Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Big Beers Gets Bigger
Vail Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival, once one of the state's hidden gems, has grown in reputation to the point where it's now an accepted fact that it's the best non-GABF annual beer event in Colorado. That's enough to make any organizer rest on their laurels.
But resting is something that festival coordinator Laura Lodge doesn't do so well. And so, this year's event, scheduled for Thursday through Saturday, has added more sessions, more beer knowledge and, maybe most importantly, more room for both extra patrons and extra breweries.
The biggest news, if you haven't heard - and if you haven't heard anything about the event, I'll just say: Drop your plans for the weekend and head to Vail - is that the grand tasting has moved to a bigger area with space roughly twice that of the past two years. While lines have never been a problem at the festival, elbow-to-elbow maneuvering at times has been, and this will eliminate that and give more breweries a chance to strut their stuff.
That the festival will be accommodating to more beer makers is evident from the list of just how many small but talented brewers will be pouring at sessions throughout Saturday. Trinity Brewing and Mystic Brewery will be among those discussing experimental brewing at 9:30 a.m., sour savants Captain Lawrence Brewing will co-host two seminars with Deschutes and both Bell's Brewery and Cambridge Brewing - two of the best breweries not selling in Colorado - will be part of a featured early-afternoon talk.
And for those who like to divide their gigantic-beer drinking over multiple days, there is a Brewers Association-led Friday night talk on winter seasonals and a varied lineup of rare beers from Thursday through Saturday in the Cascade Lounge.
If this all sounds like some sort of commercial for the festival, it's no more so one than all the hype that I and other bloggers try to sort through before the Great American Beer Festival. But in the case of Vail Big Beers, it's all laid out in one location - the Vail Cascade Resort - and happens to center around an event about which too few people still seem to know.
Maybe I should keep quiet and go on acting as if I know a secret. But I'd rather shout about it - and spend the next month writing blogs based on things I learned this upcoming weekend. See you there.
Vail Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival, once one of the state's hidden gems, has grown in reputation to the point where it's now an accepted fact that it's the best non-GABF annual beer event in Colorado. That's enough to make any organizer rest on their laurels.
But resting is something that festival coordinator Laura Lodge doesn't do so well. And so, this year's event, scheduled for Thursday through Saturday, has added more sessions, more beer knowledge and, maybe most importantly, more room for both extra patrons and extra breweries.
The biggest news, if you haven't heard - and if you haven't heard anything about the event, I'll just say: Drop your plans for the weekend and head to Vail - is that the grand tasting has moved to a bigger area with space roughly twice that of the past two years. While lines have never been a problem at the festival, elbow-to-elbow maneuvering at times has been, and this will eliminate that and give more breweries a chance to strut their stuff.
That the festival will be accommodating to more beer makers is evident from the list of just how many small but talented brewers will be pouring at sessions throughout Saturday. Trinity Brewing and Mystic Brewery will be among those discussing experimental brewing at 9:30 a.m., sour savants Captain Lawrence Brewing will co-host two seminars with Deschutes and both Bell's Brewery and Cambridge Brewing - two of the best breweries not selling in Colorado - will be part of a featured early-afternoon talk.
And for those who like to divide their gigantic-beer drinking over multiple days, there is a Brewers Association-led Friday night talk on winter seasonals and a varied lineup of rare beers from Thursday through Saturday in the Cascade Lounge.
If this all sounds like some sort of commercial for the festival, it's no more so one than all the hype that I and other bloggers try to sort through before the Great American Beer Festival. But in the case of Vail Big Beers, it's all laid out in one location - the Vail Cascade Resort - and happens to center around an event about which too few people still seem to know.
Maybe I should keep quiet and go on acting as if I know a secret. But I'd rather shout about it - and spend the next month writing blogs based on things I learned this upcoming weekend. See you there.
Labels: Bell's Brewing, Big Beers, Cambridge Brewing, Captain Lawrence Brewing, Deschutes Brewing, Trinity Brewing, Vail Cascade
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
GABF Wrapup: Best of the FestAfter three days of attempted recovery from the Great American Beer Festival, I can still taste some of the beers I sampled - and in a good way. Sours took on more nuanced and fresher flavors, IPAs seemed to have a more uniform grassy backbone and it seemed you could find a surprise beer around every corner, especially at the pro-am booth.
So, per annual tradition, here is one beer connoisseur's opinion on the very best that America had to offer this year.
