NYC Craft Beer Fest – Winter Edition Preview

Winter Harvest

Winter Harvest – December 1

I love winter beer. I love beer festivals. When you combine the two, magical things happen. December 1st is the NYC Craft Beer Festival – Winter Edition which fulfills the festival half of the equation, but seems a bit light on the ‘winter’ half of the equation.

Gauging from the beer list that has been published, it looks to be pretty similar in size and scope to The Brooklyn Pour I attended in early October. I count 109 different beers or ciders from 64 different breweries. Frankly, for a festival billing itself as ‘featuring winter seasonal beers’, the list is very light on winter warmers or other body-warming styles of beer. The list is dominated by flagship brands with relatively few options to try things out of the ordinary or not readily available. Judging from the brands represented it seems that most are being brought by distributors and not the actual breweries themselves; a lost opportunity for breweries to win over the types of rabid beer lovers that attend these events. Mediocre list aside, there are a handful of gems on the list:

  • Dark Horse – Reserve Special Black Ale
  • Founders – Breakfast Stout – Commonly available, but oh, so delicious.
  • Heavy Seas – Loose Cannon – Not a Winter beer, but still outstanding.
  • Great Divide – Hibernation – One of the best winter warmers out there.
  • Maine Beer Co. – Peeper Ale – Not a Winter beer, but a great American Pale Ale.
  • Sly Fox – Christmas Ale – Solid winter beer.
  • Victory – Storm King – Classic Russian Imperial Stout

Originally scheduled for early November, Hurricane Sandy forced a change of date and venue. The organizers will be holding a supply drive for those in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens.

I’ll be there with a full review after the event has come and gone.

 

Fall 2012 Brooklyn Wort Recap

The Fall 2012 edition of the bi-annual The Brooklyn Wort was held this past Saturday, October 27th at Public Assembly, a venue in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Wort is an attempt to combine two of my favorite things: a homebrew competition and a beer festival. Local homebrewers sign up and pay an entry fee to serve 5-gallons of their beer to the public and have it judged by both professional brewers and industry insiders. There is a $1000 purse at stake, with a portion awarded by a professional judging panel and a portion awarded based on the popular vote of festival attendees.

Tacos From Cemita's

Ticket prices include pretty good tacos from Cemita’s.

From the general public’s perspective, this event looks like a lot of other beer festivals. You choose one of two sessions to attend and pay a $35 entry fee to sample twenty-five different homebrews and eat a light meal (two tacos from Cemita’s Mexican Sandwiches and Tacos). You are given a tear sheet of tickets to give to each brewer in exchange for a sample as well as an empty slip to register your personal vote for the best beer.

Crowded...

Crowded…

First impressions are important. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the venue there was a large slow moving line that took nearly 20 minutes to get through. Within the venue, homebrewers were set up in two different rooms, both of which were way too small to accommodate the crowds on hand. Getting to the actual tables in order to receive a sample required quite a bit of maneuvering through the oversold crowd. Do not attend this event if you are claustrophobic or short on patience. When I showed up for the second tasting of the day, there was still a considerable number of people lingering from the first session, which significantly exasperated the problem.

Overcrowding and comfort aside, the most important part of a beer festival is the quality of the beer. In many ways I think the quality of the homebrew being served very much echoes the quality of homebrew in general. Homebrewing is still very much in its nascent stages with the quality improving every year, which means events like this are often a mixed bag. Of course, in a lot of ways you could say the same thing about a commercial craft beer festival. I managed to taste 22 of the 25 beers being served. Of these 22 I rated:

  • 5 Great – Would drink well next to solid commercial beers.
  • 5 Good – Comparable to an average commercial beer.
  • 7 Below average. Some technical flaws or balance problems. Comparable to a handful of bad commercial beers.
  • 5 had serious infections or off-flavors. I ran into some seriously phenolic beers, beers tasting like DMS (rotten cabbage), unintentionally sour beers, and beers with big diacetyl problems.

