Max's 3rd Annual German Beer Fest (& those gravity kegs)

It may be the little sister to the Belgian Beer Fest, but the September 10-12 German Beer Festival at Maxs Taphouse in Baltimore, Maryland, is still full of good beer. Maybe it's the lagers, or maybe it's the less than astronomical rates of IBUs and ABVs (with exceptions!), but this informal festival seems to bring out less geeky rambunctiousness and more Gemütlichkeit.

From the website and email:

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Sept 10-12, 2010
11am to close each day
NO ENTRANCE FEE
Over 50 German beers on draft:

1809 Berliner Weisse
Ahornberger Dark Märzen
Aecht Schlenkerla Urbock
Aecht Schlenkerla Märzen
Aecht Schlenkerla Helles
Bitburger Pils
Erdinger Hefeweizen
Erdinger Dunkel Weiss
Erdinger Oktoberfest
Franziskaner Hefeweizen
Franziskaner Dunkel Weiss
Gunter Brau Amber Märzen
Hartman Amaber Märzen
Hofstetten Aurora
Hofstetten Bio Honigsbock
Hofstetten Granit Bock
Hofstetten Kueblebier
Koning Ludwig Hefeweizen
Langbrau Amber Märzen
Mahrs Weisse
Mahrs Unfiltered Pils
Mahrs Ungespundet Lager
Rothenbach Dark Märzen
Schneider Aventinus
Schneider Aventinus Eisbock
Schneider Edel Weisse
Schneider Hopfen Weisse
Schneider Weisse
Spaten Dunkel
Spaten Lager
Spaten Oktoberfest
Spaten Optimator
Steigel Lager
Uerige Classic
Uerige Dopplesticke
Uerige Sticke
Warsteiner Dunkel
Warsteiner Oktoberfest
Warsteiner Pils
Wurzburger Oktoberfest
Wurzburger Pils

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General Manager/Beer Manager Casey Hard says that his list is 80% completed. In addition, at current count, he has 20 bottled German beers, and more than 10 German gravity kegs. He continues to work on securing more draughts. Beers will be served in mugs, Maßkrugs (one-liter steins, pronounced "mahss"), one liter boots, and some 2-liter boots (modeled below by long-time bartender Jamie).



A riff on those 'gravity' kegs ...

I noticed a Washington, D.C., area beer bar recently mentioning that they would be serving German firkins at an event they would hold.

Well, not really.

The term 'firkin' explicitly refers to a 9 UK gallon cask, or, as measured in US terms, 10.8 gallons. The Germans don't measure in gallons; they use the metric system. A common size for a German keg is 50 liters, which roughly corresponds to 13.2 US gallons. More to the point, a firkin is a cask, a vessel in which a secondary or tertiary re-fermentation occurs. Though one might encounter kellerbier —lager re-fermented in a keg, or served unfiltered from a tank, such as zwickelbier— a German brewer would bemused to hear her kegs referred to with a British term.

Here's a picture of a Reisssdorf Kölsch keg, which has a spring-loaded bung, on its side near the bottom, through which a bartender can insert a tap.


Since extraneous CO2 is not used to push the beer through the lines, serving it by gravity tap will result in a less gassy mouthfeel —similar to beer from a cask. And, yes, the beer is unpasteurized —as are many kegged beers, by the way— but it is not a cask! It is filtered, kegged beer, that can also be dispensed via a 'standard' draught system through a top spear and coupler.

Take none of this as disparagement. Fresh, well-made, full-flavored lagers (and ales, such as Kölsch) can be sublime.

Pic(k) of the Week: Got beer?

It's Sweetness the St. Bernard. His flask, unfortunately, was not filled with beer.

The photo was taken at the 2008 Capitol City Brewing Company Oktoberfest, in Arlington, Virginia. This year's festival is scheduled for Saturday, 2 October 2010. More information is available at the festival Facebook page.

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Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on a Saturday, and often of a good fermentable as subject.

'Craft' beer sales reach 8.7% of total US market

According to the Symphony IRI Group, sales of 'craft' beer were up 11.9% in the first half of 2010. As comparison, sales of the beers of the top 10 'mainstream' brewing conglomerates decreased by more than 5 million cases. For example, Anheuser-Busch Inbev sales were down 1.9%, SABMiller/Coors down 2.4%.

Here's the really big news. In recent years, 'craft' beer sales have comprised about 5% of the total US beer market. During the first half of 2010, they dramatically surpassed that level, reaching 8.7%.

The Symphony IRI figures account for sales at retail outlets such as grocery stores, beer/wine shops, etc., but do not include draft sales. They were presented to the Brewers Association —a trade group for US brewers producing less than 2 million barrels— during an online conference yesterday

Of the top 'craft' breweries, New Belgium grew the most, up 28% in sales dollars. Sierra Nevada Brewing's Torpedo an IPA named for a special piece of hopping equipment— grew 200% versus 2009, best among the top 15 'craft' beers.

Ray Daniels tweeted the results as they were announced. Beer Advocate aggregated those tweets. Jay Brooks summarized them. Stan Hieronymous compared the results to those from 2006.

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Preliminary figures released in early August showed that 'craft' breweries had sold approximately 4.6 million barrels (31 gallons = 13.78 cases) for the first six months of this year, versus 4.2 million in the same period last year. That's 9.1% growth, which, although robust, doesn't quite match the 11.9% number above. Does that discrepancy indicate lower growth —or loss— for sales of draught 'craft' beer? I don't know (even though anecdotally I wouldn't believe so.) I look forward to the Brewers Association publishing a more thorough recap and analysis.

Clamps & Gaskets: Roundup for 2010 Week 33

Week 33
15 August 2010 - 21 August 2010

• 2010.08.21
  Music and food, and beer of 4 Virginia breweries at the 2nd annual Brew Ridge Trail Music Fest. http://bit.ly/ca8nGnI
• 2010.08.20
  DC Beer Week begins Friday, 20 August, continues through Saturday, 28 August. http://bit.ly/9SR5L6


• 2010.08.19
  13 arrested for ... smoking, in Falls Church, Virginia, restaurants: http://bit.ly/cDKBFn
• 2010.08.19
  Computer chip maker Intel purchases internet security company McAfee for $7.68 Billion. http://mash.to/2rOwn
• 2010.08.19
  SABMiller/Coors has established a 'craft' beer department, something Miller did once before ... in 1995. http://bit.ly/9aKnRO
• 2010.08.18
  Chardonnay, when unoaked, has a place at the summer table. Wine from the Maconnais, in Burgundy, France: http://bit.ly/cHL
• 2010.08.17
  Anheuser-Busch targets the Craft Brewers Alliance for a possible takeover: http://bit.ly/9gWPFf
• 2010.08.17
  What exactly IS a stone fruit? Richmond, Virginia's Secco Wine Bar explains: http://bit.ly/dgLdOx
• 2010.08.17
  Austrian Pinot Noir the best in the world? The surprising results of an international 'blind' tasting. http://bit.ly/bVjjlf
• 2010.08.17
  New York State gives a grant to the Brooklyn Brewery for a major expansion: http://bit.ly/9M8reM
• 2010.08.17
  The number of brewing plants vs. the number of brewing companies: setting the US historical statistical record straight. http://bit.ly/a4iDm7
• 2010.08.16
  Hurricane Katrina destroyed his prints, but NOT the negatives. Herman Leonard —photographer of the jazz scene of the 40s, 50, and 60s— has died at age 87. http://bit.ly/c80yOA
• 2010.08.16
  At Saratoga, trainers are feeding their race horses Guinness rather than carrots. http://bit.ly/czYoDT


• 2010.08.16
  Now brewed by SABMiller/Coors, Baltimore, Maryland's venerable Natty Boh beer makes a comeback. http://bit.ly/cPjwYO
• 2010.08.15
  Now she's singing with the angels. Abbey Lincoln, 80 —jazz singer, songwriter, and actress— has died. http://bit.ly/cz3qAB
• 2010.08.15
  "An aptitude for transformative potentiality. Nuances imparted by degeneration." How and why beer can age gracefully (and which particular brands do so exceptionally): http://bit.ly/9Qw7d7

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• The couple pictured above, smoking, was NOT among those arrested. It remains legal to smoke OUTSIDE of a Virginia restaurant.
• Clamps and Gaskets is a weekly wrap-up of stories  not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com. Most deal with beer (or wine, or whisky); some do not. But all are brief, and many are re-posts from my Twitter account: twitter.com/cizauskas.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.

Fire Works Pizza Opens Tonight in Arlington, Va.

Restaurant Tuscarora Mill was well ahead of the curve when it opened in Leesburg, Virginia, in the early 1990s. Draught 'craft' beer was more difficult to come by than it is now, but Tuskies (as locals affectionately refer to it) was offering good draught beer in both a casual cafe setting and a more formal room with 'white-tablecloth' service.

In the 2000s, proprietors Kevin and Shawn Malone (the latter, pictured above, carrying a firkin), opened a second restaurant, Magnolias, even more beer-centric, also in a converted mill, but further west, in Purcellville, Virginia.

In 2007, they opened a third, much smaller location, in the same historic mill building in Leesburg as Tuskies. Called Fire Works, the intimate pizzeria featured a domed wood-burning oven for making Neapolitan-style pizzas, and a fascinating array of import and 'craft' draughts. It would prove to be a harbinger of the direction the brothers would take.



A second Fire Works American Pizzeria & Bar opens tonight in the Court House district of Arlington, Virginia.



To call it a 'second' location, hides Fire Works' extent. Seating over 200, inside and out, it features 30 draught beer lines, 2 dedicated cask-conditioned ale lines, (yes, a wine list), and, again, a domed wood-burning pizza oven.



The glassed-in refrigerated keg room is situated just inside the front door. The kegs and maze of lines and gauges are clearly visible though large windows.



Large metal pipes carry the draught lines overhead to the bar.



Fire Works also has an extensive bottled beer list, and will offer 2-liter resealable bottles of draught-beer-to-go, called growlers.



Here's a photo of the crowd, and the brewery banners festooning the ceiling, taken during a preliminary 'soft opening' on Thursday, 19 August:



And, here's the vegetarian Siciliana pizza pie (Grilled artichokes, spinach, roasted eggplant, black olives, roasted garlic, crushed red pepper, white sauce, and, upon request, white truffle essence.)



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• According to Fire Works' Facebook page, the public grand opening is scheduled for 5pm tonight. The address is 2350 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia, at the intersection of Clarendon Boulevard with Adams Street. The phone number is 703-527-8700.
  
• The cask ale lines may not be operational tonight, but beer manager Jesse Prevatte promises soon!
  
• See a slideshow of construction and pre-opening: here.
  
• Caveat lector: As a representative of Select Wines, Inc. —a northern Virginia wholesaler— I sell wine and beer to Fire Works.