Harvesting the Great White (Wh)Ales

 This weekend saw some changes, due both to the Northern Virginia BrewFest and another trip to Total Wine.  Again, items in bold I've gotten to try, and items in italics I have picked up but haven't tried yet:

1. Pliny the Elder
2. Heady Topper
3. Founders KBS
4. Founders Breakfast Stout
5. Bell's Hopslam Ale (sadly, Bell's brought Oberon and a red ale, but not hopslam)
6. Zombie Dust
7. Trappist Westvleteren 12 (XII)
8. Bourbon County Brand Stout
9. Trappistes Rochefort 10
10. The Abyss
11. Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout
    
    
12. Supplication
13. Parabola
14. St. Bernardus Abt 12
15. Sculpin IPA
16. Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
17. Dreadnaught IPA
18. Imperial Russian Stout
19. Troegs Nugget Nectar (Troegs was there as well, but didn't have Nugget Nectar)
20. Consecration
21. Ruination IPA
22. La Fin Du Monde (Total Wine was out of 12oz bottles, and I didn't want to spring for a big bottle)
23. Ten FIDY
24. AleSmith Speedway Stout
25. Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock
26. Founders Imperial Stout
27. Peche Mortel (Imperial Stout Au Cafe)
28. 90 Minute IPA
29. Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout
30. Chimay Grande Reserve (Blue)
31. Double Jack
32. Blind Pig IPA
33. Furious
34. Victory At Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter
    
    
35. Two Hearted Ale
36. Duvel
37. Double Bastard Ale
38. Founders Backwoods Bastard
39. Trappistes Rochefort 8
40. Schneider Weisse Tap 6 Unser Aventinus
41. IPA (India Pale Ale)
    
    
42. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
43. Alpha King Pale Ale
44. Westmalle Trappist Tripel
45. Dark Lord Imperial Stout
46. Hop Rod Rye
    
    
47. Founders Porter
48. Choklat
49. Union Jack India Pale Ale (Firestone Walker had this, but it was right next to Wooky Jack.  Come on!  What was I to do?)
    
    
    
50. Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout
51. Green Flash West Coast I.P.A. (I can understand why this is so highly rated.  Very fruity, almost juicy flavor and very well balanced.)
52. A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale
53. Burton Baton
54. Founders Double Trouble
55. Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale
    
    
56. Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
57. Terrapin Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout
58. Arrogant Bastard Ale
59. Racer 5 India Pale Ale
    
    
60. Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
61. Maharaja
62. Trois Pistoles
63. Yeti Imperial Stout
    
    
64. Flower Power India Pale Ale
65. Hop Stoopid
66. Founders Red's Rye PA
67. Gumballhead
68. Tripel Karmeliet
69. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
70. Orval Trappist Ale
71. Bell's Expedition Stout (again, not one Bell's brought this weekend.)
72. Gulden Draak (Dark Triple)
    
    
73. Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA
74. Sierra Nevada Bigfood Barleywine Style Ale
75. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
76. Palo Santo Marron
77. Hennepin (Farmhouse Saison)
78. Sierra Nevada Hoptimum Imperial IPA
    
    
79. Maudite
80. Chocolate Stout
81. Black Butte Porter
82. Northern Hemisphere Harvest Wet Hop Ale
83. Founders Centennial IPA
84. Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout
85. Saison Dupont
86. Jai Alai IPA
87. Miles Davis' Bitches Brew
88. Ommegang (Abbey Ale)
89. Allagash White (Allagash was a few tents down from Yards, and I tried the White without realizing it was even on my list)
90. Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout
91. Three Philosophers Belgian Style Blend (Quadrupel)
92. World Wide Stout
93. Hercules Double IPA
94. 60 Minute IPA
95. Hop Devil Ale
96. Delirium Tremens
97. Chimay Premiere (Red)
98. Smuttynose IPA "Finest Kind"
99. Anchor Porter
100. Storm King Stout

Northern Virginia BrewFest

So Saturday was the Northern Virginia BrewFest. When I say it exceeded my expectations, you have to understand that I set my expectations for thisp thing almost painfully high. My dad's been asking me to come for years, and the list of breweries--including Stone, Bell's, Firestone Walker and more--really had me pumped.

Somehow it was better than I expected. I was pouring for Yards Brewing out of Philadelphia, and one of their distributors named Jason was there. He was a certified cicerone, and he really knew his stuff. I learned a decent bit from him.

Yards had two beers: their Thomas Jefferson Tavern Ale and their Love Stout.  Both were quite tasty and some of the more popular beers of the festival, but very different.

Jason described the Tavern Ale as "an English Strong Ale brewed with honey, about 8% ABV". He's a pro, and he does these festivals for a living, so I'm sure he knew what the patrons wanted to know, but the story behind it was the interesting part to me.

"I have no reciept [sic] for brewing," Jefferson wrote, "and I much doubt the operations of malting and brewing could be successfully performed from a reciept," according to the Monticello website. Strange, for a man who kept such careful records. Nonetheless, Yards brewed a beer with the sorts of ingredients that might have been available at Monticello, and used a recipe that might have been used at the time. It contains malted barley, rye, flaked maize, and a decent bit of honey, which forms the most prominent note. It has very little on the way of hops, as Jason said they'd not have used hops at Monticello, hops being introduced to the colonies nearly one hundred years later by German settlers.

I'm not sure I buy the explanation--the Monticello site says they grew hops for beer in 1794, no doubt from Jefferson's meticulous notes on his garden.  The Reinheitsgebot was enacted in 1516, specifying hops as one of the ingredients in German beer, and my own ancestors emigrated from Hamburg to New York in the early 1600's--nearly two hundred years before Jefferson was brewing.

Nonetheless, it's the historical tie-in that I find so fascinating about this beer. They have a line of "Ales of the Revolution", and the concept thrills me.

The other beer was their Love Stout, a draft-only English stout carbonated with nitro to emulate cask beer. It was quite tasty, and the nitro gave it a smooth, creamy body that really worked well with the mild flavor. I'm hoping it makes its way into restaurants in the area.

I managed to knock one beer off my list: Allagash White. They were a few tents down, and volunteers could basically sample at will. I also got to try Bell's Oberon, a very tasty wheat beer (they didn't have Hopslam or Two-Hearted, more's the pity). Stone had both their IPA and Arrogant Bastard there for the hopheads, though; Green Flash brought their West Coast IPA and Firestone Walker had both Union Jack and Wooky Jack. Most of the other breweries also had IPA's as well.

NoVa Summer BrewFest

For the first time in several years, I will be volunteering at the Northern Virginia Summer BrewFest!  My dad volunteers every year and loves it.  The last time I volunteered I was assigned to run spin art for the kids, which was fine--but this year I get to be a pourer.

The big email with all the instructions for volunteers, etc. came out today.  Good stuff, and it appears pretty well organized.  Best of all is the section labeled 'Related Information - "The Fun Stuff"'.  It's all about learning about the beers and brewery you'll be working with so you can discuss it with the patrons, as well as learning as much as you can about the other beers available at the festival.

You can understand why this excites me.  I only wish I knew beforehand which brewery I would be assigned to so I could do some homework!

Brewers appearing at the brewfest:

• Abita Brewery
• Allagash Brewing Appocalypse Brew Works (Louisville, KY)
• Baltimore-Washington Beer Works (Raven)
• Bell’s Brewery
• Blue & Gray Brewing
• Blue Point Brewery
• Boston Beer Co.
• Bold Rock Ciders
• Brewery Ommegang
• Capitol City Brewing
• Climax Brewing
• Corcoran Brewing
• Crispin Cider
• DC Brau Brewing
• Devils Backbone Brewing
• Dominion Brewery
• DuClaw Brewing
• Evolution Craft Brewing
• Firestone Walker Brewery
• Flying Dog Brewery
• Fordham Brewing
• Gordon Biersch Brewery
• Goose Island Brewing
• Great Lakes Brewing
• Green Flash Brewing
• Harpoon Brewery
• Heavy Seas Brewing
• Highland Brewing 
• Kona Brewing
• Lagunitas Brewery
• Lancaster Brewing
• Laughing Dog Brewing
• Left Hand Brewing
• Legend Brewery
• Long Trail Brewing
• Lost Rhino Brewing
• Mad Fox Brewing
• Magic Hat Brewing
• Miller Brewing
• New Belgium Brewing
• New Holland Brewing
• Peak Organic Brewing
• Port City Brewing
• Redhook Ale Brewery
• RJ Rockers Brewing
• Schlafly Beer (St. Louis Brewery)
• Shocktop (Anheuser-Busch Brewing)
• Sixpoint Brewery
• Smuttynose Brewing Somerville Brewing (Slumbrew) (MA)
• St. George Brewery
• Starr Hill Brewery
• Stone Brewing
• Terrapin Beer Co. Three Brothers Brewing (Harrisonburg, VA)
• Three Heads Brewing
• Troegs Brewing
• Vintage 50 Restaurant & Brew Pub
• Widmer Brothers Brewing
• Williamsburg Alewerks Brewing
• Wild Wolf Brewing

Several of these are new this year.  I won't lie; there are some I'd prefer to others (Lagunitas, Bell's, Stone, for example--and I would be over the moon if I was assigned to Firestone Walker, though I'd probably consume all of the Wooky Jack if they had it) but I'll be thrilled with whomever I'm assigned to.

Time to start doing some homework, and the teacher hasn't specified what's going to be on the test yet...personally, I regard this as a valuable educational experience as well as a test of what I've learned so far.