Great American Beer Festival: Night 2

GABF “Safety Team” protects us from potential slippage caused by projectile vomit.

This post reflect beers I enjoyed (responsibly) on Saturday night of GABF. For my thoughts from Friday night, check out my previous post.

Here’s what I learned from night #2 at the Great American Beer Festival: people will throw up and they will throw up with greater purpose than Friday night.

Another thing I learned from night #2: breweries are bad at rationing their beer. It was near impossible to visit a booth and not have some or even most beers crossed off on their serving list because they just simply didn’t have enough to last through Saturday night.

Nonetheless, these disappointments didn’t deter me during Saturday night’s session in Denver. There were still some great beers and perhaps my favorite of all from the festival. Read about what had my heart all aflutter after the jump.

A Few Words on … World Beer Festival

Yesterday was one of my favorite beer events here in Durham – All About Beer‘s annual World Beer Festival. The festival features about 100 breweries with a wide collection of beer, although fall styles play a big role, considering the time of year. This year’s even was perhaps my favorite yet and here are some of the highlights:

Top of the Hill saison – based in Chapel Hill, Top of the Hill is a brewpub and a newly minted distillery as well. Their beers have always been great and their saison that was served yesterday was an absolute perfect example of the style. The beer was light and crisp with wonderful citrus and banana notes on the nose and tongue. While the pour was only a couple ounces, I could tell the carbonation was spot-on and the light, golden beer had a great ivory head. A great palate cleanser and not knowing the specific ABV, it could be a perfect session beer during the waning summer days here in North Carolina.

Abita Andygator – while this brew only has an 80 on Beer Advocate, I’d consider it for a higher number. I’m not crazy about bocks, but this dopplebock was something I really enjoyed. It sits at 8 percent ABV, but you wouldn’t know it and the smell is something more akin to a sour beer in the vein of Brux – very light and crisp with a definite lead aroma of tart cherries. The taste was nothing like the smell, however, with a typical malty sweetness leading the charge. I loved the color – a near transparent gold that sparkled in the sun.

NoDa Coco Loco porter – The name says it all. This Charlotte-based brewery knocks it out of the park with this beer, which is brewed with coconut but I couldn’t tell at all. Everything is dominated by an incredible characteristic of roasted cocoa nibs. There’s just a hint of coffee on the nose, but chocolate and brown malt make this a beer Willy Wonka would be proud of. I was most surprised by the ABV – 6.2 percent – which is right near the top limit of the BJCP guidelines for a “robust” porter. I just haven’t typically seen a porter that strong.

Noda Hop, Drop ‘n Roll IPA – NoDa hit back-to-back homers when I tried their IPA, which showcased all the resin of the Citra and Amarillo hops and none of the bitterness. It was super-clean, crisp and just had amazing citrus flavor. I’d dare say it would be among my favorite straight IPAs I’ve had.

Two other big highlights after the jump.

Sixpoint Brewery Apollo – it was love at first sip (and second, and third…)

The note I made on Untappd when I opened my first-ever can of Sixpoint brew was “My god.” Among the first notes I made on my Rate That Beer sheet was “Holy shit.” This was a wonderful find from my trip back home to NY and something I wish was distributed here in NC.

This is how my relationship with Sixpoint Brewery appropriately began – with cursing and pleasure rolled into one. My first Sixpoint was Apollo, which was also my first kristalweizen beer – a style of German wheat ale. It’s got a 89 on Beer Advocate.

The look of the beer was beautifully clear with a quick but diminishing head. Lacing stuck around to help float lots of fruity notes – apricot works to break through but is simply bludgeoned back by banana. So. Much. Banana. But it works great with other shifts of wheat, sweat malt and even aromas of fresh cream. Banana pudding? It could work. Thank you, Sixpoint.

Bless these brewers hearts, the taste was even better. My first sip exploded with flavor that started just a bit tart, but rolled into sour cherry. A bubblegum sweetness mixes with the light, banana esters making the beer sweet and refreshing. The light body also makes it incredibly easy to drink and with 5.2 percent ABV, that’s simple.

I never wanted to put this beer down. It was smooth but left my tongue dry, making it even harder to deny my lips another shot at my glass. While summer is quickly dwindling across the country, this beer calls to me as a perfect way to say goodbye.

Needless to say, this was a great beer. All I can do is cry myself to sleep knowing I can’t get Sixpoint here in NC. Hit the jump for my Rate That Beer sheet.

Out of town – Milwaukee (Part 1)

“Perfected mediocrity.”

