Breweries

What: Andes Hotel First Annual Oktoberfest
Where: Andes Hotel Summer Shack, Andes NY
When: October 3, 2009
Time: 2 – 6pm
How Much: $20

Ed and Sally over at the Andes Hotel dropped me a line to annouce their first ever Oktoberfest. As the American Craft Beer Fest earlier in the summer was amazing, I’m expecting great things from this fest as well. This is the Andes Hotel last outdoor event of the season in the Summer Shack. They will be highlighting American craft brewed Octoberfest styles from all over. Butternuts will be bringing their amazing Harvest ale, and probably selling 750’s of said flavor. There will also be live music by George Kilby jr. & the Road Dogs (great Blues) and some very tasty german fare (ie. bratwurst, weisswurst, roasted pork & cabbage). $20 gets you a glass to taste all the beers available. Expect myself and Mrs. Ohabeer to be there early and pretty much spending the day eating and drinking in the fine Fall upstate NY weather.

What: FREAKTOBERFEST Boutique Beer & Music Festival
Where: Public Assembly (70 N 6th Street, Williamsburg, NY)
When: October 3, 2009
When: 2 pm – 9 pm
How much: General admission $20 / VIP tickets $75

Shmaltz Brewing Company, Bierkraft, Southpaw, Piquena, and BeertenderBrooklyn present the 2nd Annual FREAKTOBERFEST Boutique Beer & Music Festival happening on Saturday, October 3, 2009 at Public Assembly (70 N 6th Street, Williamsburg, NY). The event will take place from 2 pm – 9 pm. General admission is $20 (5 tasting tickets, access to live performances), and VIP tickets are $75 (unlimited tastings + access to VIP loft featuring rare and vintage beers).

A special session dubbed Geektoberfest will be held from 2 pm – 4 pm, which will include brewery owners pouring specialty beers and conducting educational tastings. Shmaltz Brewing will release a one of a kind beer called Geektoberfest exclusively at this event. Additional tasting tickets can be purchased onsite. For more detailed information and to purchase event tickets, please visit: www.freaktoberfest.com.

The 2nd Annual FREAKTOBERFEST will be MC’d by Donny Vomit, the Human Blockhead and current MC of the Coney Island Sideshow. Featured live performances by Stumblebum Brass Band, Sex Slaves, Workout and others TBA. Participating breweries include Shmaltz Brewing (HE’BREW Beer and Coney Island Craft Lagers(TM)), Lagunitas, Stone, Sixpoint, Bear Republic, Dogfish Head, Flying Dog, Speakeasy, Captain Lawrence, River Horse, Victory, Ithaca, Arcadia, Sly Fox, Harpoon, Smuttynose and many others soon to be announced. Burlesque and Go Go by Legs Malone, Bloody Belle, Lil Miss Lixx, and Rosie 151…

The upcoming 2nd Annual FREAKTOBERFEST marks the national launch of Coney Island Freaktoberfest(TM). Boiled and toiled in our stainless cauldrons with 6 malts, 6 hops, and 6.66% alc, Shmaltz’s bewitching Fall attraction serves up a tasty treat for Octoberfest through Halloween. 22 oz. bottles and a very limited supply of kegs will appear at specialty shops and select bars throughout NYC and nationwide starting now.

To view a list of all Freaktoberfest events happening across the country, please visit shmaltzbrewing.com.

In our haste to escape Holyoke, we apparently headed east when we wanted to go west. Worse still – we were perhaps a half hour from Northampton via expressway, but we wanted to “experience” of traveling the country roads. Wrong direction and – admittedly beautiful – winding country roads added up to about three hours of wasted time. Time that should’ve been spent drinking and eating in Northampton.

Ah well…such are the pitfalls of spontaneous road tripping. (Of course, once we found a gas station with a map we sorted things out quickly. Yes – we should have gotten the map earlier…)

ANYWAY…finally pulled into Northampton, MA around 5pm. Found ourselves a Comfort Inn down the road in Hadley, cleaned up a bit and struck out for an evening on the town. First stop: Northampton Brewery. I am a fan of brewpubs. Always love the vibe and the crowd generally tends to be friendly. we always find ourselves striking up conversations with complete strangers. Thankfully – after the way our trip had started and getting lost – Northampton Brewery continued the tradition of friendly brewpubs.

While on the scenic route to Northampton from Holyoke via Ware (yes – those of you familiar will see our error), we had read about a burger place called Local Burger that did all local beef. So, we decided not to eat at Northampton Brewery and instead just go for a few beer flights. As luck would have it, there are exactly enough beers on the menu for two flights without duplication.

