Got Wood, Mon?

My new ride.

Sounds like a lot of people are wondering how the Night Of 100 Elvises went last Friday. I will tell you right now, that is one unique event. Wow. I saw just about everything you could imagine singing Elvis songs. Just to name a few: Lady E (that's right, a female Elvis), punk Elvis, belly dancers (some with more belly than dance) with Elvis, Santa Claus with Elvis, and no less than a half-dozen Elvises in their late 50's with jumpsuits unzipped down to their beer guts. In a word: awesome. A hunk, a hunk of burnin' awesome. Free beer. That's right. The Lithuanian Hall buys a ton of Heavy Seas beer and gives it away. You want wine, liquor or bad beer? Costs money. Want great local craft beer? Free! How about a shot of some home made Lithuanian honey/spice/grain alcohol called "viryta"? Only three bucks, so pace yourself. You can do what you want, but don't barf on my blue suede shoes.

Today I met an interesting guy who is an expert on wood. He managed to take his degree in whatever they call a degree in wood, and put it to use with breweries. His claim to fame is that he introduced Dogfish Head to the palo santo wood, which is used to create one incredible beer. This guy was at Heavy Seas today to discuss the upcoming Plank Three release that will coming in 2014. The style of the beer is still being determined, but it sounds like it will be of Belgian origin. The wood will be...Jamaican allspice. Didn't see that one coming, did ya? Stay tuned for more details, and be sure to grab it fast when it comes out. I doubt it will be around for long.

Hopefully everyone is getting close to being done with their Christmas shopping. I managed to get just about there this weekend, with just a few loose ends to tie up this week. I won't have Saturday to shop though, not that I looked forward to that mess. I am doing an event at the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C. on Friday night. That's right, even the people who control the economy of the entire planet need to let their hair down for a holiday party. And they requested local beer. That was mighty thoughtful of them, and we certainly appreciate it. I guess I am going to need to tuck my shirt in for this one. Taking one for the team.

You will probably hear from me next week. Should be a pretty quiet week, at least until Friday the 21st. That is the day of our employee holiday party here at the brewery, and the day that a friend from Atlanta is coming to visit. Sunday the 22nd is my annual Cowboys at Redskins game (year 3), which, in case the NFL is listening, can be moved to October please. As much as I love sitting outside in the winter for three hours, which is not very much at all, I would be just fine doing it in the fall. Pretty please.

Have a great week everyone. Happy holidays. Be jolly like these guys.

Thirty minuted later there was about 50 of them.

You Had Me At Elvis

This was a real conversation I had last week:
"Hey Fred, what are you doing next Friday?"
"Nothing."
"I got a table at this fundraiser if you want to go. It's called 'Night Of 100 Elvises'. You interested?"
"You had me at 'Elvis'. I didn't even really need the other 99. I would have said yes to just one Elvis."

So tomorrow night I am going to the Lithuanian Hall for what looks like a rip-roaring good time. I don't have time to explain the whole thing to you, but here is the web site: http://www.nightof100elvises.com/. Let's just say that it is a whole lot of Elvis, a whole lot of free Heavy Seas beer, and fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches for dessert. Now I have never seen an Elvis impersonator live. On TV? Sure. Posing for pictures with tourists in Vegas? Yeah. But multiple Elvis impersonators on multiple stages on different floors all at one--and no songs are duplicated--well, this I have to see. I don't know what we're raising money for, and I don't really care*. This is going to be a trip. Apparently this thing has been a home-run here in Baltimore for twenty years, and I can't wait to check it out.

In other, non-Elvis-related news, today is the 80th anniversary of the actual repeal of Prohibition. And we have Utah to thank for it. That's right, by being the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, Utah provided the final state needed to provide the two-thirds majority to pass the amendment. Pretty cool info. Didn't think you'd learn anything today did you? Did you know that Mississippi chose to maintain Prohibition until 1966. We already had people going into outer space and coming back alive, but you could not get a legal drink in Mississippi. Crazy.

So be sure to raise a toast to Utah today at 5:32 pm EST, wherever you are. And then raise one to every brave soul who lived in Mississippi from 1933 to 1966. What were they thinking? Pack up and move people! Maybe that's why there is so much poverty in that state. Anyone with the means to do it packed up and split so they could get a cold beer without breaking the law.

And while you're doing all of this toasting, raise one to the 1.78 million people that are employed in the brewing industry in this country alone. I'll drink to that. Have a great weekend everyone.

PS-- Fun Fact: Maryland was the only state to not pass a law enacting Prohibition. Once the federal law was enacted, there was nothing they could do about it though.

