Cask DC and environs

[MeridianFC]

I was trying to put together a more or less comprehensive list of places that serve cask beer in the DC area (I guess we can include B-more). Any help would be appreciated.

District of Columbia

Brickskeller
1523 22nd Street NW
Washington, DC 20037
(202)293-1885
Has cask beer on weekends. I think just one, usually British.

District Chophouse
509 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
(202)347-3434
Though they have two pumps, they have only been doing the Bourbon Stout for sometime now. Handpump (not cellared)

John Harvard
1299 Pennsylvania Avene NW
Washington, DC 20004
(202)783-2739
They have one pump, which is not always on (to the best of my knowledge). Some varaition of whatever they're brewing. Handpump (not cellared).

RFD
810 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
(202)289-2030
Usually has one (sometimes two) cask, usually British. Gravity dispense.

The Reef
2446 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202)518-3800
Starting their weekly cask session again on Thursdays this time around. They usually do two British and two domestics over the course of the month (one a week). Gravity dispense.


Maryland

Brewer's Art
1106 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD (410)547-6925
Report pending.

Franklin's
5123 Baltimore Avenue
Hyattsville, MD 20781
(301)927-2740
Firkin Firday's at Franklin's. One firkin that is a variation of one fot the standard served brews, usually dry hopped with an different variety of hops than was in the boil. Gravity dispense.

Mahaffy's
Report pending.

Max's on Broadway
737 South Broadway
Baltimore, MD 21231
(410)675-6297
Report pending.

Rock Bottom (Bethesda)
7900 Norfolk Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301)652-1311
One (sometimes two) casks on. Selection vary widely but is usually one of the regular beers made for cask. Judging by the pump clips behind the bar they must do quite a few specialties real ale style throughout the year. Handpump (I don't think it's cellared).

Sean Bolan's
1236 Light Street
Baltimore, MD 21230
(410)837-4440
Report Pending.

Wharf Rat at Camden Yards
206 West Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
(410)244-8900
Report pending.

Wharf Rat at Fells Point
801 South Ann Street
Baltimore, MD 21231
(410)276-9034
Report pending.

Virginia

Dominion Brewery
44633 Guilford Drive
Ashburn, VA 20147
(703)724-9100
They've been known to do their own version of a bourbon stout cask style. I think it's pretty infrequent but am not sure.

Rock Bottom (Arlington)
4823 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22203
(703)516-7688
Report pending.

[chazwicke]

THe Brickskeller has them upstairs on Saturday nights. Where in the DC area do you live? There are several of us on this board from the DC area. I live in No.VA. Centreville in Fairfax County. Oh and Wharf Rat in Baltimore used to have an occasional cask. I have not been there in a while though.

[MeridianFC]

I live in downtown DC (Mt. Pleasant). I'm actually going out to Fairfax Co. this weekend to play a little poker.

I can't believe I forgot the Brick. Well they say Einstein wasn't good at math. ;)

I was just up in Charm City and was at the place in Federal Hill that used to be Sissons (I think). Weren't they the same company as the Warf Rat? Anyhow, I think the had one cask on.

IIRC Brewers Art has had cask, though I might be thinking they should rather than they have.

Great avatar btw. The Bluebird is something I take for granted sometimes. You might have some interest in the Reef's upcoming schedule (full disclosure I'm friends with the owner so this is from his email to our crew):

This thursday January 8th, we will be featuring Yarrington
Mill's Medium Farmhouse Cider. Produced in Herefordshire UK this
cider is moderately strong (7.5 abv) and is a very traditional
english cider.

Thurs. Jan 15 we will be serving Wye Valley's Winter Tipple.
The Reef has served a few of this breweries other beers and they
have all spectacular and I look forward to trying this seasonal ale.

Thurs. Jan. 22nd we will be serving Fordham Breweries Fuggley Alt. Brewed just for the Reef, fresh fuggles were added right
before they bunged it. This is one for the hop heads.

Thurs. Jan. 29th will be a unspecified Dominion firkin. I'm
hoping that I can talk them out of a firkin of Millenium Barleywine, tis the seaon.

