Beer-a-Day #333
I often find myself at Barley and Hops.
This time, I availed myself of their Hoptopsy ESB.
It has a nice amber color and a good finger’s-width off-white head. Plenty of spicy hops in the aroma. Medium malty body offset by a pleasant bite.
Beer-a-Day #295
Pours a pale straw golden with a moderate white head. A bright, crisp aroma of floral, pine, and citrus accompanied by a malt backbone. At first taste good hop bitterness presence that turns to slightly bready malt sweetness that finishes dry and clean with hop flavor that lingers letting you know you just drank a great pale ale.
We were at Barley and Hops to celebrate and so I availed myself of the Annapolis Rocks Pale Ale. I like it quite a lot, and it’s my wife’s favorite beer there (which is why she stole mine).
Nice amber color and a spicy hop aroma. A lot of grapefruit and spice hop flavor. Delicious.
Beer-a-Day #221
My wife and I met with a friend today (Kids Eat Free Sunday!) at Barley and Hops. Chris (our friend) had the beer sampler. Sara informed us that they were out of their seasonal offering but, instead, filled out the sampler with something they’re calling a “Dirty Dirty”. Apparently some regulars there have taken to blending the Dirty Blonde Lager with the Big Ben Nut Brown. It sounded interesting, so I ordered a pint for myself.
It’s copper in color. There’s a little toastiness in the aroma. The taste is malty with a nice bit of bitterness in the finish. Neither beer there is my favorite of their offerings, but together they’re pretty darn good. I could go for another one of those (and, in fact, I did).
Barley and Hops Grill & Microbrewery
Beer-a-Day #4
I went with some dear friends today to Barley and Hops for “Kids Eat Free Sunday”, so I took a break from barley wines.
I had a Schifferstadt Stout, a nice dry Irish stout. It was inky black with a thin layer of foam. Some nice roasty nuttiness in the aroma in the flavor. Smooth and refreshing.
Our dear friends Jacqueline and Kirk have five children. Since they’re not made of money, dining out is not something they do very often. However, after we gushed about our Sundays at Barely and Hops in Frederick, Maryland, they agreed to meet us there this past Sunday for a late lunch.
As I’ve mentioned before, not only do kids eat free on Sundays, but their core beers are available in $2.00 pints.
Corralling seven kids, even the best-behaved, is always going to be a challenge. However, a combination of paper covering the tables, crayons, and build-your-own pizzas kept much of their attention.
But the biggest appeal was to us budget-conscious parents. Where else could a family of seven gotten an decent meal at a real restaurant for $20 plus tip? (Okay, granted, the youngest is still a baby, but still.)
The staff was friendly (and patient), the food delivered in a timely manner, and the beer was good. The kids even ate most of their food (another challenge, as you parents already know).
If you go, I recommend the middle of Sunday afternoon. The lunch crowd has dispersed and the dinner crowd has not yet arrived.
All in all, I heartily recommend it.
To celebrate International Brewers Day, I decided to profile a brewer. Deciding who to profile was pretty easy. My family and I have been spending a lot of Sundays at Barley and Hops. It’s fairly close to home and has some very nice beers (I’m partial to the Annapolis Rocks Pale Ale and the Schifferstadt Stout). Additionally, on Sundays, kids eat free and pints of their regular lineup are only $2.00. Great news for families on a budget.
So, I reached out to Will Golden, head brewer at Barley and Hops.
Hop Talk: Who are you?
Will Golden: William Byrd Golden, age 26, from Brunswick, Maryland.
HT: How long have you been at Barley and Hops?
WG: I’ve been at Barley and Hops for 8 months.
HT: How long have you been a brewer?
WG: I’ve been brewing for about 3 Years.
HT: What were you in your previous life?
WG: I worked for Toyota as a certified master parts consultant. I was also an art student.
HT: What drew you to brewing as a career?
WG: I have always loved beer, but I hated what I was doing. It was just a job and there was no satisfaction in it. So I quit that job and was pursuing my degree but needed a job close to home. One of my buddies was a cellar man at Frederick Brewing Company and I asked him to get me a job. The idea of working for a brewery sounded great to me!
HT: What kind of education did you need to become a brewer?
WG: I was very lucky to get in the way I did, however my mechanical background helped a lot. I started at the bottom and worked my way up with lots of long hours, reading, and hard labor!
HT: Besides the atmospheric salary, what is the most rewarding thing about being a brewer?
WG: The absolute pride of making something you love and love to share with others who feel the same way! Also FREE BEER! And having a good time at festivals!
HT: What’s not so great?
WG: The heat during the summer, long hours, and stuck mashes!
