There are two major events amidst a sea of happy hours tonight for DC Beer Week. The Black Squirrel and the Big Hunt both have epic events tonight that will surely be fantastic. Scattered throughout the city are some equally excellent happy hours that should provided some tasty tipples to anyone pursuing their 3rd, 4th, or 5th wind during what has been a great DC Beer Week!
Friday, August 27th
The Big Hunt’s Michigan Blowout Night
The Big Hunt closes out what has been a doozy of a week with a Michigan Blowout! Rare beers from Bell’s, Founders, Jolly Pumpkin, and New Holland. Reps will be there, and so will the following rare beers! New Holland Beerhive and Imperial Hatter, Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam & Calabaza Blanca, Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout & Nemesis and a super secret surprise from Bell’s: Hopslam tapping at 7:30pm. Other delectable Michigan beers as well! Get your Wolverine Gold and Blue or Spartan Green on.
Meet the Flying Dog Brewer at the Black Squirrel!
The Black Squirrel hosts defending GABF Brewer of the Year Bob Malone on Friday, August 27, from 6:00pm on for an informal event of beer drinking and Q&A in our main downstairs bar. This will be the inaugural pour in DC for Snake Dog IPA. The event is free and open to everyone who wants to come and enjoy local Flying Dog beer. Seven Flying Dog beers on tap available either in flights or individual pints!
Great Lakes Happy Hour at RFD – 4PM
Three kegs, $4 a draft until they’re gone!
Belgian Beer Happy Hour at Belga Cafe -4-6pm
Half-price drafts of Maredsous and La Chouffe. Free glassware!
Canned Craft Beer Night at Policy – 6pm-9pm
Specials on all canned beer!
Meridian Pint End-of-DC-Beer-Week Specials! – 5pm-8pm
Happy hour specials on the remaining beers from DC Beer Week!
3 Course Beer Dinner at Dino – All night
Don’t forget the 3 course dinner paired with 3 beers at Dino! $30!
Tags: belga cafe, belgian beer, bell's, DC Beer Week, Flying Dog, Founders, Great Lakes Brewing Company, jolly pumpkin, Meridian Pint, New Holland, policy, RFD, The Big Hunt, the black squirrel
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I could probably write 500 words on the Michigan beer night, but I got to The Big Hunt at about 5:30 in preparation for this and it was mostly a disaster. Also, maybe I didn’t go to enough events this week to take the following in context, but when did it become appropriate to serve sampler glasses of beer for $8?
If the market will bear it…
But no, seriously, are we talking about actual 4 oz. samples? Or are we talking about snifters? Because serving Nemesis, Black Biscuit, Beerhive, Hopslam, CBS, etc. in pints is irresponsible, hence smaller glasses. I wasn’t aware that the Big Hunt offered sample sizes on the menu, which leads me to believe you got an $8 “glass” of one of these beers and were expecting a full pint of it. (I could very well be wrong, and I’m sorry if I am!)
8 ozers, but I fail to see how serving a full 12 oz glass of Hopslam is “irresponsible.” The brewery doesn’t have a problem selling them that way: http://www.drunkenpolack.com/images/hopslam.jpg There’s not real honest reason to ever serve a “normal” strength beer in a snifter; it’s not like beer has ever historically been served like that and you sure as hell don’t need to limit yourself to three sits of something to enjoy it.
My thinks the smaller glasses were, at you said, a “market will bear” thing. Another way of putting it: gouging your customers. It wasn’t like they advertised that price before serving, and it wasn’t the kind of atmosphere where you were asking (not that the server would have known/cared to inform us, but that’s part of the 500 words I left out).
Looks like I was wrong about the beer, it’s 10% abv thus making it outside the lines of “normal.” I still maintain that the entire thing was a gouge, though.
I personally don’t see much difference of bars around town selling “pints”, which equated to 12oz (at best), for 10 bucks a pop in February and 8 bucks for 8 oz now. Not to mention most of these beers I didn’t need more than one serving of. I think the crew did what they could with the amount of people that showed up. I don’t see many other bars handling a mob that much better. You can only get so many people behind a bar serving before that too becomes a bottleneck situation.
Keep in mind that by serving 8 oz, more people got to try HopSlam and CBS. You cant please everyone but I thought Dave Coleman and crew did a hell of a job. True, it was chaos but the only people I heard bitching got the there at 7PM. Others tried the “whistle at the bartender” trick which didn’t end well from them.
I didn’t have the heart to tell the line of 50 solid, upon leaving at 830, that the HopSlam and CBS were done.
If you’re that concerned about the price, you can always ask before ordering. I know it was bedlam, so if you get passed over for asking, I guess it’s a risk you run. $8 for 8 ounces of Hopslam or CBS is not gouged or egregious for the rarity, potency, and quality of those beer and the number of people who were interested in drinking it no matter the cost.
James,
I have to respectfully disagree with this statement:
“There’s not real honest reason to ever serve a “normal” strength beer in a snifter; it’s not like beer has ever historically been served like that and you sure as hell don’t need to limit yourself to three sits of something to enjoy it.”
Randy Mosher would strongly disagree with you:
“You wouldn’t want a pint of barley wine. Well, you may want one, but shouldn’t have one,” Mosher says.
http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/food/drinks/articles/2008/02/13/20080213beer0213.html#ixzz0y8RJU0Wj
So I have served many Lambic, Geuze and “normal” strength beers (4 %ABV to 6% ABV) in goblets, or wine glasses if I didn’t have any goblets that weren’t clean. Also, what is “normal” strenght? An arbitrary number determined by the macros? Or an arbitrary number determined by the craft community? Certainly there is PLETNY of disagreement w/in the craft community, just ask Lew Bryson or ANY of the beer writers involved with the session project.
http://sessionbeerproject.blogspot.com/