[chazwicke]

Yep Sissons was in Federal Hill right across from the Cross Street Market. Hugh Sisson sold it to his brother-in-law and opened Clipper City which is not a pub but a brewery only. Wharf Rat has 2 locations one in Fells Point and one over near Camden Yards. It was and still is I think owned by Bill Oliver an anglophile and hence the English style beers

[MeridianFC]

While I know we are luckier than some (most?), I do wish real ale had more of a presence hereabouts.

I'd give my left.........er...left something for a pint of Deuchars IPA right now......

[chazwicke]

I'm with you on that!

[threecb]

Originally posted by chazwicke
Yep Sissons was in Federal Hill right across from the Cross Street Market. Hugh Sisson sold it to his brother-in-law and opened Clipper City which is not a pub but a brewery only. Wharf Rat has 2 locations one in Fells Point and one over near Camden Yards. It was and still is I think owned by Bill Oliver an anglophile and hence the English style beers

I think Sisson's is now Ryleigh's, and I'm pretty sure it's not affiliated with the Wharf Rat. And I'm pretty sure the WR (at least by Camden Yards) has 2 handpumps going most of the time.

I like that the Cask phenom is spreading! Almost every Local Brewpub/Beer Bar has at least one on most of the time. The Vanilla Porter at my local, Harvest Moon, is/was tremendous. It was like a vanilla latte!

[Theakston]

Rockbottom Arlington usually has a cask on handpump in the main bar.

Baltimore has plenty of options. Max's on Broadway (Fells Point) usally has cask or 2 as does Brewers Art.
Wharf Rat: Both bars have hand pumps.
Sean Bolan's, Federal Hill, has handpumps.
Mahaffey's Pub in the Canton area has started to have casks.

"The Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood" has several active members based there and has been quite active in promoting cask ales.

sociaty for the preservation of beer in the wood web-site (http://www.spbw.com)

[MeridianFC]

I'll make a pub crawl out of this information yet.

[MeridianFC]

I feckin' forgot Franklins in Hyattsville.

They have a Firkin Friday. 1 cask gravity dispense. Variation on on of the brews usually dry hopped with a different variety from the main brew.

[MeridianFC]

I've updated the list, added address & phone #'s. As I discover people do or don't carry cask I'll add or delete as appropriate. I'm going to try to contact some of the brewers and get the straight dope on their cask situation. Ideally I'll try to find out how true to the CAMRA ideals they're making their beer, how often the cask are available, etc. If any of you lot come across this info go ahead and post and I'll just ad the info to the list.

Maybe I'll add a wee list of regional brewers that can provide cask beer. I know Fordham, Dogfish Head, and Victory have all made casks.

K.

PS I'm not obsessed, I'm just focused to the exclusion of reason.

:eek:

[Theakston]

Thanks for collating the info. Looking forward to the updates......and the pubcrawl! Seriously we should plan one once the weather gets a bit less life threatening.

[chazwicke]

I agree on the pub crawl. I still have yet to go to Franklins. Shame on me! What do you guys think of it?

[MeridianFC]

Franklin's is really..........erm..ok. Well that's not fair, it's quite good with some caveats. It's a bit of a bitch to get to in that it's in the wilds of Hyattsville between DC and College Park (closer to the later). It's not open very late, 11pm on weekends, 10pm weekdays IIRC. The range of brews is pretty much on par with the brewpub standards, with maybe a nod more to the hoppy types (at least 3 maybe four lupulin oriented). None of the beers are filtered which is nice. I spoke to the brewer (Charles?) a while back and he was extremely friendly and showed me around and he took great pride in his work. While most brewers, certainly at the brewpub level, are keen to share with the great unwashed, I've met enough that can't be arsed to give you the time of day that I always note this. They do speicalties there of which I've only had one, which was some stripe of Belgian tripple style. It was ok. There's a "Sierra Nevada" clone that's tasty. There's some beer named for the Terrapins down the road. I can't remember what they offered in the dark beer category. As for the firkin it's only on Friday. The one that I've sampled was a nice Pale Ale served gravity dispense from behind the bar. It was worth going back for.

I can't recall what beers cost there so I assume it wasn't so great or cheap as to burn itself into my memory. I can still recall $1 Sunday at the Main Street joint in Richmond. As many of you know our beer dollar does not go as far in the Metro area as in some other locals. C'est la vie. Where was I?

The food is a real mixed bag. I read a review in the Post and it actually turned out to be spot on. Stay away from the "exotic". If it ain't a burger or buffalo wings you will not be happy. They do a brunch but I can't remember much about it (over a year ago).

