Cheers,
The Beeriety Team

The Great American Beer Festival, the second largest beer festival in the world took place last month and I had the good fortune of attending this year’s festivities.  Celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, the GABF tickets sold out in record time, clocking in with 49,000 attendees.  There were 466 breweries at the festival, serving 2,375 different beers, and 238 medals were awarded, including 18 to breweries entering the competition for the first time.  In a word, it was EPIC.

In addition to the festival itself, there are dozens of ancillary events at beer bars and breweries around town.  From beer releases to beer dinners to lectures and tastings, it was a week of non-stop beer love. I attended a few extra events, including a beer tasting class with BJCP judge Gwen Conley, and a midnight beer dinner with Avery Brewing at Euclid Hall. My point being that the week surrounding the Great American Beer Festival was a jam-packed week of awesome events, amazing beer, and crazy people. I didn’t take a single picture (who has time for cameras when you have a beer in your hand?), but I did take notes.  They’re more like scribbles vaguely resembling words, but for the purposes of this article, they’ll have to do. So without further ado, I give you some of my favorite beers from this week’s festival

1. Short’s Brewing – This Michigan-based brewery received permission to distribute their beer in Colorado for the week surrounding GABF, something that had never been done before.  So in addition to trying their stuff at the festival, I was also able to pick up some of their six packs.  If you can, find the Bellaire Brown Ale (a year-round release) and their Woodmaster, a high gravity brown ale fermented with maple syrup and toasted pecans.

2. Bull & Bush Pub and Brewery – In spite of their ridiculous name and even more absurd costumes (disco balls on top of construction hats?), Bull & Bush turned out one of my favorite beers of the festival: Turnip the Beets.  Honestly, I don’t remember in what stage of brewing the beets were used, but I do remember the lovely balance between the malty and earthy flavors of this stellar ale.

3. Ignite Denver –  Think lecture series meets speed dating, in which beer industry big-wigs are given 5 minutes to talk about their role in the beer industry, while their powerpoint slides are advanced automatically every 15 seconds.  Wild, crazy, hilarious, and surprisingly informative. Also, unlimited beer. Only downside: Greg Koch of Stone Brewing wearing a t-shirt with his own face on it.

4. Avery Brabant - Served at the Euclid Hall Midnight Brunch event, Avery’s Brabant is a wild ale aged for 8 months in Zinfandel barrels with brettanomyces. Sour. Dark. Delicious.

5. Right Brain Brewing’s Lavender Wheat Beer - Every lavender-flavored beverage I’ve ever had (including my own lavender pale ale) has inevitably tasted like soap.  That was until I tried Right Brain Brewing’s Lavender wheat beer. Clean and floral, balanced with a light caramel malt flavor.  Perfect amount of lavender.  Well done Right Brain.

6.  Pints for Prostates’ Rare Beer Tasting - 30 different hard to find beers from some of the best breweries in the country. My favorite: Lost Abbey’s Deliverance, a blend of brandy barrel-aged Angel’s Share and bourbon barrel aged Serpent’s Stout, packaged in 2010.  This smooth and well-balanced ale offered a subtle boozy heat with notes of caramel, vanilla, and raisins. Least favorite: Sam Adams’ Utopias.  This 27% ABV  beer was overly boozy, syrupy, and completely unbalanced. Generally just not worth my time.

I could go on and on and on about all of the amazing things that happened during the week surrounding GABF.  But in reality, the Great American Beer Festival is something that needs to be experienced in person, because no words can actually describe the enormity of this event.  People come from all across the states to be a part of  the magic that the craft beer industry has created. It’s a beautiful time for discovery and exploration of all those beers you can’t find in your city, and trying everything you can until your palate can’t take it anymore.  With every passing year, the festival gets bigger and bigger, so I suggest you mark your calendars and book your tickets for next year’s fest.  You can thank me later.