Beer of the Festival: Never in 11 years of attendance have I tapped a Colorado brewery for this honor. But Trinity Brewing's Brain of the Turtle - a sour ale aged with cherries, coffee and almonds - defied every known category and blended terrific flavors into a masterpiece. While I was in line at the booth, two separate people told brewer Jason Yester that other brewers recommended they try his beer. The reputation is well earned.
Close Runner-Up: Tiny Captain Lawrence Brewing of New York state opened a lot of eyes with its Rosso e Marrone, an ale fermented in grapes and aged in oak barrels. In a world of increasingly complex beers, this went beyond pucker-worthy and was smooth and almost exotic on the tongue.
Best Lager: It isn't to style in any way, but Danny Wang's Lao Wang Lager, from Denver start-up Caution Brewing, should inspire admirers and copycats with its proprietary blend of Asian spices.
Best Wheat: Tumblewheat, from perpetual festival attention-getter Altitude Chophouse and Brewery of Wyoming, came across like a vanilla cream wheat with an exceptional blend of smoothness and sweetness.
Best Hop Monster: Coloradans got a gift earlier this year when Firestone Walker Brewing of California finally began distributing out here. Anyone IPA fan who doesn't demand their local liquor stores bring in Double Jack, an imperial IPA that blends flowery earth tastes and sweetness artfully, is missing out.
Best Malt Monster: Sun King Brewing of Indianapolis took home a festival-best eight medals, but none were more deserving than the one earned by Pappy Van Muckle, a barrel-aged Scottish ale that is big, sweet and ignites the taste buds with a lightly whiskey-sodden flavor.
Most Interesting Beer: Anyone who failed to wander over to the pro-am booth Saturday missed out on the Indra Kenindra Curry Export Stout submitted by Ballast Point Brewing of San Diego, which had the nose of a south Asian rice bowl and backed it with a dark undertaste that helped it settle smoothly. It makes you excited about the next generation of beers to come in the years ahead.
Labels: Altitude Chophouse and Brewery, Ballast Point Brewing, Captain Lawrence Brewing, Caution Brewing, Firestone Walker Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Sun King Brewing, Trinity Brewing
Saturday, October 01, 2011
GABF, Day 2: Small Breweries' Triumph
The Fearless Tasting Crew waited through the endless line at Cigar City Brewing last night, grabbed some Guava Grove saison and collectively shrugged as the less exciting version of the beer it found last year. Then we wandered over to Captain Lawrence Brewing (of New York state), strolled up to the lineless booth and went back again and again. Everything - but particularly the Rosso e Marrone grape-fermented, barrel-aged ale - was that good.
It's a growing adage that is proving particularly true this year: A crafty brewery, no matter how small, can make products on par with the greatest beers in the world. And those wares are on display at this year's Great American Beer Festival.
Nobody seemed to be talking about McKenzie Brew House in Malvern, Pa., before the start of the show. But one sip of its Saison Vautour, a bitingly sharp barrel-fermented citrus explosion, and the conversations should turn to that brewpub quickly.
Ditto with Freetail Brewing of San Antonio, whose Bandito - a double honey red wheat ale aged in barrels from a local winery - provides a rich apple-like taste that jumps out as one of the most unique at the GABF.
More than one person has now fawned over Angry Birds, the American Belgo Rye IPA trucked out to the festival by Haymarket Pub & Brewery of Chicago. It really is as complex as it sounds.
And the too-often-overlooked Six Rivers Brewery of McKinleyville, Calif. may have the best combination of completely opposite styles of beer. Try the Chili Pepper Spicy Ale to see how a company makes a hot beer drinkable, and then wash it down with a Raspberry Lambic Style Ale to see how a brewery makes an ancient beer style relevant.
It isn't that the big guys didn't bring great stuff. Odell's Myrcenary IPA may earn its true place on the landscape if it rightfully captures a gold medal in the double IPA category today.
But the lesson is this: Don't spend all your time in the big lines at the biggest booths, as you'll miss some incredible finds at the smaller ones.
The Fearless Tasting Crew waited through the endless line at Cigar City Brewing last night, grabbed some Guava Grove saison and collectively shrugged as the less exciting version of the beer it found last year. Then we wandered over to Captain Lawrence Brewing (of New York state), strolled up to the lineless booth and went back again and again. Everything - but particularly the Rosso e Marrone grape-fermented, barrel-aged ale - was that good.
It's a growing adage that is proving particularly true this year: A crafty brewery, no matter how small, can make products on par with the greatest beers in the world. And those wares are on display at this year's Great American Beer Festival.
