The American Craft Beer crew were recently invited up to” Charm City” to attend the kick-off of the 2012 Baltimore Beer Week. This 10 day celebration (which continues through Sunday) features over 300+ total events at nearly 70 or more venues in the Baltimore area and last Friday’s opening night party was a blast.

(Spoiler Alert – we had way too much fun!)

The night’s festivities included some of the biggest players in the mid-Atlantic brewing scene. We got to hang out with great people like Flying Dog’s Jim Caruso and Matt Brophy, and Fordham and Dominion’s Jim Lutz and Casey Hollingsworth. Jim Jacobson was up from Starr Hill and we ran into Heavy Seas’ Terry Moran too. Stillwater rock star, Brian Strumke made an appearance as did Nick Fertig from Baltimore’s up and coming Full Tilt Brewing.

One of the highlight’s of the evening was the ceremonial tapping of the “First Firkin.” This year’s firkin was a specially-brewed version of Heavy Seas Loose Cannon IPA. It was made just for the opening night celebration and was casked in a barrel from the original BBW. Needless to say it was awesome!

Check out the video here.

The American Craft Beer crew would like to thank everyone involved for having us up. It was a great evening and we had a terrific time!