About the beer: Ah yes, the crisp air of the fall season can only mean two things for beer lovers: 1. Pumpkin flavored everything & 2. Oktoberfest style beers! Being a native New Englander means being lucky enough to experience all four seasons, but it also comes with the unapologetic love for all of the Sam Adams seasonal varietals. And what’s not to love about a new beer for every season?

The Sam Adams Octoberfest is probably the most well known American in the Oktoberfest style, but many breweries in the US have their take on the seasonal favorite, which has it’s roots in the strong tradition of German marzen style beer brewed for the celebration of Oktoberfest each Septermber. As we’ve discussed before, a marzen style is traditional malty lager where hops are generally mild and take a backseat to the sweetness of the malts, making it the perfect brew for the fall.

In A Nutshell: The Sam Adams Oktoberfest is a staple of the fall season in New England that we’re reintroduced to every autumn.

Beeriety Review: Rediscovering this bear each year is a real treat, it’s almost like running into an old friend you didn’t realize you missed. As with most seasonal varieties there is an anticipation that comes with the release of each beer. I by no means have the launch date circled on my calendar each year, but it’s a welcome addition to the fridge supply by the end of the hot and hazy summer months.

My first Sam Adams Octoberfest of this season was sampled this past weekend while participating in some Sunday football festivities and while the beer did not have my full attention it really didn’t require it. The Sam Adams Octoberfest has long been the beer of choice my friends while tailgating and celebrating at family get togethers during the Fall months and certainly stands up against its marzen/Oktoberfest competition from the US and across the Atlantic.

Beeriety Rating: 4 out of 5: Must Buy

What are you drinking? Try a Sam Adams Octoberfest this week and tell us what else you’re drinking. Tag your Twitter updates, Tumblr posts and Flickr photos of your Beer of the Week with the #mybeer hashtag to tell us what you’re drinking!

In a nutshell: Boulevard continues to please with complex interesting beers, it’s a sweet beer with a great malt character.

Review: The beer pours an amazing brown red, with a healthy head that stays throughout. this isn’t an incredibly aromatic beer. The beer is sweet, fruity sweet. It is probably the date in the beer that does that, and there is a great malt character to it as well.  It does however come off a little boozy with the 10.5% ABV. Still, the body is light, a little syrupy but overall on the lighter side. In the end it’s a beer I would try again in the mix pack but not my personal favorite style.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

About the beer: Dopplebocks are dark and strong lagers that are traditionally enjoyed in the winter months. There’s still no reason why you can’t enjoy them any time of year though so last week I cracked open a bottle I had in my small beer cellar.  The one I went with,  Smuttynose S’Muttonator is a great example of this traditional style,  but with an American twist.

In a Nutshell: Smuttynose S’muttonator is a great American take on a classic German style.

Review: Smuttynose has long been a favorite New England brewery of mine. While they are mostly known for more conservative fair like pale ales, when they do bolder styles in their Big Beer series they never disappoint. The S’Muttonator is no different. It’s a big, bold, nutty beer that  tastes great.  While dopplebocks are meant to be strong beers, both in their flavor and alcohol, I’ve often found many of them a bit too sweet to really get into. The S’muttonator does a nice job balancing out the sweeter qualities with just a kiss of hops, making it a beer I think anyone could enjoy.

Rating: 4 out of 5

(Photo by Dan Larson)

In a Nut Shell: River Horse Hop Hazard is a deliciously balanced pale ale that strikes the perfect combination of malty and hoppy.

Review: Although I wouldn’t call myself a hop head, I enjoy a good, 100+ IBU Double IPA as much as the next guy. That being said, I’m glad to see more hoppy, yet balanced brews making their mark on the craft brew world.  Hop Hazard is the perfect example of how to make a very hoppy yet nuanced beer. Despite its name Hop Hazard is a surprisingly even tempered pale ale that strikes just that right mix between hops and malt to make it an enormously enjoyable brew. The robust, fruity hops are nicely paired with a subtly sweet malt profile that makes the whole affair a delight.  “Lets get it straight, Hop Hazard is an American Pale Ale. That means it’s balanced with hops, not buried in them. Here’s to Independence!” Proclaims the label on the beer’s bottle. Although I’m not sure from what we’re celebrating our independence with a beer this good, I drink to it regardless.

