Pretzel logic 2

This was sent to me and maybe it's sacrilegious ... but it was too funny for this raised-Catholic not to repost!

Pretzel logic post #1 is, actually, about pretzels!

Doing South Carolina in 24 hours

It was a whirlwind tour!

Thursday afternoon, drive to South Carolina to work in Greenville all day Friday.

Barley's bartender doesn't waste a drop of the Loose Cannon cask!

Friday evening, introduce the state to cask Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale, in Greenville, South Carolina, at Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria.

Then Saturday - very early Saturday morning - drive back to Gaithersburg, Maryland in time for the noon start of the Wine Tasting Festival at Finewine.com where Clipper City's were the only beers to be poured, among many wines.

Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria

The city of Greenville is in the northwestern quadrant of South Carolina, and is only an hour's drive from Asheville, North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains.

The South Carolina government just recently amended its regulations to allow high gravity beer importation and production. And Barley's, a Greenville restaurant and beer bar, is one of those at the forefront of the brand-new high-gravity beer explosion in South Carolina. They have quite an impressive draft array of good beers, - high gravity and not - both in their upstairs bar and the downstairs dining area.

High Gravity

High gravity refers to beers of more than 5.9% alcohol by volume (or at whatever level a state government might peg that).

When a craft brewery produces a higher alcohol beer, it mashes larger than normal amounts of barley - the grain that gives beer its flavor and fermentable starches - thus increasing flavor as the alcohol increases.

Whereas mega-breweries create their higher alcohol beers - usually insipidly sweet malt liquors - by mashing-in, not with barley, but with prodigious amounts of corn or rice. Both are much cheaper grains, and impart little flavor to the finished beer. Thus with malt liquor, mega-breweries can increase alcohol content without adding flavor, and without incurring significantly higher costs.

Cask Ale

Cask ale is living beer - yeast still working inside the firkin (an English stainless steel cask holding 10.8 US gallons). So, wanting the beer to be in its freshest state, I drove the cask down in my car.

The trade-off was that the beer didn't have a day or so to rest in Barley's beer cooler and settle down. So we swathed the cask's topside bung with bar towels. When I tapped the firkin, the towels caught the fountain of fresh beer that erupted. But no worries: things calmed down quickly, and the beer was superbly fresh.

Firkin Friday

Clipper City's cask of Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale was only the third cask ever tapped at Barley's. Casks are slated to become a regular Friday event, anointed Firkin Friday. Proprietor Josh Beeby and bar manager Drew Moren also discussed with me their plans for eventually adding a beer engine and daily casks.

That evening, I met several Loose Cannon and Clipper City beer fans, who expressed their pleasure that they could now buy the beer in town, rather than driving to Asheville, North Carolina, or Athens, Georgia. It was quite gratifying, especially being so far afield for me and Clipper City.

(l-r)Carolina Craft's Jeff LeVine, Barley's owner Josh Beeby,
Carolina rep Chris Woke, Barley's Manager Drew Moren.
After the cask was drained - within the hour! - I went downstairs to the now packed dining room (with a line snaking out the front door) and enjoyed a pizza pie (after all, it is Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria) with the owner and rep from my new South Carolina distributor - Carolina Craft Distributing.

More photos from Friday's cask tapping.

D.C. wine lovers try beer and cheese

D.C. wine lovers ... that would be fans of wine who reside in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

Whereas there are wineries in Virginia and Maryland, there are none in the city. (There are, however, some community gardens, which is a story for another day!)

Tuesday evening, I - Territory Manager for Clipper City Brewing Company - and Michael Kiss - cheesemonger at Whole Foods Arlington, VA - hosted a beer and cheese tasting for 70+ members of the Washington Wine and Cheese Society, at their monthly meeting place at Saint Patrick's Episcopal Church in NW Washington, D.C. We had been invited by Tony Guida (pictured), president of the society.

I introduced each Clipper City beer - its story and its flavors - and then introduced the complementary beers. Michael did the same for the the cheeses. We then discussed the pairings, and why we thought they would work.

There were 5 flights. For each flight, participants received 2-3 ounce pourings of each Clipper City beer, and the same pour-size for one of the two complementary beers - similar in style to the Clipper City beer.

To ease logistics, the cheeses were served all at once. For the most part, the participants were patient and played along, waiting for each beer before sampling the paired cheese.

It was a typical Washington D.C. night - hot, humid, and close, and the kitchen refrigerator couldn't handle it. The beers of first 2 flights were served near room temperature.

We iced down the remaining beers.

Small Craft Warning Uber Pils
cheese: La Serena (Sheep's milk)
complementary beers: Troeg's Sunshine Pils, Tuppers' Hop Pocket Pils

Red Sky at Night Saison
cheese: Leonora
complementary beer: La Chouffe

Winter Storm Imperial ESB
cheese: Quickes' English Cheddar
complementary beers: Otter Creek ESB, Flying Fish ESB

Peg Leg Imperial Stout
cheese: Colston Basset Stilton
complementary beers: Lancaster Milk Stout, Victory Storm King

Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale
cheese: Aged Robiola
complementary beers: none !
Loose Cannon was served fresh from a small English-style cask,
called a pin, which contains 5.4 US gallons.

The Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale was special treat, and a surprise for many participants. It was served fresh: not from a keg but from a cask, that is, the beer was living beer, still fermenting in the vessel. And that is as fresh as a beer can be. It was gratifying to have several wine-drinkers approach me afterwards to say that they had never tasted beer of that character. Most beers - if well made to begin with! - will show better when served fresh from casks.

All the cheeses and bread were purchased at the Whole Foods, Arlington. All the beers were purchased - and are available - at the Bethesda Market (301) 229-8068, in the Sumner Place Shopping Center.

DC-Beer: down but not out

[UPDATE: It's back, as of 2 July.]

DC Beer, the on-line discussion group for good beer in the DC/Baltimore/Richmond area, is temporarily off-line.

Here's a comment from its moderator, Dan Brown, who maintains the site on his own time and on his own nickel:

Brauhaus.org has suffered a disk failure. I am working to restore from backups. Please expect that things may take a bit of time to fully get back online. Dan.

5-minute cruise

Driving my territory docket does not always provide relaxing moments: 11 hour car trips for example - thank goodness for audio books.

But when traveling across the Potomac River from western Montgomery County Maryland into northwestern Virginia, I can enjoy a treat.

It's a car ferry from White's Ferry to Leesburg ... and on a long, hot, humid, and frustrating day, that 5 minute river voyage can be quite the anodyne.

Now if I can only get the Maryland shore store to stock Clipper City beer...