Day 396: January 31, 2016

Diary entry:

If yesterday was one of my favorite beer drinking days ever, then today was approaching Nirvana!

I was rather surprised, and quite pleased with how well I felt this morning. After all of the tastes from yesterday at the Ratebeer Best Awards and Encomium, I was expecting to wake up with a bit of  hangover, but not at all! It helped that the tastes were all quite small.

Today was the pièce de résistance of the weekend, however. The event that was bring in people from all over the region, even all over the country. The Ratebeer Best Festival. This was the first time the festival was being held in conjunction with the awards, and I have a feeling it won’t be the last. This is not your regular local beer festival with a collection of breweries from around the city. This was the Ratebeer Best Awards festival, and the breweries on hand were the same breweries who won awards the night before. Around forty breweries from around the country, and around the world, bringing some of their most famous beers for attendees to sample.

This is not a festival for beer drinkers. This is a festival for Beer Geeks!

But first, some breakfast. Our research for breakfast eats in Santa Rosa turned up a couple of must-try places, including Dierk’s Parkside. We got an early start and headed over to Dierk’s before the Sunday brunch crowd arrived in force, and still had a 15-minute wait for a table, but it was worth it! And provided a much-needed base for the day to come.

Ok, now back to the beer.

Since we finished breakfast early, we had some time to rest up before heading to the Santa Rosa airport where the festival was being held in a hanger. Shuttles were being provided from the Hyatt starting at 11AM, with the festival opening at 1PM, so I grabbed an early shuttle up to see the location. And I wasn’t the first! Even two hours before the VIP tasting start, there was already a growing line of attendees waiting to get in. I stood in the line for around an hour, listening to the chatter of those around me, dropping the names of the beers they were most interested in trying.

And with the line right next to the gate into the hanger area, as brewers were arriving, they’d pass past the line, making it a bit of a celebrity red-carpet feel as the more renowned brewers arrived. But with a little less glamour. Such as the arrival of the crew from Hill Farmstead, winners of the Best Brewery in the World award the night before, seemingly in a clown car, as six brewing icons plied themselves out of a compact car, to the applause (and laughs) of the crowd.

I’ll have more on the festival in another post, and will focus on the beers I drank today. Which I must say, was way too many. This was a festival where you paid an admission fee to get in, and you could have as many samples (and glasses) as you wanted. Very few people had only a single glass, as with the lines getting longer as the day wore on, most people wound up with one full glass they were sipping in line while they had an empty in hand for the next brewery. Or sometimes they were both full with the intent of finishing one before getting to the front of the line.

But with a line-up of beers such as was present today, it’s hard to blame anyone!

Ratebeer Best Festival beers sampled:

Double Cherry Red Poppy by The Lost Abbey – 6.2% Flanders Red Ale – Not quite as tart as normal Red Poppy, with more fruit flavor.

Westly (2015) by Sante Adairius Rustic Ales – 8.5% Saison – This was one I heard a number of people mentioning in line, so I made sure I grabbed one to see what it was about. Wow! Awesome funky sour. Delicious!

Derivation (Blend #3) by Side Project Brewing – 15% Imperial Stout – Brewed with a touch of rye, aged for a year in 2 year Willett barrels. Dark and a little sweet. Tasty. Very tasty.

Zombie Dust by 3 Floyds Brewing Company – 6.2% Pale Ale – One of those beers I’ve heard about for years but never had an opportunity to try. This is a truly excellent hoppy pale ale. Some citrus bitter. Awesome balance.

Apricot Stonington by Trillium Brewing Company – 7.5% Wild Ale – New England Wild Saison aged in oak barrels. Beautiful sour. Nice fruit

Duck Duck Gooze by The Lost Abbey – 7% Gueuze – A beautiful sour! I have a bottle of this sitting at home to share, and am looking forward to it more and more now.

Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout (2015) by Cigar City Brewing – 12.7% Imperial Stout – Lovely dark flavors. I can see why people clambor for Hunahpu Day at the brewery.

Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout (Sherry Barrel Aged) by Cigar City Brewing – 11% Imperial Stout – Nice. Slightly sweet Sherry notes.

Persica (Blend #2) by Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project – 7.5% Wild Ale – Nice peach flavors. Fruity and sour. Aged in oak with peaches.