HT: I know this is like asking which of your children you like best, but do you have a favorite among your beers?
WG: I know this is a standard answer but it depends on the day. Usually my seasonal, but the pale ale is the old standby.
HT: Besides your own beers, what is your favorite?
WG: I love Victory Brewing’s Prima Pils; that is a stellar beer. I also love the Oatmeal Stout from Wild Goose and Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel. There’s many, many more but that’s just a few off the top off my head.
HT: To relax after a long day in the salt mines, I like to go relax at a brewpub. What does a brewpub brewer do to relax?
WG: Take a nice long ride on my bicycle then sit down with a friend and enjoy and discuss beers we have not tried. That or enjoy some of my beers with the patrons at the pub.
HT: Finally, is there something you wish the non-brewing public knew about brewing?
WG: I wish more people would home brew so they can understand the smells and tastes of the raw materials. That way they could further appreciate the beer they’re drinking and the amount of effort that goes in to making great beer!
Many thanks to Will for taking time out of his busy schedule to spend a little time with us. On the topic of International Brewers Day, Will opines “I think it is a fine idea, to pay homage to all of our predecessors. Oh, and maybe drink a beer!” Hoist one with me to Will and his brewer brothers and sisters.
My birthday was last month. (I’m 41. Thanks for asking.) To celebrate, my family took me to see the Frederick Keys play the Lynchburg Hillcats. The Keys are a Class A minor league ballclub in the Carolina League and are part of the Baltimore Orioles farm system. 
They get their name from Francis Scott Key, who was born in Frederick County, opened his law practice in Frederick city, and whose final resting place is in the cemetery across the street from the stadium.
I’m no great fan of baseball; football is more my style. Oh, I did a few years in organized youth baseball (Little Loop and Babe Ruth) and signed up for a couple of turns of corporate softball, but I have no skills. I find Major League baseball boring and overcommercialized*, and have no great love for Major League ballplayers. However, I can follow and enjoy a game.
A number of things that appealed to me:
The day turned out even better than I expected. It was a beautiful day with clear, blue skies. There had been rain in the forecast but it held off until after we left, and the temperature was just perfect. (In other words, my wife was cold.) A previous game had been rained out, so we now had a double-header. My family also got me a gift certificate for my favored beer retailer.
The concessions are a bit on the pricey side, but still much less than you would pay at a Major League ballpark. Heck, they are less than you would pay at a movie theater. Between innings there were the obligatory contests and little goofy events. (If you’ve seen Bull Durham you’ll know what I mean.) They had a chicken dance contest on top of the visitor’s dugout, had a couple of kids race around the bases in opposite directions, had a show from kids learning to juggle, and even had three guys—dressed as a hot dog, soda cup, and popcorn bucket—race to determine which item would be discounted for the rest of the inning.
We ate hot dogs and popcorn. The girls had cotton candy. And, of course, my wife and I had 20-ounce cups of craft-brewed beer from the local brewpubs. Somewhere in there we watched, with varying degrees of attention, the Keys split the double-header with the Hillcats. Followed by a very nice fireworks show.
Everybody had a great time which, after all, is really what I wanted.
* Sure, the same could be said for the NFL and I wouldn’t disagree. But my enjoyment of football is usually enough to overcome these drawbacks. Not so baseball.
My wife attends school at night as she trains for her second career. It’s gotten fairly intense in the last couple of weeks, causing her to be out most nights as well as weekend days. Not only that, but she co-owns a Children’s consignment boutique which, as you might expect, also takes up a large chunk of her time. As such, for pretty much this entire week I’m either picking the kids up from a babysitter right after work or she’s leaving just as I arrive. This weekend, both days, she was out of the house before 6:30 AM.
Around dinner time on Sunday, I think she must have noticed that I was under a bit of strain. So, she told me that she had everything under control and that I could, if I wanted to, leave and have some “alone” time. Could she have an ulterior motive? Probably just trying to rest me up to do it all again next week. Still, how could I say “no”?
As I write this, I am sitting at the bar at Barley and Hops Grill & Microbrewery availing myself of their free Wi-Fi. Additionally, I am really enjoying their Schifferstadt Stout. There is a NASCAR race on the big screen, and the Discovery Channel on another television. It’s not crowded, but it’s not empty either. There is that pleasant buzz of conversation you get when people are enjoying themselves, with the occasional clink of plates or glasses. There’s hits from the eighties coming over the speakers, but it’s mostly drowned out.
Sure, I could sit in my comfy chair at home with my laptop, and I certainly have a wider selection of beer in my refrigerator. I also wouldn’t have to drive anywhere. Then again, I don’t have my children clamoring for my attention or the constant reminder of the thousand and one things I need to do around the house.
