BetterBeerBlog

2008 Toronado Barleywine Festival (click for photo gallery)

This post is coming a little late but since the Barley Wine Festival is still going on at Toronado, I guess it’s still appropriate. As I’ve written before, the barley wine festival kicked off Saturday, February 16th, 2008. There were 55 entries represented at this year’s festival. Here are the winners of the festival:

1. Lagunitas Gnarleywine 2006, Lagunitas Brewing, Petaluma, CA.
2. Stone Old Guardian 2006, Stone, San Marcos, CA.
3. Firestone-Walker Abacus Blend, Firestone-Walker, Paso Robles, CAJudges’ Special Award: Devil Mountain Barleywine 1994, Devil Mountain, Benicia, CA

Luckily for me, I got to try 2 out of the three (Gnarleywine 2006 and Abacus Blend). Unfortunately, I don’t have my tasting notes from the event. Instead of writing my notes down, my buddy Jason brought up his electronic voice recorder and we took audio notes. As soon as he gets those to me, I’ll post them up here.

This was my first time up at Toronado and to the Barley Wine Festival. I wasn’t sure what to expect. From what I heard about in my BJCP class, it is best to show up early, get some breakfast there, and make a mad dash for a table once they open the doors. I was lucky enough to be accompanied to the event with my good friend, beer lover and entrepreneur, Jason Melendez as well as my wife, Samboun.

The three of us got to Toronado about 9:30a or so, early enough to get breakfast at a local cafe on the same street. As early as we were, there was already a line of people outside of Toronado about 20-30 yards long. We figured that since we were just across the street, we’d be fine. Well, we were wrong!

As soon as breakfast was done, we headed over to Toronado only to find the line was gone, they had started letting people in. We got to Toronado and not a single table, bar or chair was left available. I noticed lots of people with their lists and drink charts and empty six pack cases they used to transfer the barley wine samples from bar to wherever they were sitting. You could tell who the hardcore ones were as they came prepared with their own snacks and water. These folks were in it to win it, for the long haul.

Toronado was packed from the windows to the walls. Despite the crowd and tight fit, everyone one was mellow and respectful of each other and of their spaces. That’s what I love about the beer festivals, everyone is mellow and there to enjoy the beer drama free. Beer is the beverage of the people and if the crowd were an accurate sample, lots of people from many different backgrounds enjoy beer.

I am still a n00b when it comes to the “who’s who” in the beer world. So, if there were any notable notables (yes, I like watching Jeopardy) I’d be hard pressed to point them out to you. The one face I did recognize though was the “beer thief” from the Three Sheets: Belgium episode. If you haven’t watched, Three Sheets, I recommend it. Stand-up comedian Zane Lamprey travels the world, basically to drink. Despite the simplicity of premise, I find it very entertaining and highly informative. Anyway, in the Belgium episode, Lamprey and crew visit Delirium Café, to over 2000 beers. While filming, some guy comes up and starts talking about beer. He gets really annoying and often tries to steal one of the many beers Delirium Café has poured for him to try. You can see him in the header portion of the Three Sheets: Belgium page. He’s the one making the retarded face. Apparently he’s noted in the beer community but I have no idea who he is. My wife wanted to take a picture of him but when she saw him with his own “crew” taking pictures with the ladies, she left not wanting to feed into his ego. I just hope that when I talk to strangers about beer, I don’t get that annoying.

Here’s a shortlist of the barley wines we tried:

• 21st Amendment - Lower de Boom 2008
• Russian River - Old Gubbillygotch 2006
• Full Sail Brewing Co. - Old Boardhead 1995
• Speakeasy - Old Godfather 2008
• Lagunitas Brewing Co. - Gnarleywine 2006
• Cucupa - Barley Wine
• Anchor Brewing Co. - Old Foghorn
• Port/Lost Abbey - Angel’s Share 2006
• Sierra Nevada - Bourbon Bigfoot
• Firestone-Walker - Abacus Blend
• Bear Republic - Olde Scoutters 99-07
• Pike Brewing Co. - Old Bawdy
• North Coast - Old Stock
• Devil Mountain - Barley Wine 1994
• Elysian - The Great Pumpkin Ale

While that may seem like a lot of beers to try, we only purchased the 3oz. samples so were not very drunk at all. Other groups who where there seemed to have tasted the entire 55, some at the 6.5oz serving size.

