It looks like I am on a streak of sorts. The last two beer festivals I have been to, I have been sick at. I was sick at the 2009 Fairfax Beerfest and I was sick at this year’s 18th Annual “The Good One” Santa Rosa Beer Fest. In both cases, I toughed it out and made the most of the situation. Thankfully for the Santa Rosa Beer Fest, I had already been sick and by the time the beer fest came around, I was doing pretty good. Still, you don’t want to hear about my medical records, you’re hear for the beer!
At the name would suggest, this is the 18th year this beer festival has been around. The Good One, as it’s named, is a beer fest to benefit the Face to Face Sonoma County AIDS Network. The beer fest was held on the grounds of the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. To be more specific, half of the event was held in a covered hallway area of the Center while the other half was held outdoors. All told there were about 35 participating breweries with just as many food purveyors. I had initially heard from friends that there would be a chance of rain that day but to all of our smiles, not a drop from the sky. It was a beautifully sunny day actually with the temperatures hovering around the very pleasant 70° F neighborhood.
To go back to a point I had written about earlier, this festival differs from many others I’ve been to in that both beer and food were celebrated. For the price of admission, you could drink and eat until the breweries and vendors ran out of food. Yes, there was pizza, sausages, burgers and pulled-pork sandwiches but there was also a fresh fruit and vegetable stand (very popular that day), hot sauce station, organic juices and kettle-style potato chips.
I’ve come to terms that it is nearly impossible to take very accurate and detailed notes about every single beer I’ve drunk at any given beer fest. I suppose I could but that wouldn’t be much fun, would it? Instead, I take brief notes about the beers that have really impressed me. Here’s a brief list of the beers I found very notable and what I thought of them.
Dandelion, New Belgium Brewing Company – This was the most surprising beer of the day for me. I found Dandelion to be a primarily sweet beer, slight spice undertones, cloudy and light on the palette. Truth be told, my initial impression was that this was a session-strength ale. Was I wrong! New Belgium beer representative Jeremy set me straight. Dandelion is the latest beer in the New Belgium Lips of Faith program. Inspired by the hop shortage not to long ago and brewed in the experimental Belgian tradition, Dandelion is a Belgian Blonde Ale that is brewed using Dandelion greens in the place of hops. Despite being weeds, there are food-grade Dandelions available for consumption and Dandelions have a bittering effect similar to hops. I thought this was a nice and light beer that would’ve been perfect for the warm Santa Rosa afternoon, that was until Jeremy told me it was almost 8% (7.8% ABV) ABV. If you get a chance to try this, pick it up and let me know what you think. I’ll be on the lookout myself.- A Lil’ Sumpin Sumpin Ale, Lagunitas Brewing Company – I wasn’t sure what to make of this beer initially other than, “Wow”. A Lil’ Sumpin Sumpin Ale poured out a bright, slightly hazy yellow beer with this awesome citrusy aroma. Not only did the beer smell good, it tasted good as well. There was this bright sweetness up front that gave way to a moderate, yet robust hop flavor and finished with a hop bitterness on par with a typical pale ale. The Lagunitas website calls this beer their Summer Seasonal and it’s wheat based. If I were to make an American-style hefeweizen, I would try and pattern it after this beer. Great stuff.
- Scotch Export, Fossil Fuels (by way of Stumptown Brewery) – While I found this beer to be solid, not bad but not awesome either, the Scotch Export from Fossil Fuels Brewing Company is worth mentioning. This beer poured out a dark brown in color. The aroma was slightly sweet but restrained while the flavor had a malt sweetness that surpassed what the aroma hinted at. The finish of the beer was also interesting in that I felt it was “Belgian-y” (slight earthy spiciness) but without the trademarked Belgian aromatics or flavor. What is most interesting about this beer is the yeast. The brewing yeast used to brew this beer was cultivated from the guts of a pre-historic bee trapped in a piece of 40 million year old amber. To call this yeast strain the “Jurassic Park” of yeasts would not be a far stretch. If you have the opportunity to, I would suggest picking up some of the Fossil Fuel beers and give them a shot. Recent reviews have been very good and I think it’d be worth a try to drink a piece of pre-history. Who knows, maybe they’ll get around to cloning dinosaurs or wooly mammoths after the success of this beer.
- Black Mamba, Bear Republic Brewing Company – It would seem that I like just about every beer that comes across my way. While that wouldn’t be to far from the truth, there are some beers that I find to be just okay. Black Mamba from Bear Republic falls into that category. There was nothing spectacular about my initial impression of the beer. With a name like Black Mamba, you expect something big to hit you over the head. I was expecting either big alcohol, or hugely burnt malt flavors, or incredible malt sweetness, or an almost offendingly strong hop bitterness. Instead, I got some deep roasted/burnt malt flavors, not much hops and it’s light in body. If you’re going to name your beer after one of the most poisonous and orniest snakes on the planet, or mercurial and enigmatic Laker 2-guard, this beer has to do somthing. It doesn’t have to drop 80 points on my head but it has to do something. People raved about this beer all day and it wasn’t until much later that I learned this beer was supposed to be a black witbier. Huh. A black witbier. Maybe there’s something to the Black Mamba after all.
I must say that this was a pretty well run beer fest. Unlike other beer festivals the Good One lacked the “drunken fratboy” antics most beer festivals eventually devolve into. I think having food available played a huge part in how well run this even was. Instead of running around trying to drink your money’s worth in beer, people attacked the food in much the same way. This served to curtail binge beer sampling as well as putting food in the stomachs of the festival goers thus prolonging the eventual downward spiral.
Adequate restroom facilities tend to be an issue at many beer festivals but I felt this issue was handled well at The Good One. I have to be wrong but I think there was only a single set of facilities available to the entire festival. You’d think this would be a recipe for disaster, especially for the women, but Sammy said the long lines she expected never came. Of course the men’s restrooms very rarely ever have a line.
Parking wasn’t an issue either as the lot at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts was spacious. This beer fest sold out and I think limiting the amount of festival goers to a size your venue and staff can handle is an excellent idea.
People go a long way to making an experience memorable, good people especially. While at The Good One, I had the opportunity to meet up with my fellow Bay Area Beer Bloggers (BABB). I hadn’t seen some of these good people in some time and it was a great opportunity to reconnect. At the end of the festival, the group I was in, myself, Sammy, Diane and Michael (they provided the 2009 Savor Recap content) headed to Russian River Brewing Company for some post-festival beers. While there, we ran into Marcel (from www.craftondraft.com) as well as BetterBeerBlog friends Brandon and his father Curtis. Brandon and Curtis joined our group of four and we basically hung out for a bit and threw some beers back. A perfect way to end the day.
All in all, The Good One lived up to it’s name. This was one of the better beer festivals I’ve been to for a variety of reasons. For the amount of money you paid for a ticket, you got food as well as beer. The crowds weren’t too bad and they didn’t morph into some drunk fest at the end either. The facilitiies were adequate for the crowds and there was enough seating if you needed it. I think that this is one beer fest that I will be adding to my annual “to go” list!
Were you at the festival? If so, leave me a comment or shoot me an email to let me know what you thought of the festival.
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