Brrrfest 2013

Last Saturday, a few friends and I went to Brrrfest 2013.  Once again, like many of the recent beer events, this one featured a “Brewmaster” session, with advanced entry.  If you read my post about what to look for at beer events, here’s what I saw at Brrrfest:

It was a very fast entry to the event.  As soon as we walked into the building, ID’s were checked, then we dropped off our tickets and picked up the event tasting glass and program, then went to stand in line.  As soon as the doors opened, all 400 Brewmasters got into the event within 5 minutes, which was great.  There was a ton of room for the first hour, and my friends and I could go explore the different brewers and reconvene to discuss the highlights.  The glass was a commemorative one, but I do wish it was a globe or tulip style, instead of the kolsch-style glass.

The Sparely Populated Brewmaster Session

Although the written program didn’t highlight any special beers, the vendors at the event had a large selection of beers.  I was a bit disappointed several of the bigger names in brewing weren’t at the event (Samuel Adams, Founder’s, and Stone Brewing to name a few), but the Iowa breweries, including several new breweries, represented very well.  In my opinion, two of the best breweries at the event were Peace Tree (in Knoxville, Iowa) and Van Houzen, a new brewery in Newton, Iowa.  Peace Tree had three different ice beers, made from three different flagship beers (Rye Porter, Belgian Blonde, and Hop Wrangler).  They were very good, and unique to the event.  Van Houzen had several of their beers on tap, and when I went to try the one in the program, Symphony Imperial Double Chocolate Stout, I noticed the rest of the lineup: a Double IPA, Belgian Tripel, and Robust Belgian White Beer, all 8% ABV and higher.  Talk about some heavyweights!  I had a chance to try them all, and they were great.

The Crowd at Brrfest

After the event, I asked my friend Macy her thoughts.  She said, “The greatest benefit of attending an event like Brrrfest is that you have the opportunity to meet new breweries that you weren’t aware of before the event, yet still get to rub elbows with the brewers from some of your favorite breweries. The mix of exploration and celebration of expertly brewed beer makes for an event that is too good to miss! I’ll definitely be attending again next year.”

Based on this year, I will too, Macy!  Did you attend Brrrfest?  What was your favorite beer?

Brrrfest 2013

If you haven’t heard yet, Coralville’s Brrrfest 2013 happens tomorrow. I’ll be there at noon for the Brewmaster session, so I hope the planners took my suggestions into consideration. Hope to see you there!

Two Rivers Brewing

Over the holidays, I was excited to go East to visit the family.  Even more so, after pledging on Kickstarter, I was anxious to visit the new brewery in Easton, Pennsylvania: Two Rivers Brewing.

The brewpub serves a New Orleans-inspired menu, with staples like Gumbo and Poutine.  At the time of our visit, they hadn’t started brewing beer yet due to a re-planning of the brewery floor (full tanks are heavy!).  They were, however, serving a lot of very local beers (within 30 miles), including a few from Weyerbacher, the other Easton brewery.

Our party tried the gumbo (great!) and duck fat fries (better than great!) as appetizers.  The ladies each ordered a seafood dish, while the guys ordered different sandwiches on the menu.  All of the food was outstanding, and the brewery quickly became a favorite with our group.

After our meal, I spoke with Troy Reynard, one of the owners, and told him how excited I was for them.  I mentioned that all I wanted for Christmas from my entire family was the $500-level Kickstarter experience, which included a brew day with the head brewer.  The head brewer is Wayne Milford, whose last job was a brewer at Dogfish Head Brewing.  The brew day experience is a bit different because it includes a bit of creative freedom from yours truly, and I am excited for them to begin brewing and have the opportunity to take part.  We finished off the evening with Troy giving me the additional Kickstarter rewards, which included a growler (which I lent to my brother-in-law), a pint glass, a nice t-shirt, and other assorted swag.

We had a great time in the historic building-turned-brewery, and I look forward to visiting them every time I make it out to the East Coast.  Have you had a chance to check out Two Rivers Brewing?  What did you think?

At a Recent Beer Event

I have a few suggestions to beer event coordinators.  Just note that I’ve never been on the planning side, so all of my ideas are from the point of view of the patron.

I’m a beer lover.  I try all sorts of beer, and spend quite a bit of time and money finding great beers.  I brew my own beer, try exotic beers, and have a general appreciation for all things beer.

