Casking call

Pizzeria Uno's cask event is this coming Saturday (March 27) at the brewpub along Route 1 in Metuchen. As of this writing, the lineup of brews is still taking shape.

But Uno brewer Mike Sella today offered a taste of the list for this pay-as-you-drink nod to real ale: Uno's Gust N Gale porter and Scotch ale are the host offerings, joined by a nut brown ale from Climax Brewing. (Climax, just up the Garden State Parkway in Roselle Park, has been part of the lineup since Uno began what has become a twice-a-year event back in 2008.)

You can also expect a couple of brews from Weyerbacher, as well as at least a half dozen other brands, if Uno's past cask events are any measure. The taps start flowing at noon.

Uno is located at 61 Route 1 in Metuchen, along the southbound side of the highway. The phone number is (732) 548-7979.


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One more real thing

It's in the comments portion of yesterday's post, but just so it gets noticed here's the update from the kind folks at Hunterdon Distributors about Saturday's cask ale event at Pizzeria Uno.

Says Hunterdon: In addition to the Nugget Nectar, Troegs is sending their new seasonal, Javahead Stout. Smuttynose should have their Big A IPA and Pumpkin Ale ... doesn't look like Yards is going to make this one.

How to get a mention without trying

One of the things about the Internet Age is that if you're creating content, sooner or later, someone is going to appropriate it for something. Especially if YouTube is involved.

Sometimes it's stealing, copyright infringement; sometimes it truly is fair use. And sometimes it's just a pleasant surprise.

Browsing around the 'Net this evening, we came across this fair use: the video we produced (and uploaded to YouTube) of the 2008 Philly Beer Week finale, the Real Ale Festival that was held at Triumph Brewing in Old City.

It's a nice surprise because it's on wikihow.com, the World Wide Web's how-to handbook that went online under that banner three years ago. Of course, since it's in the wiki world, it's a collection of user-created entries from a community of folks who, by and large, like to share what they know, à la wikipedia, of course.

Still, it's rewarding, albeit on some small scale, that our video helps illustrate a "how-to" for real ale.

Keeping it real

New Jersey’s brewpubs landed on The New York Times’ radar. We snagged our 15 minutes of celebrity in the process, but never mind that … Check out the Times’ story; it’s a nice read.

Here’s the video from the March 16th real ale festival at Triumph, the coda to Philly Beer Week.

Quick recap: Twenty area brewers (seemed like more) brought in their best – and tasty – efforts at cask-conditioned ale; but let’s put our palate where our hearts are – is there really any other way to have ale? Really now?

(A couple of tech notes … it was a real challenge shooting in Triumph’s Old City pub. Mostly because of the lighting, three different sources to account for, including a sun that poured in the windows, then ducked behind clouds, only to come back out after we had opened up a few f/stops for an interview. Maddening.)

Nonetheless, here are the moving images from It’s Alive: The Real Ale Festival. (Too bad copyright exists on the old Universal Frankstein film; otherwise we would have cribbed that line.) A word of thanks to Jay Misson, director of brewing operations at Triumph, and Tom Kehoe, owner of Yards Brewing.

It was a classy event, one distinguished from the big festivals by virtue of it being about tasting beer, not merely drinking as much of it as you could inside four hours.

Meanwhile, we’re still working on the video from the Atlantic City festival (March 8-9). We opted to table that one to get the Philly piece done. Speaking of AC, and we’re not out to throw cold water on it, but that festival this year just seemed to devolve into a fairly big drunkfest.

And we're not trying to jab a finger in the eye of the promoters, either, but a lot of people languished in line trying to get through the turnstiles, and cash and merchandise were stolen from one brewery's table. Not cool.

Beer festivals have the potential to bring out busloads of bacchanal hedonists to begin with, but AC this year … well, a few people were probably skating home in their own sick.

Enough said.

Meanwhile, the longest day of the year welcomes the Garden State’s craft brewers for their annual festival aboard the USS New Jersey: June 21st, the summer solstice. Tickets are 40 bucks, that’s another $5 jump on the bar tab for the event. But in case you haven’t noticed, everything’s been going up. Tickets are available through Ticket Web.

And 750 is the magic number. That’s what attendance is limited to. (Festival hours: noon to 4 p.m.)

Also on the calendar:

• High Point Brewing Company is hosting an open house on this coming Saturday (April 12th), and it’s your last chance to sample Ramstein maibock fresh at the brewery.
• The Tun Tavern is holding another brewmaster dinner (April 25th). The food was excellent at the anniversary dinner in January, so keep this one in mind.

Those are the weekend gigs. As usual, weekday offerings can be found on the craft brewers guild website calendar.