DuClaw Brewing Company

Today (Thursday) only, all DuClaw beers on are $1. That is right, Venom, Serum and the boys (and girl) are all $1, all day long.  And for you wine drinkers out there, all of our bottles are $10 all day too (that is basically the same price you pay at your favorite liquor store my friends)!

And if that is enough to get you moving, we are also previewing our NEW ARTISANAL PRETZEL STICKS. They are handmade, each day, at all of our stores and baked fresh.  They will be offered on most salads and as a pretzel stick appetizer. These babies will be on our new menu rolling out this September, but today only you get a sneak preview of these utterly delicious, scrumptious, addictive little sticks.

All the details are here. Hope to see you at the stores, cause this is a deal you will not want to miss!

Cheers,

Dave

Before I get to announcing the final three firkins, Flying Dog Brewery is running a contest for you to select their firkins they are bringing this year to our Real Ale Fest. To vote, follow the link here.

Ok, now down to business.  The final three firkins will be:

4) Double Spiced 31 (yep, 2x the cinnamon and nutmeg)

5) Dark Cherry & Vanilla Infused Black Jack Stout

6) Diablo Noir (an extremely devilish blend of Devils Milk (2009) and Black Jack (2008))

As a little bit of insight, in the firkins where we are adding either more spice or some type of fruit (which is 5 out of 6) we will not be able to taste them until the day of the fest. But, the Diablo Noir blend I have been able to taste.  It was good.  So good, you might be seeing more of these blends from us.

I hope to see you there. And if you need tickets you can get them here.

Cheers,

Dave

Tomorrow at the MD Brewer’s Springfest in Frederick we will be unveiling our second release in our eXile series.  eXile Batch #2 is a…..Imperial Belgian Wit (yep Sawtooth’s big brother, hence the big bad wolf hints.  I know, very sly of me).  It is just above 7% abv, with quite nice spicing, but man is it drinkable.  So if you ever find yourself on a hot day and thought “boy, I wish I had a high alcohol beer that was awesome and quenched my thirst”, well we have the beer for you. So come out tomorrow to the Springfest and get the first taste before it goes on tap at the units.  Oh, the units tap date, almost forgot.  That would be Thursday June 10th, 11am.

And speaking of the Springfest, we have one hell of a lineup of vintage beers.  We are bringing 16 beers in all.  Here is the list:

1) 2009 Mayhem

2) 2008 13 Degrees

3) 2007 31

4) 2005 Repent

5) 2007 Sawtooth

6) 2006 Devil’s Milk

7) 2008 Naked Fish

8) 2008 Blackout

9) 2006 Blackjack Stout

10) 2009 Pax Nemesis

11) 2008 Twisted Kilt

12) 2007 Mad Bishop

13) 2010 Serum Double IPA

14) 2004 Misery Wheat Wine

15) eXile #1 Imperial Chocolate Rye Porter

16) eXile #2 Imperial Wit

Well a race that was much more exciting that the Kentucky Derby was finished this week.  That is right, the Vote for the Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Jack! It was a tough fight, all the way to the end.  The lead went back and forth a couple times, and the comments were intense (somehow we even defined a new word ‘Stoutie’.  Look it up in the Urban Dictionary).  In the end, Arundel Mills just edged Bel Air out for the keg.  It was a hard fought fight by all, and all should be proud.  But a special congratulations goes to the Mills crowd, enjoy the sweet, sweet taste of victory.  Well at least about 125 pints of it!!!

Well gotta go, as my boy just took a good spill and the tears are rolling!

Cheers,

Dave

Ok, here is the deal. The festival mistakenly forgot to put our final keg of Bourbon Barrel Aged (BBA) Black Jack on tap. So now we have this extra keg in our way, and we need to get rid of it. So Bo, Jim and I had a meeting on what to do with it.  After a few diligent hours of drinking, we decided that we should really make a decision. So, after a couple more beers one of us came up with the great idea to put it on tap at one of our stores for Cinco de Mayo!

At first we were glad that the strenuous act of making a decision was over.  But, as Jim was leaving work around 1pm , after a hard day of watching Bo brew, Bo reminded us that we only have one keg…..and we have three stores.  It was at this point we realized that we have even a tougher decision to make.  It also became quite clear to Jim that he was not going to make it home in enough time for his 1:30 nap.  But, we had to decide what restaurant would get our only keg of Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Jack Stout. After an intense debate, a few more beers and a grueling match or rock, paper, sissors; Jim, Bo an I came to a conclusion.  And that is…..we are too scared to make any real tough decisions.

So, we are leaving it up to YOU to decide where it will be tapped.  There is a poll posted on the right hand side of the home page of my blog. Go there to cast your vote for which store is to receive our only keg.  Do it quick, as the polls close on  April 30th at noon.  Make your voice heard!