*The money goes to Johns Hopkins Children's Center, and I do care about that.  

And We're Back!

That's right kids, I did not forget about you. Last we spoke I was in a hotel room north of Richmond, VA,

waiting to get an early start the next day to meet the movers at my new place in Baltimore. That was just over two weeks ago. Everything went well with the move: I lost a ceramic something-or-other, plus two glasses. Not beer glasses though. Hell no. I took better care packing of those. They take such good care of me, it was only fair to return the favor. All of my framed artwork was intact, nothing was lost...I mean seriously, I gotta give those mover guys credit. I wholeheartedly recommend using Allied if you ever have a long move to make. Pay the extra money for the peace of mind. Trust me on this one.    

So...sorry that I have been out of communication lately. I have only been starting a new job after relocating 700 miles to a town I have only seen twice before. Then just setting up utilities, unpacking, finding my way around, getting lost, having my car towed, doing battle with a colony of crows that use my car for a toilet, having a plumbing disaster...so, you know, nothing much. Did I mention that I started a new job? Well that's going great, as if there were any doubts. When your new boss invites you over to his house to grill steaks after your first day because, "You probably haven't had a home cooked meal in a while," you know you're in good hands. Quality people for sure. Go buy some Heavy Seas beer and feel good about it. Don't do it for me, do it for yourself, and walk around all damn day proud of yourself for supporting a great operation. And if you insist on doing it for me, well OK, whatever makes you happy.

But actually, these beers might be hard to find from time to time. A new bottling line is being installed now, and a new brew system arrives in the spring. The supply vs. demand deficit should be under control soon...ish. In the meantime, I am trying not to drink too much beer, putting a bigger dent in the supply. I said I am trying. I didn't say I was succeeding.

Winter is fast approaching, and since I know that most of you reading this are the southeast and think that you are going to die if the temperature gets below 40 degrees, I just want to assure you that I am fine. The Mid-Atlantic is not like Siberia. It will hit 50 today. I did go out and buy an ice scraper/snow brush for my car yesterday though. Gotta be prepared. Damn thing was $16.99, so it better snow at least a few times this year.

One thing is for sure, December weather does not slow down beer events up here. There are things going on all over the area, so many that I have to skip some really killer ones that overlap. Next week I will be doing an event at the IMF in Washington D.C. Yep, yours truly will be rubbing elbows with the power brokers of the International Monetary Fund. Sounds like a wild and crazy bunch of reckless drunks, doesn't it? Not sure if I can run with that crowd of party animals. Yule Tide is out (and might even be gone by now), and this is an Imperial Red Ale brewed with ginger and aged in Jamaican rum barrels. Yes, it is as good as it sounds. Winter Storm was always a favorite of mine, but I must say, having it from a beer engine, fresh from the brewery, does not suck. Not even a tiny bit. Plan a trip to Baltimore next fall and find out for yourself.

Next up is the Mid-Atlantic Holiday Beer Tasting in Baltimore, followed by the annual Holiday Beer Tasting at RFD in D.C. Astute readers may remember RFD from wintertime posts in 2012 and 2011, where late-night D.C. Chinatown food was also discussed. Not sure if I can make both of these events or not, but damn it, I am going to try. My annual Cowboys at Redskins game is coming up December 22nd, so that will take me right into Christmas on my usual frenetic tempo.

Time for me to go now though. Duty calls. I will tell you more about the battle with the crows around here (I will not glorify them by calling them ravens). It does not appear to be ending very soon. Let's just say that I now understand why Edgar Allan Poe (a Baltimorean from back in the day) went berserk on drugs and alcohol. No doubt because of these flying pests with an endless supply of poop. No kidding. Endless. These animals need medial attention or something. I can deal with the squawking and cawing, just leave my damn car alone. Thanks to the internet, I learned that an effective way to get rid of crows is with a scarecrow. Thanks, Google. I didn't need a computer to tell me how farmers have been deterring crows for the last 300 years. I was looking for something a little edgier than a fake person in my yard. Pretty sure the city birds are a little more crafty than their country cousins. Either way, I will find the key to victory. Until then, have a great week.