This brings me to the beer event.  In most cases, the main beer tasting event can last 3-6 hours, and has beer vendors who distribute locally where the event is hosted.  This part of the event, the main event, is great for folks who are new to beer or haven’t tried a lot of different styles or breweries.

In many cases, in addition to the main event, there is also an earlier experience (1-2 hours earlier) with fewer, limited tickets, sometimes labeled a “Brewmaster” ticket.  It is usually almost twice the price of the general admission ticket.  The crowd of people who attend this earlier event are folks just like me.  A lot of event coordinators advertise the “Brewmaster session” by stating things like “an extra hour (or two) of tasting” and “a better tasting glass”.  Unfortunately, to beer lovers like myself, this usually doesn’t justify the expense.  The reason for this is because we are looking for an experience.  Let me break down several ideas that could help turn this “Brewmaster session” into a true experience for beer lovers like myself.

First, the glass is much better than the standard tasting glass (which also needs to change to a mini-goblet or mini-tulip, instead of the mini-pilsner), but it needs to be a goblet-style or tulip-style glass.  Some of the events I’ve recently attended were handing out kolsch-style glasses, which are long and slender.  Most beer lovers prefer rounder glasses (globes or goblets), or tulip-shaped glasses because the beers we want to taste have better flavor and aroma and tend to taste better in these glasses.  Tactually, these glasses feel great in the hand and help us form a bond with the beer in the glass.  Or, if possible, allow us to bring our own glass, as long as it fits certain guidelines.

Beyond that, the extra hour isn’t as important, especially if we wait a long time in line to enter.  At a few of the recent events, by the time the last few “Brewmaster” patrons had entered, 20 minutes later the general admission began.  As a suggestion, try to speed up admission by checking ID’s and giving wristbands while people are waiting in line.  Also, if there are other items we could do ahead of time while waiting (filling out raffles, etc.), let us know so we can take care of these tasks before getting to the front of the line.  This way, a crowd of 500 can easily be in the event within minutes, allowing everyone to go try any special beers the vendors have.

Once inside, we would like not only a map of the vendors, but highlight those who are bringing special brews to the event.  As a matter of fact, many of the beer vendors can put away their flagship beers, and save them for the main tasting event.  Unless the beer is new to the area, almost everyone at the “Brewmaster” tasting session has more than likely tasted your regular lineup.  We want an experience, and new or interesting beers are exactly what we are looking for.  And why wait to serve special beers until later in the day?  The people who love your beer and will more than likely go out and buy it are here now, during the “Brewmaster” session.

Now, the point I want to make, if I haven’t made it clear, is that at beer events, we are looking for an experience.  We want to make sure we remember this event for a long time.  The way this happens is not through a magic glass or more time to get drunk, but by enjoying great beer with other beer lovers, and as a patron, we want to make sure you focus on that when planning your next beer event.

Got any other ideas?  Think I’m full of it?  Tell me what you think!

Utopias 10th Anniversary

This past weekend, I had a unique opportunity.  A friend of mine had the chance to buy a bottle of the 10th Anniversary Samuel Adams Utopias.  Before the beer is complete, it undergoes quite a bit of a process; in addition to the standard beer ingredients there are also several sugars added (i.e. maple syrup).  There is then a long fermentation time, utilizing several yeast strains, finishing with champagne yeast since it can handle the higher alcohol content.  After it is done fermenting, it clocks in at a whopping 29% ABV.  It is then aged in casks that previously held bourbon, rum, tawny port and ruby port.

All of this equals a very complex beer.  There were three of us who tried it, and each of us has different experiences.  One tasted a smoky maple flavor, another tasted a sweet vanilla and maple flavor.  For some reason, I tasted a bit of banana flavor, with a lot of strong vanilla hints.  It was very alcoholic, reminded me of a whiskey, and burned all the way into the stomach.  It was definitely not for the faint of heart, but for a beer lover like myself, it was great.

Have you tried Utopias?  What did you think?

Brewfest 2012!

It’s been a couple of weeks since Iowa City Brewfest, 2012, and I’ve had some time to reflect on the event.

With the “Brewmaster” ticket, we were able to enter an hour early, and many brewers had special or limited release beers.  Some of the more memorable ones included:

Bell‘s batch 10,000

Peace Tree‘s Rum Barrel-Aged Rye Porter

An Imperial Stout from Millstream‘s Extreme Series

Great Divide‘s Yeti Stout

Overall, I was impressed with the high quality of the unique beers, but a bit disappointed by the low number of special beers.  For example, in the past, New Belgium and Boulevard brought beers either not yet available or a special barrel-aged beer, but this year both brought their widely available beers, from their Lips of Faith (New Belgium) and Smokestack Series (Boulevard).

