Beer Luvvas,
It's now Sunday after the close of the 2009 North American Organic Brewer's Festival, and I'm finally sitting down to look at my notes from yesterday afternoon.
I need new technology for live posting once my friends arrive at these beer festivals because no matter how much I want to share my experiences with the blog reading public, beer drinking remains a social event to be shared real-time, with real-people. Click on a few thousand more ads, and my priorities may change....
I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Stouts and Porters that were available for tasting.
Bison Chocolate Stout: A part of me wants to not capitalize the chocolate in this stout because the chocolate notes were that faint. Otherwise, it was a very nice, dry stout.
Elliot Bay Organic Coffee Stout: This coffee/oatmeal stout was also very lightly flavored, but with a crisp, dry stout finish. At this point in the afternoon, I was beginning to wonder if the flavors of these beers were muted due to the extra expense of certified organic ingredients. Thoughts?
Lakefront Fuel Cafe: Lakefront's coffee stout was one of the few served from the bottle, but also had the strongest coffee flavor of all that I tasted. It makes me wonder if the flavor of the organic ingredients are somehow more prevalent in the smaller containers?
Oakshire Overcast Espresso Stout: This coffee oatmeal stout (wow - I can't remember the last beer festival where there were more than 2 stouts!), was my favorite of the festival. It's coffee notes were by far the strongest of all that were present.
Unfortunately, Standing Stone Brewing's Oatmeal Stout on Nitro was out by the time I got to the front of the line, and I was unable to give it a go...
Near the end of the day (5pm for me), I found an IPA that became my favorite (and many of my quaffing partners') of the day: Oakshire Watershed IPA. Oakshire's IPA had the strongest citrus notes of all the IPAs I tasted. It's golden color was the deepest, and it's floral aroma was the most distinctive. It was so good compared to the others that I might doubt it's organic authenticity.
I didn't try any of the Organic Sam Smith offerings. Two token tasters for fruit beers was just too much to ask.
One final note for next year, many of the beers were running out before 5pm on Saturday. So come early, drink often and enjoy the MAX ride home!
Prost to the Organic Brewer's Festival! Demonstrating that organic beer can be quite tasty!
2 comments:
I was also hitting the stouts (and I agree--very cool that there were so many!). My fave of the coffees was Oakshire--and it was one of the best I've ever had. Wonderful marriage of malt and bean. I also loved the Back Hand of God stout from Crannog.
I wonder if the Oakshire IPA will win the people's choice--it was definitely the buzz beer among those I spoke to/followed on Twitter.
I gave the Oakshire IPA my vote for best beer of the festival... I also enjoyed the Covered by Porches IPA but Oakshire had more flavor in my opinion... This was my first Organic Fest but not the last!
Post a Comment