I had a great time chatting with the actual brewers and hearing their reasoning behind recipe formulation. I loved that many brewers were looking for genuine, unabashed feedback on their beers, and that many brought in their recipe sheets. When people ask my opinion (we all have one), it is difficult to tell whether they really want to hear what you are perceiving or simply want a pat on the back. I try to read people, but tend to give my opinion when asked (good or bad). Carefully articulated, honest feedback is the only way to become a better brewer. If you ask for my opinion, you should be willing to take it–good or bad. I expect the same treatment for every beer I make.

My top five brewers and beers:

  1. Rye Rye My Darling (Rye IPA) – Steve Hanson
  2. Trois PA (Pale Ale, 100% Brett) – Jonathan Moxey
  3. Judie Tuzke (Best Bitter) – M. Messenie & T. Lee
  4. Prunus Maximus (Porter w/ Plum & Chili) – Marco Trauzzi
  5. The Blushing Goddess (Saison w/ Hibiscus) – Peter Durning

Applepalooza at Astor Center Recap

2012 Applepalooza

Christian Drouin Calvados was the highlight of the night.

Cider is an enigma to me. I’ve never really understood its appeal and have typically written it off as something designed for those who enjoy sweeter beverages or those whose tastes are more inclined towards fruity drinks. I know there is more to it than that, but I’ve always tended to gravitate towards beverages I know I’ll enjoy and limit my explorations to the beer and spirit worlds.

With this in mind, I reviewed the events of New York Cider Week and came across Applepalooza, which could be just the thing to push me into the world of fermented apples in its various forms.

Applepalooza featured 13 different makers of either cider or Calvados (a spirit created from distilled hard cider). All of this was held at Astor Center, an events center of sorts above Astor Wines and Spirts, a fine bottle shop in its own right (no beer there, but we can forgive that).

Working my way from table to table, one thing became remarkably clear; I hadn’t given cider the respect it deserves as a complex and varied beverage. Were there big sweet cloying messes? Yes. Were there ciders that tasted like tannic, watered down Motts? Yes. Putting those aside, I found some very nice ciders that fit my tastes. The biggest surprise for me was the number of ciders that featured the unmistakable wild kiss of brettanomyces in their profiles. Some of these ciders were phenomenal, while others unfortunately had a huge plastic / burnt rubber phenolic that made them dumpers. Without further adieu, my top 3 and bottom 3 ciders of Applepalooza.

Top 3 Ciders:

Doc’s Draft Hard Apple Cider – The perfect touch of brett in a hard cider. It put off a distinct barnyard character that blended well with a nice full fruit flavor, touch of skin tannin, and medium sweetness that rounded out the mouthfeel and was cleaned up by the cider’s effervescence.

West County Cider Redfield – Nice complex apple flavor with a good round mouthfeel. Semi-dry but not watery (like a lot of the dry, low alcohol ciders). Quite tart, which helped cut some of the residual sweetness. Light hint of funk.

Eden Vermont Ice Cider, Heirloom Blend – Yes, I said I don’t like sweet ciders. The sweetness in this ice cider teetered on the edge of cloying. To me, this was quite reminiscent of a Sauternes and exhibited a very nice honey character. I couldn’t drink a ton of this, but it’d make a very nice dessert drink.

Bottom 3 Ciders:

Valveran / Villacubera Ciders – All of these Spanish ciders exhibited an overwhelming smokey, burnt plastic, peaty, phenolic. Not pleasant.

Trabanco / Isategi Ciders – I wanted to like these. They had a great funky barnyard nose that was almost Gueuze-like to me. Unfortunately, after drinking them, they also had a big band-aid note similar to the Valveran ciders.

Eden Ice Cider Orleans Apertif – Way too much basil in this one. Completely clashed with the apple character and was all I could taste.