Rating:

About the beer:

For a guy who knows an appreciates craft beer I admittedly know very little about barleywines. For the most part barleywines have always been selected for me or given as gifts, with this week’s Beer of the Week selection being no exception. Over the weekend a selection of the Beeriety crew had the opportunity to pop open an Old Boardhead Barleywine by Full Sail brewery. The 22 oz., which was gifted to us by friend of Beeriety Meg Whyte, had been aging since 2009 when she had resided in Portland, OR. Since it was a rare treat for the east coast Beeriety team you can bet expectations were high, given the aging and anticipation of trying this new (to us) barleywine variation.

In A Nutshell:

The Full Sail Old Boardhead Barleywine is an interesting brew, but failed to meet our high expectations.

Beeriety Review:

Unlike other barleywines we’ve tried in the past this variation wasn’t overly sweet and at some points had a very oakey taste. We all agreed that the flavors didn’t remain in the mouth for very long, giving you a quick interest in trying another tasty sip. Another unexpected surprise was that the beer was a translucent deep amber, whereas most other barleywines we’ve tried are typically dark to fully opaque.

At around a 9.0% ABV the flavors were very balanced, which was surprising given the high gravity, but left the majority of those that tried the brew wanting more. It’s not as though we didn’t enjoy this brew, we were simply hoping (maybe falsely) that this would become a keystone in our beer discovery. Stacked up against other, more fruitful barleywine variations, we all agreed that this brew fell just short of giving us a singular ‘wow’ in the tasting process.

It should be noted that the Full Sail Barleywine we tried was the ’09 Reserve and we can only speculate how the taste has changed from aging or how Full Sail has adjusted the recipe year to year.

Beeriety Rating: 2 out of 5: Just Ok

What are you drinking? Try a Notch Session Ale this week and tell us what else you’re drinking. Tag your Twitter updates, Tumblr posts and Flickr photos of your Beer of the Week with the #mybeer hashtag to tell us what you’re drinking!

About the beer: Great Divide Brewing Co. has to be one of my favorite breweries. Based out of Denver, CO, it’s rare to find a beer that’s bad from them (only once have I really disliked one of their brews). Today we’re doing the little dance with their Rumble Oak Aged India Pale Ale. They claim the beer is a, “gently aged on French and American oak resulting in a wonderful balance of bitterness, caramel sweetness, vanilla, and undertones of pine and citrus.”

In a nutshell: All I can say is, it’s not bad.

Review: When you first take a sniff, you definitely get some really nice, hoppy smells that are balanced out by the woody undertone brought in by oak barrels. In my ever so humble opinion, I don’t think the smell really matches what you’d expect in taste. You definitely get the barrel flavor in there, but it almost overtakes the hops, to the point of not being able to taste them much at all. I know that barrel aging a beer like an IPA helps round out the flavor and mellow out the beer as a whole, but I feel like this isn’t the best attempt at producing a fantastic result. It doesn’t taste as great as some of their other beers (my favorite being the Titan IPA), but it’s way better than their Double Wit. I don’t get much of the vanilla, pine or citrus from the taste, though the caramel and bitterness come in just fine. And as I sit in my 80 degree apartment drinking this, I realize it’s not the most refreshing option to beat the summer heat. This would probably be really great in the fall time.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Its been just about two months since I returned to Boston from my glorious beer adventures, and writing for Beeriety has given me a great space to process everything I experienced.  So in my final “Beer, There, and Everywhere” post, I wanted to share the things from my trip that have been most significant since coming back to the Boston beer community.

