This week at Pints&union we'll be navigating our first Harvest Homecoming. Tuesday and Wednesday should be normal days, and the pub's "booth days" hours look like this, with a scaled-down food menu:
Thursday, Friday and Saturday 1:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m
Closed Sunday
Here's an overview of the theory and practice of draft beer at Pints&union. We have ten draft lines in all, pouring according to plan.
The larger grouping is called EVERYDAY DRAFTS (6 in number), which represents a cross-section of traditional brewing culture. These are intended to remain fixed. We serve them in imperial pints, with half –size pours also available.
Four "everyday" beers have been constant since we opened.
Bell’s Two Hearted Ale (IPA)
Falls City Classic Pilsner (American Pilsner)
Guinness Stout Irish (Dry Stout)
Pilsner Urquell (Bohemian Pilsner)
Two others were intended to be constant, but fell victim to wholesaler outages.
Fuller's London Pride (English Pale Ale) has returned as of last Friday, and Wychwood Hobgoblin will return some day as a seasonal (below).
Anchor Porter (Robust Porter) temporarily was replaced by Bell’s Porter, and the latter remains on tap. Anchor is back in stock at the wholesaler and will resume its place as soon as I can make it happen, perhaps as early as the week of October 15.
I've divided the four remaining taps into concepts.
SEASONAL (2) taps generally will reflect the weather, with lighter beers in summer and heavier choices in winter. The idea is to rotate through them slowly; weeks at a time, not days.
Paulaner Oktoberfest (Märzen) ... We depleted a half-dozen Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest kegs and then turned to Paulaner for two more; now it transpires that the Paulaner currently on tap is the last one to be had this year. It should last for a few more days, then we'll switch to two kegs of Revolution Oktoberfest, a traditionally crafted example from Chicago. At some point after that, my hope is to begin a lengthy run of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.
Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier (Bavarian Wheat) ... When the weather finally cools, I'd like to keep this one in the family and begin a run of Weihenstephaner Dunkel, which is much the same as Hefe Weissbier but with darker malts. As the holidays approach, this tap probably will feature Christmas ales.
HERITAGE (1) is about quirky runs of Old World classics. Right now it's St. Bernardus Tripel, a Belgian abbey ale, and we're about to tap the third keg. My only restriction in this slot is that kegs must be the small 1/6 barrel size.
SERENDIPITY (1) was inaugurated with Sierra Nevada's Narwhal Imperial Stout, since supplanted by Founders Harvest Ale, a wet hop IPA. This tap will be the exception to the rule, rotating American craft beers constantly, a sixth barrel at a time. On the list to replace the Founders when the time comes are North Coast Le Merle (Saison); 18th Street Brown Ale (English Brown); and Sun King Wee Mac (Scottish Ale).
There's also one sixth barrel of Dogfish Head Punkin, arrival to be announced. We've agreed to wait until it's cold, nearer to Thanksgiving.
Pints&union has been open for 11 weeks, and we've been crushing kegs. Thanks to everyone who has come downtown to see us, to have a beer and a bite.
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