THE WASHINGTON POST’S ANNUAL BREW-OFF FINALS were held this week and we’re pleased to announce that Hook & Ladder Brewing’s entry, their Backdraft Brown Ale, has won the grand championship for this year.

Firegeezer’s reports on the early rounds are HERE and HERE.

The final standings after the elimination of 31 other entrants is HERE.  The Post also tells the “backstory” of Hook & Ladder Brewing’s short history:

Congratulations to the new Champs!

Read more about Hook & Ladder at their WEBSITE.

THE BEER MADNESS BREW-OFF JUST CONCLUDED its 3rd round of the tasting competition.  (If you missed the original report, see Firegeezer HERE.)

We are delighted to report to you that Hook & Ladder Brewing’s entry, Backdraft Brown handily downed the Samuel Adams Honey Porter and will be moving into the Semi-finals this week.

This round marks the winners of the four categories, so Backdraft Brown finishes this week as the champion of all the Dark Beer entrants.  Next round will pit them against the winner of the Specialty & Fruit bracket, the Ommegang Hennipen, a spicy Belgian-style ale from Cooperstown, New York.

In the other brackets, Raven Lager won the Lagers category and will be going up against the winner of the Ales bracket, Troegs Hopback Ale.

Firegeezer notes:  This should rank Hook & Ladder as the favorite for this next round.  After all, how could anything in a “Specialty & Fruit” category ever beat out a real beer?

THE WASHINGTON POST’s 2nd ANNUAL BEER MADNESS BREW-OFF IS CURRENTLY RUNNING.

Washington Post image

The paper’s dedicated beer reporter, Joe Helm selected 10 experienced beer drinkers to judge this year’s competition.  They started with 32 chosen brews that were sorted into four categories:  Lagers, Ales, Specialty & Fruit beers, and Dark beers.  With eight beers in each category, the taste-off began three weeks ago with head-to-head eliminations much like the NCAA tournament brackets.

This year one of the entrants in the Dark Beers category is a representative of the Hook & Ladder Brewery, its Backdraft Brown has beaten its competition in the first two rounds and is now in the Elite Eight quarter-finals.  This week they are going up against the Samuel Adams Honey Porter.  That’s tough competition for sure.  But they’re all tough from here on out. Last year’s overall winner, Brooklyn Lager was bounced in the second round this year.

Hook & Ladder Brewing Company is based in Silver Spring, Maryland, and was founded by a volunteer firefighter and his brother.  Hook & Ladder was founded on the mission of building a business while giving back to each community in which its beers are sold.  Hook & Ladder and its wholesale partners donate a portion of all sales to local burn centers and firefighter burn organizations through the A Penny in Every Pint™ and A Quarter in Every Case™ programs.  A Quarter in Every Case™ donates 25 cents from each case sold and A Penny in Every Pint™ donates $4 from each barrel to local burn organizations.  These efforts have raised over $30,000 in the past 18 months alone.  

When asked about their first two victories, Hook & Ladder CEO Matt Fleischer said,  “It was a total team effort, no question about it.  It was a hard-fought contest, and we gave it 110 percent. But we can’t rest on our laurels or start patting ourselves on the back just yet. We’ll enjoy this win tonight, and then begin preparing for next week.”

The winners of this round will be announced on Sunday and Firegeezer will bring you the results as they happen.

Hook & Ladder Brewing’s website is HERE.  Check ‘em out, they have some neat stuff in the “company store.”
For a clearer view of the bracket and to read more about the competition, go the the Post’s webpage HERE.  They also have information on all 32 brews entered in this year’s contest.

STATS SPORTS BAR IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA, has instituted a new way to deliver draft beer to the customer.  They are putting the taps right on their table.

STATS is a three-story shop with five bars in it and the expected array of  huge plasma-screen tv’s tuned in to the endless sports programming.  Located just a block from the Georgia Dome, they have a good trade.  There are two taps built into each table and they are hooked into a cooler filled with kegs in the basement.

The Associated Press tells how it works:

A waitress must first check IDs before turning on the tap. When the digital ticker counting each ounce hits 180 — or about three pitchers — the taps shut off until a server comes by to check on the table. Bigger parties keep servers running back and forth fairly often, while it’s rarer for smaller groups to hit the limit.

To use the taps, diners simply reach into the middle of the table and pull the lever to get as much — or as little — beer as they’d like. Meters and valves monitor the flow and instantly display how many ounces the table has tapped.

Of course, this unique system demands a new pricing scheme. Charging customers by the ounce instead of by the drink means that if a full pint of brew costs $4, a single ounce would only cost a quarter.

To read the full story, click HERE.
STATS Sports Bar WEBSITE.

SUNDAY THE WORD WAS SPREAD ABOUT THE MISSING GUINNESS BEER COSTUME in Detroit (Firegeezer story HERE).

The Eastpointe, Michigan, police had issued the press release hoping that St. Patrick’s Day parade-goers might spot the culprit who stole the $3,000 costume.

Beer salesmand Michael Nowak had lent it to a friend for a Halloween party and later somebody entered the friend’s garage and spirited it away.  Apparently the publicity paid off because early Sunday morning the suds duds were dropped off anonymously on the friend’s front porch.

Nowak says that he’s happy the costume’s back in part because of the grief he took from his boss.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS WORKING IN KENT, ENGLAND, HAVE UNEARTHED A 4,000-yr.-old bronze-age skeleton. 

It is located in a burial site and it is known as a “beaker” burial because there is a pottery vessel at the skeleton’s feet.  They believe that is was a beer mug.  Tests on beakers from other sites suggested Bronze Age man was brewing a type of beer from grain.

BBC News has the full story of the discovery HERE.

IF YOU’RE ON PARADE PATROL IN THE DETROIT AREA this weekend and you see a 6-foot tall Guinness walking down the street, don’t call for a beer.  Call for the police instead.

Eastpointe Police photo

Sometime during the past four months someone sneaked into somebody’s garage in the Detroit suburb of Eastpointe and stole the $3,000 costume.  It’s one of only two such publicity outfits in the U. S. and was sent over from Ireland on loan to a beer distributing firm.

The Eastpointe police believe that the purloiner won’t be able to resist donning the draught duds during the St. Patrick’s Day festivities and have issued a public lookout for the walking brew.

The Detroit News has the STORY.

WITH THE PRICE OF BEER JUMPING UPWARDS, YOU MIGHT LOOK FOR an alternative.  Namely, home brew.

Now if you go to the wine and brewing supply store you can get yourself a really nice homebrew kit with all the tools and crocks you need for a couple of hundred dollars.  But all that isn’t necessary.  DrinkCraftBeer.com has a great “beginners” lesson you can try out to see if you’ve got the makings of a brewmeister.

They have a complete illustrated guide to making home brew in your kitchen.  And just to show you that it’s possible, they use an apartment kitchen for the photographs.

Cooking the mash

The article gives a list of all the things you need to get going and then they go step-by-step through the entire process, ending up with a bucket of suds.  It includes the bottling step where the beer is aged for a week or two.

Capping the bottles

Go to the Drink Craft Beer website HERE and give it a try.