Firkin Fest 2011

So Firkin Fest, or I should say Firkin Fest the Fourth. At the Happy Gnome. Once more I had the happy duty of serving as a judge -- this time with a LOT more beers on than the first year, when I also did it. (Life has intervened in cruel ways for the middle two years -- and nearly did again.)

Some of the beers were great. Some were not so great. But since the judging teams got them blind, I can't always tell you which were which. So I will narrate this in pictures. (The full list of beers is here though, and more picks and people's choice winner announcement are here.  Plus Michael Agnew has the overall recap here.  So far I haven't seen the judge's winner list posted yet officially, so I will stay mum till I do!)

1.  Synchronize  the pastel silicone sheathed electronics.  It's 11 am and nearly time to start judging beers before the crowds press in.  Early "VIP" entrants start coming soon and by 1 when the regular tickets get you in, the line is wrapped around the block.  Good thing too -- this is one of the beer fests that actually pays for the beers instead of begging brewers for donations.  Good for you Happy Gnome!

2.  Looking at the tent before it's jammed with people. There are about 80 firkins of beer. A "firkin" is a cask of medium size, and as the beer geeks know they are traditionally conditioned in the cask, and served from the cask by gravity dispense (like here) or via handpump. It's 30 degrees out today (see chunks of ice), so they're not warm.

 3.  Two of the British beers here, ones I'm looking forward to having.  (Incidentally, both were quite clear -- unlike many of the local beers).  Thornbridge's Jaipur I have not had before. Really nice, very drinkable, and surprising in its astringent, tannic bite. For American tastes, it is quite dry for an IPA and not smashing you over the head with fruity hop. The Bitter and Twisted is a great beer that I love in the bottle -- very unique lemony hop character that I will have to write about soon. Both really lovely beers.

 4.  Twenty for me, one for you. No, actually in the foreground are the pours I'm tasting, the other half Fletty's tastings of the same beers. We have three judging teams, and there are a lot of beers to get through still.

 5.  It's not very formal, but we do actually have a plan, and though no one ever believes it, there is work involved.  We divide the beers into dark, not dark, and eclectic categories.  So porters and stouts (mostly), pale ales and bitters and light beers and even some lagers, and then everything with blueberries, maple syrup, mushrooms, oak, and whatever else.

6.  One big issue is just the drinkability, but another important one for a cask beer festival is the condition of the beer -- carbonation, clarity, and whether this method of serving compliments the beer or brings out interesting things in it.

 7.  Curt is an extremely friendly guy.  Just at the moment he is telling me to put the damn camera away and get on with the judging.

 8.  More "not dark" beers to do in various degrees of not-darkness.

9.  Also plenty more dark ones!

Artenbru: Good idea. Will there be another?

So ARTENBRU.  It's taken me some time before I could get to this with a rational mind, but here it is.  Rather than bitch, a few points about what (in my opinion) went right and what went wrong, and what might have to happen for there to be another go 'round.

It was kind of a good idea, if one that I was totally fuzzy on until only a short time before the event.  The organizers' goal, I think, was to bring together the innovative brewers of the Twin Cities with the innovative graphic artists of St Paul's Lowertown arts quarter, all in the pleasant atmosphere of the Black Dog Cafe.  The brewers made beer, the artists made posters, and all was lovely.  The homebrew would be tasted, and the posters that went with each brew would be seen, and the audience would get to see how collaborations like that could be cool.  Oh, and there would be $2 pints of some local commercial beers as well.

The thing was always a little sketchy, in a kind of charming way -- somewhere between art-scene flakiness and "Hey gang!  Let's put on a show!" idealism.  I'm usually a cynical bastard, but some measure of that is probably necessary for good ideas to ever see the light of day.

It all fell to hell when someone figured out that you couldn't actually serve the homebrewed beer without risking the Black Dog's liquor license.  So no homebrew to taste, and no collaborative teams to talk to.  There were some brewers there, and some artists, but you kind of had to find them yourself and figure out who went with whom.

Clint Luger's winning poster, from the ARTENBRU site.
Too bad I haven't tried the beer, brewed by Steve Fletty.