Fare Thee Well...Fare The Well, I Love You More Than Words Can Tell

It has been a while building, but that did not make the last few days--Friday in particular--any less difficult. I have been going through a series of long good-byes for the last two weeks, which were a ton of fun, but they could not prevent the deep feelings that naturally arise when you leave somewhere you have been for a long time. I said good-bye to Atlanta, where I have lived for thirteen years, early this morning with a suitcase and a few house plants in my car. I gave everything I own to three strangers with a semi-truck on Tuesday. They are allegedly meeting me in Baltimore tomorrow morning and giving it all back. If you have never had movers take your stuff a long way away, that's what it feels like. Everything you own and hold dear gets given to a group of men you have never met, most of whose English is...marginal. Maybe. But hey, they say they are going to be at my new place at the crack of dawn, so we'll see how much of my shit they broke over the last four days, and then start unpacking. I start my new job on Monday, about which I am inexplicably excited. The new challenges that are already coming to me via e-mail and phone are making this move look the great idea I always knew it was. He shoots, he scores! Feels good.

But now I am enjoying being able to sit in a chair and watch TV and use a computer. Since those strangers left with all my stuff, I have been living in an empty place while they worked their way up to Baltimore. Toothbrush, air mattress, a few changes of clothes, and my Brita. Soap and shampoo were there as well. A towel. You get the picture. Since around noon on Tuesday, that is all I had. That explains the long good-byes, because seriously, I had nothing to sit on, nothing to watch, listen to, or read. I managed to see a matinee of Bad Grandpa though. I am not going to tell you to go out and see this movie, because I don't know you. I, personally, laughed until tears ran down my face on multiple occasions. So did the rest of the audience. Jackass movies are OK in my book. A lot of time to spend for a short amount of material if you ask me. But this movie was pretty damn funny the whole way through. They needed to put some calmer parts in there so the audience could stop laughing and breath for a minute. No kidding. Please remember this important point: It's raunchy. If you can't laugh at raunchy humor, stay home. You will...disapprove...to put it mildly.

I do not like to be in a car for long periods of time (defined by anything more that about four hours). So today's drive was going to be a challenge for me patience-wise. To get from Atlanta to Baltimore it takes about ten and a half hours. Problem is, if you don't time your drive correctly, you might just wind up in metropolitan Washington D.C. traffic, which makes Atlanta traffic look like a cream puff. Since I didn't need to be in Baltimore until Saturday morning, I found a hotel in a quiet town about two hours away. So I am in Ashland, VA, within striking distance from my destination, after a nine hour drive that included a few stops. I told you, I don't like to be in the car for a long, long time. Coffee, gas, bathroom, El Carbonero.

El Carbonero? Oh, yes. By 11:45 a.m. I was pulling into the El Salvadorean place called El Carbonero in Graham. NC, and you can read a few things about it here. Folks--first of all, if you know where Graham, NC is, then you must either live in "the triangle" or have family there; secondly, if you knew there was El Salvadorean food there, then you obviously live in that town. And you are most likely Hispanic. By using an on-line map service from Atlanta (it was Google, duh), I was able to determine where I would be en route to the east coast by lunch time. Thanks to Yelp! (and I realize the drawbacks inherent there), I was able to locate El Carbonero and its consistent five-star rating, inside this small town near the Virginia/North Carolina border. The on-line directions? Spot on. Timely? I was ten minutes late, but I had stopped three times already. I could have easily been a few minutes early.

Exterior? Could use some work, which may indicate some serious grub. If you think the best food comes from the prettiest places, then you make too much money, and probably wish you were still cool. Interior? About what the exterior indicates: no frills, but kick-ass food. And when there is a  sign that says "Cash Only", you probably just hit gold. Like I did. Chuletas Fritas apparently means "fried pork chops" or, in my vernacular, "Can I kiss the woman who made me this food?". Occasionally while I was eating, an older woman in shorts and a t-shirt cam out of the back. She was wearing a hairnet, which tipped me off that she cooked. I hoped. The servers spoke English to me, but being the only gringo in the place, they spoke Spanish to everyone else. After you eat you get a hand-written check. Then you get up and go pay at the counter. The cook lady with the shorts and hairnet is taking payments. Cash only. That, boys and girls, is what you call teamwork, El Salvador style. I will leave you with two last things on this story. One: Get the pork chops at El Carbonero; Two: Find out what that chicken soup is that all of the Hispanic customers are eating. Looked pretty outrageous, and all of the non-Gringo had a huge bowl of it.

Excuse me? $8.95? I guess that seems fair.

That is about all I have for you for now. I am enjoying a Devil's Backbone Eight-Point IPA, which is made not far from here, up in the Shenandoah Mountains . Great to see regional IPA for sale at area grocery stores in a semi-rural area. Also great to see local shoppers snatching up the six-packs of those same local beers. I was looking at the whole beer cooler for more than a few minutes, and saw one guy grab a case of light beer, while six or more people bought local or other quality beer. I sure hope that you are all following the same patterns. Buy local and drink local. What's good for your local brewer is good for your local economy. Are you part of the solution? Don't be part of the problem.