Tonight: Cask Lab with Heavy Seas Cellarman Stephen Marsh @Columbia Firehouse

Get to know Cask-Conditioned Ale: fresh, 'living' beer.

Tonight, beginning at 5:30 PM, Columbia Firehouse Restaurant and Barroom welcomes special guest Heavy Seas Brewing Cellarmaster Stephen Marsh, for Cask Lab, an informal evening of Firkinology.




In the intimate 'Shaker Room', try a freshly tapped cask of Dubbel Cannon (7.25% alcohol-by-volume), a 'Belgian-style' IPA just released by Heavy Seas, its spring seasonal. Marsh will provide insider knowledge on how to brew, serve, and enjoy cask-conditioned real ale.

At the main bar, Columbia Firehouse will also be serving the brewery's flagship Loose Cannon Hop3 IPA (7.25% alcohol-by-volume), from a traditional beer engine.

Heavy Seas glassware is up for the taking - while it lasts - and the kitchen will supply complimentary savory bites throughout the evening.



Dubbel Cannon - This is a BRAND NEW beer from Heavy Seas and one of the very first casks of the beer filled. It's a Belgian-style IPA (India Pale Ale), intensely hoppy, but also with Belgian yeast-driven flavor. This particular version has Palisade, Cascade and Centennial hops in the cask itself, offering further floral and citric hop aromatics. Tonight is the opportunity to taste Dubbel Cannon before most everyone else.

Loose Cannon - This very citrus hop-driven American IPA has its aroma augmented with notes of smokiness, vanilla, and caramel. Marsh has dry-hopped the cask and added hand-toasted slats of Red Oak, White Oak, and Birch: a patriotic Red, White, & Birch, if you will.

Details: Heavy Seas Cask Lab at Columbia Firehouse, from 5:30-10pm. No entry fee, simply pay for the beers you order.

Shamelessly cribbed from Columbia Firehouse's Facebook page.

Stephen Marsh has been the Cellarmaster for Heavy Seas Brewing (originally known as Clipper City Brewing) since 2005. He has become well-regarded for his innovative yet tradition-honoring cellar techniques. An accomplished home farmer, he grows many of the hops and herbs he infuses in the brewery's casks. Among many awards, he received silver for a cask of Loose Cannon at the 2010 Great British Beer Festival.

UPDATE: Photos!

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• Columbia Firehouse Restaurant and Barroom
  109 South Saint Asaph Street
  Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia 22314
  703.683.1776
  
• Learn more about cask-conditioned 'Real Ale" at Cask Ale USA.
  
• Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virgina— I sell the beers of Heavy Seas Brewing.