Oh, but there were a ton of people.  It was like a college party gone bad.  They started giving away the commercial beer they lined up--at least I think so.  I gave up when I saw the line and the frenzied looks on the faces of those up at the front of it.  Figuring that we had jobs and could skip the line in order to pay $5 for a Summit, the Bishop and the Actress and I did so pronto.  Then we all talked to the artists (or the ones we could find) for a while.

Despite it all, I still like the idea and I'd love to see the event work if it ever happens again.  So here are my thoughts and suggestions.  Have others?  Feel free to add in comments if there's anything I missed!

1. Make the brewers happy.  The no-serving homebrew issue was a severe bummer, as that was an integral part of the whole idea.  If there is to be an Artenbru 2, this has to be worked out.  There are ways -- you just can't charge entry fees for that part of the event.  The brewers that I talked to were mostly good sports about it ("More IPA for me" said Curt -- um, I mean "Dr. Stock").  But if anyone's going to go down this road again, this issue has to be worked out first, not last.
2. Make sure the artists are happy too.  I'm not sure if the artists felt as let down as the brewers, but several of them were not there, or at least did not seem to be.  And several of the posters were not for sale. Too bad since the artwork was really first rate for the most part.  Clint Lugert's poster for Fletty's historic British IPA was fantastic.  "Cork Leg Nelson" did the graphically simpler but really cool images for Kris England's beers, and this was probably the most commercially oriented artwork -- I mean that in a good way; it could have been the basis for a whole brand for a commercial brewery.  I really liked Lucas Glusenkamp and Bud Snead's designs as well.  (Check here to see many of the posters)
3. Too many people, or at least too small a space. I say this with great love for the Black Dog cafe.  But holy hell.  If it's gonna be like that, find a bigger space.  Or else go for a smaller, and more committed beer/art crowd and stay at the same space.

Two happy codas though.  Tired of battling artiste elbows, a bunch of us skipped out and headed for Heartland instead. The Heartland bartenders (who get no love on the website) have been outstanding both times I have hung out at the bar there.  They've got some wicked concoctions going on back there, including their own infused liquers.  Bar menu ain't bad either!  Also, I just got called by Nick, one of the Artenbru organizers, who informed me that I won the drawing for $15 at the Ale Jail.  I guess not that many people put in the extra $ for the drawing!  Guess I can't complain too much...

Where the Wild Beers Were

October 17 was the...is it the third?...annual Where the Wild Beers Are.  Or at least the third in the Twin Cities.  The founders and organizers of the event, our-fearless-leader Jeff Halvorson and ex-St. Paul guy Tim Stendahl, also have a parallel event in Brooklyn.  (Tim confided that the beer scene is better in the Twin Cities, but shh...don't tell the Brooklyn hipsters that, they might get mad and wave their glowstics and man-scarves at us.)

A nice little crowd at Stub & Herb's appreciates a pour of sour beer.
The gathering loosens up as the day goes on.

Thanks once again are due to Stub and Herbs for hosting the event on their patio. Rather than do a formal evaluation of the beers (well...maybe a few...and I actually wrote them down rather than mumbling into my phone...old skool), I thought I would share a few pics and say how much I enjoy the atmosphere of the event. Halvorson and Stendahl have done a really smart thing in making this collaborative. Sour-and-wild beer lovers are few, those willing to plan ahead are fewer yet.

Kris-10 and ERok take charge at Pouring Station 2

Rather than pay a gate fee and drink what's available, they pull together a few nice beers, and then ask everyone to bring a commercial version themselves. That's the entrance fee. You get a designated number of "tastes" depending on how much you bring. The beauty of this is that it puts the quality of the event in the hands of the participants. The geekier the beer crowd, the better the beer. It's like the difference between a seminar and a lecture class. And even with the smallish crowds this event brings, there's more beer than a reasonable human can get through without a lot of Tums.

The crowd loosens up, but stays intently focused on good beer.
Michael (left) is still not entirely sure about the "sour" thing.