The three of us ended the day at Magnolia brew pub about a mile up the road from Toronado. As we sat there and drank and ate, we saw lot of other people who had made the trek. Being a part of strong beer month, we tried 4 out of the 6 strong beers they had on the menu: Tweezer Triple, Delilah Jones Rye, Dopplewezien, and Old Thunderpussy. I wish I could give you a review of Magnolia’s beers but we enjoyed the food and beer so much we forgot to write it down. Hopefully I can make it up to San Francisco more often to visit their brewpubs. They make some really excellent beers up there and I’d love to drink more of ‘em.
Before I call it quits for this article, I just want to plug my buddy Jason. Jason runs a wedding website company called Wedshare.com along with his wife. When my girlfriend and I were engaged, we purchased a wedding website from them and it quickly became an invaluable tool to keep the myriad of wedding projects and details managed from a single, web-based, resource. In addition, they’re published authors and are working on the second edition of their book, e-Plan your Wedding: How to Save Time and Money with Todays Best Online Resources. In the interest of full disclosure, I did design the book for them, cover-to-cover.

Okay, enough! This is a beer site! Besides, they’re not paying me any money for the plug, anyway!

February is typically a bad month for beer. It’s a month that is in a brewing limbo, so to speak. While winter is a season for stronger, maltier beers, most breweries have already brewed their winter seasons and have started their spring seasonals. So with the strong winter beers dying out and the spring beers not quite ready, what’s a beer enthusiast to do?

Well, if you’re lucky enough to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, February is Strong Beer Month. A celebration of strong beers between 21st Amendment Brewery and Magnolia Pub and Brewery in San Franciso that showcases 12 different beers, 6 from each venue. If you’re lucky enough to have drank all 12 (they give you the entire month of February to do so, so don’t worry), you’ll have earned yourself a commemorative glass.

Toronado is having their Barley Wine Festival this month as well. This is another hugely popular event and I have been advised to arrive early as the popular beer will sell out quickly. For those of you who don’t know what a Barley Wine is, it’s basically a beer (don’t let the name fool you!). A big beer. It’s high in alcohol (8% - 12%), intense malt flavor with matching hop flavor. Check out the BJCP style guideline for more information.

Also up in San Francisco, the Beer Chef Bruce Paton will be hosting Beer and Chocolate Beer Dinner Event on Friday, February 15, 2008. It is easily one of his most popular dinner events. Unfortunately for us, BetterBeerBlog is having a Beer and Food Pairing Event that night inspired by Chef Paton’s event and can’t make it. We definitely plan on attending one of Chef Paton’s dinners this year though.

This Saturday, February 9, 2008, the Bistro located in Hayward will be holding their 8th Annual Double IPA festival. I was able to make it to last year’s IPA festival and I had a blast. Because the IPA is hugely flavorful and hoppy beer, my palette was pretty much shot after the 4th tasting of the day. I think I had 7-8 tastings at that time. I look forward to having my palette blown away by the 3rd tasting this time around.

The Bay Area Mashers Homebrew Club is currently soliciting entries for their 2008 World Cup of Beer Homebrew Competition. Entries should be received by March 8th. Judging will be on March 22nd and 29th at Trumer Brauerei in Berkeley.

Finally, Celebrator beer magazine is celebrating their 20th year Anniversary with Beerapalooza 2008! Wow. 20 years is an awful long time to be around and it’s definitely worth celebrating. Visit their website to get more information.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on in February in the Bay Area to celebrate beer. I suggest you go out and try something different. You never know what you may end up liking. Just remember to drink responsibly, drink in moderation, and to drink better beer.