American Craft Beer Fest 2008

So last Saturday, I went to the American Craft Beer Fest with my friends Jon, Sally, Ben and Nick.

It was put on my BeerAdvocate, which was held down in the south boston convention center, on the waterfront. I had been to a couple previous beer fest's each of which was in the Cyclorama, and they were all fairly crowded. This year however, They moved it to a larger location... and well all I can say is, it wasn't large enough.The room may have been twice as large as the previous location, but it seemed even more crowded, and many of the more popular breweries had lines, which I didn't remember from past events.

Regardless, it was a blast. We tried many different beers, and I diligently took notes of what beers I liked and disliked. Let me tell you its not the simplest fast holding a pen with one hand, to make note on the program which you are holding along with your 2 oz beer glass. After 3 hours of diligent note taking, I managed to drop said program on the way back. I borrowed a program from my friend Ben though and jotted down what I remembered

ohh yeah and on the way in there was a promotion for the new Futurama movie, where they where they were handing out fake tattoos. I got one on my arm, while my friend ben took their offer of taking the tattoo on his forehead in exchange for a t-shirt... The next morning after showering I noticed the tattoo wasnt going anywhere, so I wondered what happened to Ben... as it turns out he managed to scrub it off his forehead

Beers: graded on the scale of

+ like
= ok
- dislike


Allagash
+ Allagash Black(belgian stout)
- Allagash Tripel
+ Allagash White

Sam Adams
- Sam Adams Barley wine
+ Sam Adams Sahti(with Juniper)

Ommegang
- Ommegang Ommegeddon(funkhouse saison)
= Ommegang Witte
+ Rare Vos Amber(Belgian Amger)

Cape Ann Brewing
+ Fishermans's Ale (Kolsch)
- Double IPA

Dogfish Head
+ 90 minute IPA
- Festina Peche(neo-berliner weisse w/ peaches)

Flying Dog Brewery
= Woody Creek White

Harpoon Brewery
+ Old Rusty's Red Rye Ale 100 barrle series
-Levaithan Triticus(wheat wine)

Left Hand Brewring
+ Sawtooth (American ESB)

LongTrail
+ Belgian White

Rock Art Brewery
+ Cinco deMayo Lager(Jalapeno)
+ Munich Gold


Stone Brewing
+Stone Chipotle


Terrapin Beer
+ RoggenRauchBier(smoked rye beer)

Victory
= Sunrise Weissebier


Weyerbacher Brewing
+ Slam Dunkel(double dunkenveizen)

Franziskaner Hefe-weisse

I first had this beer over a year ago in germany, and loved it from my first sip. In germany however this is just called Weisse. Thankfully what you get here in the US tastes just as great as in germany, which you cant say for all beer. I am slightly saddened to learn that this Bavarian exemplar of Hefe-Weisse which I love is in fact owned by the largest Beer company in the world InBev. ohh well, I guess thats just my love of microbrews speaking



smell hints of banana

taste: great slight initial bite followed by delicious malty wheat flavor, no discernible aftertaste. When swirling around the beer in your mouth it gets even maltier(is that even a word) and delicious

final thoughts: This is a great beer. I probably didn't need to get another one to blog
about it, since I have had this plenty of times already, but it didn't hurt :) Its also one of the cheaper .5l bavarian hefeweissens you can get from the store near me

Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest

Hacker-Pshorr is one of the big breweries in Munich, and one of the last still owned by germans. I wanted to try this beer back in 2007 at the beer advocate German Beer Fest, but it was all out by the time I got to their booth. So I decided to get a 6 pack for my father for fathers day(as well as a Flying Dog mix and Anchor Steam Summer)

first impressions: nice dark amber color. Smells dark and somewhat smokey

taste: dark and smokey, this beer tastes great, and goes down well, no aftertaste

overall: great. This is a great oktoberfest. I can just imagine drinking this from a liter glass under a big tent in Munich. As it was I shared this beer with my dad with some pretzils mustard and Bratwurst which is about as close to oktoberfesty as you can get in NJ. I like Sam Adams Oktoberfest, but this is way better.

Anchor Summer Beer

This is a beer I first had last summer out at Tanglewood in the Berkshires. I remember it as being an amazing summer beer, and it didn't disappoint. Reading the label on the bottle, it says this is the first American wheat beer in modern times. It was first brewed in 1984. which to me sounds quite recent, as a lot of the beer I like from Belgium and Germany has been made from the same recipe for the hundreds of years

Another note about this beer. After having it last summer, I tried to get Molly Anchor Summer pint glasses for her birthday last year, but instead they sent her Anchor Steam(their flagship beer) glasses. Oh well!

first impressions: nice large white head, smells malty

taste: There is a slight bite in the beginning, but after that its all smooth and malty. There is some wheat, but its definitely different then a weisse. No aftertaste at all

overall: great This is a delicious beer, tastes good and goes down easy. It is perfect for hot summer days... like today


other beer had recently:

Yesterday was my friend Sally's last day of work at ITA(which is near where I work) so a bunch of us who work in the area went out to the CBC after work for drinks. I had their Hefeweisen and Tall Tale Pale Ale. I remember having the weisse last year and being disappointed, but this time it was quite good, not quite as good as a German import, but pretty good none the less. The Pale Ale seemed like a standard American Pale Ale, I don't remember anything standing out about it.

Long Trail IPA

Long Trail is one of my favorite Breweries, and their new IPA doesn't disappoint. It is also the first non-wheat unfiltered beer Ive seen.

looks: opaque orange, like a hefeweisen

smell: hoppy, bitter and slightly sweet

taste: a nice crisp blast of hops hits you at first. Its not as biting and overpowering as some IPAs Ive had. You can taste a number of different flavors there. It mellows out nicely through the middle and after taste.

overall: excellent! This is definitely one my favorite beers, and it might be my favorite IPA(I look forward to doing a taste-off with stone IPA) It has a unique flavor, which I find quite good, and its unfiltered which as a weisse lover, is definitely a plus in my book. Overall a great beer

Pilsner Urquell

PilsnerUrquell is(according to the bottle) the Original Pilsner, and its brewed in Plzen, Czech Republic.

I had this beer at a friends Memorial day BBQ last weekend(along with some victory hop devil) and to my suprise I greatly enjoyed it, so I decided I had to give it a full post.


first impressions, looks a little darker then most pilsners

taste: slight hoppy bite at first, followed by a nice malty flavor, with no noticeable aftertaste.

overall: Excellent! I am pleasantly surprised by this Czech beer. I admit I considered them inferior to Bavarian-brewed German beers, however I guess I just hadn't had the real thing yet. I used to think pilsners were all bland and boring. This, the original however. The balance of hops to malt and how they work together is excellent