This is how my friend best put into words my general feelings from my first day (ever) in the state of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee. How is this applicable? My initial foray into Wisconsin beer (non-New Glarus) was a mixed bag. Two trips to local breweries mostly left me scratching my head.

Milwaukee Brewing Company flight

At Milwaukee Brewing Company my flight of beers offered something unique – the first cream ale I could ever stand. Every other cream ale I’ve ever had has been too watery and devoid of taste (corn not bring an ideal taste from beer). But somehow, Outboard gets around that corn flavor, even though it is an ingredient. Perhaps it’s the 6.5 percent ABV that adds something extra? Or some Saaz hops in a traditional American beer? Either way, it actually had some kind of flavor and a light bitterness that I haven’t found elsewhere. To put it bluntly, it was the least cream ale of any cream ale I’ve had. Somehow, this brewery managed to make (to me) a perfect version of an otherwise mediocre beer style.

My other favorite from Milwaukee Brewing Company was their Polish Moon milk stout which isn’t the “winter warmer” it promises to be with a 4.5 percent ABV, but is nice and sweet, but the lactose is best overpowered by roasted intensity that adds a great amount of body and flavor to the beer.

Louie’s Demise, the brewery’s flagship beer, was a perfectly fine amber ale that didn’t really have anything that made it stand out, but was good and something I could drink a lot of in one sitting.

Lakefront Brewery flight

The second stop of day one brought us to Lakefront Brewery, where another flight offered quality across the board, but nothing that blew me away. I loved – in idea – the Wisconsinite hefeweizen, which is an all-locally sourced hefe. The flavor was pretty hum-ho and everything you’d expect with banana esters and a bready backbone. It was mostly the fact they’re able to get malt, hops and yeast locally, which is just a cool aspect of the beer.

Another “stand out” from Lakefront was their New Grist gluten-free beer. The only other gluten-free offering I’ve ever had was the Tweason’ale from Dogfish Head, and New Grist was a perfectly toned down version of that. While the base of both these beers is the same – sorghum – Dogfish’s addition of strawberry and honey gives Tweason’ale a easily recognizable flavor. New Grist tasted just like Tweason’ale, but without any additional flavoring. It was a bit sweet with a clean finish, but not much else. Granted, this is what I imagine you’d want from such a beer.

The Brunch Box

One other novelty from the trip was Comet Cafe‘s “Brunch Box,” which was neither brunch nor a box, but was had with breakfast. This drink consisted of amaretto, orange juice, generic Belgian white and topped with Guinness. The orange/amaretto/Guinness combination was very good and seemed to enhance the chocolatey-roasted flavor of the beer a bit. Try making yourself – highly recommended.

Dr. Fritz Briem 13th Century Grut

You can’t know where you’re going, until you know where you’ve been.

Or so I’ve heard.

Perhaps this is why I was so excited to crack open a bottle of Dr. Fritz Briem 13th Century Grut (pronounced “grew-it”), a beer brewed according to recipes dating back to before the German Purity Law in 1516 – or as it’s otherwise known, Reinheitsgebot. To put it simply, while the Germans (and many of us today) may know beer as a simple mixture of hops, barley and water (and yeast, but that’s another story) it wasn’t always that way. Like many beers before it, this brew has an incredible combination of ingredients, including bay leaves, ginger, anise and rosemary. That’s status quo for a grut/gruit, which would have a wide variety of herbal components, from mugwart to cinnamon to nutmeg and beyond.

So yes, this is a complex beer. It’s got an 86 on Beer Advocate.

But let’s start with the easy stuff. It poured brilliantly. Clear and a foam that stayed for my first few sips and dissipated after that.

I loved how it smelled. The first impression reminded me of a farmhouse-style beer – a little sour and earthy/grassy, but in a definite good way. It makes me think of summer. That’s compounded by a floral appeal, kind of like smelling a bouquet of edible flowers. What surprised me the most was a whiff of peach. That must’ve been the sweetness of all the herbs coming together. If I were to put this in front of a friend, I could easily see them likening this to some kind of “hippy garden” where a wide variety of herbs, spices and produce are grown. It’s that in-depth.

But let’s not short-change the flavor. Drinking this beer was incredibly easy. The sour smell carried over into the flavor, but by no means was it a negative. It’s a very easy-drinking kind of sour that wouldn’t turn off many palates because there are plenty of other flavors – ginger, coriander and the anise really shines through as the beer warms. There’s some great spiciness to it all that you’ll never find anywhere else. If you like eating Christmas cookies, I imagine you’ll like this beer.

Overall, a wonderful find – and I bought it on discount(!) no less. At 4.6 percent ABV, the content of the brew is really allowed to shine through. I was impressed with how tasty a 13th century beer could be, and you would be too.

