YearlyLesson.com » Beer Festivals

Stoudts Brewery Microfest

Brian — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:29:05 +0000

On Friday, a group of us went to the Stoudts Microfest which is held at Stoudts Brewery. It was the first beer festival I had ever gone to and it was a blast. You had to buy tickets in advance, they were $30 a piece but for that you got a tasting glass, a great food buffet, live music and of course, all you could drink for the 4 hours you were there. The festival had 3 different sessions, one on Friday night, one on Saturday afternoon and one on Saturday night. We went to the Friday night session and from what we have been told, it was the least crowded which was great for us, there was no waiting in line for more beer!

The list of breweries was pretty impressive, at the Friday session, there was:

Union Barrel Works
Stewarts Brewing
Allagash Brewing
Unita Brewing
Old Forge Brewing
Troegs
Boston Beer/Sam Adams
Riverhorse Brewing
Smuttynose Brewing
Climax Brewing
McGillins
Lagunitas Brewing
Great Divide Brewing
Clipper City Brewing
21st Ammendment
and of course Stoudts Brewing

There were a few other breweries that were supposed to be there, like Flying Dog Brewery but there table was empty on Friday, I don’t know if they were there on Saturday. I had great intentions of interviewing breweries and writing up intelligent reviews on the beers I tried. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out like I had planned, the music was loud so interviews were out and after trying so many different beers it was really tough to come away with a lot of clear thoughts on individual beers. Not that it really matters, in the end, I had more fun not having to worry about getting all the details down.

Fortunately, I did manage to at least keep a record of what I tried.

Lagunitas Little Something Extra
Stewarts Highlander Stout
Stewarts Octoberfest
Stoudts Brewery Reserve Bock
Climax ESB
Old Forge Pale Ale
Old Forge Ludwigs Anniversary Lager
Troegs Dead Reckoning Porter
Allagash White
Allagash Abbey Ale
River Horse Double Wit
River Horse Unfiltered Lager
21st Ammendment Hell or Highwater Watermelon Wheat Beer
Great Divide Samurai
Smuttynose Old Brown Dog
Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hop Ale
Great Divide Hibernation Ale

As you can see, it was a pretty impressive selection of beer and I had quite a bit of fun. Keep in mind the sample glasses were only 6 ounces so we were only drinking 3 to 5 ounces at a time so I am not as much of a drunk as it may seem. There were a few beers that really stood out that I went back for seconds and thirds but I can’t say they were my definitive favorite as there were others I would have liked to gone back and gotten more of.

I had never heard of Stewarts before but their Highlander Stout was really good, as was their Octoberfest. They are pretty close to me, they are in Bear, DE which is only an hour and half or so from where I live. Definitely a place I am going to have to check out. I also couldn’t get enough of the Allagash Abbey Ale and the River Horse Double Wit. The great news is, I didn’t drink a single beer that I didn’t enjoy. It was a really fun night and I can’t wait for the next one.

2009 Longshot Contest Winners

Brian — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:03:11 +0000

Jim Koch, the founder and brewer of Samuel Adams, started out as a home brewer himself. He has always been a vocal supporter and great champion of the home brew hobby. Samuel Adams holds a contest every year called Longshot, where they allow home brewers all over the country to submit their beer and have it judged by a panel of experts. The winners of the contest get to have their beer nationally distributed by Sam Adams!

They pick three winners and announce them at the Great American Beer Fest. Two of the winners are selected from the general home brew community while one is chosen from among the Sam Adams employees. They highly encourage their employees to brew beer and over 90% of them do, that’s pretty impressive.

The husband and wife duo from HereForTheBeer.com (they have an excellent site and do some really fun videos) were at the GABF and recorded the winners being announced by Jim Koch. You can check out the video below:

Winners of the 2009 Great American Beer Festival

Brian — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:25:04 +0000

The judging has concluded and the winners of the 2009 Great American Beer Festival have been chosen and posted online. There were 495 breweries entered into this years competition and they entered an impressive 3308 beers. With 132 judges, that’s an average of 25 beers per judge. Not a bad gig!

There were 78 different categories so the list of winners is pretty long. You can check out all of the results at GABF 2009 Winners

Great American Beer Festival = Supreme Beer Envy!

Brian — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:12:05 +0000

I am sitting here, reading blog posts, watching videos and following tweets from the Great American Beer Festival and have nothing but envy that I couldn’t make it this year. It looks like so much fun, I am adding a new goal to my list this year. I am going to the Great American Beer Festival next year! At least, I really hope to go to the festival next year. It’s going to be after my Year of Beer is over but that’s not going to stop me from making it one of my goals. It will be a great way of ending my first Year of Beer and starting my second.