Let’s Talk Calvados

There were three purveyors of Calvados at the event: Clear Creek Distillery (Oregon, USA), Roger Groult Calvados (France), and Christian Drouin Calvados (France). Of these three, Christian Drouin stood head and shoulders above the other two. Clear Creek and Roger Groult were both quite harsh and solventy (especially Clear Creek’s non-barrel aged spirits).

Christian Drouin was pouring their Selection, 1992 Vintage, and 25 Year Calvados. The Selection–quite young compared to the 1992 and 25 Year–exhibits a really nice fruit character. The oak is subdued, but has a hint of vanilla and butterscotch. It is a steal at less than $23; and I was happy to take one home with me. The 1992 vintage had much more oak, exhibited a big butterscotch nose, and had just a hint of fruit. The 25 Year was beautiful. It had layers of aroma including tobacco, butterscotch, vanilla, toasted bread, and on and on. To me, its only detractor was the lack of any fruit character. I would have loved to bring home either the 1992 Vintage ($134.99) or the 25 Year ($143.99), but the cost is simply a little rich for my blood, especially when I can spend 1/3 of the cost on a good single malt or bourbon of equal complexity.

The 2012 Great American Beer Festival Recap

Beer. Event. Bar. Brewery. Sleep (a little). Repeat. That is GABF in a nutshell. It’s been a few days since the last session of the biggest beer festival in the world and only now does cracking open a beer and doing some beer writing sound like a good idea.

My brain is (slightly) fried, but let’s see if I have enough gray matter left to crank out a reasonable recap. For brevity, complete descriptions of beers are omitted and replaced with a 5 point scale. Let’s get started… lots of pictures await you at the end!

Thursday

Taster Flights at Oscar Blues

Tasting Flights at Oskar Blues

Thursday started early (4:30 am EDT), with a half asleep (and slightly cranky) beer blogger navigating his way via subway and bus to LaGuardia to catch a flight to Denver. A couple of Dunkin’ Donuts and 1500+ miles later, I arrived in Denver and met up with two good friends who’d be my partners in crime for this GABF. We hit the ground running, heading straight to Longmont, CO to squeeze in some beer tourism before hitting the first GABF session later that evening. We hit lunch at Oskar Blues; all of their beers were solid, as were the nachos. I had a great time working through a sampler tray and then finishing off with a Mama’s Little Yella Pils (4/5). Not far away from Oskar Blues is Left Hand Brewing Co., where we popped in for a quick pint before heading back down to Denver. I had the Wake Up Dead Imperial Stout on Nitro (3.5/5).

I always like to remind myself that GABF is the best opportunity in the country to sample beers from breweries you have never heard of and to make new discoveries. That being said, the goal of Thursday night’s session was to hit up breweries with solid reputations that I knew would be pouring some delicious rarities. New discoveries would have to wait. Highlights included:

  • Goose Island Bourbon County Stout – loads of vanilla (5/5)
  • Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout – had right after GI BCBS, very coffee forward (4.5/5)
  • Deschutes 2011 Abyss (4/5)
  • Oskar Blues Whiskey Barrel Ten-Fidy – wow, great surprise (4.5/5)
  • Allagash Coolship Resurgam – very brett forward / funky (4.5/5)
  • Fat Head Head Hunter (4.25/5)
  • New Glarus Enegma – quite sweet (2.5/5)
  • Devils Backbone Vienna Lager – beautiful clean lager (4.5/5)
  • Anchor Small Beer (3/5)
  • Russian River Toronado 25th Anniversary – reminiscent of Beatification (4/5)
  • Stone 2008 BA Imperial Stout – awesome, rich and smooth, great surprise (5/5)
  • Bear Republic Tartare – yogurty lemonade (4/5)
  • Olde Hickory The Event Horizon – best find of the trip, amazing beer (5/5)

Friday

Lunch at the Buckhorn Exchange

Lunch at The Buckhorn Exchange

First rule of GABF, don’t go out hard on the first night. Whoops. Unfortunately, I did some extra-curricular bar hopping after Thursday’s session, which left me feeling a bit raw on Friday morning. My friends and I managed to make it out to The Buckhorn Exchange, Denver’s oldest restaurant for some lunch. Sitting under under the glass eyes of hundreds of dead animals, we ate some meat and drank some really good Stranahan’s whiskey. Feeling fortified by protein and distilled barrel aged goodness, we caught the train into Denver’s LoDo district for some more brewery hopping.

First up was Denver’s original brewpub Wynkoop. Started in 1988 by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and leading the transformation of Denver’s Lower Downtown neighborhood, these folks are true craft beer pioneers. At Wynkoop, I had their equally pioneering (and slightly gimmicky) Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout (3.5/5). (For neophytes, Rocky Mountain Oysters are bull testicles.) Twenty-five pounds of bull balls were roasted and thrown into the mash of this 8-barrel batch. Apparently, bull testicles taste like licorice to me since this is the biggest flavor I got out of this beer. Maybe boiling the ‘oysters’ would have made it more ‘ballsy’?

Up next, we headed past Coors field over to Breckenridge Brewery. Open, spacious, and light, this was a nice venue to throw back a beer. I tried their Vanilla Porter, which was very nice although perhaps slightly artificial tasting (3.5/5).

Just across the street and down a block from Breckenridge is the fairly new River North Brewery. The place was packed, but of the 3 beers I sampled, they were all mediocre at best; perhaps they’re still getting their process down.

Our last brewery stop of the day was Great Divide Brewing Co. To accommodate the crowds they had a jockey box set up out back, along with tents and large tables. Cheap (great) beers, a friendly crowd, and plenty of seats made this an excellent place to have a beer or two. I had their Berliner Weiss which had a great funky nose, but fell flat on flavor and lacked the quenching acidity I like to see in Berliners (2.5/5). They also had Hibernation on tap, which is always great (4/5).

After the afternoon’s pub crawl, it was time for the Friday night session. Luckily, I was slated to pour at Big Time Brewery’s booth for that session, giving me a break from heavy beer sampling for a few hours. I did get the chance to finally try my pro-am beer. While not nearly as tasty as my original homebrewed version, the pro-am beer was still quite good with an enjoyable dark sugar character and just a whisper of the fig character that was so prevalent in my beer. I’m hoping to get a couple bottles shipped to me so I can do a side-by-side tasting.

The Basement 'Dead Soldier' Bottle Share

The Basement ‘Dead Soldier’ Bottle Share

After the session, I met back up with my brewer friends and attended the bottle share that is held in the basement of the Marriott hotel and features all of the leftover competition beers. This was a great perk of having a brewer’s badge and was one of the funnest moments of the weekend. It was entertaining to watch so many brewers scrambling through bins to find their beers. The point being that if you found one of your beers, it probably wasn’t a winner since they didn’t need the extra bottles for judging in later rounds of the competition.

Saturday

Saturday started bright and early with the GABF competition awards ceremony. It was great to be able to watch the brewers get their awards. It seemed like this year a lot of the awards typically won year in and year out by a few select brewers were instead given to up and coming and sometimes off the beer-geek radar breweries. I think this is great as it challenges old breweries to constantly evolve and push their standards and creativity. I was especially happy to see Devils Backbone win one of the brewery of the year awards. Their awesome lagers made a huge impression on me last year and it’s great seeing them recognized.

Saturday afternoon we attended the members-only session where we tried a lot of great beers. The highlight was probably Sam Adams Utopias (nearly 26% ABV) which is something I wouldn’t normally buy, but is fun to try. I also went back to Olde Hickory and tried a few more beers in their lineup, which were all quite good. New Belgium’s Love Felix (actually poured by Kim Jordan) was also fantastic.

GABF is a great time. Each year I am blown away by not only the sheer number of beers poured and breweries in attendance, but more importantly by the overall quality that gets pushed higher and higher each year. Looking forward to next year.

The 2012 Brooklyn Pour Recap

2012 Brooklyn Pour Glassware

2012 Brooklyn Pour Glassware

October 6th, 2012 was an important date. Five years earlier, this Homebrewer was lucky enough to marry The Homebrewer’s Wife. It also happened to be the date of the second annual Brooklyn Pour. The Brooklyn Pour was my first beer festival since moving to Brooklyn and my awesome wife was happy to attend it with me. So we made our way to the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, sampled beer, soaked in our surroundings, and toasted another year of wedded bliss.

The Venue

The Main Tasting Area

The Main Tasting Area

The old Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower is gorgeous. The pictures of the the main hall of building, where most of the breweries were pouring, don’t do it justice. This space is hands down the coolest place for a beer festival I’ve been to. About two-thirds of the beers were being poured in the main hall, while the other third were located in the basement vault. The capacity of these spaces worked well for the number of tickets sold, resulting in pretty much non-existent lines and a level of crowding that was energetic but not claustrophobic. I especially appreciated the plentiful glass tables in the main hall that gave plenty of space to rest your beer and take notes. There was a DJ playing music that fit well with the youngish crowd. My only complaint was that it was very loud and made conversation difficult, particularly in the already very acoustically live basement vault.

Stations Located in the Basement

Stations Located in the Basement

The Crowd

The crowd was great. It was not the over 40 typical beer geek crowd I’ve become accustomed to at other festivals I routinely attend. I love both types of crowds, although probably fit better into the latter. The crowd here was young, enthusiastic about trying new beer, and far hipper than myself. I saw very little over-consumption, something that must be commended especially in a festival that offers unlimited pours.

Serving the Beer

The manner in which the beers were presented sucked. There really is not a nicer way to say it. The vast majority of breweries in attendance were having their beer being poured by BenchMarc Events, whose employees had no clue what they were doing. On three occasions (Allagash Curieux, Het Anker Lucifer, Ommegang Three Philosophers), I was poured the last yeasty dregs from a bottle conditioned beer. I was literally given two ounces of murky yeast for my pour. Additionally, these folks had no idea what they were pouring; for example, Allagash Curieux was described as a ‘Belgian White’ by its server. For all intents and purposes, these people are representing a brewery’s brands and beers at these events. It seems that blindly sending your beers to these events is only handicapping your promotional efforts and not presenting your beers in the best possible light. Element Brewing was a great exception to this. The folks pouring their beer actually knew about what they were pouring and the brewer was also there to answer more in-depth questions.

The glassware (actual glass, yeah!) for the event was great. A line denoted 2 oz. pours although the BenchMarc servers typically filled them to the brim (in spite of my protests). I ended up dumping a lot of excess beer into trash cans so I wouldn’t have to drink a bad beer and so I could sample as many beers as possible. Rinse water at stations and dump buckets were unfortunately non-existent.

The Beers

By and large, the majority of breweries brought their flagship brands and perhaps a current seasonal. This was okay for me since I’m new to the east coast and there were plenty of things available that I haven’t had the opportunity to try. That being said, I’d imagine the selection was probably pretty boring to some of the more experienced beer samplers in the room. Of course, there are always stand-outs. Here are my top three beers followed by notes for the other beers I tasted.

Element Brewing Company – Altoberfest
Really nice big noble hop character. Firmly bitter, but with a nice supporting rich malt component. I’d hesitate to compare it to an Oktoberfest (far too hoppy), but it was a delicious Alt nonetheless.

Kelso – Rye Barrel Porter
So many barrel-aged beers present over-the-top spirit character paired with malt sweetness. That strategy has its place, no doubt. This beer was refreshing in its subtle barrel character and moderate alcohol. It was fairly dry, but had a rich caramel malt component that blended well with the vanilla and oak barrel characteristics.

Smuttynose – IPA
I found this beer to have a very interesting blend of Noble (earthy, herbal) and American (citrus) hops. It was balanced with a good amount of caramel malt and firm bitterness. Very drinkable, especially compared to many IPAs.

