Jack's Bistro Update

For those who let me know they were not able to get on the e-newslett list.  Here is their offering.  I may go down for dinner as Steak Frites (my favorite dish of theirs) is on special tonight.  The Tap List is a must check out!

From the E-Mail:

Jack's Bistro
3123 Elliott St.
Baltimore, Md. 21224
(410) 878-6542


Happy Winter to all-


Rest assured that we are open tonight, Sun 2/7! Stop in for happy hour, or to watch the superbowl & have a tasty $12 or $15 entree special- one of which is steak frites! No worries about getting a table or bar seat as we are not a sports bar.

We are accepting reservations for all size parties on Valentines Day. We will be offering our regular menu with some additional specials.

Beers on tap this week:
Brewer's Art "Ozzy"- Belgian Style Golden Ale- Baltimore
Synbrychoff Porter- Finland
Great Divide "Hercules"- IPA- Colorado
N'ice Chouffe- Winter Beer- Belgium
Glazen Toren- Saison- Belgium
Rogue Chocolate Stout- Oregon
North Coast "Brother Thelonious"- Belgian Style Abbey Brown- California
BFM "Tarry Suchong"- Amber Ale brewed with tea leaves- Switzerland

To answer a frequently asked question: We honor our happy hour every night (even on the weekends). The happy hour is $2 off all wines by the glass, beer, original house cocktails, and appetizers at the bar stools only from 5-7pm & 11-1am for the late nighters. Our kitchen is always open until 1am. Bottles of wine are half price from 5pm til 6pm.

Hope to see you soon!

Snowy Day Blues

This would suck, hope they had a beer ready.

Snow, Snow, Go Away (Heavy Seas style)

I decided to fight the storm with a Clipper City, I mean Heavy Seas, Mutiny Series, Yule Tide.  I took the picture next to the "fire".

I really like this beer, and wish that I had picked up a few more bottles.  It isn't anything wowwing, but it is good.  Mild spices, with a lot of sweetness to it.

What are you drinking on this blustery, winter day?

Upcoming Event- Taming of the Brew

On Wednesday, February 3, I left work early. Why? To make sure I was able to secure tickets to a local beer festival in my hometown of Bloomsburg, PA. The event is a highlight for me every year, as it allows my friends and I to have a great beer night and not worry about things like getting home, getting lost or running out of cash. (I had friends try to get tickets and they were sold out 10 minutes after opening.)

The Taming of the Brew is a fundraiser for our local theatre group. They rent out two large rooms and limit the ticket sales. This combination makes sure that you have a great time, without being crowded (the number one think I hate at a lot of festivals). There is rarely a wait over 2 minutes waiting for the beer, and the people pouring are always social and helpful. From their website:

The evening will be filled with fun. Taste and learn about new beer
styles. Sample wonderful foods from an array of area restaurants and
caterers. Try tasting beer and food together to find complementary flavor
pairings. Vote for your favorite beer at the auction table (Who
knows? It could win the People's Choice Award!) Bid on a wide array
of items generously contributed by local businesses and craftspeople at our
silent auction.

The festival takes place in two large rooms. Around the outside of the rooms are booths, that go in order of food, beer, food, beer, making it so you are always close to each. At the back of the one room is normally a jazz band playing music.

The fest draws many smaller breweries/brewpubs from around the state (i.e. Berwick Brewing, Bullfrog Brewery, Old Forge Brewing, Sly Fox), as well as some of the larger breweries (i.e. Ommegang, DogfishHead, Magic Hat, Troegs)- there are also a couple of distributers that bring a selection (one brings Stone).

One great thing about the festival (many festivals) is the ability of the breweries to bring something different, or release a special beer. (At the Michigan Brewer's Guild Festival this past July, I was able to try 10+ beers that will probably never be made, like the Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam with Hibiscus- check out here and here.) At last year's TotB, Sly Fox released their (I believe) Odyssey Imperial IPA, and I was able to try Ommegang's Cave-Aged Three Philosophers and Cave-Aged Abbey Ale.

Overall, I like to try the smaller brewpubs that I am not able to get to very often, and then go to the regulars to see what they brought. I look forward to this event, and hopefully am able to report back with any new finds.