Nobody seemed to be talking about McKenzie Brew House in Malvern, Pa., before the start of the show. But one sip of its Saison Vautour, a bitingly sharp barrel-fermented citrus explosion, and the conversations should turn to that brewpub quickly.
Ditto with Freetail Brewing of San Antonio, whose Bandito - a double honey red wheat ale aged in barrels from a local winery - provides a rich apple-like taste that jumps out as one of the most unique at the GABF.
More than one person has now fawned over Angry Birds, the American Belgo Rye IPA trucked out to the festival by Haymarket Pub & Brewery of Chicago. It really is as complex as it sounds.
And the too-often-overlooked Six Rivers Brewery of McKinleyville, Calif. may have the best combination of completely opposite styles of beer. Try the Chili Pepper Spicy Ale to see how a company makes a hot beer drinkable, and then wash it down with a Raspberry Lambic Style Ale to see how a brewery makes an ancient beer style relevant.
It isn't that the big guys didn't bring great stuff. Odell's Myrcenary IPA may earn its true place on the landscape if it rightfully captures a gold medal in the double IPA category today.
But the lesson is this: Don't spend all your time in the big lines at the biggest booths, as you'll miss some incredible finds at the smaller ones.
Labels: Captain Lawrence Brewing, Freetail Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Haymarket Brewery, McKenzie Brew House, Odell Brewing, Six Rivers Brewery
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Best of the GABF 2009When beer aficianados look back on the 2009 Great American Beer Festival, they may view the event as a turning point in the way that American brewers like to push their flavors to extremes.
A good half-decade after the hopped-to-the-hilt double IPA boom began hitting a crescendo, and two or so years after it became the hip thing to brew your own Belgian sour ale, brewers veered in another direction this year. It's no longer enough to push the hops and malts, they seemed to say - you have to find that new flavoring that's going to light out taste buds as well.
So, we saw coconut stouts and lemon pepper saisons and acai berry wheats. There was peanut butter and pumpkin and watermelon beers that somehow seemed to taste like Jolly Ranchers. Sure, you could spend the day drinking IPAs as usual, but then you'd be missing something interesting that is just starting its march against American breweries.
And sadly, you'd be missing some really good experimental flavors that lay out there.
Against that backdrop - and now that I've spent two full days letting my liver recover - I wanted to present my annual roundup of one man's opinion of the finest that the American beer world had to offer.
Best in Show: The Great Pumpkin, Elysian Brewing. In a year in which the fruited and vegetabled beers leaped to the head of the conversation, it seemed only appropriate that this pumpkin-flavored style-bending masterpiece was harder to keep on tap than most of New Glarus and Russian River had to offer. Almost soothingly cooling as it asserted its nutmeg and pie tastes, this showed how intricately and perfectly a brewery could blend spice notes with a smooth and well-made ale.
Best Sour Beer: Cuvee de Castleton, Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. New Belgium's La Terroir and Cambridge Brewing's Cerise Cassee were eyebrow-raisers in just how sharp and pucker-worthy a tasty beer can be. But this small New York brewery made the most satisfying and drinkable creation of the genre, one that was smooth and remarkably golden yet wonderfully apple-tinged.
Best Hoppy Beer: Hopnotic Imperial IPA, San Diego Brewing Company. The 2008 gold-medal winner battered you with hop sweetness, then massaged you with its heavy smoothness. It should enter the conversation as one of America's best IPAs.
Best Dark Offering: Coconut Joe, Papago Brewing. This gem of an Arizona brewery blended coconut into a coffee stout, giving it more backbone than many of the new coconut offerings while invigorating the stout with just enough distant sweetness to make it more interesting.
Best Wheat Beer: Mothership Wit Organic Beer, New Belgium Brewing. I tried watermelon, orange, acai berry wheats - and nothing compares to the placid smoothness in this creation that stands above all twists on the classic style.
Best Colorado Offering: Brett Barrel Brown, Odell Brewing. Making Brettanomyces beer is sort of like making chili beer: If you do it badly, it can go very, very wrong. And there were some awkward brett offerings from some good breweries. But this blend of a brown that is not overpowering with the wild yeast and the barrel aging spawned a greatly balanced dark beer that was just the slightest bit sour.
Labels: Captain Lawrence Brewing, Elysian Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, New Belgium Brewing, Odell Brewing, Papago Brewing, San Diego Brewing
