Cask Conditioning, Pubquest.com, and more!!

For those who have never experienced a cask conditioned ale, you don't know what your missing. Yes, it is served at a warmer temperature and yes, it is not nearly as carbonated but this is what makes it that much better in my opinion. If you have tried this general style of enjoying ales, and did not find it for your liking, sometime in the future give it a try again perhaps you just did not have one that was properly conditioned or served. I can tell you after some funny experiences in the past week or two there is a right way and a wrong way to prepare them, our way?? Well, maybe a little of both we will see.. My cohorts at the brewery and I have been conditioning a few firkins (casks, if you will) for an upcoming tasting in Atlanta at the end of the month. Last week we delivered one of these to the guys at Cigar City for transport to Atlanta for the festival. The beer needed to be there by this past Tuesday for stillage and so they could settle and probably clear out a little bit from being jostled during the ride which in our case was about 8 hours. On Monday I took our little experiment over and left it in the very competent hands of our friends and went off to a tasting which I discussed in my last post. Those beers were brilliant by the way, I definitely need to get to Bamburg soon.. You do too!! On Tuesday while shaking a little bit of the last night's fun off I received a call from Wayne, Cigar City's head brewer who while on the way into work was called an informed there had been a little "mishap" with one of the casks... As both he and Joey told me the real concern was that it has been theirs but alas it was not it was ours and it had exploded... All over the place, oops!! I offered to come and help clean it up and Wayne stated that it couldn't be that bad he would take care of it, but he would call me if it was worse than he had imagined.. It was, I got the call about an hour later and headed over to Tampa to aid in the clean up effort. When I arrived and entered the office, I could immediately smell that smell that I live for, the wonderful sweet smell of fresh, hoppy beer, however everyone else in the office had a different way of describing it that was not so cheery and believe me, it was not a subtle smell. What I saw when I came to Joey's office where our little "bomb" was being stored I will never forget... It was EVERYWHERE!! Seems that it had blown the bag inside the firkin holding hops for dry-hopping right out of the small opening at the top (called the keystone) which was a feat in and of itself as it had not been easy to put the bag in the much larger h opening on the side when we went to fill it. Everything was splattered with the remnants of what had previously been inside the firkin/cask/bomb and we went to work cleaning. I tried to keep a straight face, but could not help it especially after we figured out that other than a good cleaning, everything of importance would be OK (sorry about the posters, and other assorted papers on the wall Joe, the office needed a little redecorating anyways!!) but it was definitely an experience. As for the tasting, we had filled 2 so we still had one to send, and it made it to Atlanta safely so we will see how we do.. If you want to read more about this it is on the Cigar City Blog, and Joey even includes a few pictures if you want the visual. Needless to say, they got to name the beer and it is "The Bomb" actually a very tasty Oatmeal Stout dry-hopped generously with some crazy hop variety that now escapes my mind. I can not wait to try it at the tasting next weekend, but feel sorry for the poor SOB who has to spile and prepare it because there is quite a chance they will wear some.. Guess I will bring them a fresh Dunbrew T-shirt!

In other news, I had the good fortune to meet up with Julie from Pubquest.com last week for a few pints and a great discussion about what they are doing in helping to promote craft beer and local breweries. If you have not checked out PubQuest you should, the site it pretty solid and they can lead you to a brewery or brewpub from your spot from anywhere in the United States and Canada. They are in the process of adding beer bars too so those should be up sometime soon but this is a very valuable reference for anyone who travels and likes to taste the local flavor or tour the local brewery.

Meanwhile, while I do not like to blow my own horn too much I am now in the planning for the annual Stogie and Stout at the Dunedin Brewery my home base so to speak, the spot of most of my happiness and frustration, sometimes at the same time!! This event is in it's 9th year, pretty crazy to me although I have not been around that long it has really grown into something special in the past 5 or so that I have had the hand in putting it together (as if it was not before). This year I am anticipating 25-30 stouts, porters, brown ales, and maybe even a doppelbock available for tasting on February 21st from 7-11pm. Tickets for the event can be purchased on the Dunedin Brewery website, and the event usually sells out. Basically for your $25, you get to be in stout wonderland for the night! The entry include some appetizers from the Snug Pub kitchen, a Stogie (if you don't smoke them, share them that's what I do..) and a tasting glass then proceed to embody your taste buds with some of the darkest, most complex beers we can find. Generally there are a few you can not get around the area included in this, but most of them you can find in bottles here or there. We also feature the beers made around Florida during this time as part of the Best Florida Beer Championships, and this organization the BFBC holds a big raffle where most everyone walks away with some very coveted beer schwag. During this event I change every single tap in the house to a porter, stout, brown ale, etc. so those who like the light and mild need not apply on this night. I look forward to this every year, it is one of my favorite events and a fun time is always had by all. Perhaps you should grab a ticket and stop by to share some of these Nubian delights with us!!

Cheers!