1.  A Community of Respect and Passion

It is obvious to most that the craft beer industry hosts a particularly incredible community of people, but I was so impressed with the level of respect and passion that brewers, beer drinkers, and everyone in between embodied.  Competition between breweries (if there is any) is completely friendly, and more often than not you hear of collaboration and sharing amongst brewers.  It is a group of people who genuinely love what they do, and want to share that with their peers, and support others in doing the same.  This is like nothing else I’ve seen, and it is a beautiful, albeit small, collection of people.

2. Keeping it Simple

On every brewery tour I attended, the first question from the guides was “what are the four ingredients required to make beer?”  And without fail, the answer is always water, malted barley, hops, and the ever-important yeast. It is a small and wonderful reminder of the simplicity of the drink that so many millions of people enjoy, and a testament to the talent of craft brewers across the US and the world.  An easily forgotten, but in my opinion crucial tenet that makes craft brewing so amazing.

3. Something for Everyone

In visiting so many different breweries, brewpubs, and beer bars, I saw an immense amount of diversity that was both incredible and occasionally overwhelming.  Whether bitter, malty, hoppy, spicy, citrus, light, clean, dark, heavy, creamy, roasted, grassy, high-alcohol or low, there is a little something for everyone, even those most skeptical of what beer has to offer.  Craft beer is a drink for all, it knows no bounds or limits, and this, culturally speaking, is nothing short of phenomenal.

In all likelihood, nothing I’ve listed above is new or surprising, but these were the things that I found to most impressive during my travels.  The history, the culture, the people, the opportunity, and the beer are what make me love the craft beer industry so immensely.  Experiencing this across the US in 8 states, 14 cities, and 22 different breweries only helped my love to grow exponentially.  So now I’ll move on to Denver, in hopes of becoming even more immersed in the world of brewing and craft beer.  I encourage everyone to become more involved in this wonderful community; start homebrewing, go to a craft beer event, visit a brewery, join a craft beer club, or simply fill your glass with a tasty beer that was created with great dedication and skill.

About The Beer: The Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project have taken the east coast by storm, and they don’t seem to be letting up any time soon. Helmed by husband and wife team, Dann Paquette and Martha Holley-Paquette, Pretty Things has gained attention in part because of their status in the growing “gypsy brewing” movement, and in larger part because of their phenomenally creative beers. However, the genius behind Pretty Things lies not only in the beers they produce, but in their whimsical-yet-frank approach to the beer industry. Their labels are adorned with vested Rabbits and mustachioed Barleycorns, they’re steeped in lore and fun and poetry. According to their site:

These beers are for fun, not for display! Our beers are not precious jewels, they are happy peasants! Their motto is ‘Good Time Artisanal Beers’: hold them to it!

Pretty Things’ flagship beer, Jack D’Or – “Jack of Gold”, a character who embodies “the soul of beer” -  has become a Boston staple. And for good reason. Labeled a “Saison Americain” this brew blends classic saison elements with a healthy dose of hops and a splash of champagne yeast to make a sublimely unique and very “pretty” beer.

In a nutshell: A perfect beer for the summer, but Pretty Things’ Jack D’Or gets a gold star from us at any time of year.

Review: This beer pours as gold and tastes as playfully delicious as the name and the label would lead you to believe. There’s a bitter edge to Jack D’Or, but that bitterness is elegantly balanced by a host of other sensations. There’s an edge of sweetness, a smack of pepper, a tart bite, and a champagne dryness. All these flavors mix and play – you can almost imagine them dancing around in your mouth, each moving to the center, then back to the periphery, blending seamlessly with one another as they cross and flow. As it warms up to room temperature (porch temperature, backyard temperature, or just bar temperature) the flavor mellows, and some of that bitter quality dissipates, giving more room to the sweeter tones. This beer is delicate, imaginative, and well worth the time of any true lover of beer.

Rating: 5 out of 5