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Real Ale Fest (Spring 2010) recap and pics

Since missing last year’s Real Ale Fest at Pratt Street Ale House in October, arguably the biggest event of Baltimore Beer Week – we’ve been counting down the days until this year’s Spring version.

The folks from the Chesapeake Bay branch of SPBW, Pratt St. Ale House and Pratt Street’s in-house Oliver Ales never disappoint when it comes to real ale fests.  And this one was no exception.

Roughly 120 tickets were available for this event and all 120 sold out. Shortly before the event started, it was announced that an additional 25 tickets would be made available at the door on a first come, first serve basis. No word on how many door tickets were sold. But thanks to the live power of Twitter, we were able to clue some folks in to those newly available tickets and were happy to see those people come at the last minute.

To our readers who don’t quite know what “Real Ale” is (also referred to as cask-conditioned ale) – here is the definition from the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA), a beer consumer advocacy group in the UK:

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.

You can read much, MUCH more about cask-conditioned beer from many beer writers, brewers, etc. by clicking here.

This year’s Spring Real Ale Fest sported a lineup consisting of 11 casks in all:

Oliver Ales : Hot Monkey Love
Oliver Ales : Oak Aged 3 Lions
Oliver Ales : Mocha Java Porter
Oliver Ales: Cherry Blossom Ale
The Brewer’s Art : Resurrection Ale infused with blackberries
Flying Dog : Gonzo Imperial Porter
Pub Dog : Golden Belgian Ale
Stillwater Artisinal Ales : Stateside Saison
Arcadia : Angler’s Ale dry hopped with Goldings
Arcadia : I.P.A. dry hopped with Cascade
Weyerbacher : Hops Infusion

Quite a lineup. We tasted each and every offering above and can honestly say there wasn’t a true standout. Everything was tasty.

The event itself was set up beautifully in the upstairs portion of Pratt Street Ale House. Tons of room, everything nice and spread out, with plenty of seating and space.  Oliver Ale’s brewmaster Steve Jones and assistant brewer Justin Damadio were up until the wee hours of Friday night, setting up each and every cask.  Most of the casks cooperated, but as fans of cask-conditioned ale are well aware, when dealing with 10+ casks of “live beer”, it’s never a perfect setup.  That’s all we’ll mention concerning that, though perhaps the photos below will help tell the story!

Our first pour of the day was Oliver Ale’s own oak-aged 3 Lions. We’ve had this one a few times in the past and always enjoy it.

The Resurrection from local Brewer’s Art, infused with blackberries – seemed to be one of the casks that we heard many folks talking about as they strolled into the event; since a berry-infused beer is something that Brewer’s Art doesn’t do much. Not to mention that Resurrection is a staple in the local beer scene.

All of the Oliver’s offerings were on point. Our favorite from Oliver’s during the afternoon would have to be the Hot Monkey Love, their barleywine style beer.  They also debuted the new Cherry Blossom Ale; delicious on its own and even more interesting when combined with their coffee-heavy Mocha Java Porter. Yes, we created a Cherry Mocha beer. Actually, we must give credit to madman Dominic Cantalupo for that concoction.

The Stateside Saison from Stillwater Ales, as always, was a hit.  Seeing Brian “Stillwater” Strumke shaking hands all day from people coming up to him, introducing themselves and raving over his beer, was a great site.  And to think, this is only his first beer…

And no surprise to most in attendance – Flying Dog’s cask-conditioned Gonzo was about as perfect as a beer can get.

Oh and did we mention the weather during the event? Couldn’t have been more perfect. Bright blue skies, 70 degrees and sunny. Lucky for the us, Pratt Street Ale House’s side patio was open and reserved for the Real Ale Fest attendees.

The greatest part of this event (for us anyway), was the amount of BeerInBaltimore.com readers, Twitter and Facebook followers we met for the first time!  What a treat that was, putting so many names to faces.  Thanks to each and every one of you for coming up and introducing yourself. We thoroughly enjoyed chatting with you.

All in all, a wonderful day of good beer with good people.

Many thanks to Pratt Street Ale House, the Chesapeake Bay Branch of the SPBW, Oliver Ales, the participating breweries and the great people who came out and helped make this event successful and fun!

Enjoy the photos below.

[Show as slideshow]