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| Firkin Gravity Festival 2008 Click to view gallery |
The Firkin Gravity Festival was held at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley. Featuring 28 participating breweries, this was one of the more unique festivals I’ve ever heard of for a number of reasons.
Firstly, all the beers were served from a firkin (which is approximately 10.8 gallons). You just don’t see too many firkins lying around. Plus, it’s a fun word to say. Second, these beers were allowed to undergo a secondary fermentation in the firkins making them essentially real ales. This is essentially a more historic way of serving beer. Sure the beers are less carbonated than what one would normally be used to at a bar (some beers are even still) but it’s a different experience. Third, unlike other beer festivals, Triple Rock had a doorman monitoring the amount of people in their brewpub. This meant having to wait in line until the doorman felt it was okay to let you in. Sure, this was a pain in the ass at first but once you got in, you appreciated how much room you had to move around.
Of the 28 or so breweries participating, we were able to sample the following:
- Lagunitas Maximus Double IPA
- Lodi Brown Ale (This ended up being my favorite of the day with it’s complex, sweet malt flavors)
- Pizza Port Imperial Red
- Moylans Ryan Sullivan Imperial Stout (Aged for 13 months)
- Bison Barleywine (the hop aroma reminded me of hops’ more infamous THC laiden cousin. Sammy’s favorite of the day)
- Speakeasy Hunters Point Porter (Aged with bourbon oak chips. I remember being able to taste the wood. It had an astringent mouthfeel that left my mouth feeling like I had just sucked on a cotton ball. Very interesting beer.)
- Rubicon Maggie Brown DH
- Linden Street California Common (Though the color of this beer was on the light side of the acceptable spectrum, if not lighter. Much different than an Anchor Steam beer this style was patterned after)
- English Ales Black Prince Porter
- Bear Republic Rebellion Ale (very enjoyable beer, good drinkability for those who like hoppy beers)
- Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA (What I remember most about this beer was how much the aroma reminded me of beers I’ve brewed in the past)
- Thirsty Bear Kosovo Vanilla Stout (They had about 30 vanilla pods in the firkin)
- Drakes Firkinwine (Sammy didn’t like this as much as the Bison and this one is the one that got me drunk)
All in all, I wish we had brought more cash than what we did. The wife and I basically bought one tasting glass (primarily because we didn’t have enough cash). She would sip a sample here and there but the lion’s share of the beer went to me. This was a shame as between the two of us, we could’ve covered most of the beers there. Also, their garlic fries smelled really appetizing.
Not even having been to Triple Rock, I soaked in the atmosphere of the place. It’s relatively small (when compared to Gordon Biersch–San Jose) but bigger than Toronado. Also, Triple Rock has a roof top deck that many people were able to take advantage of, including us. Alex (from my BJCP class) was there as were the Beer by Bart people (also from my class).
The one person I was expecting to see but didn’t was Brandon (who we met at the Double IPA festival). This festival was in his neck of the woods and I remember him saying that we’d see him and his father at Firkin. It wasn’t until we were leaving that we ran into Brandon. Turns out he was just being let into the festival as we were being let out. We chatted very briefly. In hindsight, I wish I had emailed him what time we were going to be there. We’ll just catch up with him next time.
All in all, a very good festival with a lot of interesting beers. I’m glad we made the trek up and good times were had by all. We would’ve taken more pictures but Sammy left the bigger memory card at home. There’ll always be next year.
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