Chief Wiggum enjoyed some Ommegang Three Philosophers

The Session- REAL Ale

The Session is a monthly event, where one blogger poses a question and is consequently answered by other bloggers. This month's question was asked by Tom Cizauskas an Yours for Good Fermentables. His question is based around Real Ales or Cask-conditioned ales:

Cask-conditioned ale —or "real ale" as it is called, somewhat boastfully, by the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA), a beer consumer advocacy group in the UK— is defined by that organization as

"beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide."

Viewers of this blog have read my opinions on cask-conditioned ale, and probably once too often. So, let's hear yours, and not only yours. Why not invite brewers and drinkers and bemused casked-spectators to contribute essays for the Session?

I have strong feelings toward all beers. Some I love, IPAs and Sours, and others I hate, smokes. One beer that can go either way for me are beers out of the cask.

One of the first things that I look for when I get to my weekly relaxation at Max's is to see what they have on cask. Their list is always amazing, and it is an hours worth of time just looking at the list and trying to figure out what you want today, tomorrow or never.

I am considered one of the knowledgeable beer people in my group of friends. Before moving to Baltimore, I would try to experiment with beers, but there was nothing there. Especially not a cask. My first few trips to the bar, it was unique seeing the hand pump, and thought, why would someone want this warm, uncarbinated beer? Then I tried it. I now know.

The beer on cask that really opened my eyes to what can come was a Lagunitas Hop Stoopid. I had never tasted a beer like that tasted. I had had Hop Stoopid before, and it is a great beer. But coming from the cask, it was like an explotion of pine in my mouth. No coolness to hold it back. The bitterness was there, but that was expected. I truly thought that I had a mouthful of pine cones. I couldn't complain.

From now on, I look for that next surprise beer that does something different for me, that can blow me away. I am not saying that all cask beer is good. Some of it was hard to drink, the warmth hurt it instead of opening up the flavors (at least that is how I perceived it). But it was different. If you like it on tap, you won't necessarily like it on cask. But it is a gamble I will take.

Two Beers, One Glass

Sometimes I just don't know what to drink. I grabbed a sixer of 60 min and a 4-pack of 90 minute. Combined to make a 75 minute. It is delicious. I was glad that one day someone recommended it to me. Take the sweetness of the 90 and mix it will the rawness of the 60 minute and it is delicious.

Playing Catch Up

A little review of the beers that I have had in the past little bit.

A while back, I was finally able to break open my bottle of The Bruery Autumn Maple. We were having steak and a sweet potato to eat that night for dinner. I didn't know what the Autumn Maple would taste like, and was surprised that the most prevalent taste to come would be yams (or sweet potato). I would call it luck, except yams aren't my favorite thing to eat. So if you like yams, find a bottle and see what you think.

A few days later, I broke open a bottle of the Brewer's Art Coup de Boule, a Belgian Strong Ale. It was a good beer, but nothing special. Spices abound in this beer, and trying to figure it out could have been an all night job. Nicely done, smooth drinking beer.

One of my fiance's favorite restaurants in our hometown serves Tex-Mex and is called Terrapin Cantina. The started serving Terrapin ales, which was a nice surprise when we went there with her family a few weeks back. I was served a Terrapin Rye Pale Ale. It was an ok pale ale, with that nice rye bite to it. It was by far the best beer they serve (normally I order a Dos Equis).

Also mixed in there was a trip to Elliotts Pour House. A great beer bar that not many know about. They have a tower with about 20 taps on in (although some are repeat taps). While there I sampled the Clipper City Holy Sheet 2010. I was fortune enough to have a pint of 2009 the week before, and I could notice that they made this abbey not as sweet as its predecessor. Other beers that I had at EPH include the Mendencino Imperial IPA (ok, typical Imperial IPA) and the Old Dominion Oak Barrell Stout (very good stout).

Other beers of note from the past couple of weeks include Tuppers Hop Pocket IPA, North Coast Brother Thelonious abbey and Max's had Stoudt's beers for a Pint Night, and I was pleasantly surprised with their hellesbock.

What have you had lately?