DuClaw Brewing Company

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!

This Friday at 5pm the 26th, simultaneously at all three stores, Cinnamon Vanilla Sawtooth will be tapped on Firkin by a vicious blow from a mallet. The last time I had Sawtooth in a firkin was at our Real Ale Fest last year. And let me tell you, it was delicious. So I am extremely anxious to try Sawtooth again on firkin.

For those of you who do not know, a firkin is a vessel for cask conditioned ale. What is cask conditioned ale you ask?  Well, click here for a pretty decent wikipedia write up about it. But, basically it is ale that has very little CO2 in it compared to standard beers produced today. This resulting lack of CO2 leads to a completely different flavor and mouthfeel profile. Basically, a whole new beer. A whole new, extremely tasty, amazingly awesome beer!!

We will have Firkin Friday once a month at every store.  In the past, we had it at a different store every Friday. But, now we are doing it at every store on the same day and same time.

The extra kicker on this Firkin Friday is that our Mills store will also be receiving a firkin of our Inaugural batch of the eXile Series. I blogged a while back about the series. But just to recap, our eXile series are small, experimental batches of beer, allowing us to explore our creativity a little more. Plain and simple, we want to really flex our brew muscles. The first batch is going to be an Imperial Chocolate Rye Porter, which I have had the pleasure of sampling.

What is going to be in the firkin is even more interesting. We took all small amount of the batch and infused it with peppermint, then casked it up. So we now will have the longest name beer in DuClaw history on cask that night:  Peppermint Infused Imperial Chocolate Rye Porter. The question is, will it taste like a 7.8% liquid Peppermint Patty?

When will the eXile cask go on tap? When the first one kicks. So drink people…drink like you have a mission.

I will have more details on this later, but just wanted to make a quick post. Firkin Fridays will be returning this Friday March 26th at all 3 locations!!  Each store will be receiving one firkin of Cinnamon Vanilla Sawtooth. And our Arundel Mills location will also be getting one firkin of …(drum roll please)….Peppermint Infused Imperial Chocolate Rye Porter!! Yep you heard me right, a small tasting of our first eXile release infused with peppermint in a firkin cask!!!  Dare I say an Imperial Peppermint Patty?

In the next few weeks DuClaw will be launching our eXile Series. What is the eXile Series you ask! Well it is our experimental small batch series. Like our seasonal releases, these beers will be periodically released through out the year. But eXile beers differ from our seasonals in two big ways. First, these are small batches – about half the amount or less are produced of an eXile beer compared to a seasonal. Secondly, eXile beers will be released with much less ‘fanfare’ than our seasonals – no videos, no giveaways, no logos. Just an email (and blog mention) when they are to go on tap.

These beers are experiments; not meant to be liked by all. What they allow us to do is flex our ‘brewing creativity’ muscles. For example, our first release in our eXile Series is an Imperial Chocolate Rye Porter!!! That is a mouthful, and after sampling some today…it is a mouthful.

This Impy Chocolate Rye Porter is brewed with chocolate rye malt and real chocolate giving the beer a complex, yet silky smooth character. The chocolate is not overwhelming, but superiorly layered within the beer. The Rye malt enhances the aroma and contributes a distinct roasted flavor, which adds a good bit of depth and character. The original gravity starts at 19.5 plato and ends with a final gravity of 5.7 plato, with an alcohol content of 7.7% abv.

After tasting it today, it is quite seductive. The chocolate creates a silky mouthfeel, making it quite drinkable, but it is full of flavor. Look for the beer to go on tap the beginning of April. And this beer is only the beginning…..

Well it has happened. The new lineup change has been decided and will go into effect very soon. Kangaroo Love is leaving us for a while. But, two beers will be taking it’s place. Serum, our current seasonal, has officially made it to the big leagues. Also joining our xxIPA, will be Euphoria (in a few weeks).

I have some other cool things to talk about, but just not ready yet. So if you want to hear about them, remember to sign up for the blog. Either click the orange square in the upper right corner for an RSS feed, or enter your email address to get it that way.

Cheers,
DB

I really never intended to bring politics into this blog, but today I feel it must be done. The state of Maryland legislature is considering a bill (linked here), called The Lorraine Sheehan Health and Community Services Act of 2010. This bill proposes MASSIVE increases in the state’s alchohol tax.  First, increasing any tax in these difficult economic times makes no sense.  But, even more amazing is how the purpose of the bill is hidden by the title. The bill proposes to increase the tax on beer from the current 9 cents a gallon tax to $1.16 a gallon tax, a whopping 12 fold increase!  The tax is applied at the level of the brewery or importer into the state. This is important because this is before the distributor and retailer markups are applied to the product, making the increase even worse.

Basically any (or at least any micro-brew) six pack price will jump from whatever it’s current price in your favorite liquor store to over a $1.10 more. So if your six pack costs $7.99, after this tax it will cost $ 9.19!!! Just as a side note, a 750ml bottle of wine will jump around $1.05 and a liter bottle of vodka will go up over $4 a bottle. A pint of beer at your favorite restaurant, will go up $.60 to $.70 a glass, and possibly more. And remember, this is all before the sales tax (which they increase 20% already).