The crowd loosens up as the day goes on. Interest is really intense during the announced pours of the special-est of special beers early on. (Look at the faces in the first picture).  But things loosen up as the day goes on.  The conversation wanders, but people really do appreciate the beer. I hate to say this, but it really is a very much more "European" spirit than a lot of beer festivals. I also love that it allows people to try a range of beers that they have often never had before.

Halvorson and Stendahl lined up a couple of kegs to start things off. I chose the Oud Beersel Framboise over the Flat Earth. Nuff said, except that the framboise was lovely and it complimented the day perfectly -- sunny but with a chill of fall in the air. The beer was a lovely deep pink, with a well-balanced tartness rather than a full-on sour acidity. It comes across like a raspberry lemonade, very refreshing.

Quite a few of the memorable beers were classic sour beers as well. The Oud Beersel Oude Geuze Vielle was sadly lightstruck, but was probably nice once. The Drei Fonteinen Oude Geuze 1999 on the other hand was nice, funky, sour and slightly vegetal, but deep and refreshing. The Cantillon Iris 2006 was very floral, hoppy-bitter, quite sour, and really delightful.

Some rare and often vintage beers make it to the table.

Other beers were wild experiments I would not have expected. Allegash Confluence 2009 is like a bright pils with a tart edge provided by what I think is Brettanomyces Lambicus. The Odell Sabateur was deep brown, with a strange mix of chocolate and sourness battling for flavor. It was kind of like a Flemish style chocolately porter, if you can imagine that.  Really weird, in a good way. Several brewers had their own twists on collaborations with Belgian production brewer De Proef, and it was nice to see the range and try them together. All very different, and I don't think I had a bad beer out of the bunch. De Proef does not have a "beer geek" reputation, but they've got a nice niche going with the collaborations.

One of several De Proef collaborations.

Other beers I had didn't quite fit the bill, but were worth trying anyway. Brooklyn Local 1, pale with some haze (it's been open a while by the time I get to it) and orange highlights. Not really sour or especially wild -- its really like a saison. This is one of the issues with a self-organized event: sometimes beers outside of the obvious "wild" range will sneak in. But I wouldn't have otherwise had it, and I'm glad I did. Same thing for Lagunitas' Little Sumthin' Wild, despite the name. It's like a Belgian IPA. But then, sometimes the stomach needs a break from sour.

Autumn Brew Review Review

Oh man.  Where did October go?
Now that we are in November, it's time to revisit some of the Twin Cities' beer events from October.  And the Autumn Brew Review is by far the biggest.  And a great time.  Especially if you go early, and avoid the crush of the crowd later.  I wasn't there late enough to find out which beers and brewers got the most-popular votes, but here are some of mine.  For me the dominant theme here is beers I was really surprised by.  I've gotten rather jaded as a lot of "experimental" or "artistic" or "extreme" beers are also not pulled off particularly well.  But there are some exceptions, and it's such a nice thing when a beer brings an idea together with technically excellent brewing to just blow you away.

Early crowd, lovely day.

Best beer: Jubel (Descutes).  10% abv, 55 IBU.
What a revelation.  Deschutes is distributing in Minnesota now, but it's relatively new.  So I know I'm late to a (now very large) party with this.  But I've been really impressed with everything that I've had.  But this was something altogether different -- it was one of those beer revelations that happen a handful of times in life.  It wasn't "oh, that's good."  More like my tasting note, which just says "SUPER GOOD."

Sadly, I only had half a pour.  Descutes had this on tap, and Nicole got it.  I was hesitant.  The writeup had all of the big-beer cliches that I've come to be wary of, all jumbled together.  "Behold something so deep and crimson and swirling with spice, malt, earthy fruit and oak that it is barely tethered to the term beer" they said.  Then they added that it is aged in Pinot Noir barrels.  Sounds like an overly elaborate, overly sweet, overly alcoholic trainwreck, thought I.  "We'll run out, you sure you don't want a pour?" said the Descutes guy.  Nah...I'm trying to stay relatively sober since I have to pour for Dark Horse later.