The atmosphere is nice. It's in an old building but all the modifications are modern looking, but not bad. There's dining space upstairs and down. The bar is upstairs. They have a tv and play whatever game is on. Being a soccer fan (oh, stop already) this usually doesn't do much for me. I don't think it was too smokey and there's a goodly number of families that frequent the place. There's a "general store" connected to the restaurant that sells candy, candles, cards, toys, and wine & beer. They've a surprisingly good take away selection. You can also pick up various size kegs of their beer for take away though I believe it requires 24 hours notice.

If Franklin's was closer to a Metro stop I'd probably go there more often.

[chazwicke]

Thanks. I 'll make an effort to get there. I can't believe I have not gotten over there yet. By the way, how did the poker game go. We used to have a regular game going years ago but now its dwindled down to maybe once or twice a year.

[MeridianFC]

I actually didn't end up making it out. I have a regular game every Thursday, this was a bit of extra circular degenerate gamblin' (gotta love it!).

I'll give a bell to Franklin's and see what their cask schedule is looking like and post it here.

[chazwicke]

I wanted to play that Texas Hold 'Em that you see on TV while I was in Vegas but the game at my casino was structured a little differently and I did not sit in. We used to play a different version of it in our games too. Instead I played my usual Blackjack and Roulette as well as a few play off game bets.

[Theakston]

In the weekend section of the post this place got a write up.
Weekend Section write up (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19772-2004Jan15.html)



The photo of a handpump got my attention, then I read this:

"English cask ale will begin flowing from the hand pump that sits at the end of the bar -- probably Newcastle Brown Ale. "
:confused:
I hope that was a mis-quote. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

[MeridianFC]

I've heard the same thing too (though not about the Newkie broon). I was going to go check it out just for the Beamish, which I've always preferred to Guinness. It'd be great if they'd carry real ale, even if it isn't part of the Irish tradition. I'm still blown away by the number of Oirish theme bars in this town. I say that as someone who is of Irish (& Scottish) extraction.

Speaking of majors making cask beer, I read an article recently that said some of the British majors are going to re-enter (or up their stakes) in the cask market. Boddington's was one of the names put forward. How's that for "Cream of Manchester" Theakston!

I can confirm the cask at Old Dominion. They have two handpumps, though only one was on the other day. The do not filter their beer that goes to cask. I don't know whether they're using breathers or not.

[chazwicke]

Originally posted by Theakston
In the weekend section of the post this place got a write up.
Weekend Section write up (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19772-2004Jan15.html)



The photo of a handpump got my attention, then I read this:

"English cask ale will begin flowing from the hand pump that sits at the end of the bar -- probably Newcastle Brown Ale. "
:confused:
I hope that was a mis-quote. I guess we'll have to wait and see!


I saw that too. And they serve Beamish and no Guinness.

[chazwicke]

Oops. I jumped the gun a bit.

[chazwicke]

Here is a bit from an email I receive:

For a couple of months now, Max's on Broadway in Baltimore has had
two(!) cask hand-pumps in daily service. Currently these are pulling
Tupper's Hop Pocket and Wye Valley's Dorothy Goodbody Winter Tipple.

In the next weeks or so, plans are afoot for Heather Ale's Ebulum (~7%
elderberry/old ale/porter), Dorothy Goodbody Wholesome Stout, and
Dorothy Goodbody Our Glass Ale (strong bitter).

Shipments of cask ale from the England and Scotland have been
dramatically curtailed just in the last year. So please don't take
their presence for granted.

And, I might add, please support, with your patronage, those few
courageous pubs which are assuming the high cost and risk of serving
these unique casks. A list would include, not in any particular order,
Sean Bolan's, Max's, RFD, Mahaffey's, the Reef, and Grand Cru.



Just thought it may be of interest.

[chazwicke]

And here is Jim Dorsch's weekly email from the Vienna Whole Foods:

Hello, We have some fun, new items for you this week at Whole Foods
Market Vienna. Items marked with an asterisk are in the backroom and are
not yet on display; Please be sure I'm here before making a special trip
for these.

