2008 IPA Festival Recap
Every good beer bar usually specialized in one thing, that’s what makes them good. The Trappist in Oakland specializes in Belgian beers while San Francisco’s Toronado has more of a craft beer flavor. The Bistro located in Hayward is another great beer bar that specializes in hoppy beers. This is never more evident in the beer festivals they hold, like last Saturday’s IPA Festival.
Having judged the San Mateo County Fair Homebrew Competition earlier in the day, we didn’t arrive at the Bistro until mid-afternoon. There was a good buzz of people in the outside, front patio and when I entered to pick up my tickets, I found it wasn’t all that crowded inside. The Bistro isn’t that big of a place and it didn’t take long for me to figure out that everyone was outside in the tented area.
For $25 you got a souvenir tasting glass, a list of participating breweries and 6 drink tickets. With over 50 participating breweries, 6 tickets doesn’t nearly seem like enough love but after judging a flight of IPAs that morning, I felt okay about that. IPAs are aggressively hopped beers to begin with but when you start talking about American IPAs, then it’s almost an entirely different beast. Americans love everything bigger, better, faster and more and it’s no surprise to see many American IPAs have an International Bittering Unit (IBU) rating above 100. For comparison’s sake, the human tongue can detect only so much bitterness, usually topping off at the 100 IBU mark. You can imagine then, a whole festival, where a good number of the beers being served are more bitter than humanly possible to taste.
Here is a quick rundown of the beers I tried with what little notes I took (I will update this post with IBU numbers when I get home and if I can find the list of brewers and beers):
- Moonlight Brewing Company “Bombay by Boat” - I was expecting a lot from the beer. I enjoy many of the beers this company makes but I was disappointed by Bombay by Boat. I didn’t pick up much piney, citrusy, floral hop characteristics the IPA style is well known for. Instead, I picked what I felt was a “cheesey” aroma. Not sure what to make of it, really.
- Santa Cruz Ale Works IPA - I’ve seen their beers at the local BevMo’s but I havent’ bought any yet. I decided to sample their IPA and… wow… aggressively hopped! Compared to Bombay by Boat, this just smacked me right in the face. I felt like the dude wearing the furry green jacket in the Foo Fighters Everlong video who got smacked down by Dave Grohl’s ginormous right hand of pimp-slapping justice. Strangely, I did not find the Foo Fighter’s drummer dressed in drag unattractive. Now let us never speak of this again.
- Mt. St. Helena IPA - This was an oak-aged IPA and the most mellow of the bunch. I found this beer to be fairly well balanced between the malt and the hops. While I have no direct evidence to support this claim, I believe the oak aging process mellowed out the hop bitterness of this beer. Compared to the beat down I had previously, this was a nice change of pace.
- Eel River IPA - This is an organic IPA. Thought this was just “ok”. Nothing really memorable with regards to flavor or aromas. From some of the folks I spoke with at the festival, this beer tastes much better at the brewery.
- Auburn Alehouse - First time participant in the IPA festival, everyone I spoke to rated this beer highly. It was strongly hopped, had a nice hop aroma and was well balanced. I could actually taste malt flavors to support the high hop bitterness.
- Butte Creek - Another organic IPA. Balanced per the style, good hop flavor, bitterness and aroma while not loosing any malt characteristics. More memorable than the Eel River.
Here is the list of the People’s Choice award winners:
- Pizza Port Solana Beach (gold)
- 21st Amendment (silver)
- Auburn Alehouse (bronze)
When I went last year, I didn’t really see too many people I knew. In fact, I basically went by myself. My best friend got sick (flu-sick, not drunk sick) and took a nap in his car. His lady kept him company which left me to my own devices. That meant I got drunk.
This year, I only drank my 6 tickets worth. I ran into Steve Donahue from Firehouse Grill and Brewery in Sunnyvale, Brian from Beer and Winemakers of America homebrew shop, and BetterBeerBlog buddy Brandon. There were a few other beer writers in attendance as well.
Overall, it was a good event. The Jimi Hendrix cover band rocked hard and there were plenty of good beer still left to try by the time we left. Hopefully when I return next year, I can bring a small contingent of folks so we can sample more beers.