The Beer Road

Good morning to all those heading out to Roanoke’s craft beer festival Microfestivus!  There are several posts that I’ve written on the blog this week that hopefully might give some suggestions as to what to try today (links to this week’s posts are over on the right sidebar), but no matter what is poured into your tasting glass, the biggest recommendation anyone could possibly give, I believe, would simply be to try something…different.  With all the possibilities in beers and beer styles that will be available, the chance you’ll try something you might truly love, and take away with you as a new favorite, is pretty high.  Revisit some old favorites, sure.  But trust your curiosities, as well as your intuition, and go with them.  “Go with your gut.”  (Oh, and don’t forget, taste with your nose as well as your tongue, aroma adds so much to how we interpret flavors.)  But truly, at least in my opinion, the best memory from a craft beer festival, other that you had a blast of a time, is that you came away with a new type of beer, or a specific one, that you absolutely can’t WAIT to get another of.

It was like that for me years ago – I still remember that taste of Troeg’s doppelbock Troegenator, before I was truly bitten by the bug of craft beer.  I had no idea what I was asking for, but when it hit my mouth – wow – I had no idea beer could taste this way, so good, so different from anything else I had ever tasted.  The doors opened up to a world of possibilities that day, and as they say, I never have looked back.

Enjoy the festival today, craft curious folks, thanks for checking out the blog this week if you have, have a blast, of course be safe… and save at least a few of your pours for something different… a new favorite might be right around the corner at the next booth.

CHEERS, ALL!

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Recently, the beer world celebrated its second annual IPADay.  A mix of both social media event and appreciation for one of the world’s most venerable, loved, but perhaps misunderstood beer styles, IPADay basically meant that fans of the style worldwide got together at breweries, bars, and in backyards, reveled over the beers, and then were encouraged to share such experiences with others via the internet, twitter, or the like.

If you are indeed one of these folks – IPA fans, hop heads, whatever label you choose – and are coming to Microfestivus in Roanoke on Saturday, you may want to fire up your facebook account again – it seems that IPADay 2012 is making a second appearance at the festival.  The numbers speak for themselves.  Of the roughly 130 beers which will be at Microfestivus this year, 29 appear to be India Pale Ales, or around twenty two percent.  Basically, if you are the kind of person who attends a craft beer festival wearing vines of fresh hops as a necklace, in some attempt to come closer to your beer, news like this might make you lose sleep the night before.

But what if you’re not the type to tie hops around your neck?  (And overall, thinks that anyone who does so is just nuts?)  What if a more hopped up beer, and the bitterness that usually comes with it, What if you’re not “into” IPAs, but occasionally, your curiosity gets the better of you, and you begin veering towards the world of hopped up beers?

Ultimately, it’s a tough question to answer.  Every IPA is different from the next, and if one is going to turn out to be the brew that makes a difference, it’s hard to say which one that will be.  Having said that, below are some a few ideas to consider when attempting to appreciate, or simply understand, these beers:

Go big.  Bigger IPAs, or more accurately Imperial or Double IPAs, basically mean the volume has been turned up over a more everyday IPA.  More hop aroma, more hop flavor and characteristics, more hops period.  Wondering why that would be a good thing for someone new to the style?  In most cases, although not in all, the amount of malt used in the beer has been turned up as well, in tune with the level of hops.  This can cause some Imperial IPAs to be not only huge on the flavors the hops do bring, but along with this, also somewhat “sweet”.  Don’t get me wrong – hop characteristics, flavor, and the bitterness will still be around, but it might be somewhat easier for the IPA newbie to manage.  Think of this as falling “backwards” into IPAs.  Microfestivus 2012 examples:  Southern Tier’s 2xIPA, Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo, Legend’s Double IPA.

Visit the East Coast.  It’s a well known, fun, if somewhat too often held discussion that many IPAs produced by brewers on the West coast can be more bitter and less balanced with a malty sweetness than ones made by their East coast counterparts.  This means that some, but again not all, East coast versions may show through more of an IPA’s citrus, or pine like flavors, somewhat de-emphasizing the bitterness.  Microfestivus 2012 examples:  the classic Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, Troeg’s Perpetual IPA.

Be trendy.   There are a few IPA sub styles that have begun to show up on craft beer’s radar in the past couple years, as craft brewers once again flex their creative muscle.  White IPAs (IPAs with wheat malt, as in hefeweizens), Black IPAs (IPAs brewed with darker barley malts instead of paler ones, yielding flavors sometimes akin to a black lager along with more typical IPA flavors) are just a couple.  Flavors such as those given by the different types of malt again might take the more typical “edge” off of a more hopped up beer for those new to IPAs. Microfestivus 2012 examples: Peak Organic’s Hop Noir, Laughing Dog’s Dogzilla Black IPA.

In case you are at all curious about the renowned, legendary IPA, just remember to hold out at least one of your tickets’ tastings for the style.  For most, yes, IPAs are an acquired taste, but one that once appreciated, can hold so much enjoyment.  Along with the accompanying bitterness can lie he an endless range of various citrus or herbal like flavors. The one you may decide to try at this year’s festival may just be the one that begins making you into a hop head, or at the least, helps you understand them why on earth someone would want to call themselves one at all.

Posted in Events.

There has been quite a bit of press, and deservedly so, over August becoming Virginia’s official craft beer month.   The official, culminating event is the Virginia Craft Brewers Fest, which is being held on the 25^th.  It’s a celebration which from the looks of things will a fitting crown for the month – featuring numerous Virginia craft breweries, and to top it off, it’s being held right on the grounds of one of the state’s most up and coming establishments, the Devils Backbone location in Nelson County.

But at least unofficially, I’m proposing that the month needs its other bookend, and that maybe it’s right here in Roanoke.

Sure, the month has already gotten underway.  And yes, there will be other festivals occurring in the state this summer, without a doubt.  No, we don’t have acres of serene campground surrounding a fully functioning brewery.  But when it comes to August and craft beer, Roanoke’s own festival has been putting on quite a show for a while, and this time around, the stars have aligned in a way no planning committee probably could’ve ever wished for.  Not only is Microfestivus celebrating its fifteenth anniversary, but here, in the light of Virginia’s first official craft beer month, it will welcome what appears to be more Virginia based breweries than the event ever has previously.  The official numbers were difficult to come by, but this years’ stats stand pretty well on their own:  out of the forty nine breweries which will have representative beers at Microfestivus this Saturday, fifteen of them are from the state, accounting for close to thirty percent of the total.  It seems that August is a naturally perfect time to hold Virginia’s craft beer month – after all, Microfestivus falls within its days, each year.  And this year, the festival couldn’t have celebrated the state’s growing craft beer culture any better, or had any better timing.  Perhaps August was always meant to become Virginia Craft Beer Month after all.  Cheers, and a tip of our beer glasses…to both!

A few notes:

Some of the state’s breweries are also coming off of celebrations of their own – Blue Mountain (Afton) recently opened their new “Barrel House” production facility, and is scheduled to bring their “Local Species”, a new Belgian style ale, for tasting.  Devils Backbone is also bringing their recently produced Azrael Belgian style ale.  Among the relative newcomers to the festival are Wolf Hills (Abingdon) and Lost Rhino (Ashburn), who join festival veterans Jefferson Street (Lynchburg) and Blue & Gray (Fredericksburg).

Below is a list of the state’s breweries which will be offering beers at Saturday’s Microfestivus.

River Company (Radford), Wild Wolf (Nellysford), Starr Hill (Crozet), Legend (Richmond), Williamsburg Alewerks, Dominion Brewing (Ashburn), Bull & Bones (Blacksburg), Big Daddy’s (Roanoke), Roanoke Railhouse.

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Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and brown sugar – at this year’s Microfestivus, you might hear some of the volunteers mentioning these spices more than once, sounding more like they’re discussing a recipe for their grandmom’s pumpkin pie than a beer.  But considering how some of the best pumpkin ales are known for tasting closely and deliciously like that favorite holiday dessert, it’s easy to understand where they get their flavor from.  Actual additions of some or all of these spices to ales, as well as either whole pumpkin or pumpkin puree make for arguably the most popular seasonal beer to be released each year.  And just as your grandmom’s pumpkin pie tasted better than any other because of which spices she used and how much of each, the better versions of these beers often are made with a fine-line balance between them and the other, more “expected” components of the beer.  The best ones tend let those fall spices sit somewhere just off to the side, supporting a not-too-over the top malt sweetness, all rounded out with dryness that doesn’t taste unlike pie crust.  Don’t forget that the aroma can be just like fresh baked pumpkin pie.  Thirsty yet?  True, even die hard fans of pumpkin ales will tell you that it’s the kind of thing appreciated one at a time, but the tasting experience of a well done pumpkin ale is something not to be missed – just like a piece of your grandmom’s pumpkin pie.

Those fans and anyone else curious about these beers will be in luck at this year’s Microfestivus.  A couple of the more well known Pumpkin ales out there are currently scheduled to be on the beer list, including Heavy Seas’ (Baltimore, MD) Great Pumpkin and Southern Tier’s (Lakewood, NY) Pumpking.  An earlier version of the festival beer list also had Williamsburg Alewerks’ (VA) Pumpkin Ale listed.  Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale is also on the list.  It might be one of the more interesting taste comparisons the festival can offer, as anyone curious enough could try out and compare them all, one four ounce sample at a time.

Each year, the arrival of pumpkin ales is celebrated by fans throughout the country, almost to a groupie like level.  In case you’re one of these folks, Microfestivus certainly has a beer – actually, a few – just for you.  In case you’re not quite sold on pumpkin ales yet, save one of your tastings for a try.  You just might be surprised at how close they come to your beloved grandmom’s pumpkin pie.

Roanoke’s Microfestivus Craft Beer Festival – this Saturday, August 11^th!

Posted in Events.