The Old Bakery Beer Company held their 2nd Anniversary Festival called Black & Blues yesterday afternoon. This event, as its name suggests, featured stouts from the area with some blues playing in the background. The DJ was actually using vinyl records instead of a playlist on his iPod which is a nice touch you don’t see too often anymore.
A ticket to the event got you a commemorative stemmed glass, samples of at least 20 breweries and a good time for just $35. BBQ was available for purchase and the epic battle I had with a turkey leg was long and hard, but I came out on top.
They have a huge warehouse so the event was out of the cold weather. It was a little crowded but not so much that you had to wait long for a pour at every station. A lot of beer festivals have long lines, so it was a nice change of pace that allows for conversations with the guys behind the beer. (The picture was taken 10 minutes into the event. People were eager to get in early and start sampling.)
Any fan of stouts would enjoy this event but I would highly recommend this event to those that aren’t the biggest fans of stouts, like myself. There are a lot of good stouts out there and I added 1 or 2 to my list to purchase the next time I’m at the beer store.
One really cool aspect to see was the various breweries talking to each other. No rivalries, no competition, just fans of beer.
Speaking of beer, let’s get to the important part; what was on draft that I liked?
4 Hands Brewing – Absence of Light
Did they get peanut butter in their chocolate milk stout or chocolate milk in their peanut butter stout? Either way, this was delicious. Hands down this was my favorite beer there.
Urban Chestnut – Dorfbier
This was a pretty good dunkel. I got a nice hint of caramel with the typical crisp lager finish. 10 out of 10 would drink again.
Old Bakery Beer Company – 1st Anniversary Barleywine
This was the beer that Old Bakery brewed for last year’s festival. This one was fairly complex because it featured cocoa nibs and cinnamon but it was not too sweet.
Square One Brewery – Imperial Biscotti Brown
I was not expecting to like this one, but I love me some biscotti so I had to give it a try. This was really good. There was some nice caramel and it wasn’t too nutty.
Alpha Brewing Company – Apocrypha
A sour black saison? Not something seen at your local grocery store every week. This was a good sour. Although I didn’t get much of the “saison” flavors I was expecting.
My wife’s pick: Stubborn German Brewery Black and Blue, a mix of their Blueberry Wheat and Oatmeal Stout.
Overall, it was a great time and it reminded me that we have a lot of great beers being made locally that I haven’t even tried yet. I’m already looking forward to next year.
Cheers!
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I’ve been trying to figure out what one of the beers I had at the black & blues fest was -obviously a black beer but with jalepeno pepper. BTW Copra from Narrow Gauge was my favorite.