BetterBeerBlog

The 2009 4th Annual Barrel-Aged Beerfest is hands down my favorite beer festival for many reasons. First, I really enjoy the intimacy of the festival. Unlike some of the Bistro’s other beer festivals, this one is not yet mainstream and so the people who attend this festival do so because they really enjoy craft beer. Second, because it’s not mainstream, it’s not overly crowded. Third, I am really learning to enjoy the flavors barrel aging brings to a beer: from sour to vanilla to coconut to bourbon to wine to oak… love these flavors. Lastly, the variety of beer being barrel aged is increasing every year. Instead of being bogged down by a single style, there’s such a variety.

The price for this year’s Barrel-Aged Beerfest was $40 plus commemorative glass plus 10 drink tickets. You can purchase additional drink tickets for $2 each. Last year’s commemorative glass was a mini-snifter, which I though was pretty cool in itself but this year we picked up a mini-tulip glass. The tulip glass is fast becoming my favorite beer glass because it’s bulb shape allows you to warm the beer up with your hand, not unlike a snifter, but the flared upper portion allows the aromas to collect. Lastly, if you wanted your beer to stay cooler, just hold the glass by the stem and it’ll stay a cooler a littler longer. Everyone I talked to loved the glass.

This year there were 65 beers on tap for this festival. If you planned ahead and came with a group of people, you could almost sample every single beer there. With just Sammy and I, we were only able to try about 12-13 beers with a couple of them repeats because they tasted so good. I don’t have photos for all of them for various reasons so I hope the descriptions do them justice.

What was particularly cool this year was the great people I was able to meet and hang out with. I got the chance to meet up with some blog readers and other beer bloggers in addition to the soon-to-come owners of 510 Brewing Company. Sammy and I have met so many cool people because of craft beer and we’re thankful for each and every relationship we’ve fostered because of it.

Deschutes, The Abyss, aged in French Oak, 11.0% ABV

Lots of oaky aroma with dark roasted malt character. The Abyss is sweet with a flavor similar to the aroma but with a touch of licorice. When I first tried this beer years ago, I loved it. At the time of the festival, the beer seemed toned down from what I remember.

Avery, Voltron, 2 Chardonnay 2 Port, 1 Cabernet for 12 months, 9.0% ABV

Just as it’s namesake, Voltron is formed from 5 different pieces. This was probably the most infamous beer of the entire event as I kept hearing from various people how the Bistro had the very last keg of the beer in existence. I half expected the beer to be finished in a couple of hours but when we left, there was still some available.

Strong brettanomyces character in the aroma. Very pungent, barnyardy with an undertone of what I can only describe as public restroom. Despite the aroma, this beer has a wonderful flavor that was slightly sweet with a dry, tart finish.

Fifty-fifty Brewing Company, Imperial Eclipse Stout 2008, Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon, 12 months, 9.5% ABV

Toffee, chocolate, licorice aromas with a deep, almost burnt caramel aroma. I picked up chocolate, vanilla, coconut flavors all in a layered balance with slight alcohol notes. This was one of the most memorable beers at the festival for me. Fifty-Fifty is quietly brewing up some fantastic beers over in Truckee and it’s good to see they’re getting some well deserved recognition.

This beer won bronze at the 2009 GABF.

Fifty-fifty Brewing Company, Concentrated Evil on Jack, Jack Daniels, 8 months, 10.0% ABV

Unlike the 2008 Imperial Eclipse Stout, Concentrated Evil had more subtle aromas that featured date-like qualities with a noticeable alcohol character and slight whiskey notes. I noted light brown sugar flavors, some Jack Daniels whiskey notes in a lightly sweet beer that warmed the throat on the way down.

This beer is a Belgian strong dark ale made with raisins and exotic sugars.

Glacier Brewhouse, Oak Aged Glacier Eisbock, Used American Oak Wine Barrel, 7 months, 10% ABV

The aptly named Glacier Brewhouse sent in kegs all the way from Anchorage, Alaska. This beer has an oaky aroma with savory, caramelized malt notes and dark fruit undertones. The flavor is very similar to the aroma with the addition of some vanilla and coconut flavors. Some alcohol warmth.