That’s my flight on the left; Mrs. Ohabeer’s on the right. I really hate taking photos in bars and restaurants – seriously don;t know how food bloggas do it – so these would bascially be the only flights we photographed all weekend. Turns out, I’d rather be drinking the beer than photographing it.

I also do not take massively detailed review notes. I’m there to be social, experience the pub and have (hopefully) some great craft beer. Hence the infrequent feature on OAB: Random Beers In Various Bars. I pretty much decided early on to use the Random Beers method for reviewing the many many road trip samplers.

NORTHAMPTON BREWERY FLIGHT
Four 6oz. glasses – personally that’s more than needed for a flight, but good when sharing.
Uncommon Ale
Northampton Pale Ale
Sand Shovel ESB
Imperial Stout
Nonotuck IPA
Weizenheimer
Weizen Berry
Wild Blue Funk

Uncommon Ale: Nice gold ale. Some what sweet. Wantsto be a honey amber but really does not make it. Doesn’t go big enough.

Northampton Pale Ale: Dark gold. Nice hop to malt balance. Solid bite on the back of the tongue. A crisp pale ale.

Sand Shovel ESB: It’s a nice reddish brown color with a malty hoppy scent. Not as bitter as I would like it to be. Just sort of there…until it warms a bit. Then it opens up nicely. Still not that bitter but gets a bit more caramely.

Imperial Stout: Mmmmm – big coffee raisin roasted malt goodness. Not incredibly thick but very delicious. This was the evening’s winner.

Nonotuck IPA: Definitely better than the Northampton Pale Ale. A bit of spiciness and a solid hop flavor. To this IPA’s credit, even hop-hating Mrs. Ohabeer was digging it.

Weizenheimer: This is an ok wheat. Fairly light with a bit of citrus in the aroma. Clearer than most wheats I like. Definitely an American wheat. Nice and clean.

Weizen Berry: The bartender confirms our suspicions: the berry here is extract. That makes this much like drinking a craft wheat downwind from an artificial flavor factory (to paraphrase Stephen Colbert). Not pleasant at all…

Wild Blue Funk: We got the final glass out of the keg and it showed. This had turned and turned badly. We ended up swapping it out for an Allagash (one of the guest beers not brewed in-house).

Allagash White: this is an OAB fave. A great yeasty wheaty white with a subtle spice.

After finishing the flights, we discovered they replaced the spent Wild Blue Funk with Maggie’s Wee Heavy Scottish Ale. As I usually cannot avoid a Scottish Ale, I decided to get a 12oz. glass to finish the night at Northamptom before heading to dinner.

Maggie’s Wee Heavy Scottish Ale: Beautiful dark brown ale. Big big malt with a ton of caramel. The big malt gets balanced with a slight hops edge in the after taste. This one made me quite buzzy, and yet I still had to sample one more thing…

Berkshire Mountain Distillers Ragged Mountain Rum:While aving the Wee Heavy, we asked the bartender if they carried any local spirits. She showed us a bottle of Berkshire Mountain Distillers Rum and we asked of a side neat. This is a beautiful rum. Light brown with a slightly oak scent. No alcohol harshness at all. Just a nice warm sweetness. We ended up bringing a botle back with us.

ROAD TRIP TOTALS
Beers Sampled: 13
Rum drank: 1
Towns visited: 3
Breweries visited: 2
Breweries open: 1

Next up: We slight sway out of the brewery and head out for local beer, a bar in a tunnel and the best.ice cream.evah.

Brennan’s Pub
173 High St
Holyoke, MA 01040

We decided to essentially start at the bottom of I-91 on the Yankee Brew News beer map. That meant Holyoke, MA. Specifically, we were headed for Paper City Brewing. Unfortunately – due to the spontaneous nature of this road trip – we did not do proper research into when the brewery would be open or even really where it was in town. (Well – we did have a street address.) Our journey took us into the High Street area of Holyoke. My mother always said if you do not have something nice to say – say nothing at all.

“Ahem…Nothing at all.”

Look – I know many urban breweries are pioneers. They spring up in industrial areas and often lead to a renaissance. I pray Paper City does this for Holyoke because there are some serious dodgy areas in route to the brewery – and I used to live in downtown Detroit. Sadly, we could not determine if the brewery was actually open – we arrived around noon – so we decided to bail and try to find a bit of food and drink.

Once again…“Nothing at all.” I mean REALLY?!?! Aren’t there a couple of colleges around this town? I know the economy has hit everyone hard, but DAMN! This was not a great start to our road trip.

