in Artscape is on Charles a half-block of so North of Mount Royal.

Bring pennies, Sam advised, as fans and newspapers are sold for 1 cent.

As the recent comment from Volker Stewart reports, Blue Moon is about as "crafty" as the beer at Artscape gets. 

Posted by Rob Kasper at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

If you are going to Artscape  Friday evening or stuck in the  massive traffic jam near Charles and Mt. Royal, drop by The Sun booth and say hello.

I confess I am not sure exactly where I will be from 6 p.m- 7p.m.   Just rode my bike through that intersection and saw a big BP set up, a sign for organic food, and booths selling dresses. But no sign of The Sun booth..

Stay tuned.

Last year I could not find any craft beer at Artscape, just stuff from  the big conglomerates. 

Anybody got a clue?

Also anybody got a better traffic scheme than closing Charles street at rush hour on a Thursday night.? Seems to me the traffic gurus should close Charles entrance to 83 AFTER the rush hour, then set up tents. The tents were empty last night, traffic was a mess.

Posted by Rob Kasper at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Recently I was pawing through a kitchen drawer and asked if anyone in the household had seen a church key.

"A what?" one of my 20-something sons asked.

It was a this point that I realized, yet again, that I had failed as a father.

My offspring did not know that the term "church key"  was slang for a beer opener.

The church key that my dad introduced me to back in the 1960s  was made of metal. It had a sharp triangular punch on one end, used to puncture the flat top of beer cans. On the other end was a catch that popped off the tops of beer bottles.

Nowadays with pop-top cans, it is more difficulty to find a "church key" with the sharp, triangular end.

More often, modern bottle openers have a rounded end.

That rounded shape has historical origins. According to the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, it is how the device got its name. The rounded end of the bottle opener resembled the ornate handle of the large keys that were once used to lock church doors, the dictionary said.

Sure enough, when I looked at the rounded handle of the large key that I had made at Roberts Key Service  to lock the doors on our 130-year-old rowhouse, it looked like it could pop the top off a bottle of beer. A fellow at the key shop told me he had used old keys to open many bottles of beer.

I had always thought the term "church key" was a jab at the members of  the temmperance movement, a church-going group that opposed alcohol. But I guess that is wrong.

Anybody else think that?

Do you know where your church key is?

Do you ever leave home without it?

Photo of metal church keys from rustycans.com

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

Thanks to Carolyn, a blog reader, who told us about a dramatic illustration of how much beer drinkers in various countries consume.

The per capita consumption stats, from Snippet, show we in the USA are No. 6 in the rankings.

Tops is the Czech Republic, followed by Ireland, Germany, Australia and the U.K.

Anybody been to to Czech Republic?

Did they drink you under the table?

I am surprised Ireland beat Germany.

Is anybody else?

Photo of the Czech Republic's Pilsner Urquell: stock.xchng

Posted by Rob Kasper at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Cats are curious, and in this instance that instinctive nosiness got one in trouble. 

A dispatch from the The Standard newspaper in Warrnambool Australia tells of how a cat named Maisy ended up spending the night in its owner's beer fridge.

The owner, Bill Nelson, who is the local fire chief, was having family members over to watch a cricket match on the TV.  He walked out to snag some brews from his beer fridge, located in a shed adjacent to his home.

Apparently, the cat followed him and jumped in the fridge when Nelson was not looking.

The cat was not missed until the next morning. Then an all out search was mounted around the household. At first, Nelson thought the cat might be trapped in the shed. Eventually he opened his beer fridge, and there was Maisy, chilly but unharmed, curled up on the fridge floor.

Moral of the story?

My son's cat resides with us. She occasionally hides among the empties in the basement, but other than that shows no interest in beer.

How about your pets?

Are they attracted to your beer?

Any tales of beer-drinking pets out there?

I have never heard of a cat drinking beer.

Dogs yes, but not cats. Not sure about hamsters.

Photo: Robin Sharrock in Herald Sun  

Posted by Rob Kasper at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Weird beer stories
        

I had a very good ESB over the weekend. It was made by Evolution Craft Brewing Co. in Delmar, Del., just north of Salisbury.

The Evolution ESB was being served on draft outside of A Few of My Favorite Things, a store in downtown Cambridge that sells, beer, wine and chocolate. The owners had set up a stand dispensing draft beers during last weekend's Taste of Cambridge festival.

Evolution's Web site is under construction, but I got a hold of Geoff DeBisschop, the brewer, on that primitive form of communication, the telephone.

He is an engaging fellow who brewed for a decade in the Boston area before coming to the mid-Atlantic. He made the first Evolution brews at the end of March. He also sent me the following e-mail outlining the brewery's history and brand lineup.

"The brewery is owned by Tom and John Knorr, Maryland restaurateurs.

I'm the brewer, recently relocated from Boston after 10 or so years at John Harvard's Brewhouse in Cambridge, Mass.

Our core beers are Primal Pale Ale (American pale ale), Exile ESB (esb-ish pale ale) and Lucky 7 Porter (malt-focused robust porter). Later this summer, we're rolling out our IPA and a big stout, as well as bottles for the core three.