Overall, it was a very good experience, but with the “Brewmaster” ticket, which has been very valuable in years past, it wasn’t quite as memorable.  My only hope is that the larger breweries recognize what a great beer hotspot Iowa City is, and start saving some of those memorable beers for us!

Did you go to the Iowa City Brewfest 2012?  What was your take?

Welcome to Brewfest!

Just a reminder that the 2012 Iowa City Northside Octoberfest / Brewfest is this weekend, with the Brewfest on Saturday.

It looks to be an exciting year, since the number of Iowa breweries has grown in the last year, as well as a few new out-of-state breweries (Schlafly, Founders, Tallgrass Brewing, and Green Flash to name a few), not to mention the new Backpocket Brewery in Coralville.

The most recent addition to Iowa’s shelves is Stone Brewing out of Escondido, California.

Hope to see you there!

Hanging with the Basic Brewing Guys - (from left to right) Steve, me, Andy, James

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to visit Northwest Arkansas.  While there, I had the privilege to meet up and hang out with the guys from Basic Brewing, my favorite brewing podcast and video podcast.  You may remember last year I had a chance to chat with the guys about the spontaneous homebrew I had made.

To begin the evening, we met up at Tanglewood Branch, where I had a chance to finally meet James, Steve, and Andy in-person.  While at the pub, I had a chance to try the porter made by the owner/brewmaster, J.T. Wampler.  After we finished our beers, we decided to head over to the Fayetteville square and enjoy some pizza from Tiny Tim’s Pizza and West Mountain Brewing Company.

West Mountain was a quaint restaurant that had been a pizza place for some time, but just began brewing at the end of 2011.  While there, as we were enjoying the pizza, I tried the Rye Pale Ale and the West Mountain Saison, with the saison being my favorite of the two.

After we had finished our meal, Steve decided to call it an evening, but James, Andy, and I went back to Andy’s home.  James had brought a few of the beers he had purchased while at the Great Taste of the Midwest the previous weekend in Wisconsin.  Additionally, I also wanted to see Andy’s automated brewing setup he had (along with the barrel he had just purchased; see the Basic Brewing Radio archives for more info).  While checking out the brewing setup, we split the Berliner Weiss James had just made (7/26/2012 episode of Basic Brewing Radio), along with a couple of New Glarus beers – the Thumbprint Saison and the R & D Sour Ale.  After a while, we realized it had gotten late, and we decided to call it a night.

Over the course of the evening, I had a chance to sample some great beers and enjoy great company.  I hope the next time I get a chance to visit Fayetteville the guys are available again, so we can have another great time.

Blue Tarp Brewing Co.

A week or so ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Stahl, co-owner and head brewer of the soon-to-be brand-new Blue Tarp Brewing, located in Decatur, Georgia.

Over the course of about 90 minutes, Tom took me around the warehouse space that will be one of Decatur’s first production breweries.  In fact, Tom mentioned they helped change the law in Decatur to allow breweries.  At the time I took the tour, most of the equipment had been purchased or built, and construction was almost complete.

Tom mentioned the brewery plans on releasing two beers at launch, an IPA and a red, but I believe the names were still not finalized.  At launch, the beers will be on draft locally, with the plan to expand to a canning line in the near future.

When asked about the name of the brewery, “Blue Tarp”, Tom reminisced about when he and his good friend, also named Tom, first homebrewed, it was a rainy day.  Since they were using a propane burner outside, to protect the new brew from the elements, they decided to put up a blue tarp.  About halfway into the brew session, one of the brewers noticed a warning tag on the tarp that said “EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE, Do Not Place Near Open Flame”.  By that time, it was too late to take it down, and, luckily, the brew day ended without incident.  As an homage to that first day, Blue Tarp Brewing was born.

During the tour, Tom’s passion for great beer shined through, and I wish him a lot of luck with the new brewery.

Let us know if you get a chance to try some of Blue Tarp’s offerings when the y become available!

Backpocket Brewery Tour

The time has finally arrived!  The new Coralville Backpocket Brewery will be opening this week.  There are pre-registered soft openings Tuesday through Thursday, leading up to the public opening this Friday, June 8.

We plan on making it sometime this weekend, so hope to see you then!