Cheers,
Dave

So, I attended the Beer, Bourbon and BBQ fest with Jim and Bo today. We had Serum plus Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Jack (vintage 2009) there. We weren’t there to work the festival since the promoter had pourers assigned to our booth, which lead to walking with Jim and trying some bourbons. Bo was left to do all the work (if you are around the brewery at all, this is a recurring theme). Well, after two bourbons I decided to head back to beer only. And this of course got me a boat load of jabs from Jim (who mind you took the light rail in, while I drove!). But, I did have a nice IPA from Evolution before heading back to our booth to have my first try of the Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Jack.

And even though I am biased (shocker, I know) IT WAS AWESOME! A nice presence of bourbon, but by no means overwhelming. And judging by the comments from the attendees, it seems they loved it too. Now, we have less than ten kegs of this, so the only place you are going to see this is at festivals. But, I will make sure that we send an email when we are attending a festival that has the Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Jack Stout. Come to think of it, it would be a good idea to send an email about every festival and what beer we will be bringing. Well, looks like I made some more work for our marketing people. But, if you get a chance, don’t miss the Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Jack, it will not disappoint.

Cheers,
Dave

Comments are open!  I am very interested in hearing anyone thoughts on our first eXile launch, Chocolate Imperial Rye Porter.

Cheers,

Dave

Just wanted to thank everyone who showed up yesterday for our little April Fools promotion. We really appreciate it. There were a lot of you, and it seems you guys were determined as we are going to have to make extra deliveries of beer this week to get us through the weekend!

We had a lot of questions on the sliders, with the biggest one being are we adding them to the menu. Yes we are, along with a Tempura Battered Shrimp Slider. All new items are set to launch in May, and I already got it on my ‘blog todo’ to give you some good details about it in a week or so.

Don’t forget – today is the launch of our eXile series. It starts with a Chocolate Imperial Rye Porter, very tasty. Oh, and the second batch is in the tanks fermenting away. You want a hint? A BIG, bad WOLF…..

Cheers,

Dave

I must have been drunk when I came up with this idea, but here it goes. This Thursday, all day, all beers are $1! You heard (errr, read) me right. $1. A buck. A single dollar (plus the State’s cut) for any DuClaw beer. And if that wasn’t good enough, all wines are $10 off a bottle.

And if that wasn’t good enough, we are previewing TWO NEW SLIDERS that are on our new menu, coming out this May. The two sliders are a Chipotle Chicken slider with Lime Crema. Basically, we make a pretty spicy Chipotle BBQ sauce and cook finely shredded chicken in it. When then top it with a cool Lime Crema to slightly cut the heat. The second one is a mini version of our crab cake sandwich, complete with a signature dijonaise sauce. And after trying both personally, they will knock your socks off! But, they are only available this one day, until the new menu launch in May. So get’em while they’re hot!

And to recap, this Thursday ONLY:
1) $1 beers all day long
2) $10 off all wine bottles
3) Two new awesome sliders available for preview
4) I make horribly bad financial decisions when I attempt to drink a whole bottle of Colossus by myself.

See you Thursday! Cheers,
Dave

Well, the first Firkin Friday release has come and gone. And all I can say is wow! The cinnamon in the Sawtooth was quite pronounced. I personally loved it, but I am sure there are some that thought it might be a little too much. But, that is why we brew so many different types of beer! I was only able to get one pint, due to the fact that the Sawtooth firkin kicked in 41 minutes.

Speaking of 41 minutes….myself, Jim, Bo and a few other my staff (who are too insignificant to mention….just kidding. I just love to torture them) made a little wager ‘Price is Right’ style as to when the firkin of Sawtooth would kick. And who do you think nailed the time right dead perfect. That is right, yours truly! So not only did I get to drink some tasty brew, I can now start bragging about this for the next week or so (starting with this blog :) ).

And now with all the pleasantries aside, lets talk about the main event, PEPPERMINT INFUSED IMPERIAL CHOCOLATE RYE PORTER (again, the longest name of any beer we have had). Yummy. Just plain yummy…and yes that is my professional opinion. The peppermint was the first thing that hits you, but it quickly gave way to the roast espresso flavor with just the right hint of chocolate. I am not sure how long that lasted, because half way through my first glass an emergency call from home came in, and I was out the door. Ah, the life of a father who has a wild 3 year old at home.

So to recap – Beer was good, conversation with our guests were awesome, I can predict things 1000 times better than Jim, Bo’s jokes were awful (if any of you have ever hung around Bo or Jim, you know exactly what I mean) and it seems a good time was had by all. So, until next time my friends…Cheers!