We like all beers, but especially well-balanced beers that pair well with food. As much as I hate to admit it when I drink my beer I realize I am more of a "traditional brewer", working more in the framework of traditional styles, though that's not a philosophy and it's not necessarily intentional."

I add the following  info about Evolution.

The Maryland distributor is F. P. Winner.

It is currently only available on draft, at these locations,  but a bottling line is in works. 

One of the restaurants in which you will find it is Phillips, because one of the Knorr brothers is a Phillips exec.

The brewery has a tasting room.  It is open noon-5 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and noon-6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The address is 501 Bistate Blvd., Delmar, Del. 19940.

Anyone else taste Evolution beers?

What do you think?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Craft beer is getting more prospective partners than Jon and Kate Gosselin. 

The Vermont Cheesemakers are touting beer and cheese matchups at their festival Aug. 23 in Shelburne. It will feature 100 different cheeses and a seminar on matching beers with several of these Vermont beauties. 

In case you can't make it to Shelburne, here are a few of the Vermont cheeseheads' recommended pairings.

-- Peppered goat cheese with pilsners, or pale ale.

-- Two-year-old cheddar with India Pale Ale.

-- Sheep's milk cheese with Doppelbock or a triple ale.

I have been in Vermont in August; it's pretty nice. 

The beef people also have taken notice of the allure of craft beer.

The National Cattleman's Beef Association has put together a number of beer and beef matchups.

For instance, it recommends a light lager, such as Sam Adams Light, with mini steak tacos and pico de gallo. I think I would go with pale ale with tacos. A full list of beer and beef pairings will appear on the consumer Web site of the beef group.

Finally, word comes out of Portland, Ore., of a new Web site called Women Enjoying Beer. 

Hard to argue with that title or that concept.

What are some of your favorite beer and cheese pairings?

What beer would you drink with steak tacos?

What is the key to getting more women to enjoy beer?

Photo: The Baltimore Sun

Posted by Rob Kasper at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Food and drink
        

Most of the crew of Monty Python's Flying Circus will reunite this fall in London to mark the 40th anniversary of the group.

The Independent reported last week that  "four of the main six stars - including Michael Palin and Eric Idle - will be taking part in the musical adaptation of Life Of Brian, called Not The Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy)."
The newspaper said that  John Cleese will be  unable to attend the European premiere of the show at the Royal Albert Hall on October 23. The sixth member of the team, Graham Chapman, died in 1989. 

There was also a mention in Paste Magazine of  a possible tour by the group in the USA.

England's Black Sheep Brewery put out a beer, Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale, in 1999 to mark the 30th anniversary of the group.

Apparently it is still around.

Readers of the The Beer Advocate did not warm to it, most giving it  C-plus and B- minus grades.

I love comedy of the Python's but have not tasted the beer.

Anybody familiar with it?

Does drinking it  make you say things like " not dead yet?"

Do you start uttering phrases like " Bring me a shubbery!"

Do you automatically know the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

This just in: Clipper City's new bomber series, the subject of an earlier Friday post, has a new name.

In keeping with the nautical, Heavy Seas theme, the series of brews in 22-ounce bottles is now called The Mutiny Fleet.

Name changing is part of American culture, especially among celebrities. Here are few examples that worked.

Cheryl Ladd - Cheryl Stoppelmoor

Ted Knight - Tadeus Wladyslaw Konopka

Ben Kingsley - Krishna Banji

Groucho Marx - Julius Marx

Demi Moore (at left) - Demetria Gene Guynes ...

Meg Ryan - Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra

Winona Ryder - Winona Horowitz

Tina Turner - Annie Mae Bullock

Alica Keys- Alicia Augello Cook

What do we think of Clipper City's name change from bomber to mutiny?

Does it matter?

Will the new name, like the celebrity name change, seem natural over time?

Photo: Associated Press

Posted by Rob Kasper at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The first of Clipper City's Heavy Seas bomber series has landed in local stores.

The Big DIPA or Double India Pale Ale appeared in 22-ounce "bomber" bottles. The Maryland distributor is Republic National. I found it in local liquor stores at $6 a bottle.

Clipper City's Hugh Sisson said the line began as pet project. Brewers made small batch experiments for folks who worked at the brewery. Now they are bottling these pet projects. 

In addition to the DIPA, the brewery has plans to release a Heavy Seas Imperial Octoberfest, a Heavy Seas Imperial Pumpkin Ale, and Belgian triple to be named later, in the bomber bottles.

I tasted the Big DIPA Thursday. It is gorgeous, a rich copper body and creamy  head.  The brewers say they use 5 pounds of hops ber barrel, and the hops make themselves known both on the nose and the palate.  It is a bit sweet, and its 10.5 % ABV stands up and says  hello. This "bomber" does pack a wallop,too much firepower for me.

Why is this bottle size called a bomber? I heard it came from the B22 bombers of World War II.

Anybody else hear that?

Any other theories?

Any other opinions on this bomber?

Posted by Rob Kasper at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Brew reviews