Archive for June 12th, 2009

• Drinking @foamybeer 3 Hour Tour, Boulder Hazed & Infused and Otter Creek Pale Ale over the course of the night. #
• Dinner tonite: @chachahut slaw dogs. German hot dogs on the Weber w/mustard slaw on top. #

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May 30th, 2009 was a beautiful blue sky day in the Catskill Mountains. A perfect day for outdoor craft beer drinking. Thankfully, the folks over at The Andes Hotel in Andes, NY chose to team up with Gasko & Meyer Distributors to present the 1st Andes Hotel American Craft Beer Festival. $20 admission got you a sampling mug and all you could sample from over 20 craft breweries. In addition, the Andes Hotel had a variety of beer friendly foods you could purchase to fortify you for the day.

Arriving at the fest, I found Ed O’Neill (the Andes Hotel owner) and got the hook-up for my sampling wrist band and mug plus a nice list/menu of the beers offered that day. Ed mentioned the Otter Creek offering – a Russian Imperial Stout on cask – had just been opened. Without hesitation, I decided to start the day with something VERY big. (Possibly not the wisest move…)

The Otter Creek Russian Imperial is a lovely creamy stout. Deep black color with a dark brown creamy head. Excellent coffee chocolate aroma that carries over into the tasting. Big body with a massive creaminess – not to mention a nice alcohol kick. A perfect start to the day – but I should have probably had food first…

I decided to head over to the Butternuts table next. I first ran into Butternuts Brewery with their Porkslap Pale Ale (with one of the best logo designs EVER and in cans!). Their “Nice Cans” tank top was quite the hit with the ladies (though a few of the male attendees might have qualified as well…) Keeping with kicking the day off with stouts – “It’s not just for breakfast anymore!” – I sampled the Butternuts Moo Thunder Stout. A nice milk stout somewhat sweet with a light body and very clean finish. Not a lot of creaminess, but definitely a fine American stout.

At this point, I decided it might be best to switch off the stouts for a bit and tried some of the Heineweisse – Butternuts’ Hefe. An excellent slightly spicy beer with a great color and a crisp body and yeasty aroma. Mrs. Ohabeer had already had the Heineweisse and had moved on to one of the unreleased brews Butternuts had brought: Harvest Ale. She told me I had to make this my next beer!

Good god! The Butternuts Harvest Ale is AMAZING! This is a big farmhouse ale made with pumpkin, squash, sweet potato, ginger, cinnamon, clove and allspice. It’s got a nice balance of sweet to sour (most farmhouse ales are a bit too sour for me) and a beautiful gold/amber color. Big frothy white head and a spicy aroma. The brewer (I forget his name) said he left this in open fermenters for a period to pick up wild yeasts from the Butternuts farm. The result is a medium body ale with a very complex flavor. The sweetness of the pumpkin and sweet potato open followed by the spices. Then it all closes out with a perfect amount of sourness. Add to this the fact it has quite a little kick and you’ve got the winner ale for the day.

Good news is Butternuts is considering bottling the Harvest Ale in 750ml with champagne corks. It would be the first bottles Butternuts has done. I certainly hope it happens as I want a few of these for the cellar.

After the kick of the Butternuts Harvest Ale, it seemed like a good idea to perhaps get some food. Over the course of the day, Mrs. Ohabeer and I ended up having two meals – such is the case with much free beer sampling. I started with the Wild Boar Chili. I mean – really – if you see Wild Boar Chili on a menu you simply MUST order WIld Boar Chili. The boar was nice and tender, but sadly a bit bland. I prefer a much spicer (and thicker) chili. This was a bit more like a Wild Boar Soup, but it went down well with a Geary’s Hampshire Special Ale. The Geary’s is a medium bodied malty ale with a nice sweetness and a touch of hops.

Later in the day – as shown on the right above – when the sampling had gotten WAY out of control – we went back in for a Bratwurst as we were looking for some starch to soak up the alcohol. Good snappiness to the brat – though again a bit bland for my taste. Nice tasty brat bun and great kraut. The potato salad also helped in the alcohol soaking. I had the Butternut Outrage with the brat. A medium bodied IPA with a big cascade taste. Worked nicely with the sausage.