Then – after turning back on to High St. to head for our car and get the hell out of Holyoke – we spotted Brennan’s Pub. While I found the Bud logos next to the clovers on an Irish pub sign a bit off-putting, I was encouraged by the Sierra Nevada and Guinness neon. At this point, we were more than hungry, thirsty and frazzled so we gave it a shot.

We are certainly glad we did. This is one of those great local Irish pubs where the folks are friendly, the pints are proper and the walls are filled with a variety of photos, beer mirrors, neon and ephemera. The menu is of the solid pub grub/sandwiches variety. The televisons were playing an array of sports and CNN coverage. We decided we couldn’t possibly do better from what we had seen of Holyoke.

We settled in and ordered opur first beer of the trip: Berkshire Brewing Steel Rail. It’s a clean crisp extra pale ale with a nice slightly barley malt edge and good hoppiness. Running 5.3% ABV, it’s a great bar session beer and went well with our lunch. Brennan’s served it in 14 oz. pints very cold. We would discover through the course of the road trip almost every bar had Steel Rail on tap. It became the fall back if look for a simple light bodied beer.

As for the food, I had a Mexsteak sandwich. Essentially a kicked up cheesesteak with big fresh jalapenos and a nicely spicy chipotle sauce. Mrs. Ohabeer had some sort of wrap with a ton of sour cream, but I was enjoying the Mexsteak too much to care about her lunch. Oh yes – and the lunch with curly fries only cost $5. Gotta love a good pub grub bargain!

We decided to have a second round after lunch choosing to try the two Wachusett beers they had in bottles. The Wachusett Blueberry Ale was a simple pale ale with a subtle blueberry scent but not much in the way of blueberry flavor. Mrs. Ohabeer thought is was ok, but not really all that impressive. We also got a bottle of the Wachusett Green Monsta Ale. This is a nice big pale ale with a bunch of hops. As is usually the case, Mres. Ohabeer thought it too hoppy. I thought it was quite nice. Not really a hop bomb, but definitely hoppier than your usual pale. A nice flowery scent with a good malt balance. I could easily see this as a favorite session if available anywhere near me.

While at Brennan’s, we discovered Paper City does a Friday evening open house/tasting starting at 6pm. Unfortunately it was only 2pm and really we could not take hanging out in Holyoke for another 4 hours. So with the Wachusetts finished, we paid the bill – thanked the bartender – and headed out for far greener and hopefully more fruitful pastures.

We now know if heading into Holyoke on a Friday, get there around 3pm. Head over to Brennan’s for a bit of afternoon snack and beer. Then drive – do not walk – over to Paper City for their Friday night open house.

Beers Sampled: 3
Towns visited: 1
Breweries visited: 1
Breweries open: 0

Up next: We’re off to Northampton as soon as we point the car in the right direction.

I received this from the fine folks at Buckbean Brewing and I thought I’d pass it along. Sounds like a great event for a great cause. Now if only someone who sponsor a trip for me to attend, I would be a truly happy drinker. Loves me the Vegas – especially in the not so blazingly hot early spring months…

The Village and Buckbean Brewing Company host first-ever
Village Craft Beer Festival Saturday, March 14

Event benefits The Muscular Dystrophy Association of Southern Nevada

HENDERSON, Nev. – January 21, 2009 – The Village (MonteLago Village at Lake Las Vegas) and Buckbean Brewing Company, the largest production microbrewery in Nev., host the first-ever Village Beer Fest on Saturday, March 14, 2009 from 3:00 – 7:00 p.m. Tickets for the festival are available at the event for $20 per person which includes an engraved commemorative glass, with proceeds benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Southern Nevada (MDA).

The Village Craft Festival showcases craft beers from around the U.S. served along The Village’s cobblestone streets with waterfront views. Live music by Las Vegas’ The Wedge Brothers will cap off a great day where guests can enjoy these hand-crafted brews in support of a great cause.

“Buckbean’s excited to partner with The Village on this event and hope it will become an annual event,” said Buckbean Brewing Company Owner Douglas Booth. “The location is perfect for this type of event with restaurants and shops to enhance the experience and a resort in case guests have had too much fun and need a place to sleep.”

Guests wishing to take advantage of MonteLago Village Resort’s luxury lakeside lodging can do so by calling 888-600-2688. Complete with scenic balconies, full kitchens and living areas, lodging at the resort starts at only $99 per night, plus resort fees and taxes. Mention “Beer Fest” when calling to receive the special rate. A special Beer Festival package is also available and includes an overnight stay and two passes to the event for $125, a 35 percent savings (plus resort fees and taxes).

For more information on this event, please visit the MonteLago Village Resort’s website. For sponsorship information during any MonteLago Village event, please call 702-564-4785.