BetterBeerBlog

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.

Way back in my younger years, I tried to keep organized by carrying around a day planner. The plan was to get my life organized. I was to have all my contact numbers at my fingertips just in case I got a page and a calendar at the ready to properly plan my time out. Well, I didn’t need my contact numbers “at my fingertips” because I had a friggin’ pager where the number of the person calling you shows up. After the first couple of days, I realized I didn’t need a calendar to plan out my events as I didn’t have any. My youth was but a waste of both money and time.

Nowadays my cell phone has all of the numbers I need and my wife has been keeping the calendar. Time is a luxury I no longer have. Gone are the days where I had absolutely nothing to do as my weekends are pretty much booked for the next two months. You can bet this blog has kept me busy.

With so much on the horizon, I thought I’d share some of the future events we will attempt to be at in the coming days/weeks. Maybe I’ll see some of you there:

• 2008 Monterey Beer Festival
  Saturday, August 2nd, 2008, 12:30 to 5pm, Monterey Fairgrounds
  • As much fun as this sounds I am not 100% sure if we will be making it. A good friend of ours will be having her birthday part the night before so there’s no guarantees we won’t be hungover already.

• 2008 IPA Festival
  Saturday, August 9th, 2008, The Bistro in Hayward
  • Last year, I went with my best friend who ended up getting sick (summer cold, not drunk) and leaving me to my own devices. It’s amazing how wasted one can get when left to their own devices. Anyway, this is an event we will probably end up being at, just much later than I want to because…
• 2008 San Mateo County Fair Homebrew Contest
  August 8 - 17, 2008, San Mateo County Fairgrounds
  • I have volunteered to judge the beers at this competition. I don’t know how long it will take to get through everything but if we have enough time, I’ll make sure to head over to the IPA Festival at The Bistro.

August is shaping up to be a very busy month here at the BetterBeerBlog and it doesn’t look like we’re going to be slowing down until after Halloween. As always, I’ll try and take you along for the ride.

Received a quick email this morning from the good people at the Bistro. They are promoting their July events schedule as well as the date for their annual IPA Festival. Details below:

July is here with all the smoke you can ask for…………

Smoking is no longer allowed in the city of Hayward as of June 28th, 2008. But that will not change our commitment of having the best musical talent and freshest beer available all the time.

We are open Independence day Fri. 4th of July, so come on down for the festivities.

The summer street party this month is Thur. July 17th.

Mark you calendar the 11th annual IPA Festival is Sat. August 9th.

The last time we were at the Bistro was for their Hop Rhizome Festival. To date, my hop rhizomes have not even sprouted. I feel they may have gone bad sitting in the refrigerator for a week waiting to get planted. Sammy thinks they’re fine and will sprout up next year. It took our first hop plant a good year to get anything going so I still have hope. It was at their Double IPA Festival that Sammy learned to really love good flavorful beer so I’m hoping she’ll get a good kick out of this event as well.