To say I was wrong doesn't come close.  The thing about this beer is that it wears its size very well.  Unlike every other huge "special" beer monstrosity I feel like I've had recently, this one is ... well attenuated!  It's tasty, it has a lot going on.  But it has no alcohol club hidden behind it's lean body.  No overly sweet finish to make you want to scrape your tongue.  It's just lovely.  Which is probably why the modal review of this incredibly lovely beer on Beer Advocate is something like a B+.  ( "Seems like they were targeting and old ale or an English Barleywine" says one numbskull.  No, because then it would taste like every other "special" beer that I guess gets you out of the B range in these people's sugar addled heads....)

Sorry for the rant. This beer is incredible.  Buy it if you can.  And thanks a million for blowing my expectations out of the water, Descutes.  I need that from time to time.

Best brewery: Dave's BrewFarm (Wilson, WI).
I had met the eponymous David Anderson a few months before, at the second-round judging events for the American Homebrewers Association national competition in Madison.  We were all way too tired to take him up on his offer to show us around if we stopped by on our way back to St. Paul.  They have a really interesting stable of beers though, and they are all very well brewed and very tasty.

"Wheatless Wonder" is kind of a neat idea: can we make a beer that's like a weizen but with all-malt?  It's a nice, approachable beer, and a lot more interesting to taste than to describe probably.  Nicole was very taken with this one.  Their hoppy "Lupulo Noir" was a very smart twist on the creeping trend of black IPAs.  Here, it's pils malt, deeper caramel malt and chocolate, alongside a host of hops -- but not all of them usual suspects for this beer (think both Amarillo and Northern Brewer).  Oh, and a Belgian yeast strain.  I really liked this one, and what I liked most was the surprise of it.  Like Jubel, in lesser hands this could have been a trainwreck.  But Dave has a deft touch as well as an experimental spirit, and it was both surprising and elegant instead.

The dandelion and clover saison was, they said, "our fairwell to summer."  But in truth it was both summery (saison) and leaning toward fall (noticeable hints of the brown sugar and Victory malts they list in the overview).  They had a host of other interesting beers lined up that I didn't get to try as well.  Oh, and did I mention that they are a wind-powered brewery?  How cool is that?

It's a happy little beer.

Best beer concept: Jazz series, Bell's Brewery (Kalamazoo, MI).
Bell's put out a series of variations on the Biere de Garde style this fall.  Here the idea was to draw inspiration from the idea of the Jazz trio.  Normally I wouldn't get to try them all in sequence, but this was a perfect opportunity.  Le Batteur ("the drummer") was the dryest, crispest and lightest of the three.  Le Pianiste ("the pianist") was the most classically "to style" of the three, and my favorite.  This one had the toasty Munich malt notes that went along with the dry finish extremely well.  Le Contrebassiste ("the bassist") added in notes of roast and smoked malts.  While I liked this one less well, it was a great set of beers taken together, and a way to explore a style largely ignored by American craftbrewers.

The author in an agreeable state of mind.  People love the Dark Horse shotgun tap handles.
"Where's Dark Horse?"  It's in Marshall, MI.  "Where's that?"  Near Battle Creek.

To top the day off, we had the pleasure of pouring for Dark Horse, another of my favorites.  By that point, it was starting to get a bit late in the day and the beer-geek crowd starts to give way by sheer force of numbers to a crowd that cares a bit less about the beer.  Some were legitimately (and quite rightly) upset that they missed Dark Horse's excellent Double Crooked Tree IPA, poured through a Randall of both Cascade hops and orange peel.  Say what you will about gimmicks, but this actually brought a lovely floral/citrus punch to an already great beer.  Others, especially later on didn't care what they ordered.  "Hook me up, bud!"  Okay, here's a nice Imperial stout!  (And to be fair, the stout too was lovely, nicely attenuated, less brutally roasty than some of the Dark Horse beers.)  Proud to say we ran through three kegs in not much time.  Of course I like to think that was due to the magnetic personalities and deep beer knowledge of myself and Nicole rather than the other assets of the two comely young ladies that were pouring before us.  Anyway, hope some of you got there and had as good a time as we did.

What were your favorites for the year?  Any obvious ones I missed?