Pinehurst Wine Shoppe. Where everyone knows your name.
To all Baltimore COAEH Readers:
Have you
heard? Growlers are in! And if you haven’t jumped on board with this
beer-buying-trend, you are missing out on the best way to enjoy the freshest craft
beer.
What’s a growler?
Dating back
to the 1800s, when patrons carried fresh beer home from their local pub in pails, the name “growler” allegedly comes
from the fizzing sound as CO2 escaped from the lid. Flash-forward to the twenty-first century, a growler
simply refers to a reusable glass
jug filled with delicious beer straight from the tap!
Thanks to legislation passed last July, Pinehurst Wine
Shoppe became the first retail establishment in Baltimore to sell growlers.
With a 13-tap growler station, Pinehurst sells and fills growlers 6 days a
week. Manager, Gordon, says, “Why not growlers?” Not only are growlers the
freshest way to enjoy craft beer but environmentally friendly. In less then a
year, Pinehurst has sold 1,400 growlers and filled over 5,000. (To put that
number in perspective: that is over 30,000 beer bottles NOT in the landfill!!)
But I think the
best part about buying beer in growlers is the ability to taste the beer before you buy it! Which brings me to my
Saturday afternoon.
Every Saturday, Pinehurst hosts “Tap Takeovers” featuring
one brewery or beer manufacturer on all 13 taps! Last Saturday, Dog Fishead Ale
was the featured brewery so I enlisted the help of my sister’s boyfriend,
Martin, and we walked over to try some delicious beers. We had our work cut out
for us, as clearly we needed to try all 13
beers!
As usual, there was a large crowd, growlers in tow, sampling
and discussing the various beers to determine what to fill their growlers with
that day.
Martin & I joined the fun & Charles, the resident
beer connoisseur, started our tasting with the peach (sour) and we ended with
the 120 IPA (20% alcohol!). As we sampled each beer, Charles explained the flavors,
recipe origin, alcohol content, etc. I love hearing the different ingredients
and seeing if I can actually taste them!
Here is what we tried:
Here is what we thought:
·
Martin’s favorite: Rhizing Bines. A Dogfish Head
/ Sierra Nevada collaboration 8% alcohol.
·
My favorite: Namaste
(Which
Charles accurately predicted would be my favorite the day before!)
·
Least favorite: Probably the peach because it
was very sour.
·
The 120 IPA 20% alcohol by volume . . . It was
good, but I think a sip was enough!
Located on the corner of Bellona Ave. & Gittings Ave., Pinehurst
is truly the Shoppe around the corner for its surrounding neighborhoods (remember
I mentioned I walked over!) “And
don’t you want to go where everyone knows your name, and they’re always glad
you came?!
Cheers!
~Whitney Elizabeth (Thanks Mere)
Pinehurst Wine Shoppe
6242 Bellona Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21212
*This post is not endorsed by Pinehurst Wine Shoppe. The opinions expressed are my own.