Hit the jump for my “Rate That Beer” sheet.

Widmer Brothers’ Marionberry Hibiscus Gose (yes, it’s a mouthful)

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of marionberries. I’ve never eaten/drank hibiscus flowers. I’ve never had a gose-style beer (pronounced gose-uh). Thanks to Widmer Brothers’ Marionberry Hibiscus Gose, these are now off my beer bucket list.

(If you’re curious about the history of Gose, which is pretty cool, I recommend checking out this article from Imbibe Magazine. It goes into great details – why it’s made with salt and why World War II almost made it extinct.)

This beer recently arrived at my local shop and given my inexperience and curiosity … why the hell not? It’s got an 80 on Beer Advocate.

Widmer’s gose would be a great dessert beer, or at least paired with something for dessert. Chocolate would be solid, as would fruit, naturally. I wonder, however, how does the red hue of the beer impact how I’m judging it? When I see the red and smell something sweet – like berries – I imagine my perception of the beer and all the aromas and flavors that come with it might be “tainted” because of what I imagine or want it to be like. All that said, it was still a fine beer.

The gose smelled and tasted a bit tart, like a not-yet ripened fruit, although not quite sour to me. The Widmer Brothers’ description suggests the hibiscus flowers are responsible for that. Mixed in with that was some sweetness that made me think of honey.

But it’s the taste that really makes this beer stand out. Not in the fact there are so many flavors you’d never know where to begin, but how given the simplicity of taste – smooth, dry, a little funk and leaves with some carbonation on the tongue – I’m surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. There was no truly noticeable tart or sour taste, again perhaps my nose and eyes playing a trick on me in spite of the fact I wanted there to be some sourness. Is it a case that the fruit flavors are just watered down? If I smell it, maybe the marionberries were used in secondary fermentation for a short period of time. If left in the beer long enough, I feel that the berry flavor would’ve been more pronounced, but is still “just” right for this brew. That’s why these guys are pros.

All said, I’m not going to rush out to buy this beer again, but it’s novel enough to make me appreciate what was done with it and how it was made.

Hit the jump for my “Rate That Beer” sheet.

Dogfish Head Festina Peche

Being the beer nerd I am, is it blasphemous that until now, I’d never had Dogfish Head’s Festina Peche? Does that mean I’m not a real beer lover (despite my uncontrollable adoration for Dogfish Head) or does it mean I just hate summer?

Well, I can cross both those answers off, at least. With temperatures well above 100 in North Carolina this weekend, it was as good of a time as any to get this perfect summer beer  ̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶b̶e̶l̶t̶  in my stomach. For good measure, I had it with some peach cobbler made by The Missus. A winning pair all the way around.

In case you’re wondering, it’s got an 82 on Beer Advocate.

If you’ve had Festina Peche, you know the profile is very simple. If you haven’t, take this into consideration: If it smells like a peach, tastes like peach and it’s a beer, it’s Festina Peche, a Berliner Weisse-stlye beer made with peach concentrate/juice. And let’s not beat around the bush here, if peach is what you want from this beer, peach is what you get. With just 8 IBUs, there’s not enough hop flavor or bitterness to expect more than the peach flavor, which is OK.

Peach is about the only thing I could smell (maybe some tartness) and peach is the only thing I could taste, although I got just a little hint of sour notes you may find in a farmhouse ale, like the Weizen Bam I had not too long ago. This is such an immensely easy beer to drink, especially at 4.5 percent ABV. Could it be the ultimate summer lawnmower beer? Do I not hate summer any more? Yes and yes.

Hit the jump for my “Rate That Beer” sheet.

Sam Adams East-West Kolsch

While pretty straight forward for a “macro” kind of beer, I actually really liked Sam Adams’ East-West Kolsch, which has an 83 on Beer Advocate.

With most of what Sam Adams produces, I’m left with the same kind of response: it’s a good beer, made for a wide audience and could drink more than one. But overall: not incredibly impressed. I don’t fault Sam Adams for this. Their job is to make beers that would be good to everyone and could be had more than one in a sitting. Mission accomplished there. I’m just picky, I suppose.

That’s not to say I didn’t care for the East-West Kolsch. On a whole, I’m usually very cautious with my European-inspired beers. Typically, I don’t care for Americanized versions but really like the beer from the home country. This beer falls somewhere between the two camps. I really liked how this kolsch was ultimately more than just an easy-drinking session-style beer.

There was more complexity on the nose than I expected, with my first impression of fruit, but not exactly knowing what it was. I guess it could’ve been pineapple. Definitely some kind of citrus. Maybe some floral? This is all strange because given the beer style, the overall smell is much more driven by the malt and not the hops.

