Happy Birthday, Mad Fox!

Happy birthday, Mad Fox Brewing Company! It's difficult to believe, but, Virginia's newest brewpub opened one year ago, today, 12 July 2010. Here's how the brewpub announced the milestone on its Twitter feed:

One year ago today at 11AM Mad Fox opened our doors for business. Thanks for a great year! #dcbrews #vabeerless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyMad Fox Brewing
MadFoxBrewing

Mad Fox lies in Falls Church, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., about eight miles west of the capital ciry. The brewpub's birth seems to have marked a renaissance for the brewing industry in the greater Washington, D.C. area. For example, the Washington Post reported only yesterday that:

The Neighborhood Restaurant Group, which includes Birch & Barley/ChurchKey and two Rustico locations <...> intends to open its own brewery near Nationals Stadium sometime in 2012. <...> “... we will be opening an operational brewery and it will be at at the Boilermaker Shops, part of The Yards development at 4th Street SE in Capital Riverfront,” <...> “We hope that before the end of the year [2011] we will be able to announce the details of our brewery concept and introduce our brewery team.”

'Craft-beer' throughout the United States continues to increase in venue and volume: 11% growth so far this year. Here, in the greater Washington, D.C. area, it's exciting times, indeed, for 'good,' fresh, local beer. Here's more of the roster of growth, experienced in less than a year.

Baying Hound Aleworks, a tiny production-only brewery opened a few months after Mad Fox, in October of 2010. (Some refer to it and others of a similarly small size —less than 1,000 barrels annually— with the unfortunate neologism 'nano-brewery').

Port City Brewing Company —the first production brewery to operate in Alexandria, Virginia since 1916— opened in February of this year. DC Brau (pronounced brow) —Washington D.C.'s first production brewery since 1956— followed in April. And, there are more to come!

Don't forget the northern Virginia 'survivors,' however. Brewpub Vintage 50 is open in Leesburg. Remaining popular and successful are the three locations of brewpub Sweetwater Tavern and the single location of Capitol City Brewing Company, about to undergo a dramatic expansion of capacity. A national brewpub chain has two locations in northern Virginia: Rock Bottom in Arlington and Gordon-Biersch in Tysons Corner.


Since its opening, Mad Fox has become appreciated for its food as well as for its beers. Pictured above are its house-made doughnuts, one of which, yes, is studded with real bacon crumbles. The whispered word on the street is that the brewpub is investigating expansion plans, possibly distributing its kegged beers or having another brewery contract-brew its beers in bottles or cans (i.e., a separate, unconnected brewery would produce and package Mad Fox's beers according to Mad Fox's recipes).

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• Local newspaper Falls Church News Press wrote: Mad Fox Celebrates Successful First Year.
  
• Brewmaster/owner Bill Madden released a statement on his pub's milestone, and announced a party:

  Mad Fox invites you to an all-day party Saturday, July 16 to celebrate our first anniversary. As a thank you to our loyal patrons, we are offering a free Anniversary Logo Glass to the first 250 people starting at 3PM. We’ll have live music starting at 9PM.

• UPDATE: Photos: here.

Pic(k) of the Week: A Brace of Beers

The 'before' photograph: On a mission.



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The 'after' photograph: Mission accomplished.

Northern Virginia Summer Brewfest.

Leesburg (Morven Park), Virginia

25 June 2011.

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Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as a subject.

Photos may be reprinted, but only for non-commercial purposes.
Commercial use requires permission, as per Creative Commons.

Two Dudes search for dark beer at NoVA Summer BrewFest

Breweries often eschew darker beers at summer beer festivals, thinking lighter and brighter to beat the heat and humidity. At the recent Northern Virginia Summer Brewfest, Randy Philip and John Anderson —the Two Dudes of Scootyman Productions— went searching for dark beers ... and found some.

• TallGrass Brewing (Kansas): Buffalo Sweat 'Milk' Stout
  
• Highland Brewing (North Carolina): Oatmeal Porter
  
• DC Brau (Washington, D.C.): Penn Quarter Porter
  
• Duck Rabbit (North Carolina): 'Milk' Stout
  
• and Oliver Ales (Baltimore, Maryland): Bishop's Breakfast Stout, served cask-conditioned. As brewer Steve Jones had just left the festival for the drive north, I did the video 'honors.'

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• View on YouTube: here.
  
• In defense of breweries, the 'lighter' beers they bring to summer festivals may be lighter but that's just the hue. Hoppy IPAs and soured beers do not lack in flavor or alcohol. And even the lighter-flavored styles, such as Kolsch or wheat beers, still have abundance of character.
  
• Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virgina— I sell the beers of Oliver Breweries.

Deconstructing the Cask Widge

Today, it's a bit of zymo-geekery, more precisely, cellarmanship under duress: serving cask ale in difficult conditions.

A Cask Widge is a weighted float tube and apparatus that combines the functions of a cask keystone tap and a venting peg. Many US pubs are not set up for cask ale and don't have the space to store a cask horizontally, particularly in an under-the-counter refrigerator. The Cask Widge allows beer to be pulled from a cask that is being stored vertically.

The device is also useful at outdoor summer festivals —when used in conjunction with a beer engine— in keeping, and serving, a cask cool under hot and humid conditions.

1) The tap, sealed, is hammered into the cask keystone, with the cask sitting upright.

2) The firkin can now be vented through the short side tubing, with the 'V' valve opened (turned aligned with the direction of the tubing.)

3) The bamboo peg (soft spile) is inserted into the end of the venting tube (the very short line) to allow CO2 out while the beer is venting.

4) Once the beer has finished venting (is in 'condition'), the 'V' valve is turned perpendicular to the tubing, thus shutting the line, and preventing any more CO2 from escaping or any air from entering.

5) When the beer is ready to be served, the top cap is removed from the tap, by a simple 90° twist.

6) The cask widge tubing (24.5") is inserted through the tap, the weighted end (another 2.5") first. The weight will hold the tube suspended within the cask about 8 inches under the top level of the beer. The weight will sink as the beer is pulled, unfurling the tubing until it is fully extended reaching the bottom of the nearly emptied cask. [These dimensions are that of a Cask Widge designed for a firkin (10.8 gallon cask). A Cask Widge for a pin (5.4 US gallons) and a kilderkin (21.6 US gallons) are also available.]

7) Just above the weight is the beer-intake port in the tubing. It is covered by mesh to prevent ingress of cold break (protein sludge), yeast, or hops, that could stop the flow.

8) The top of the tubing has a red cap that is inserted into the tap and sealed by a simple 90° twist.

9) At one end of the tubing cap is a gray nut and hose barb. It is connected to a 3/4"inch line that runs to the beer engine. The other end is sealed with a gray cap, but could also be connected a second beer engine line, by screwing on another nut and hose barb.

10) The red 'V' valve on the short 'air-in' line is opened by turning it parallel to the tubing, and the soft spile is reinserted into the end of the short tube.

11) If a cask breather is to be used, the short tube is removed and the line from the cask breather is attached to the hose barb just to the right of the "V' valve.

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Here's another use for the Cask Widge, as seen at a cask ale festival at the Pratt Street Alehouse, in Baltimore, Maryland.



In this case, a tap to fit this wooden cask was not available. (Standard beer cask taps are not compatible with wine or spirit barrel keystones.) So, Oliver Ales' brewer Steve Jones inserted the Cask Widge through the top shive bung. Note the side barb: it allowed ingress of air as the beer was hand-pumped out.

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Fobbing at the Tut

• More photos of a Cask Widge: here.
  
• In the U.S., the Cask Widge (and ale extractor) can be purchased from UK Brewing Supplies.
  
• This post is one in an occasional series on Cask Ale: Fobbing at the Tut.

Pic(k) of the Week: Hosta bloomers

Hosta, blooming in the backyard, northern Virginia, early morning, June 2011.

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Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as a subject.

Photo may be reprinted, but only for non-commercial purposes.
Commercial use requires permission, as per Creative Commons.