As well, there is nothing “social” about sitting at a bar focused on a computer screen. That seems to go against the best things about a pub. But, it is an undeniably happy place. Just sitting here drinking in the atmosphere brings a smile to my face. (And that’s not just the stout talking.)
Last week was the week from hell.
Lots of crap—mostly political—going on at work that’s totally stressing me out; my wife is going to nursing school and is not home most nights, so I have to rush home (read: make sure I don’t miss my train and hope there are no delays) to pick up my kids; and various and sundry commitments that I don’t particularly want to do but don’t have a good reason to blow off.
On top of all that, I’m trying to help a non-computer-savvy friend with her computer problems. Apparently, she has been running it on high-speed DSL without a firewall, no anti-spyware software, and an anti-virus application several years old. I feel like I should be wearing rubber gloves working with this thing. Oh, and the NIC doesn’t work. And it’s a 233 MHz processor with 96 MB of RAM. Running Windows XP Professional. That has never been updated or patched. And contains all of her not-backed-up precious pictures and is how she pays her bills.
Anyway, by the time Sunday evening rolled around and my wife got home, I was pretty much wiped. Seeing my plight, she reminded me that it was “Kids Eat Free Sunday”.
Which can only mean one thing: Barley and Hops.
Well, she didn’t have to ask me twice.
The kids love the “Picasso Pizza” on the Children’s menu. Given a pita, sauce, grated cheese, and pepperoni, they get to make their own pizza. For our entrées the wife and I had, respectively, the beer-battered shrimp and the buffalo chicken wrap.
But this isn’t a food blog, is it?
I decided to get the beer sampler and, geek that I am, took some notes. The sampler included all of their “core” beers as well as their current seasonal offering (Winter Warmer). It didn’t include the bourbon barrel stout that was on the hand pump, but that’s okay because I had some of that the other night.
Catoctin Clear
Kölsch
4.3% ABV, 13 IBU
light straw color and very light on the tongue; refreshing with just enough bitterness in the finish; would be great on a hot summer day
Annapolis Rocks Pale Ale
American Pale Ale
5.9% ABV, 38 IBU
dark straw in color; medium body; hops cut right through the malt; delicious
Tuscarora Red
Red Ale
5.1% ABV, 22 IBU
color of dark tea; flavor seems to be a little lost; undercarbonated
Big Ben Nut Brown
4.4% ABV, 17 IBU
color of dark tea; medium body; light hop bitterness; okay
Schifferstadt Stout
Dry Irish Stout
5.0% ABV, 27 IBU
deep opaque brown; pleasantly nutty; very smooth; good kick from the hops; delicious
(Sadly, while still listed on their website, Dirty Little Blonde and Schwarzbier are no longer part of their core offering.)
Winter Warmer
Seasonal
medium-dark amber with red highlights; medium body; pleasantly warming
Of these, my favorites were the pale ale and the stout. My wife preferred the Winter Warmer.
More importantly, though, I got to spend some relaxing time with the people I love.
So, I’ve been a member of F.O.A.M. for the last year and a bit. I’m still not brewing as much as I would like*, but they’re a good bunch of guys (and gals) who love to talk about beer and brewing, and would never deign to make fun of anyone still using extracts.
Anyway, last night was our (postponed) February meeting, which for the last few years has been held at the Wild Goose Brewery. E.T. behind the bar was cheerfully passing out samples of several labels from Wild Goose and Flying Dog, as well as a tap for Backfin Pale Ale. Bob the head brewer came ’round to let us know that their Belgian Trippel (made with Westmalle yeast) and Biere de Garde would be coming out within the next four to six weeks.
I got to sample the last of Test Batch #69. They were very coy about whether this might become a commercial product or not. I thought it was interesting. The Gonzo Imperial Porter and Double Dog Double Ale were popular (and delicious) but I limited myself to one sample of each. (At ABVs over 9 and 10 percent respectively, it’s for the best.) I didn’t get to sample everything they have on tap. Good thing, too, or I wouldn’t have gotten home until the wee hours of this morning.
I also got to wander around the brewery a bit. One of the brewers—just moved out from Colorado—was showing some other folks around, so I tagged along and learned a few interesting things.
Afterwards, fellow F.O.A.M.er Rick and I stopped in at Barley and Hops. They had their new Barrel Aged Jim Stout on the hand pump (Oatmeal Stout aged in Jim Beam barrels), which was quite good. I also had a couple of glasses of the Schifferstadt Stout, a nice dry stout that was just smooth and creamy. It was excellent, and just what I want when I think “stout”.
A good meeting.
* Heck I’m not writing here as often I would like. I’ve been darn busy.