Apropos of Nothing by The Rare Barrel – 5.6% Wild Ale – Golden sour beer aged in oak barrels with elderberries and lavender. Very nice sour. Good fruit flavors.

Spontantripleblueberry by Mikkeller – 10% Lambic – Didn’t quite mesh as well as the other sours here. Plus the higher alcohol.

Sugar Daddy (Cognac Barrel Aged) by Boxing Cat Brewery – 14.5% Imperial Porter – Imperial Porter modeled after a Creme Brûlée dessert and aged in French Cognac Barrels for 4 months. It was Ok. Not great. A little unusual. But gotta give it props coming from Shanghai.

Ronan The Strawbarian by J. Wakefield Brewing – 4.5% Berliner Weisse – Nice strawberry and rhubarb fruit flavor. And a decent sour.

Bourbon Barrel Black Maple by Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery – 11% Imperial Porter – An excellent porter, with nutty, maple notes to bring some balance to the bitter.

Blot Out The Sun (Barrel Aged) by 3 Floyds Brewing Company – 12% Imperial Stout – Poor Blot Out the Sun. An excellent beer, but got no respect at the festival, as the Dark Lord Vanilla was going on tap after this keg kicked. I literally saw people pouring this out just so they could get to the Dark Lord. Excellent dark roast and Sauternes barrel flavors. A little minty.

The Purple by de Garde Brewing – 7% Sour Ale – Beautiful fruit flavors. Aged in wine barrels with both red and black raspberries.

Lee Kriek (Batch 2) by de Garde Brewing – 7.2% Sour Ale – Aged in oak barrels with cherries. Very nice Kriek flavor.

Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Lord with Vanilla Beans by 3 Floyds Brewing Company – 15% Russian Imperial Stout – The one everyone was waiting for. Marshmallow / Tootsie Roll. Heavenly delicious.

Mama Bear’s Sour Cherry Pie by Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project – 7% Sour Ale – Awesome cherry flavors. So well balanced. Colorado montmorency cherries.

Aria – Cabaletta (White Wine) by Stillwater Artisanal Ales – 7.5% Saison – Chardonnay gose with apricots. Delicious.

Standard by Prairie Artisan Ales – 5.6% Saison – Delicious funky sourness. A light, crisp saison with a hoppy finish. Dry hopped with Motueka hops from New Zealand, providing a spicy, lime-like flavor and aroma.

Uncle Zester by Siren Craft Brew – 8.5% Braggot – Fruity sour. Quite delicious.

Orfeu Negro by Cervejaria Dogma – 12% Russian Imperial Stout – An excellent stout from arguably the best craft brewery in Brazil.

Quite a selection, and I barely scratched the surface of what was available!

And as amazing as the above list sounds, that still doesn’t include the beer of the day…

The Beer:

Name: Mornin’ Delight

Style: Imperial Stout

Producer: Toppling Goliath Brewing

Alcohol content: 12%

Bottle size: 2 oz. per taste

Purchased from: Ratebeer Best Festival

Mornin’ Delight by Toppling Goliath Brewing of Decorah, IA. Pitch black color with a slight dark brown ring of head. Coffee aroma. Coffee and chocolate abound on the flavors. Slight anise notes. Wonderful! After trying a sip of SR-71 the previous night, and then starting off with this at the festival, it’s very apparent why Toppling Goliath is named as one of the best breweries in the world. And why Mornin’ Delight was named the Best Beer in America in 2015!

While we received free media passes to the Ratebeer Best Awards ceremony and beer festival, all travel, the Cooperage beer tasting, and hangovers were at our own expense. All opinions are always our own.

Day 395: January 30, 2016

Diary entry:

Today was one of my favorite beer drinking days ever!

Back in September, I was invited to apply for press credentials for the Ratebeer Best Awards ceremony and beer festival. I honestly thought there was no way I would be selected, so I decided to just apply for the heck of it. To my surprise, they wrote back to tell me that both Erin and I selected and granted press credentials. So now I had to scramble to put together a trip to combine my home leave with the awards, since the awards are in Santa Rosa, quite a distance from the Netherlands.