But the funny thing is, the smell was much more adventurous than the taste. This is where, I suppose, the “macro” production comes into play. The beer is certainly sweet and very crisp. It actually reminds me of a more drinkable Bud Light Platinum. Take that for what you will. Whereas Platinum is very sweet up front and then turns into crappy Bud Light flavor, this keeps a sweetness throughout and, well, isn’t terrible.

All that said, I’d still prefer a kolsch from Germany but this beer will do in a pinch. As with any Sam Adams offering, it’s a quality beer that won’t offend, but shouldn’t blow you away either. It’s perfect if you’re hanging out with others and blowing through one of their seasonal 12-packs.

Hit the jump for my “Rate That Beer” sheet.

Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam

“Oh, I love pumpkin!”

“Yeah, babe, this will be awesome.”

Such was the interaction between an overly tanned, out-of-place 20-something fraternity/sorority couple standing in front of me as I inched my way through a line to the Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales table at World Beer Festival-Raleigh.

“No,” I replied with more indignation than should be included in a single word. “That’s just the name of the brewery.”

Disappointment abounded with Babe. Awesome Guy didn’t seem to much care. I feigned an apology.

Either way, I was excited for my first experience with Jolly Pumpkin then and I was equally excited for my second tasting with a bottle of their Weizen Bam Farmhouse Wheat, which I had all to myself. It’s got a 91 on Beer Advocate. Generally speaking, it earns that number, too.

What I think benefits Weizen Bam the most is the complexity of the aroma and flavor. Jolly Pumpkin ages all their beers in barrels with wild yeast (read: “bacteria”) which gives them a wonderful, light, sour character. With the Weizen Bam, it was only unfortunate that this doesn’t truly come through until you’ve let the beer warm quite a bit.

With a deep whiff, sour cherry is most definitely the most distinguishable smell, although it’s nothing off-putting. It’s the perfect amount, especially for someone who may not (yet) care for sour beers. That’s because it mixes well with notes of grass and tropical fruit – mostly banana. You may have to search for those because you recognize the cherry so easily, but they’re there.

It’s much of the same with the beer’s taste, which doesn’t really start rocking until its sat out at room temperature for about 30 minutes or so. A 25-ounce bottle actually works out well for one person because at 4.5 percent ABV, it’s not going to knock you off your feet and you benefit from letting the bottle sit as you sip your first serving from a glass. Win-win.

The beer has a good, balanced body. The mouthfeel is light, but filling. It’s got some weight to it. Taken cold, it’s more refreshing than anything. Taken warm, it’s got all the flavors of the smell, plus some spiciness to it. Jolly Pumpkin notes it as clove and nutmeg. Makes sense.

No, this isn’t a pumpkin beer – but they did, ironically, finally start making one last year. Will I spend another $12 on this one? Probably not. Will I spend $12 on a different brew? Probably. It’s well spent.

Hit the jump for some quick notes from my “Rate That Beer” sheet.

Sam Adams’ Longshot – A Dark Night in Munich

I’ve continued my foray into Sam Adams’ 2011 Longshot series. I’ve always loved the premise, but this year’s batch has left something wanting from me (I really liked last year’s lavender and black IPA batches). I had another perfectly good, but not a knock-your-socks-off beer in Corey Martin’s A Dark Night in Munich, a Munich dunkel style. It’s currently got an 83 on Beer Advocate.

As my palate has changed, I suppose my overall appreciation for Sam Adams beers has changed as well. I still love nearly all of what they produce, but I often find myself wishing that their beers would have some more kick to them, whether in ABV or overall taste. Sam Adams certainly accomplishes a great balance, however, between something you’d want to have as a “unique” beer and something that will be enjoyed by the masses. I’ve found that this year’s Longshot series – while very good – falls into that category.

Dark Night in Munich starts off with a super-strong malt smell with maybe some yeast coming through as well. It’s mostly a light whiff, but if you really stick your nose in it’ll come out. Definitely some chocolate too. The mouthfeel was middle-of-the-road: not thin, but with some body to it that sticks around on your tongue.

The taste was easily more complex, but still led by a strong malt flavor. As the beer warmed it was a bit more balanced with caramel and also some bitterness at the finish. What I found most interesting was after I let the glass sit for about 20 minutes, the taste took on almost a barleywine-junior kind of flavor. Perhaps in the way that the big malt flavor was the star of the show. The difference in alcohol – Munich was 5.9 percent – gives you the “junior” side of that.

Here’s Corey Martin doing an interview with Austin Homebrew about his background and the Longshot process: