BetterBeerBlog

This year’s Boonville Beerfest can be summed up in one word: wet. It was raining on the drive up. It was raining when we picked up Mario. It continued to rain as we put up our tent. It rained in our tent. It rained throughout the night. It rained at the festival. There was a brief respite but then it rained again. Even when it wasn’t raining, I was wet in one way or another. My shoes were soaked through, socks were like sponges and my feet looked like prunes. My pants soaked up every possible drop of water from the ankle-high grass and even my ass got wet sitting in a wet, cloth, folding chair. I had never been so water-logged in my life.

It was one of the best times of my life.

Despite Mother Nature’s best efforts, nothing was able to put a damper on the Boonville Beerfest. After being stuck in the miserable Santa Rosa traffic, Sammy, Mario and myself arrived at Boonville and were greeted by the good folks at New Belgium Brewing Company. Before I go any further with this recap, I’d like to take the time to thank Jeremy and the rest of the New Belgians (sounds like a band when put that way) for inviting Sammy and I back up to join them in the brewer’s campground. This was our second year there and we have New Belgian to thank.

For those who are just hearing about the Boonville Beerfest, let me give you a little background information. The festival is located in the same town as the festival’s namesake: Boonville. Our host brewery, Anderson Valley Brewing Company, has been putting on this festival for… well, this is the 13th year now. There are a few things that make this beer festival really special. First, at least from my understanding, this in an invitation-only beerfest. Not just any Tom, Dick, or Jane Brewing Company can attend. I’ve overheard in conversation that there is a wait-list to participate. Second, each of the participating breweries brings anywhere between 2-4 taps of beer, with some breweries bringing special limited release or beer debuts, to this festival. While I don’t know the exact number of participating breweries, a “shitload” is probaby the best, and closest, approximation. Needless to say, there is a lot of variety of beer at this festival. You can do the math on your own [Range=(shitload x 2) - (shitload x 4)].

As good as this festival is for attendees, it’s even better for the participating breweries. In reality the Boonville Beerfest is a festival for the brewers. The participating breweries are able to camp out in the disk golf course that makes up the back portion of AVBC. Set-up in multiple-tiers like a stepped, rice paddy. Each tier forms its own neighborhood of brewers and campers with a distinct “personality”. This is where Sammy and I were camped out at; in the brewer’s area. Truth be told, I don’t think I’d go to this festival if I couldn’t camp out with the brewers. Boonville is at least a 3 hour drive for us and if I have to be in a car for a duration longer than my time at the festival, it’s just not worth it for me. Sure I could go camping with the festival goers but once you go brewer…. you never go back? Okay doesn’t make any sense but whatever.

The first night there was a huge party atmosphere. Jay Brooks dubbed the rain-soaked campgrounds as “Boontstock“. Adjacent to the New Belgium Campground was Ninkasi Brewing Company and Seabright Brewing Company. Just to give you some sense of range, Ninkasi Brewing Company is located in Eugene, Oregon. Troy (employee #4 at Ninkasi) and his fiancee Ashley drove 9 hours non-stop to make it to the festival. Troy was super friendly and immediately offered us a glass of the Ninkasi Tricerahops (What a great name, wow), a hop-loaded 9.1% ABV double IPA. Without even really knowing the guy, he gave us an open invitation to crash at his place whenever we would be up in Eugene. Before sending us on our way with another full pour of Tricerahops, some t-shirts and a couple of beers, Troy cut us up with his Christopher Walken impersonation (God. Damn.). Nailed it. I think Sammy and I will be taking him up on his offer to crash in Eugene in the near future.

The rest of the evening was spent wandering from campsite to campsite drinking beer after beer in the pouring rain. Sammy and I spent quite a bit of time hanging out at the Speakeasy campsite where we nearly polished off their supply of Double Daddy Imperial IPA, a hefty 9.5% ABV. While there, I made friends with Doug, President of Buckbean Brewing Company out of Reno, Nevada. Another great guy who promised to send me a care package of a flight of his beers. We even got to talking to our other neighbors at Seabright. Sammy was able to talk to their brewer while I was in an impassioned debate about the validity of beer styles with the brewer from San Francisco Brewing Company. I, unsurprisingly am for beer styles and SF Brewing Company brewmaster with the two first names, Allen Paul, is decidedly against them. Decidedly. I think I might’ve pissed him off as he up and left during the conversation. I don’t blame him, I get “talky” when I’m drunk.

What suprised me this year though was the amount of familiar faces at Boonville. As I wrote earlier Mario from Brewed for Thought, also invited up by the New Belgians, was in attendance. Good beer friends Gail and Steve from Beer by Bart were invited up by the good people from Black Diamond Brewing Company. Unlike the freeloader I am, Gail and Steve actually went to work at the festival pouring for their host brewery while Jay Brooks was camping out with his family (which I think more brewers should do). While last year’s beerfest resulted in the creation of the SF Bay Area Beer Bloggers, this year was more of a chance meet up. In fact, Gail and Steve found us, accidentally I think, by wandering the campgrounds. While hanging out with us at the New Belgian campsite, I whipped out the 3 bottles of beer I received from Mayfield Brewing Company for all to try. Results were mixed and Mario and I will be tackling Mayfield Brewing Company in our next edition of Hopinions.

To no one’s surprise, we all woke up hungover, some more than others. My failure to pace myself pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day. While I wanted to drink, I mainly focused on lighter (in %ABV) beers that were malty. I guess getting hammered off of double IPAs will do it for you. Not wanting to relive last year’s breakfast debacle where we had nothing to eat but cinnamon bread “seasoned” with spray-on butter, Sammy and I offered to make breakfast for the New Belgians. On the menu were whole wheat bread, scrambled eggs (with onions, tomatoes, garlic, bell peppers) and bacon. Mmm…. bacon. I should’ve woken up earlier as the New Belgians rushed through breakfast in order to set-up at the festival.

With a brief break in the rain, Sammy and I walked the quarter mile or so to the festival. Because we had brewer tickets we were able to get into the festival ahead of the festival attendees and sample beers from whoever was ready to pour. Because of the rain, about a third of the breweries were moved from the outside of the animal stables into the inside. This had mixed results. On one hand, it was pretty nice to stay dry. On the other hand, quarters were so cramped that everyone expected it to be a madhouse in the stable area. From what I heard later on, it wasn’t so bad but there were some testy moments with the crowding.

The other main area of breweries was in the “pavilion” portion of the Medocino County Fairgrounds. Located on a major thoroughfare of the fairgrounds, the pavilion provided cover for the brewers as well. One side of the pavilion is wide enough to accommodate a large group of people while the other was much smaller and formed a bottleneck. The last, main portion of breweries was located “on the green” beneath two, huge white tents. Even though this area had a lot of open space around the tents, the tents themselves were mobbed by festival attendees.

As soon as the crowd was let in, Sammy and I spent the majority of our time wandering around looking for special beers from each brewery. For the most part, I was “beered out” and didn’t drink that much. I saved myself for anything new and interesting that caught our eyes. Here’s brief list of memorable beers:

• Vanilla Wheat blended with Chocolate Stout, Alpine Brewing Company - Based out of Alpine, California, Alpine Brewing Company brought something really interesting to the table with this beer. As stated, it’s not a straight brewed beer but a blend. The aroma of this beer was a decadent mix of sweet, milk chocolate and vanilla with wheat malt undertones. The body is medium-light/medium and on the darker side of the color spectrum. The chocolate really comes through in the flavor supported by the vanilla. Sammy and I found this beer to be really interesting.
• Tovarich Imperial Coffee Stout, Pizza Port (forgot which one) - Based off of a Russian Imperial Stout, this beer had coffee added to it during the brewing process. From what I remember, this was a big, bodied beer that weighed in over the 9% ABV mark. It had all the deep roasted malt goodness of the style with more pronounced coffee character and a hop bitterness to match. There were a lot of coffee porters and stouts about that day but this just so happened to be the one I tried.
• Uncle Fudd, Moonlight Brewing Company - Brian Hunt of Moonlight Brewing Company can be called many things, boring is not one of them. His Uncle Fudd is a rye beer brewed without hops. The bittering agent he used were cedar branches. Before the discovery and inclusion of hops into brewing, it wasn’t uncommon to use the tips of evergreen trees as bittering agents. In this beer, cedar is the name of the game. I remember this beer to have a unique flavor unlike anything I’ve every had before. The malt profile had a touch of rye spiciness and the beer was, overall, malty sweet. The bitter profile of the beer was very subdued. I wasn’t sure what to think of it. Not sure if I even enjoyed it but I can totally appreciate what Brian is trying to do.
• Saison de Lent & Orchard White, The Bruery - The Bruery is a brewing company located out of Orange County, California. They’re probably the only good thing that side of the “orange curtain”. We tried both of their offerings, their Saison de Lente and their Orchard White. Both beers were light in body and color but the Saison had an interesting, farm-house based aroma. Sure, we were in the stables and you could chalk it up to that but in reality, it was the brettanomyces in the beer. The Orchard White was as very good and refreshing example of the witbier style.
• La Folie, New Belgium Brewing Company - La Folie is New Belgium’s French-oak Wood-aged sour ale that is in actuality a blend of different aged beers. In practice, this is not unlike how you would make a Gueuze. This is a mouth-puckeringly tart/sour ale that is primarily malty in flavor. If I didn’t feel like the tartness was slowly eroding the enamel off my teeth, I’d drink this all day. Lover the sour ales, love the La Folie.

At about the 3pm mark, Sammy and I called it a day and headed back to base camp where we took a much needed nap. By the time we woke up, the New Belgian were back in camp and had just finished setting up their taps for the night. They wisely remembered to save some of the La Folie and we drank that back at camp. In addition, we drank their Trippel, Biere de Mars (Lips of Faith offering) and Triple IPA, a “collabeeration” between New Belgium and Elysian Brewing Company. The Trippel is a sneaky bastard that is lighter in body than one would expect from a 7.8% ABV beer. It has a great, sweet malt flavor that is supported by a nice fruity ester quality from the yeast. Their Biere de Mars is another “lighter” drinking beer that weighs in above the 6% ABV mark. Brewed with oats, barley and wheat malts and bottle conditioned with brettanomyces. This a primarily malty beer with a lot of fruit flavors and aroma esters with a bit of brettanomyces character. I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to drink the Triple IPA because I was all hopped out. I was hoping to have this beer for breakfast but by the time Sammy and I got out of the truck (our tent leaked so we slept in the bed of the pick-up with a cozy camper shell above our heads), the New Belgians had packed up the taps and that was that.

The second night of camping, unlike the first, was much more subdued and relatively rain-free. It seemed like everyone was tired from partying on Friday night coupled with working the festival on Saturday afternoon. AVBC was kind enough to provide dinner to the brewers on Saturday night, an event that is capped off with a huge, palette-fueled bonfire. We all elected to stay at base camp and have dinner there instead. It would seem our pathetic campfire strung together from firewood stolen from our neighbors was enough of a show for us. Joining us the second night were Paul (owner) and Jamie (cook) from Toad in the Hole pub from Santa Rosa. Some of us, including Sammy and myself, wandered that night but without the fervor from the night before. You’d think the break in rain would’ve brought about a resurgence in partying but it didn’t, at least not to the same level.

What the break in the rain did bring was a performance from the Humbolt Firkin Tappers. The Firkin Tappers are essentially a marching band that plays a wide variety of music ranging from classic rock, pop to video game themes. These talented group of musicians are a real treat to listen to and watch as they got the crowd of brewers into their music and to participate as well. Boonville wouldn’t have been the same without their music ringing into the night and I think they’re inclusion at the brewer’s camp is a real highlight of the event. By the time they were hitting their stride, Sammy and I settled in for the evening and enjoyed the show from the cozy, comfort of the camper shell. Eventually, we would find ourselves lulled to sleep by the murmur of the campsite combined with the tunes of the Firkin Tappers. Not a bad way to fall asleep.

The 2009 Boonville Beerfest ended with as much gusto as it began. I got the feeling that once the party was over, people wanted to leave Boonville just as quickly as they had arrived. With brewers driving in from as far away as San Digeo, Oregon and Nevada, I can’t say I blame them for wanting to get their long drives over with as quickly as possible. People were up pretty early and the exodus out of Boonville began. By the time Sammy and I were out of the truck and tearing our gear down, the New Belgians had already taken apart their taps and were in the process of taking down their EZ Up tents. Paul and Jamie, from Toad in the Hole, offered to make breakfast for us and we were treated to a most awesome breakfast of bangers, turkey sausages, scrambled eggs and beans. After one last photo, Sammy, Mario and I were off. This beer fest was in the books.

I tried to keep this post as short as possible but there’s just a lot that happened. I didn’t even mention the guys who brought around some ciders and meads (okay, I just did) that were just phenomenal. Once again, I’d like to thank Jeremy and the other New Belgian Brewing Company beer reps. They made this entire, memorable experience possible.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 12:14 am and is filed under Beer Festivals, Breweries, Craft Beer, Fun Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.