Beer Luvvas,
A great new, hopefully annual, addition to the Holiday Ale Festival was the inclusion of some special tappings: one keg of rare holiday ale, tapped at a specific time, and poured 'til it's gone! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any time off from 'working for the man,' so I missed the noon tappings. In addition, once I got to the fest, there wasn't a specific section for the Special Tappings, so I missed a few of the late tappings as well.
But here are my notes from the beers I was able to sample:
Hair of the Dog JIM 2008: As mentioned in my previous post, I missed 07; but 08 was nice - although not as smooth as this year's blend. I'm not sure how to quantify JIM's flavors for those whom have not had the experience of this blended beer experience. It's sweet like a Belgian, but without the Belgian yeast funk. Best I can do.
Alaskan Brewing Alaskan Smoked Porter '08: Another good, strong, Porter. However, it failed to set itself apart from the other porters at HAF. Also, I believe that Stone's Smoked Porter has a much stronger smoke flavor.
Widmer Babushka's Secret: I was waiting a whole year for another shot at this beer! Unfortunately, my expectations were too high. The black raspberry notes were muted this year, and although the Russian Imperial Stout base is KGB - one of my favs! - it wasn't as good as I had hoped.
Rogue Ales Rogue Imperial Stout '08: This was the steal (IMO) of the special tappings this year. I wonder what those '2 secret ingredients' are, and how they aged so well! Very smooth and dark and chocolate! Yumm!
The ones that got away....I really missed out on these (so I've been told):
BridgePort Brweing Old Knucklehead Batch #11 (2003!)
HotD JIM 2007
Lompoc Brewing Bob Farrell Memorial Braggot - mmmm, mead!
Cascade Brewing Barrel-Select Baltic Porter
Kona Brewing Da Grind Buzz - Kona coffee stout. What a concept from Kona (duh) brewing!
Lompoc Brewing Bourbon Barrel Aged Pagen Porter - kicked while I was in line! Damn!
Needless to say, HAF was another great event this year.
Prost to the Holiday Ale Festival! 350+ days til 2010 HAF!
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