Max's Belgian Beer Festival begins on Friday. For three days, the bar will only serve some 120 Belgian (and Belgian-style) beers on their extensive draft lines and about 175 bottles of Belgian beer.
In addition, it will have on hand about six casks from Brewer's Art and Stillwater Ales, including that microbrewer's most recent collaboration with Mikkeler, Our Side.
The festival is now in its seventh year, and has become a must on any beer lover's calendar. Admission is free.
What's the deal about Belgian beer, anyway? Well, for starters, it's an acquired taste. Even Pratt Street Ale House's Steve Jones told me during Baltimore Beer Week he only started experimenting with them recently.
What makes Belgians taste different is the way they're brewed. Belgian brewers typically use their own house yeast to make their beer, giving it a taste that's radically different from commercial American lagers and even traditional English Ale, Jones' specialty.
Max's cellar master Casey Hard sent me their most recent draft and bottle beer menu for the festival; Beer in Baltimore had also posted it over the weekend.
Here it is in an easily printable Scribd document, posted below:
The menu below doesn't account for product that may not be shipped on time. And, it doesn't always include alcohol percentages.
But Hard says it is the bar's most recent and comprehensive: