April 23, 2013
I’m usually not a big “Beer Fest” guy. While the chance to taste rare beers and rub elbows with brewery personnel always sound enticing, in practice the typical Beer Fest experience often doesn’t live up to the hype, for reasons we’ve laid out before. Given the choice, I’ll take a bottle-sharing session and conversation with good friends, or a trip to my favorite pub, over the bustle and stress of the typical festival. However, there was nowhere in the beer-consuming universe I would rather have been on Saturday than Release the Firkins, Pittsburgh’s first cask ale festival that kicked off the city’s second annual beer week.
THE BEER
The beer was uniformly excellent. One strength of the cask festival concept is that even familiar beers become new experiences when served from a firkin in the proper manner. I’ve had Bell’s Two Hearted Ale hundreds of times, perhaps thousands; on Saturday I got to taste as it does essentially straight from the fermenter. Another advantage compared to kegs is that breweries can use the vessels as randalls, dry-hopping or adding other ingredients right in the cask, making each firkin a potential one-off. Sure, you’ve had Founder’s Centennial, but the classic IPA served fresh off a double-dry hop is a different animal altogether. You’ve had Weyerbacher Merry Monks Trippel, but what about “Mojito-style” served on lime and mint? Some of the experimentation worked better than others, but it was all interesting and made every tap worth trying.
For me, unsurprisingly, the hoppy beers were the star of the show. I’ve stated my love for Fat Head’s Head Hunter at length, but as the brewery continues an expansion process, it can be difficult to find at the height of freshness around town. The Simcoe double-dry-hopped version at RtF was a perfect distillation of the complexity of this fruity, piney hop- with just a touch of that distinctive cat pee zest people love or hate. I love it, and along with many others returned multiple times to the busy Fat Head’s tap.
If hops aren’t your thing, there were options to suit every taste. The first cask upon entering the festival hall was New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk, which was extremely popular. I heard multiple festival-goers state they’d “never tried anything like it”. I love to witness craft beer conversions, and the New Holland table was a force for evangelism on Saturday. Other highlights from the darker side of the malty spectrum included Flying Dog’s Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout dry-hopped with CTZ and East End’s Chocolate Covered Cherry Stout. Smoked beer lovers had Fat Head’s Up in Smoke, and Pittsburgh’s own Arsenal brought a Centennial Hopped Cider that was absolutely delicious, and their Picket Bone Dry Cider that served as a nice palate-cleanser to the barrage of flavorful cask ales.
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5 Comments | 
Beer Culture, Beer Festivals, Beer Industry | Tagged: Cask ale, Firkin, Highmark Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week, Release the Firkins | 
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Posted by Slouch Sixpack
April 11, 2013
In short, it’s a matter of beer segregation, or more accurately, division of the festival attendees into multiple groups: “the masses” and “the VIPs.”
This is something I am noticing more and more often as I visit the websites of beer festivals, especially new festival events. And with the exploding national consciousness of craft beer drinkers, it makes sense that a tiered system would begin to emerge. On one hand, you’ve got the “OGs” of the craft beer world, who have played their part in supporting small, local breweries and turning them into today’s regional players. And on the other hand, you’ve got brand new converts to the fold. There’s going to be some separation–what’s important is how that separation is achieved, particularly from a monetary standpoint.
As such, my beef is not with beer festivals having a separate and more expensive “VIP” ticket that attendees can buy. That’s not it at all. My concern is the question of what kind of content differentiates the VIP tickets from general admission. And my argument is this: None of the beers at a festival should be off-limits to buyers of the basic tickets. It is entirely possible to build a “VIP experience” into your festival that doesn’t involve access to brews that no one else will get a chance to sample. Read the rest of this entry »
9 Comments | Beer Festivals | Tagged: beer festivals | Permalink
Posted by Kid Carboy Jr.
April 10, 2013
“We’re doing this the right way.”
Hart Johnson, official Piper’s Pub bartender, Piper’s unofficial beer coordinator, and Secretary for Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week 2013, lays out his plans for the city’s first Real Ale Festival: “We’re not rolling the firkins down the hill that day and hoping for the best. Everything will be properly vented and served the way it’s supposed to be.”
The American craft beer scene often resembles The Blob- enveloping and co-opting brewing ingredients, styles, and techniques from all over the world. If it works and tastes good, someone will use it, from New Zealand hops to yeast gathered from a bottle of Rochefort 10. But cask ale served in the British tradition has been relatively slow to catch on at festivals and beer bars in the states. Why? To paraphrase Johnson, it’s a pain in the ass.
Compared to kegs, serving cask ales is a messy and time-consuming proposition. During conditioning, they must be kept be kept at 50-60 degrees and ideally served below 55. They must be handled with care and allowed to sit undisturbed for at least a day to allow the yeast to drop and form a layer of sediment. As any homebrewer knows, carbonating and conditioning in the bottle is an inexact science, and it is the same with cask ales. The level of carbonation in each firkin will vary, and brewers opt to add sufficient amounts of priming sugar to make sure the cask is carbonated enough- after all, over carbonation can be fixed by slowly venting the gas, but there is no cure for a firkin without enough fizz.
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6 Comments | Beer Culture, Beer Festivals | Tagged: Beer, Cask ale, Highmark Stadium, Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week, Real Ale | Permalink
Posted by Slouch Sixpack
July 23, 2012
Wheaton Ale Fest logo
Yes, you read that right. Well-known for its conservative, Christian population, the Chicago suburb boasts the title of having the most churches per capita in the nation and is home to a top Christian Liberal Arts College. Quaint little Wheaton, Illinois, will host its second annual Ale Fest, August 4.
Now you’re thinking, “What’s the big deal? I know a ton of Christians who like beer.” But the most interesting part of this story is the fact that (mainly because of its religious history) only 27 years ago the town was dry. That means a significant portion of the population has known Wheaton as a dry town longer than they are used to alcohol being sold and served there.
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5 Comments | Beer Festivals, Beer Industry | Tagged: Ale Fest, Brewfest, Chicago, Illinois, WAF2012, Wheaton, Wheaton Ale Fest, Wheaton Ale Fest 2012 | Permalink
Posted by mothergueuze
June 4, 2012
The Birmingham craft beer scene has come a long way since I first moved to the Magic City in 2007. When I settled into town, the only Alabama-based craft brewery was Olde Towne, a Huntsville-based outfit which fizzled out last year. Beer over 6% ABV was illegal, breweries couldn’t have taprooms, and beer couldn’t be sold in bottles over 16 ounces.
Fast-forward to 2012 and the local craft culture has changed dramatically. Most of the backwards legislation has been eliminated or vastly improved. Birmingham now has four local breweries: Good People, Avondale, Cahaba, and the new kid on the block, Beer Engineers (plus a fifth brewery, Back Forty, in nearby Gadsden). And then there’s Huntsville. Located about 100 miles north of Birmingham, the Rocket City will soon be host to five breweries: Yellowhammer, Blue Pants, Straight to Ale, and the soon-to-open Salty Nut and Below the Radar (the latter will be the first brewpub in Alabama in many a year). Read the rest of this entry »
11 Comments | Beer Culture, Beer Festivals | Tagged: Avondale, Back Forty, Beer Engineers, Birmingham, Blue Pants, Cahaba, Free the Hops, Good People, Magic City Brewfest, Sloss Furnaces, Straight to Ale, Yellowhammer | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
May 25, 2012
Chicago is my ancestral home (or close to it), and as such I pay quite a bit of attention to the Chicago craft beer scene. It helps that said scene is absolutely exploding right now, as home to dozens of breweries that are in the planning or licensing stages. Chicago Craft Beer Week has been one of the great developments that came along with this rapid expansion. Currently wrapping up its third year, the 11-day “week” is a fantastic way to celebrate all of these new breweries as well as the other midwestern ale factories whose beers are found in the city.
Unfortunately, I only had one weekend (one day, really) to spend in the city for CCBW this year, so I picked the event that seemed best to me on the day I was there–the first-ever Mash Tun Festival in Bridgeport, organized by one of my favorite Chicago beer bars, Maria’s Package Goods & Community Bar.* The organization appealed to me: a single $40 ticket bought unlimited sampling of most beers, a set of four tickets for special pours (more tickets available), a commemorative glass, snacks and a copy of Mash Tun, the new craft beer journal for Chicago and namesake of the festival. I like that. Getting lots of stuff for my money = good.
*An aside: Maria’s really is an awesome bar. Not only do they not even try to cater to non-craft drinkers (they offer “$2 random shitty beer” on the menu), their beer-to-go store in the front of the venue often has hard-to-get local stuff that has long sold out of bigger package stores like Binny’s. If you’re looking for something that nobody else has, check Maria’s. Unless, of course, I’m also looking for the same beer as you, in which case, go to hell. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Beer Festivals | Tagged: Chicago, chicago beer, chicago breweries, Chicago craft beer week, new chicago breweries, pipeworks brewing, pipeworks brewing company | Permalink
Posted by Kid Carboy Jr.
May 21, 2012
… in a non-threatening way.
What I’ve noticed in the last year and a half (at least) is that Chicago breweries cannot seemingly create enough beer in their current facilities to meet demand. So they’re buying up property all over the city’s industrial areas. I predict the “Brewing District” becoming a reality in the future.
Revolution Brewing, as Kid Carboy Jr. pointed out, is opening a brand new location on Chicago’s northwest-ish side at 3340 N. Kedzie Avenue. Tickets to the grand opening event, May 25, are sold out. If you were lucky enough to snag one, you only paid $15 for admission, but you will also need cash for beer tickets ($4 each). Basically, you’ll spend a lot, but you’ll have a good time.
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6 Comments | Beer Festivals, Beer Industry, Brews in the News | Tagged: CCBW, Chicago, Grand Opening, Revolution, revolution brewing, Revolution Brewing Chicago | Permalink
Posted by mothergueuze
May 7, 2012
I love Chicago Craft Beer Week. The fact that we all get to revel in American Craft Beer Week each year is already cool enough, but when you throw in all the incredible beer events of Chicago Craft Beer Week at the same time, it’s a true embarrassment of riches. In the last two years, I’ve made it to at least one awesome CCBW event during each celebration, like last year’s closing party at Revolution Brewing (it’s at the end of that post, scroll down), and as more and more breweries get on board and the event organization gets better, each year has more and more reasons to get excited.
Reason the first for this year’s third rendition of CCBW: It’s a “week” lasting 11 days. Now that’s my kind of week! You know that when they’ve got so many cool events to cram into a beer festival that 7 days isn’t enough, you’re probably looking at a surplus of opportunities to drink good beer.
As such, with more events being added to the master list daily, you need someone to wade through the big ‘ole list and cherry-pick the absolute coolest of the cool events. That man-boy is ME. So here we go, the coolest events of Chicago Craft Beer Week 2012, arranged in chronological order. Click on each venue in bold to go straight to the event page. Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | Ale Factories, Beer Festivals | Tagged: Chicago, chicago beer, chicago breweries, Chicago craft beer week, new chicago breweries | Permalink
Posted by Kid Carboy Jr.
September 1, 2011
And bad organization kills good beer fests.
Most serious aleheads and beer geeks who have been to a large beer fest will tell you two things about the experience:
1. Getting to sample a bunch of new beers is a lot of fun, and
2. There are typically a lot of annoyances to balance out all the goodness of a beer fest.
It’s just the nature of the beast. Ultimately, the positives almost always outweight the negatives, because hey, at least there’s beer at the fest, and you can drink it (presumably).
However, that doesn’t mean that good intentions are enough to run a good beer fest, and yes, there are vast gulfs between “good” and “bad”. This past weekend, I attended a beer fest that I would put solidly in the “bad” camp—The Bruegala International Beer Tasting Festival in Bloomington, IL, nearby to my own central Illinois home in Decatur. In fact, I wouldn’t hesitate to say it was perhaps the worst fest that I’ve been to, for a variety of reasons that I’ll get to in a moment.* First, however, a note on volunteerism:
*A preview: Maybe you should have the beers at the fest that you’re advertising on the beer list at the door?
I volunteered at Bruegala, and this is basically what I do at any beer fest that I can. I really can’t see why someone wouldn’t volunteer, if they were attending a fest. You get in free, you typically get free beer, you might get a shirt or whatnot out of it, and you get the chance to talk to strangers–interested strangers, a real captive audience–about beer, and suggest tastings that will advance their growing interest in craft beer. Hell, I’d volunteer even if I wasn’t getting in free. So please, consider volunteering at festivals near you. Now, back to the various offenses of Bruegala in 2011.*
First of all, let me say that I am amazed that this festival is currently in its 12th year. Most craft beer fests have not been around nearly that long, so it seems inconceivable that the sort of problems apparent this year would not have been corrected before now. They’re all the sort of things that simply make me ask, “How can I be the first person who’s annoyed by this?” For the ease of reading and digesting these problems, I’m just going to put them into bullets.
*Anybody local, please do not trumpet that because this festival raises money for charity, it somehow means that it’s alright for it to be run badly. We all like charity. Charity is good. Charity being good and the fest organization being bad are mutually exclusive things. Read the rest of this entry »
54 Comments | Beer Festivals | Tagged: bad beer festivals, beer festivals, bloomington bruegala, bruegala, illinois beer festivals, worst beer festival | Permalink
Posted by Kid Carboy Jr.
August 3, 2011
This past weekend (one I’d been anticipating for quite some time), I had the privilege of attending the 24th annual Oregon Brewers Festival. Held in Portland’s beautiful Waterfront Park along the Willamette River on the last full weekend in July (weekend meaning Thurs-Sun), this festival is the crown jewel of the Northwest’s beer festival calendar. This year 84 breweries were present and accounted for from all over the country, though of course Western (and particularly Northwestern) breweries made up the lion’s share of the attendees. Naturally, Portland being the beer culture Mecca that it is, 84 slots wasn’t enough to satisfy everyone. Fortunately Belmont Station, a stellar bottle shop I’ve mentioned before, threw its own Fringe Fest tasting event for some excellent Oregon breweries who weren’t present at OBF. Sadly I didn’t make it to that this year, but here’s hoping I plan better next summer! Regardless, I couldn’t possibly complain that I was in any way deprived considering the incredible roster of beers that were available to sample at the big event.
Read the rest of this entry »
13 Comments | Beer Festivals | Tagged: beer festivals, Belmont Station, Boundary Bay Double Dry Hopped Glacier Pale Ale, Craft Beer, Elysian Idiot Sauvin, Full Sail Jimvar, Great Divide Rumble, Hopworks Evelyn's Imperial Sunshine, Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild, Maui Mana Wheat, Natian CuDA, Ninkasi Helles Belles, Oregon Brewers Festival, Pike Monk's Uncle Tripel, Rock Bottom Zombie Flanders, Surly Hell, Woo Girls | Permalink
Posted by Beerford McBrewin'
July 20, 2011
Some things in life are predictable to the point of inevitability: yesterday the sun rose in the east, Coors tried to sell us a way to keep High Life colder, and Brew Dog was involved in a craft beer controversy. You might remember Brew Dog from such classics as their 41% ABV Sink the Bismark or their 1.1% ABV “Imperial Mild” protest beer Nanny State with “theoretical IBU’s” of 225, or perhaps their End of History beer packaged inside the carcasses of a dead rodents. They also made headlines by offering a Viagra beer to Prince William during the buildup to the Royal Wedding. Brew Dog love to push the boundaries of brewing and engage in activity that enhances their “Punk” reputation and ethos, and are masterful at generating publicity for their company through public controversy. Their latest foil (and not for the first time) is Britain’s largest consumer advocacy group, the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA). Read the rest of this entry »
7 Comments | Beer Festivals, Beer Industry | Tagged: Brew Dog, Campaign for Real Ale, CAMRA, Cask ale, Controversy, GBBF, Great British Beer Festival | Permalink
Posted by Slouch Sixpack
May 21, 2011
Happy Craft Beer Week! Last night, Herr Direktor and I hit up the 2nd Annual Columbus (Ohio) Beer Fest. At 210 beers, it’s a microcosm of its bigger cousins. And there were plenty of breweries notably missing, some because they don’t distribute to Ohio, others for no apparent reason (DFH WTF?).
The atmosphere was… very Ohio. It was in a small ballroom at the convention center. The music was terrible. It was a 4-1/2 hour long beer festival, yet the band took at least an hour long break in the middle–giving way to a crappy radio station. Also, the band sucked. It was like Smashing Pumpkins but with no talent. The food was overpriced and downright bad. And why was the ceiling covered in red and blue neon lights? I don’t know.
I was pumped for the beer list, though. Read the rest of this entry »
8 Comments | Beer Festivals | Tagged: Avery, barley brewing company, beer festivals, Bell's, Boulder, Breckenridge, Brooklyn, columbus brewing, elevator, flying dog, Founders, Goose Island, Gordon Biersch, Great Divide, Harpoon, ithaca, Jolly Pumpkin, Lagunitas, Left Hand, maumee bay brewing, moerlein, mt. carmel, North Coast, north peak, Ohio, Ommegang, rivertown, Rogue, Sierra Nevada, Smuttynose, Southern Star, Southern Tier, steven's point, Stone, tall grass, Thirsty Dog, Troegs, two brothers, Victory, widmer | Permalink
Posted by Commander Pint O. Chug
May 17, 2011
Ho, gentle reader! We hope you’re having a spiffy American Craft Beer Week. Across our great nation, Aleheads gather at favorite breweries and watering holes to celebrate the dysfunctional family that makes up craft beer in the US. But I know what you’re thinking… am I supposed to be doing something special? I mean, besides drinking an Olympic swimming pool’s-worth of awesome beer? We live our lives like every week is Craft Beer Week, so the burden to produce a special effort during ACBW lies heavily upon us all. In that spirit (and due to the fact that we are all too inebriated to produce any original quality content right now), I’ve developed a scavenger hunt game that, if completed, will ensure you are getting the most out of all that this special week has to offer.
Without further ado, here is the list of tasks needed to complete the first annual Aleheads American Craft Beer Week Scavenger Hunt:
- Find the nearest bar that has a special beer on draught or firkin that is described as “Imperial” and has also been aged in some sort of liquor barrel. Order one and drink very, very slowly, regaling the bar-goers of its increasingly wondrous qualities. When the brew finally approaches room temperature, complete (or feign) orgasm.
- Submit a written request to management requesting the rest of the week off on the basis of religious holiday.
- Thursday is “Dress like Your Favorite Beer Personality” Day. Note: he/ she must have a beard. I’m going as Michael Jackson. Read the rest of this entry »
8 Comments | Beer Festivals | Tagged: ACBW, American Craft Beer Week, Scavenger Hunt | Permalink
Posted by Slouch Sixpack
May 4, 2011
The Aleheads usually shy away from plugs of any sort (although some of us could use hair plugs and Beerford has been known to dabble in butt-pluggery from time to time). But when one of our favorite commenters, Triple R (aka Reader Resie Rae), asked us to promote her favorite local brew festival, how could we say no? Besides, this sounds like a pretty sweet event. Colorado has always been my dark horse pick for “Best Beer State in the US”, and spending a summer day swilling brews in the shadow of the Rockies sounds even more heavenly than hanging out with Moonlight Graham in a cornfield in Iowa.
Rather than adulterating Resie’s prose, I’ll simply post her e-mail verbatim. Partly because I’m lazy, and partly because I really can’t improve on what she wrote. So here you go, Resie, consider yourself plugged (and not in the painful, Beerford way). Read the rest of this entry »
9 Comments | Beer Festivals | Tagged: Brewers Rendezvous, Colorado, Salida | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