With a bit of food consumed, it was back to the sampling. We had noticed Ommegang was in the Summer Shack by the bar and wondered if perhaps they had brought any off menu beers. In particular, we were looking to sample Biere de Mars. The OAB HQ are big fans of Ommegang (it is actually required by law if living in the Catskills) but the $16 for a bottle of Biere de Mars kept us from picking it up without a tasting. Thankfully, Ommegang came with several bottles for tasting. For those who are also wondering if it is worth it, the answer is definitely yes. This is a lovely deep brown Belgain ale. Tons of sweet malty goodness with a massive backend kick. It’s a big beer and one well worth the price of admission.

While all the beers were great, there was one other major standout for the day: Southern Tier Iniquity Black IPA. It’s sort of the bastard offspring of a medium stout/dark ale crossed with a hop bomb. Jet black color with a solid malty front than ends with a massive hop punch. Such a great beer and an excellent twist on the usual hop bomb. A perfect summer drink when you want both a stoutish ale and a ton of citrusy hops.

Mrs. Ohabeer had two fascinating bathroom experiences during the fest. First, she had to endure complaints about the lack of Bud Lite at a craft beer fest. That almost caused her to storm the men’s room and use it instead. Her second encounter featured the group discussing what a great place a beer fest is to meet guys. “It’s like 5 to 1 here!” “Ummm, yes,” thought Mrs. Ohabeer ” there are a lot of guys here. though perhaps not many who realize if you’re going to drink big craft beers – you have to exercise…” By the way – who the hell wears shoes like this to an outdoor beer fest in the Catskills when you’re drinking and walking in a field?

All in all an absolutely remarkable day. Perfect weather, a great band (The Roundhouse Rockers), nice crowd, good food and excellent beer. I ended up skipping any beer I was familiar with in order to give myself the ability to drink a bit more of the unfamiliar and not end up comatose.

Here are quick takes on the rest of my samplings:

Rogue American Ale: a malty caramel amber. Deep amber color with big body and heavy caramel sugar taste.

Allagash White Ale: citrusy spicy nice cloudy wit with a solid yeasty edge.

Captain Lawrence Frescheater Pale Ale: Fresh hopped pale. Nice gold color. Great citrusy hops flavor. Excellent flowery aroma.

Anchor Liberty Ale: Clear medium body pale ale. Nice hoppiness very mellow flavor. Crisp and clean.

Victory Prima Pils: Not bad on the hoppiness but really not a pilsner fan. A bit too light for me. Especially this late in the fest given I had been drinking big bold beers for about two hours.

Stoudts Scarlet lady. Hmmm not sure. English bitter with a malt nose. Again, might have been more impressive earlier in the day.

Otter Creek Oktoberfest: Not bad but again a bit too late in the day. A little sweet with a decent malt to hop balance.

Complete list of beers at the 2009 fest:

Anchor Brewing (San Francisco, CA)
- Steam
- Porter
- Liberty Ale

Allagash Brewing (Portland, ME)
- White Ale

Abita Brewing Co. (Abita Springs, LA)
- Turbo Dog
- Purple Haze

Butternuts Brewing (Garrattsville, NY)
- Snapperhead IPA
- Moo Thunder Stout
- Heinnieweisse
- Porkslap Pale Ale
- Harvest Ale
- Outrage

Captain Lawrence Brewing (Pleasantville, NY)
- Freschester Pale Ale

Flying Dog Brewing (Frederick, MD)
- Doggie Style Ale

Geary’s Brewing (Portland, ME)
- Hampshire Ale

Ommegang Brewing (Cooperstown, NY)
- Hennipin
- Rare Vos
- Witte
- Biere de Mars

Otter Creek Brewing (Middlebury, VT)
- Oktoberfest
= Russian Imperial Stout (cask)

Rogue Brewing (Newport, OR)
- American Ale

Southern Tier Brewing (Lakewood, NY)
- Iniquity Black IPA

Stoudts Brewing (Adamstown, PA)
- Scarlet Lady

Victory Brewing (Downington, PA)
- Prima Pils