Belgians are Ballers

Ok, so some of you may already know this, but for those that don't - Belgian Beers are "in" for 2K10. That being said, we have taken it upon ourselves to sample as many Belgian beers as we can this year. This endeavor has already brought us on a few trips to Corridor Wine & Spirits in Laurel, MD, which is like a Walmart of alcohol. They have a pretty extensive selection of Belgian imports and we have started to whittle our way through the list.

It just so happened that a few weeks ago, Brad was browsing a beer forum and saw that Max's in Fells Point was having a 3-day Belgian Beer Festival. Since we had Stage 5 Cabin Fever from the blizzard, we decided to venture into the city to see what it was all about. Jess, Brad and I made the trip early Saturday afternoon and found that there was a line wrapped around the corner. Not exactly what we expected to see, but since we had made the trip we thought we should at least wait it out and get a beer. Once inside, we managed to squeeze our way through the jam-packed crowd and got a round of beers. Considering that there were over 300 beers to choose from (all Belgians) half of which had been sold out, it was difficult to place an order. Brad had prepared a short list of beers he wanted to try, so we picked what we could from that. I got a Scaldis Ale which is a Strong Ale weighing in at 12% abv. That's a lot of alcohol for one glass. Surprisingly, it didn't taste like it at all. In fact, it was delicious. Much more drinkable than many other lighter weight Belgians I have had.

After just 1 round, we were all feeling a bit tipsy. We had shown up with empty stomachs with the intent of ordering food off their "special" Belgian-style menu. The problem was that the bar was so crowded, there were no open tables. After an hour of standing around, soaking in the atmosphere and soaking our livers in Belgian's finest, Jess went on a mission to find us a table. Luckily, she found one that was PERFECT. It was tucked away behind the back bar and RIGHT next to the bathrooms. Baller. With our claim staked, we settled in for the long haul and ordered some burgers and more beer. We devoured the burgers and savored the beer. There was a dude from Glen Burnie drinking out of a 2 liter (yes LITER) Stella Artois glass. Of course, Jess got her picture holding the giant thing.

A few hours later, we decided that it was time to go. We had emptied our wallets and filled our stomachs... well not quite. I managed to stop at Maggie Moo's for a cup of RED VELVET ice cream - in the middle of winter. It was spectacular. We had smuggled out all of our empty bottles in Jess' purse to keep as souvenirs and we stumbled back to the parking garage. Brad decided he had to urinate, so what better place than next to his car, right? We dropped Jess off in Federal Hill to hang with her friend, Ashley, and Brad and I went back home. We had every intent on keeping the party train going, but after a frozen pizza, more beers and some chicken tenders, Brad was DONE (at 8pm).

Oh yeah, apologies for the crappy iPhone photos.










FITG.