The Bottom Shelf

Tastings At The Microbrew Festival

I wrote on my personal blog about my trip to the microbrew festival on Saturday afternoon. The short recap is that Paul, Roger, Adam, and I drove down to the KROQ microbrew festival at Santa Anita park on Saturday, and Mike met us down there an hour or so after we arrived.

I would guess that between 30 and 40 microbreweries showed up and 100 or so different beers were available to taste. Very few of the breweries sent their own personnel to the festival. As a result, much of the staff seemed to have been hired by Santa Anita Park, so there wasn’t much opportunity for talking about the beers with brewery staff.

Before I get into specifics, I’ll give you my general feelings after having done the tasting. My guess turned out to be accurate that if there was one “featured” beer, it was the pale ale, which is bad news for me, because I don’t enjoy pale ales very much. They’re not repulsive to me by any stretch, but I just don’t get a kick out of drinking them. I am alright, though, at telling crappy pale ales from decent pale ales. I’m not into them enough to identify the truly superior ones.

The brown ales on the whole seemed to be a little weak. The coloring was good, but the added character above and beyond the lighter brews didn’t come along for the ride. There were a couple of exceptions, but Roger and I noticed it enough that I felt like commenting on it.

I brought a small notebook and pen with me, and I recorded 26 beers that we tasted. We had a couple more than that, but I didn’t record those last few because they weren’t that good and I was paying attention to the final race (on which I placed a bet and won!). I should mention that the Brewbaker beers were definitely my favorite. Below are the beers we tried, and my brief comments on each.

• Birra Moretti pilsner - A very good pilsner. I don’t find that there is enough to a pilsner to get really excited about any one in particular. But, I do dislike pilsners that get too bitter, and this one definitely is not bitter. One of the best pilsners I’ve had.