* Sam Adams Chocolate Bock, 750ml bottles
* Dogfish Head Olde School Barley Wine, this year in 12oz bottles
Moylan's IPA
Moylan's Old Blarney Barley Wine
Moylan's Imperial Stout

Next week in our ongoing beer class we will start a two-week survey of
every Trappist ale in the store. Don't miss this rare opportunity!
Remaining classes are:

Jan 28: Trappist Ales I: Orval, Chimay & Rochefort
Feb 4: Trappist Ales II: Achel, Westmalle & Westvleteren
Feb 11: Imperial IPAs & Other Hop Monsters
Feb 18: Barley Wines & Imperial Stouts

To attend please pay $2 at customer service. Classes run 7-8 pm in our
juice bar at Whole Foods Market, 143 Maple Ave East, Vienna, VA. Phone:
703.319.2000.

Next Friday, Jan 30, we'll taste several beers that would work well for
Superbowl entertaining. We'll taste New River Pale Ale from Noon-4 pm;
Tuppers' Hop Pocket Ale and Tuppers' Pils with Bob Tupper, from approx
4-7 pm; and Warsteiner Premium Verum and Warsteiner Dunkel from 4-7 pm.

On Saturday, Jan 31, the store will throw a Superbowl tailgate party
from 1-4 pm, and from 1-5 pm we'll taste Widmer Hefeweizen, New River
Pale Ale, Warsteiner Premium Verum, Warsteiner Dunkel, Otter Creek
Copper Ale, Otter Creek Pale Ale and Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter. I
hope to see you there!

Cheers, Jim

[MeridianFC]

I can now officially report that the Wharf Rat (on Pratt Street) has 3 casks on and it seems like they're regulars. They have 5 handpumps, but 3 seems to be the standard number on offer. There is a Best Bitter (4.8%abv), ESB (6%abv), and Export (6.8%abv).

The Best is absolutely spectacular. It's a great example of a proper british cask bitter. It's maybe a little strong for the style and it hints at it's American birth (not a bad thing mind), but it's a real treat. I'm going back.

The ESB is a might heavy for the style. It's an excellent brew though and at it's abv just think of it more as being closer to what would be defined in Britain as an Old Ale. Quite a bit of crystal malt in it, but a fine pint.

I didn't get to sample the Export, which was listed as being an IPA style. Again fairly hefty.

Apparently the brewer/owner of Oliver's is British so that explains being able to nail the style. I'd really like to so a milder (no mild, milder) session brew, but I'm well pleased to have access to the Best.

The Wharf Rat was a fine pub though they were playing some crap music, but what are you going to do. I'd imagine the place is mobbed beyond belief when either the Ravens or the O's play owing to it's proximaty to the Stadia.

[chazwicke]

Bill Oliver the owner is an Anglophile and enjoys all things British. Hence the nod towards authentic cask beers.

Last I heard he still owns both Wharf Rat locations. Pratt Street and in Fells Point.

[Theakston]

I posted this link on another thread but I'll post it here too:
click here (http://www.realbeer.com/library/beerbreak/archives/beerbreak20010823.php)
It has a quote from the owner of the Wharf Rat. According to this what the Wharf Rat serves is "tank" conditioned and would not be considered up to snuff by CAMRA. Personally I'm glad we can get these styles even if it doesn't come up to CAMRA's more exacting specifications.

[MeridianFC]

Interesting. I did note some subtle differences between Oliver's beer and actual British cask beer, but those differences were fairly small. The beer was damned fine and given the difficulty and constraints on brewers trying to work within the broad area of "real ale" I'll take some this type of corner cutting any day. It might due to discuss what is acceptable, hell even necessary to provide "real ale" on this side of the pond. A sort of sliding scale with the CAMRA definition being the pinnacle on one side and American Style Real Ale being a separate category based on the peculiarities & problems with serving over here on the other.

As I said in another thread on this same subject I don't think one could get away without cask breathers and the like and still be able to sell anything approaching cask beer in this country, at least on a full scale production brewery way.

It's the cross we all have to bare. ;)

[gallowd7]

I haven't done this in a few years (and it may not still be available), but happy hour at the Fells Point site and non-game day happy hour on Pratt St, Wharf Rat has/had a three 8oz sample for $3. Great way to try way too many of their beers.

Also, went to RFD recently. One cask on, some sort of Ale, not that special for a very special (high) price.

[chazwicke]

Nice Mr. Boh logo. I have a friend who has the premier collection of National Brewing breweriana in the world.