Guest Blog Whitney: Welcome to Baltimore, MD Growlers!

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.