Top Ten Fine-Dining Bars?

Elizabeth Large of the Baltimore Sun posts her "Top Ten" list of what she considers Baltimore's top fine-dining bars (bistros are, by definition, not included).

In my opinion, only two of the ten are really good "beer bars," with possible debate on one or two others.

Thoughts?

Cask Ale 101 in today's Washington Post

Two articles in the Food section of today's Washington Post give both a primer about what real ale is (just in case there's a reader of these words unfamiliar with the concept) and a guide to where to find it in the Washington, DC area, written by a Washington Post art critic and the Post's monthly beer columnist (and editor of the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News).

They tally six cask-serving places in all of the Washington metro region, including the suburbs, with ten to twelve pumps/engines.  (Not on the list: Franklin's in Hyattsville, which may serve too infrequently to be considered regular; and, inexplicably, the District Chop House, and RFD, the sister location to the Brickskeller.)  Let's see, here in Baltimore, in no particular order:
Max's Taphouse (3 engines), Wharf Rat (four pumps, relocated vintage stand from Pratt Street), Bertha's (one pump and plans for regular on-bar firkins), Mahaffey's (one pump), Grand Cru (semi-regular pump), Red Brick Station (one pump, usually running), Pratt Street Ale House (three engines), and I'm leaving off the list places that do only occasional firkins for special events or don't have a proper outlet (Brewers Art, Clipper City).  Did I leave anyone off that tally?

(Photo: Ronnie Crocker, Houston Chronicle beer blogger)

To Remember.........

 Photo credit: David Karber.

And Now For An Extreme Completely Different...........

BBC Story here:

A blackened bottle of beer found in the wreck of the Hindenburg zeppelin is expected to fetch thousands of pounds at auction.  The bottle was found by a fire-fighter cleaning up the American airfield where the German airship exploded in 1937.  The bottle will be the most expensive ever bought if it meets its estimated price of £5,000 ($8,337) on Saturday.
The airship was engulfed by flames as it landed in New Jersey, killing 38 people and injuring 60.  New Jersey firefighter Leroy Smith found six bottles of Lowenbrau beer and a pitcher intact on the scene of the crash.
He buried his secret find so he could collect them later, as the area had been sealed off by the authorities.
Mr Smith gave the other five bottles to his colleagues.  Most of the others are now lost, although one was given to the Lowenbrau company after the death of Mr Smith's friend.
The bottle and jug were passed on by Mr Smith to his niece in 1966 and are now to be put on sale by auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son.
The beer would have gone off within a year of being bottled.  "You wouldn't want to drink it - it is probably quite putrid to taste," auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.  Some of the liquid has evaporated from the bottle and the label is burned, but the logo is still visible.
The previous record price for a bottle of beer was a limited edition sale of a Carlsberg lager which cost £240 ($400).

 I'm skeptical.  Are there no other cases instances of beer bottles, full or empty, selling for more?  I'm sure that alleged bottle-price record may well have been broken by someone on an expense account buying a Sam Adams Utopias at a bar.  On the other hand, having recently read The Billionaire's Vinegar about the apparent fraud committed to fabricate bottles of wine allegedly from Thomas Jefferson's estate, I'd probably never trust a piece of breweriana unless it was from someone still alive to answer the provenance.

The Most "EXTREME" Beer?

Here's a question for all you readers:

What do you consider the most "extreme"--oh, sorry, "EX-TRE-E-E-E-E-ME!!!!!!!!!!!!"--beer you can find in this region, or that I would have a prayer of finding or getting someone to bring/send me?

For this discussion, I am narrowing "extreme" to three categories:

1) High-Alcohol.  The highest alcohol content without distillation or adding alcohol.  Nominees include Sam Adams Utopias at 25+% (is it still for sale anywhere?), DuClaw Colossus at a reputed 23%, Dogfish Head 120-Minute IPA at 20%, Dogfish Head World Wide Stout at 18% (the original batch was reportedly 21-22%), and a couple out there around 17% (Mikkeller Black, Sam Adams Triple Bock, etc.)

2) Hops.  I'm looking at a couple 100-IBU beers--Lagunitas Hop Stoopid, Avery 13th Anniversary,  Three Floyds Alpha King.............. and a 225-IBU beer to be named later.............

3) Crazy Ingredients.  Let's see........  Dogfish has a TON of such insanity, including the probable winner, Pangaea with ingredients from all seven continents........  Flag Porter, with 1825-vintage yeast from a shipwreck......  Chiostro, and Italian beer with wormwood........  Avery 16th Anniverasary, with jasmine, peaches, and honey....  

Nominees?

Getcher National Beer News He--- er, at Max's!

Just so you can't say you weren't told:

Copies of ALL SEVEN of the Brewing News' beer newspapers--Yankee Brew News, Great Lakes Brewing News, Southern Brew News, Rocky Mountain Brewing News, Northwest Brewing News, Southwest Brewing News, and Mid-Atlantic Brewing News--were dropped off at Max's Taphouse tonight.  There's a limited supply of each--at least five when I left.

If you're traveling anywhere outside the Mid-Atlantic anytime soon--say, going somewhere for the holidays--this could be a terrific resource.  The papers have guides to all the beer spots in their regions, plus columns with all the latest news.

Steal the Glass Night--Muggsy's Mug House

E-mail from Danny at Muggsy's, the beer emporium on S. Light St in Federal Hill:

This Thursday, November 5, Muggsy's is featuring Harpoon Brewery. We will have four of their best beers on tap and with your first purchase you get an official Harpoon pint glass to take home with you; the beers featured will be Harpoon IPA, UFO Hefewizen, Winter Warmer, and Brown Session Ale.

So I Mentioned Oysters......

Right on the tails of the last item, I get a press release on an upcoming beer and oyster fest at the Timonium Fairgrounds, the evening of Friday, Nov. 20th, $55 a head, all you can eat, limited to 450, a portion of the  proceeds going to a charity.............  Beers promised: "Clipper City and Heavy Seas, Guinness and 250, Harp, Smithwicks, Magic Hat, Lancaster Brewing Co, McSorleys, Dogfish Head, Saranac, Sierra Nevada, Pyramid Brewing and more."

Oyster Stout Returns--Well, at Least to Jersey.....

Oyster Stout is a style I first ran into nearly two decades ago at the Ram's Head Tavern in Annapolis, shortly after they started brewing as a brewpub and long before they went 90% music hall and 10% brewpub.  I loved Fordham's draft-only Blue Point Oyster Stout, in part because it had a wonderful, full-bodied, and slightly chalky flavor with a full ale character and CO2 dispensing (none of this trying to be a Guinness and pouring it through a nitro tap).  Sadly, Fordham basically did away with Oyster Stout some time ago--competing with Guinness with a similar beer pumped through a nitro tap as Genius Stout was apparently more important to them.  (Legend has it that the first batch they did had actual oyster shells in it, but later batches got away with just a carefully controlled dose of gypsum and other minerals.)

The style may be back with Flying Fish of Cherry Hill, NJ, who has just introduced their latest in their "Exit" series of specialty beers, Exit 1 Oyster Stout.  Lew Bryson led me to Jeff Linkous' Beer-Stained Letter blog, complete with his self-produced video (above) about a territory on the Delaware Bay I've explored quite a great deal as a railroad historian.

Anyone headed Joisey way, grab me a bottle of that stuff.  Please.  I beg you.

Pub Dog (Federal Hill) Review

I always like to read what non-beer-geeks think of our favorite beers and beer places, so with further ado:

Taste of Baltimore blogger Nakiya reviews Federal Hill's Pub Dog.