Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Four Things I Learned at the Boulder Strong Ale Fest
For those of you who have never been to one of Avery Brewing's on-property festivals, it is hard to put into words how decadent they are.
At this past weekend's Strong Ale Fest, tasting stations offering eight beers each left participants with the choice between, say, Pliny the Younger, Strange's award-winning barleywine or several oak-aged offerings. Quality, normal porters and saisons stood little chance of being requested.
Even as attendees got accidentally drunk from tasting so many high-alcohol beers - and I defend the use of the term "accidentally," no matter how many people laughed when I used it Saturday - there was much to be remembered. (Especially if you were one of those geeks, like me, carrying around a notebook.) Here are some of the highlights:
1) The beer trend of 2013? How about monster coffee stouts? Sour beers have been hip for at least half a decade, and the offerings at the last two Great American Beer Festivals showed that oak barrels aren't up-and-coming; they're here. But the coffee bombs are truly on their way up.
Pizza Port Brewing's Bacon & Eggs, made with 25 pounds of roasters, was as smooth as it was bulky and java-heavy. And Epic Brewing's Big Bad Baptist - coming soon to Denver - offered a full mouth of coffee and cocoa in a startlingly tempting 11% ABV package. They were just two of many such offerings in a show that may point the way to the next great trend.
2) It's OK to use fruit in a big beer. Really. Anyone who got the joy of trying The Bruery's Five Golden Rings this Christmas season realized a brewmaster could add pineapple juice to the mix and still blow you out of the water with alcohol.
Avery's Missionary Position - its Reverend Belgian Quad with guava and pineapple - was refreshing and, dare we say, almost light and easy for a 10% booze blast. And the grape must that Odell added to its Amuste imperial porter was smooth enough to make it stand out in a room of darks.
3) The new generation of double IPAs are far more earthy and astringently bitter than their forebears. Classics of the style, such as Firestone Walker's Double Jack and Avery's Maharaja were assaulting in their citrus-fruit and flower-petal qualities, making them dangerously easy to enjoy. But the new breweries on the block have a different idea.
Gravity Brewing's Acceleration Double IPA, for example, showed off its 9.8% ABV in the most malt-forward way possible. And Telluride Brewing's Fishwater Double IPA presented a caramel initial taste before rolling out its bitterness gradually. Both were head-turners in their surprisingly non-citrus character, though it's yet to be seen whether they were unique to the style or the new - and slightly less approachable - standard bearers.
4) Sometimes the hype is worth it. For the most part, the Fearless Tasting Crew avoided long GABF lines in favor of exploring unknown breweries, and it's never stood in line for hours to get a ticket for one 10-oz. pour. But on Saturday, two almost cliched offerings really stole the show.
Crooked Stave - it of the ridiculous lines at every festival where it's pouring - put up the best beer of the fest with Sentience, a tart wild quad whose whiskey-barrel aging accented its sharpness perfectly. And the hands-down best hop bomb there was, yes, Pliny the Younger; Russian River's line-inducing triple IPA was pure benevolence, sliding sweetly over tongues of everyone who made the smart decision to seek it out.
At this past weekend's Strong Ale Fest, tasting stations offering eight beers each left participants with the choice between, say, Pliny the Younger, Strange's award-winning barleywine or several oak-aged offerings. Quality, normal porters and saisons stood little chance of being requested.
Even as attendees got accidentally drunk from tasting so many high-alcohol beers - and I defend the use of the term "accidentally," no matter how many people laughed when I used it Saturday - there was much to be remembered. (Especially if you were one of those geeks, like me, carrying around a notebook.) Here are some of the highlights:
1) The beer trend of 2013? How about monster coffee stouts? Sour beers have been hip for at least half a decade, and the offerings at the last two Great American Beer Festivals showed that oak barrels aren't up-and-coming; they're here. But the coffee bombs are truly on their way up.
Pizza Port Brewing's Bacon & Eggs, made with 25 pounds of roasters, was as smooth as it was bulky and java-heavy. And Epic Brewing's Big Bad Baptist - coming soon to Denver - offered a full mouth of coffee and cocoa in a startlingly tempting 11% ABV package. They were just two of many such offerings in a show that may point the way to the next great trend.
2) It's OK to use fruit in a big beer. Really. Anyone who got the joy of trying The Bruery's Five Golden Rings this Christmas season realized a brewmaster could add pineapple juice to the mix and still blow you out of the water with alcohol.
Avery's Missionary Position - its Reverend Belgian Quad with guava and pineapple - was refreshing and, dare we say, almost light and easy for a 10% booze blast. And the grape must that Odell added to its Amuste imperial porter was smooth enough to make it stand out in a room of darks.
3) The new generation of double IPAs are far more earthy and astringently bitter than their forebears. Classics of the style, such as Firestone Walker's Double Jack and Avery's Maharaja were assaulting in their citrus-fruit and flower-petal qualities, making them dangerously easy to enjoy. But the new breweries on the block have a different idea.
Gravity Brewing's Acceleration Double IPA, for example, showed off its 9.8% ABV in the most malt-forward way possible. And Telluride Brewing's Fishwater Double IPA presented a caramel initial taste before rolling out its bitterness gradually. Both were head-turners in their surprisingly non-citrus character, though it's yet to be seen whether they were unique to the style or the new - and slightly less approachable - standard bearers.
4) Sometimes the hype is worth it. For the most part, the Fearless Tasting Crew avoided long GABF lines in favor of exploring unknown breweries, and it's never stood in line for hours to get a ticket for one 10-oz. pour. But on Saturday, two almost cliched offerings really stole the show.