Other Beer Notes:

  • Allagash Curieux – Very nice oak character blends well with an almost vinous beer. Quite fruity and very good.
  • Element Brewing E.S.O. – Interesting blend of moderate malt plus oakey vanilla flavors. Found the oak too powerful with a wood chip sawdust character. Slightly phenolic.
  • Slyfox Pils – Unfortunately a diacetyl bomb. Both of their beers tasted dirty, perhaps some issues with their jockey box.
  • Slyfox IPA – I really wanted to like this one. Very muted hop aroma… some citrus. Tons of rough bitterness that lingers and was quite grassy. Beer tasted dirty.
  • Empire White Aphro – Huge cinnamon on nose and palette. Almost horchata-like. Tasty.
  • Lucifer – A classic Belgian Golden Strong. Fruity and delicious.
  • Brooklyn Brewery Defender – Big green, grassy, herbal, hop aroma. Too harsh and grassy. Some citrus as it warmed. Didn’t really care for it.
  • Ommegang Three Philosophers – Dark caramelized sugar, fig, and prune. Very good.
  • Sixpoint Autumnation – Was described by server as being like an Oktoberfest. Big herbal noble hop nose, somewhat grassy. Dry. Pretty average.
  • 508 Dark Sour – Promising nose. Lightly tart. Unfortunately, lots of cardboard oxidized flavors detracted from what was probably a good beer.
  • Chelsea Wet Hopped Pale – Really bad. Certainly infected. Dirt, leafy lettuce, cabbage and cooked vegetables. Some diacetyl.
  • Harlem Sugar Hill Golden Ale – Sweet pears and apple on nose. Lots of light caramel flavors. Pretty pedestrian.
  • Dogfish Head Raison d’Etre – Lots of raisin and prune. Strong turbinado sugar flavors. Sugary flavor, without being sweet. Pretty tasty.
  • Bronx Brewery Rye Pale Ale – Nice citrus heavy nose. Pretty heavy caramel malt flavor. Some citrus and herbal hops. Light rye peppery notes. Very enjoyable.
  • Captain Lawrence Pumpkin – Nice graham cracker crust flavor blended with creamy malt and medium pie spice. Balanced and enjoyable.
  • Weyerbacher Merry Monk – Big banana and bubblegum esters – drinks like a big hefeweizen. Too many esters for my tastes.
  • Oscar Blues Deviant Dale – Huge hop aroma. Mango, grapefruit, pine. Pretty smooth bitterness and fairly dry. Good beer.

A Couple Logistical Pet Peeves

Long Lines at the Toilets

Long Lines at the Toilets

  • It shouldn’t take 25 minutes to get through the line and enter the event. Scanners working or not, when the event runs for a finite amount of time, entry should not take that long.
  • Bathrooms. The lines for the toilets were very long. For the number of people in attendance, having about twice that many toilets would be a good start…we’re drinking beer after all!

Would I go again?

Over and over at this event I felt the need to relinquish my perspective as a craft beer aficionado and advocate and simply enjoy this event for what it was, an afternoon spent in a beautiful venue, with great company, drinking beer that was pretty average. I kept telling myself it was important to temper my expectations and not put myself into a situation of comparing apples and oranges. The festival is very different than all of the other festivals I’ve been to. Namely, this is a festival produced by a for-profit enterprise. Most of the other festivals I’ve been to have been produced by trade organizations whose missions are to promote the industry and the brewers within. For what it was, I found it this festival to be a good time despite the noticeable hiccups. So long as you look at this as an opportunity to drink (mostly) good beer in a cool environment with a good crowd, you’ll have fun. Don’t expect to be blown away by rare or one-off beers. Don’t expect to chat with the actual brewers about their beers. Don’t expect beers to be poured properly by knowledgeable people. Do expect some average beers, a handful of exceptional beers, and more than a handful of dumpers.