Today is the day of the awards ceremony, so we had to start things off right with a nice breakfast, which we took at Willie Bird’s in Santa Rosa, where we gorged on turkey, with all the stuffings…or was it more stuffed ourselves on turkey schnitzel and turkey sausage and turkey gravy and, well, you get the picture. The Bloody Mary’s were pretty great, too 🙂

Next we had a visit to Cooperage Brewing on the agenda, where Ratebeer was providing lunch. They had a nice mix of beers on draft, so we made the decision to just jump in head first, and take a full sample board.

A bit of a surprise, however, to see the size of these sample glasses. Something tells me this is going to be a long day!

Cooperage Brewing Company Beers:

A Fish Called Blonda – 5.1% Belgian Blonde – Bitter and Fruity.

Three Amigos – 8.2% Belgian Tripel – Hoppy and fruity nose. Major bubble gum flavor.

Quad Di Da Di – 9.3% Belgian Quad – More like a Barleywine almost. Malty.

Absence of Color – 6.6% Porter – Coffee and cocoa bitter.

Thriller – 7.8% American Stout – A nice normal stout. Dark malty bitter.

Cooper Duper – 4.5% Session Pale Ale – Fruity citrus bitterness.

Blanc To The Future – 7.2% IPA – Ipa with Nelson hops fermented in Sauvignon Blanc barrels.

Bowie Is A God – 7.7% English IPA – Malty Hoppiness.

Juicy Coop – 9.3% Double IPA – A very fine, hoppy DIPA.

After this tasting, we prepared for the main event, the Rate Beer Best awards ceremony itself.

The awards ceremony was held at at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel and Spa in Santa Rosa, so we booked our room next door at the Courtyard by Marriott where I could use some expiring Marriott Rewards points for the stay. Which was very helpful for bringing bottles of beer to the ceremony for the second part of the evening, the Encomium, a bottle share of epic proportions.

The event started with a reception of excellent food and some beers from regional breweries. Many of the breweries I was familiar with, so I stuck to a couple of beers from a local brewery I had not tried before, 101 North Brewing Company:

101North/Homebrew Winners Collaboration Mojo Chocolate Milk Stout – 7.4% Milk Stout – Awesome stout! Dark chocolate and cocoa. Nice Bitter.

Heroine IPA – 7.2% American IPA – Beautiful bitterness. 64 IBUs. Excellent IPA.

The awards ceremony was hosted by Jay Brooks of Brookston Beer Bulletin and a number of other venues, who I had the pleasure of hanging out with in Belgium back in August at the European Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference. I have to give him a lot of credit; he had a lot of awards to read through, and some of those in attendance started the Encomium a little early and tended to drown him out as he was reading through the winners.

But the Encomium.

Oh the Encomium.

One room with many of the best brewers in the world, and some of the biggest beer geeks in the world. All of them invited to bring bottles to share with everyone else. How could this possibly be any better?

I have to say, we would up with a great table, with a couple of beer lovers from Northern California who became good friends over the weekend, as well as a representative from one of the award winning breweries, Fair State Brewing Cooperative of Minnesota, who brought a nice sampling of their award winning sours. And once the bottles were opened, the sharing began, and some truly amazing beers were shared up for anyone who was interested in trying.

Ratebeer Best Awards Encomium Samples

By no means did I come even close to sampling every beer that was present at the Encomium, but I must say I made a decent dent:

Barrel 5 by Fair State Brewing Cooperative – 7.2% Sour Ale – An awesome sour! Rye saison 10 months in French oak. Dry and tart. Funk delight.

Mamouche (2013) by Brasserie Cantillon – 5% Lambic – Awesome sour!

Gooseberry Colorambic by AC Golden Brewing Co. – 6% American Wild Ale – Sour. Tart. Decent fruit flavor. Tasty!

Bricoleur Batch 01 by Fair State Brewing Cooperative – 5.3% Sour Ale – Fruity and tart. Pineapple

Oude Geuze Vintage (2005) by Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen – 6.0% Gueuze – So smooth. So good.

Miami Madness by J. Wakefield Brewing – 3.6% Berliner Weisse – Great passion fruit flavor and aroma. Tart. Delicious.