Crooked Stave - it of the ridiculous lines at every festival where it's pouring - put up the best beer of the fest with Sentience, a tart wild quad whose whiskey-barrel aging accented its sharpness perfectly. And the hands-down best hop bomb there was, yes, Pliny the Younger; Russian River's line-inducing triple IPA was pure benevolence, sliding sweetly over tongues of everyone who made the smart decision to seek it out.
Labels: Avery Brewing, Coffee beer, Crooked Stave, Epic Brewing, Festivals, Gravity Brewing, IPA, Odell Brewing, Pizza Port, Russian River, Telluride Brewing
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Best of GABF, 2012
Picking the best beers at this year's Great American Beer Festival was like trying to discern the best team in baseball this season. Though there wasn't a single standout that everyone was talking about, there were a lot of things there to like, some from unexpected sources.
So, as all of our taste buds slowly begin to function at normal speed again, here is one man's annual toast to the best he found among the 580 breweries and 2,700 beers that called to everyone on the GABF floor.
Beer of the Festival: In a sea of sour beers that seemed willing to push taste limits, The Bruery's Sans Pagaie - a sour blonde ale barrel-aged with cherries - struck a near-perfect tone of tartness with just a hint of creamy softness to make it even more palatable. The California brewery had a full lineup of standouts, but this well-deserved medal winner was the one that sent quite a few members of the Fearless Tasting Crew away remarking it had outdone itself.
Very Close Runner-up: Of all the Texas beers that stood out this festival - and, yes, there were a lot - North by Northwest's Barton Kriek had the tart excitement of a cherry blast that was pushing boundaries but was grounded enough to make you come back again and again to try more.
Best Hop Bomb: Tribute beers can sometimes be overdone by breweries trying too hard to make them memorable. But Pizza Port Carlsbad's 547 Haight, brewed for the The Toronado San Francisco's 20th anniversary, was an imperial red ale that squeezed every grassy ounce of its ton of hops and laid it on a chewy malt under-beer to find a zingy yet balanced wallop.
Best Big Dark Monster: Barrel-aging seems to be reaching its historical peak, with more breweries understanding how oak, whiskey and other characteristics can truly make a beer better. To that end, Sun King's Batch 333: The Velvet Fog brought the biggest hammer down on drinkers, blistering them with a Belgian quad soaking up both the earthy darkness of the aging barrel and lighter, fig-like flavors that made it intriguing and complex.
Best Spiced Beer: Six Rivers Brewery's Chili Pepper Ale is the best chili beer in America, and that point may not even be debatable anymore. This year's offering was pepper-spiced to dance on every taste bud again, but the solid, fuller body underlying it gave just the right cushion to render it challenging and highly enjoyable.
Best Colorado Beer: Both Avery's Oud Floris and Strange's Zora Pale Ale woke a lot of taste buds. But the honor here goes to New Belgium's NBB Love Felix, a sour blonde ale aged in oak foeders that was reminiscent of the best Belgian-style beers ever made in Colorado in its assertive yet citrus-splashed body. Here's hoping to seeing more of this beer around.
So, as all of our taste buds slowly begin to function at normal speed again, here is one man's annual toast to the best he found among the 580 breweries and 2,700 beers that called to everyone on the GABF floor.
Beer of the Festival: In a sea of sour beers that seemed willing to push taste limits, The Bruery's Sans Pagaie - a sour blonde ale barrel-aged with cherries - struck a near-perfect tone of tartness with just a hint of creamy softness to make it even more palatable. The California brewery had a full lineup of standouts, but this well-deserved medal winner was the one that sent quite a few members of the Fearless Tasting Crew away remarking it had outdone itself.
Very Close Runner-up: Of all the Texas beers that stood out this festival - and, yes, there were a lot - North by Northwest's Barton Kriek had the tart excitement of a cherry blast that was pushing boundaries but was grounded enough to make you come back again and again to try more.
Best Hop Bomb: Tribute beers can sometimes be overdone by breweries trying too hard to make them memorable. But Pizza Port Carlsbad's 547 Haight, brewed for the The Toronado San Francisco's 20th anniversary, was an imperial red ale that squeezed every grassy ounce of its ton of hops and laid it on a chewy malt under-beer to find a zingy yet balanced wallop.
Best Big Dark Monster: Barrel-aging seems to be reaching its historical peak, with more breweries understanding how oak, whiskey and other characteristics can truly make a beer better. To that end, Sun King's Batch 333: The Velvet Fog brought the biggest hammer down on drinkers, blistering them with a Belgian quad soaking up both the earthy darkness of the aging barrel and lighter, fig-like flavors that made it intriguing and complex.
Best Spiced Beer: Six Rivers Brewery's Chili Pepper Ale is the best chili beer in America, and that point may not even be debatable anymore. This year's offering was pepper-spiced to dance on every taste bud again, but the solid, fuller body underlying it gave just the right cushion to render it challenging and highly enjoyable.
Best Colorado Beer: Both Avery's Oud Floris and Strange's Zora Pale Ale woke a lot of taste buds. But the honor here goes to New Belgium's NBB Love Felix, a sour blonde ale aged in oak foeders that was reminiscent of the best Belgian-style beers ever made in Colorado in its assertive yet citrus-splashed body. Here's hoping to seeing more of this beer around.
Labels: Avery Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, New Belgium Brewing, North by Northwest, Pizza Port, Six Rivers Brewery, Strange Brewing, Sun King Brewing, The Bruery