The higher alcohol content of an eisbock is a result of the icing process with a portion of the water is frozen and removed from the beer.

Bear Republic Brewing, Trebuchet, 100 year old cognac barrel, 18 months, 9.8% ABV

First of all, where the hell does one get a 100 year old cognac barrel? Seriously! Mad props to Bear Republic for lucking themselves into that barrel, what a find.

Trebuchet has a perfumey, spicy aroma full of fruity esters and a noticeable alcohol quality. The flavor is mellow, some spirit character with a dry, white wine-like finish, oaky astrigency and a touch of almond flavors.

Sierra Nevada, “54.5″, Glengoyne Scotch, 7 months, 9.4% ABV

I affectionaly call this beer “54.5″ because it ended up being a blend of the two Sierra Nevada beers that were at the festival. Upon asking for beer #54, the Sierra Nevada Scoth on Scotch “wee heavy”, the volunteer picked up the pitcher of Porter on Scotch (#55) which still contained some Porter on Scotch and started to pour in some Scoth on Scotch instead. The resultant blended beer was poured into my glass.

54.5 had a lot of deep roasted malt character with oak aromas. The flavor is similar with the addition of an oaky astrigency. This ended up being a very good blend.

Drakes, George Brett Triple, Pinot Noir, 2 years, 8.8% ABV

Very funky brettanomyces aroma with a lactic undertone. This beer is slightly sweet with an earthy/funky brettanomyces-based character and a mild, tart, lactic finish.

Drakes, Pine Tar Barleywine, Grenache, 18 months, 10.0% ABV

Drakes kept getting very good reviews from all their entries. This beer has an estery fruit-forward character with brettanomyces funkiness and wood aromas. The initial flavor is malty but unlike other beers I’ve had so far today, this one had an assertive hop bitterness and astrigenty woodsy finish.

Valley Brewing Company, Bourbon Barrel Old Inventory Barley Wine, Heaven Hill Bourbon, 4 months, 12.5% ABV

Lots of coconut and vanilla aromas on the nose with sweet malt and tofee aromas as well. Flavor has spicy alcohol notes, lots of bourbon flavor with coconut & vanilla notes as well.

Allagash, Interlude, French Merlot and Syrah Oak, 2 months, 9.5% ABV

Floral, estery aromas with oaky notes and noticeable alcohol character. Flavor is a good balance between a slight malt sweetness, brett character, fruit esters and alcohol character.

2 yeast strains were used to make this beer. The first was a Belgian farmhouse yeast while the second an Allagash “house” brettanomyces strain.

Black Diamond, Imperial Porter, Tenzing bourbon barrel, 9.0% ABV

Dark chocolate dominates the aroma. Dark chocolate is the primary flavor along with deep roasted malt flavors coming in secondary.

This beer was brewed with Scharffenberger cacao nibs and vanilla beans.

Moylans, Wet Hopsickle, Girard Chardonnay Medium Toast French Oak, 9.2% ABV

Pungent, citrus/piney hop aroma. Flavor is op forward, slightly garlicy, pungent and assertive hop bitterness.

Their XXXIPA was the base for this beer and it was brewed with fresh, organic, hand-picked wet hops from Lake County. Won a silver medal at the 2009 Chicago Wood and Barrel Aged Beer Fest.

Bear Republic, Clobberskull, Medium Toast French Oak Cabernet, 100 days, 10.5% ABV

This beer was giving a lot of people a bunch of different things. Sammy picked up Red Vines in the aroma as well as a syrupy note. I thought I picked up a low level of nuttiness. The flavor had a lot of fruit character, like pear, as well as a sweet malt flavor with noticeable alcohol quality. If anything, this beer put me in the mood for split pea soup.

An English estate October beer brewed with 10% raw wheat and 10% split peas.

Mysterious Sour, Bourbon

This beer smelled like pickled wet rag. The flavor has a light roastiness, slight acetic sourness and musty quality.

This was a leftover, unmarked keg from last year’s festival.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Beer Bars, Beer Festivals, Craft Beer. 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.