• Hacker Pschorr lager - This one received a good rating from the four of us (Mike hadn’t showed up yet for this one). A standard lager, but a good one. I would definitely buy this if I was in the mood for a lager of decent strength.
• Flying Dog pale ale - A pale ale. What else can I say? The other guys thought this one was good. There was nothing about it that would make me think it’s a bad one. If you like pale ales and haven’t tried it before, I would recommend giving it a whirl. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with it, and you may end up loving it.
• Flying Dog porter - An average porter. There wasn’t anything remarkable about it, and I tried a few other porters and stouts that I liked better than this one. I may buy a six pack of this one time to give it another go, because I didn’t dislike it, but I don’t think it will enter my regular rotation.
• Mac’s Scottish Style Amber Ale - A pretty good Scottish ale. I would drink this one again, but probably wouldn’t buy a six pack of it. The Red Hook and Killian’s Irish Red are similar, but I think the Mac’s edges them out in my book.
• Oregon Honey Beer - There isn’t much honey-like about this beer. It has an extremely subtle sweet aftertaste, but that’s about it. It reminds me more of a domestic macro lager (Budweiser, Original Coors, or Miller Genuine Draft) but slightly condensed. If you are in the mood for a macro lager, want to spend a little bit more, and trying something ever so slightly different, I would recommend this. I will likely buy this one in the store at some point.
• Humbold’s Red Nectar - Very similar to the Mac’s Scottish. I would have to sit down with a bottle of both and some more time to discern the differences.
• Humbold’s Hemp Ale - This is one example of the brown ales without much strength. It had the color of a brown, but a noticeably weaker taste. If you don’t mind a weaker tasting brown, this would be good for a try.
• Hobgoblin - This was a dark and very sweet beer. The name definitely drew me to it. It was too sweet for my liking, almost like what a dessert beer would be, if there were such a thing. Maybe there is such a thing. Regardless, it’s sweet.
• Monty Python’s Holy Grail - This one didn’t have much of an up-front taste, but it did linger with a sour aftertaste. This one didn’t really do it for me, but it didn’t turn me off. I would likely try many other things before I came back to this one.
• Brewbakers brown ale - Now here is the winner. Overall, it got the highest ratings from the five of us. It’s simply a very good brown ale, with a hint of barbecue. It was a little sweet, but not terribly so. I would love to have this with some grilled meats and vegetables. I think it would go very well. And it definitely has enough character to stand by itself. It’s a Newcastle Brown Ale with more character and a more unique twist to it. A very good beer, my favorite of the festival.
• Brewbakers hefeweissen - A good hefeweissen (or hefeweizen). It had an interesting look in that it was cloudy. Most of the hefeweissens I’ve had have been quite clear. It was unmistakably a hefeweissen though. If you like them, along the lines of the Widmer or Pyramid, then you will most likely enjoy this one.
• Brewbakers stout - An excellent chocolaty stout. If you don’t like noticeable chocolate flavors in your stout, this not the beer for you. It’s as smooth as Guinness, with the chocolate being the main identifier. I will definitely have this stout again.
• Mojave Red - This one was weak and bitter. I wasn’t a fan. But, if you like bitter beers, and don’t want to get overwhelmed, this one might be for you.
• Mojave Gold - This one was as weak as the Mojave Red, but it wasn’t bitter. As a result, it was even blander than the Red. Nothing remarkable here.
• Mojave Orange Blossom Amber - Here is the winner of the weirdest beer award in my book. Have you ever had Minute Maid orange soda? Or maybe the Sunkist orange soda? Then you’ve had this beer. Okay, okay, this one has alcohol, and the sodas don’t, but this reminded me very strongly of those orange sodas.
• Black Butte Porter - This was probably the best porter I had at the festival. It was pretty dry and had about average smoothness. Most of my complaints about porters are with how heavily carbonated they feel to me. This one had that carbonated feel, but it wasn’t too much of a drawback.
• Reaper Redemption Red - Roger liked this beer more than anyone else liked any single beer they tried. He even told us he was planning on getting buried with this beer “or something like it.” I didn’t find anything to get excited over, but that’s why it’s fun to have plenty of people at the beer tasting. Give it a shot, because you might like it as much as Roger does.
• Reaper Mortality Stout - I don’t remember much about this one. I remember thinking that it was not the best stout I had at the festival, but it didn’t leave me with any complaints. This was near the end of the festival, and my tongue was numbing, so I need to sit down with this one again and give it another go.
• Fox Barrel Pear Cider - An excellent cider. I generally find ciders a little too sweet. This one wasn’t so sweet. It definitely was sweet enough to identify it as a cider, but it was also a little sour. It had a very clean finish. A refreshing drink, especially as it was near the end of the festival.
• Stone Pale Ale - The classic microbrew pale ale. But, again, for me…it was a pale ale. The other guys recommend it. You might have already have it. If not, and you like pale ales, you ought to try this one.
• Belhaven Scottish - I don’t remember much about this one. I’ll have to give it another go at some point in the future.
• Kona Lager - Nothing special about this one. Light and unoffensive. It would go well with any food you can imagine, because it doesn’t have enough character to interfere with anything. It’s a lot like many pilsners I’ve had.
• Kona Pale Ale - A good, standard pale ale. I could probably drink a bottle of this. I wouldn’t want to, but if it came down to it, I could manage. In other words, it wasn’t so bitter as to turn me off completely. But that may be a turn off in itself for you. It just depends on how bitter you like your beers.
• Lagunitas Brown Sugar - This was at the end of the day. I was hot. I was tired. I had won some money betting on the horses and felt like going home. So, naturally, I didn’t like this one. I probably wouldn’t have liked it if I had it earlier in the day, but it’s hard to know for sure. I found it too sweet, almost like it was trying to be a dark cider. I don’t recommend this one.
• Karl Strauss pilsner - I think it was their pilsner that we tried. It was very light, whatever it was. This one wasn’t good, which was disappointing because I like their amber ale. I probably would give this one more shot before completely writing it off, but the Birra Moretti was much better.