Griffith J. Griffith by Highland Park Brewery – 10.5% Imperial Stout – Awesome stout. Dark, cocoa. Made with Trytero Coffee.

Bombay Rouge India Red Ale by Third Street Aleworks (California) – 7.6% Imperial Red Ale – Quite tasty. a “Red IPA”.

Tropical Apricot by Gravity Brewlab – American Wild Ale – Incredibly delicious. Sour, with fruit tones. Delicious.

Barrel 10 by Fair State Brewing Cooperative – 6.9% Sour Ale – Sour stout aged in French oak. Nice dark flavors mixed with sour.

Pushin’ Carts by Highland Park Brewery – 5.7% Saison – A very nice saison. Nice funk. Quite flavorful. Collaboration with Monkish Brewing Co.

Twilight of The Idols (2015) by Hill Farmstead Brewery – 7.2% Winter Porter – Awesome porter. Great flavors. From the brewery that had just been named the best in the world! Locally roasted coffee, cinnamon, and vanilla beans.

SR-71 (Barrel Aged) by Toppling Goliath Brewing – 14% Imperial Stout – Tiny sip. But made me cry. So awesome! Maple syrup. Chocolate. So thick. Delicious.

Laird’s Apple Brandy Big Black Voodoo Daddy by Voodoo Brewing Company – 12% Imperial Stout – Great dark chocolate flavors.

Lou Pepe Gueuze (2008) by Brasserie Cantillon – 5% Gueuze

Grand Cru Bruocsella Lambic Bio (2013) by Brasserie Cantillon – 5% Lambic

Blood Lust (Aged In Bourbon Barrels w/ Cacao Nibs, Habaneros, Cinnamon Sticks & Vanilla Beans) by Spring House Brewing Company – 16.5% Russian Imperial Stout – Quite nice. Not too hot.

Casey Family Preserves – Montmorency Cherry by Casey Brewing & Blending – 6% Saison – Excellent cherry flavor.

Guava Fresca by Casa Agria Specialty Ales – 5.7% Saison – Excellent fruit flavors!

Agamemnon by Omnipollo – 12.5% Imperial Stout – Not quite the BA, but still delicious.

Wisconsin Belgian Red by New Glarus Brewing Company – 4% Fruit Beer – Excellent. But a little bit too cough syrup sweet.

The Abyss (2010) by Deschutes Brewery – 11% Imperial Stout – Dark cocoa flavors

Manaphin by Green Bench Brewing Co – 11% Imperial Stout – Chocolate stout aged in bourbon barrels

Framboos (2014) by Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen – 6% Lambic – A little flat, but so flavorful. Great lambic base and wonderful fruit.

Mosaic Saison by Anchorage Brewing Company – 6.5% Saison – Hoppy. Tasty.

DBR by Cycle Brewing Company – 15% Imperial Stout – Nice flavors. But not great.

Smoked Marzen by 49th State Brewing Company – 7.5% Smoked Beer – Very smokey.

Bourgogne Blanc by Bruery Terreux® – 11.1% Sour Ale – Beautiful sour with toasty oak, buttery Chardonnay.

Big Bad Funky Wolf by Barbarian Brewing – 9.4% Imperial IPA – 100% Brett Imperial IPA. Great flavor! A fine way to end the evening.

Well..almost end the evening. This was followed up by a run for the border. Taco Bell, here we come!

The Beer:

Name: Black Gold

Style: Imperial Stout

Producer: Central Waters Brewing Company

Alcohol content: 11%

Bottle size: 2 oz. per taste

Purchased from: Encomium Bottle Share at Ratebeer Best Awards

Black Gold by Central Waters Brewing Company of Amherst, WI. 11% ABV Imperial Stout. I had so many different beers at the share, but this one was at the top of the pack (after the Toppling Goliath SR-71, but I only had a tiny sip of that one. Black Gold was impressive. Oh my lord. Great aroma. Oak and vanilla. Dark dark flavors. Some dark black cherry noted. Hints of anise. If this wasn’t a bottle share, I’d have gone for a second pour!

Black Gold is released every October at the Brewery, with a different recipe every year.

While we received free media passes to the Ratebeer Best Awards ceremony and beer festival, all travel, the Cooperage beer tasting, and hangovers were at our own expense. All opinions are always our own.