I urge you to contact your local representative and tell them to not vote for this bill. And please pass this on to anyone you know, we need all the support we can muster to stop this.

Again, I hate making this political, but the damage this bill would do to the craft brewing industry in Maryland would be beyond repair, not to mention our wallets as every alcohol we consume would cost tremendously more. Here a link to a facebook group page you are welcome to join.

Our High-gravity, high-alcohol behemoth, aptly named Colossus, was bottled (22oz bombers) and shipped to our distributor last week and should be in stores this week for purchase. Just a warning, this beer is not for the faint of heart, as its alcohol comes in at 21% and has every bit of flavor to match. With that being said, Jim and Bo have done a great job of hiding the vast amount of alcohol. Not to say you won’t taste it, but it will make you think twice.

Before I go any further, let me give you a little background about our newest baby. Colossus was brewed back in 2006, and was aged a year before anyone got a taste of it (except yours truly!). To get that high alcohol content is much more art than science. But after many a nervous night, Jim’s ‘little’ boy came through for us. We released it in 2007 in a limited (about 25 cases) 1 liter bottling. And some have tasted it throughout the years at festivals like the BAM Octoberfest. And this year, some even crowd surfed to the front of the line (Here is a video of the release at this year’s BAM Fest)!

Well now it is out to the public, but just a warning. We only have about 150 cases of this bottled (Devil’s Milk run was about 400), so there is not a lot of it available. I could go on about how awesome it is, but of course I am biased. So, I figured I would let one of the raters from Ratebeer.com do it for me. His name is ‘otakuden’, and we have never gotten a write-up like this (posted on 1/3/10):

“Ever since my first glog, the Rorviv Ol-Glog, I have been on a constant look-out for another glog of equally orgasmic proportions, or a suitable beer to warm and sup as a glog. Well, that special moment descended about a month ago in the form of the DuClaw Colossus, a self-styled American Strong Ale of epic proportions, 21.92%ABV epic proportions, that is. When the time came to sup and savor this beauteous beast, Eric and I both concurred that warming her like a glog would be best, and boy were we ever more right.

Served in Grandma Johnson’s old Dutch tea cup china, soft whites with lavender flowers decorated in tasteful minimalism, a better pairing couldn’t be found anywhere then in those glasses and in that moment. Steam slowly rose from her deep murky brown and burnished mahogany depths. Tiny bubbles scatter shyly around the sides while a gentle swirl traces soft lace along the sides of my tea cup. Beautiful. Wafting upwards atop a bed of soothing steam is a pervading gentle sweetness, the kind one finds cupping a warm brandy in front of the crackling fireplace. Brown sugar coated red apples, cooked long and slow in their own juices along with fresh cinnamon, maple, molasses, and more brown sugar. Apricot, peaches, and orange are added next to the steeping sweet spiced fruit compote. The final flourish? The finest of brandies and oak-aged rums are added for soul-soothing warmth and further depth. Luxurious fits the DuClaw Colossus perfectly. My first sip is warm just enough and all about brown spices and wood. Warm brandy and rum hit fast and long, immediately tracing long slender fingers across my chest and throat, feathery whispers lingering long after their initial touch. Cinnamon sticks, apricots, peaches, red apples and brown sugar are steeped long and tenderly while maple and molasses thinly coat my lips and tongue. Her finish is on the sweet and dry side with spices lingering in each breath. Dead grass and old wood whispers in the background while each divine quaff focuses her attention on the center of my palate. Divinity is moments such as this, when souls soar and time seems to slow to an infinite crawl, all the better to savor the moment with each aching fiber of one’s being. That was my moment with the DuClaw Colossus.

I’m not sure how she would taste cellar temperature, and I’m not really sure if I care to. Should you have a bottle of this awaiting supping and sharing, give her liquid nectar a slow hot-water bath to warm her thoroughly without burning and discover the gates of heavenly ascension as I did. I can’t promise the old Dutch china, but I am sure you will find something equally worthy.”

One thing he mentions in his review (and a long one it is) is heating Colossus up, which Jim brought to my attention. If you heat Colossus in a microwave (be careful it happens quick, and don’t do it in a closed bottle) to 105 degrees, and try it like a mulled wine, you will notice a complete flavor change. Compare to a cooler version at the same time, it will knock your socks off!! Leave comments to let me know how you like it.

Cheers,
Dave

Hello and welcome to the launch of my blog. First I would like to thank you for stopping by and taking a read, I hope it can at least be a pleasant distraction for you. Now, with the pleasantries aside, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. What is the blog for?!

Is it for me to promote our beer and food? Is it for me to asks questions about what you want to see change? Is it for me to post random musing about issues that might not matter much to most people? Well the long and short is YES, and a whole bunch more. There will be a good amount of inside tidbits (prior to emails, talk from staff or loose rumors on the street) of new beers, menu changes and upcoming events. There will be some special promotions known just to the blog readers (and anyone who the blog readers happen to tell…). There will be discussions of not only our beer, but of other brewery’s beer that I (or you) find enjoyable (God, I love my job – drinking beer, then talking about it!). There will be talk about wines on our list and other wines that I (or you) like or just want to discuss (wait…beer and wine?). And as I said before, A WHOLE LOT MORE!

Cheers!

Dave