Beer Advocate's Extreme Beer Festival

Ben and I have attended 6 of Beer Advocate's beer festivals in the three years since we moved back to Boston. Our first festival was the 2007 Belgian beer festival (BBF), and then the American Craft Beer Festival (ACBF) in 2008. Fall 2008 we were in Belgium during the Belgian beer festival. Last spring, we decided that we really enjoyed the festivals so maybe we should help out, and we volunteered at the 2009 ACBF. Well, volunteering was awesome. So we also volunteered for BBF...and though we never had the inclination to attend one before, we volunteered for the Extreme Beer Festival last weekend. I must say, it's an awesome festival! I was always a little turned of by the amount of super-strong barrel-aged beers. Which I enjoy, but shelling out $ for 3 hours of only tasting them didn't appeal to me...I was worried about how I could stay sober and gt my money's worth. But volunteering doesn't come with that worry! You do, however, really have to stay sober when you volunteer.

Ben and I volunteered all day for the Saturday portion of the festival (the Friday night is a special "Night of the Barrels" and it's hard for me to get home from work in time to volunteer for it). Knowing that we wanted to try many of the excellent beers that would be available, we actually made lists so that we would be sure to not "waste" our sobriety on anything we weren't dying to try.
Anyway, we arrived at Cyclorama a little before 10am and got to work. We got our first session assignments and I was pouring beer for...Lost Abbey! That's really pretty cool, especially since I got to do so with Director of Brewery Operations, Tomme Arthur. He was nice, though he probably thought I was nerdy...as I was being super nerdy! Haha. So, first order of business, I had to try all of Lost Abbey's beers. I know, I know...tough life of the beer advocate volunteer. They were at the top of my list of beers to try, so I was pretty psyched with my assignment. They brought Oak-Aged Ten Commandments, Barrel-Fermented Serpent's Stout, Red Poppy Ale, Sinner's Blend 2009 (a barrel-aged blend of Serpent Stout, Ten Commandments, and Gift of the Magi), and a "secret framboise"* called Framboise de Amarosa...it was actually a double version of it. My favorite was probably the framboise, then Red Poppy. Yum, Belgian-style fruity sours. All of the beers were excellent, though. I may have tried them all twice to make sure they were still good.

My job the second session was patrol...so I wandered around asking if anyone needed me and drinking/sampling when I could.
Here are some of my thoughts (unfortunately I dropped my list at the festival, Ben found all of my papers but I just looked and the list isn't in it! At least I realized this and went through the program to mark things off)

Allagash Brewing Company
Victor Frankenstein 2008--this was awesome. Their "Victor" beer aged in a cask with grapes and "bugs"...not sure what that means. I've never had an Allagash I didn't like, and this was fruity and wonderful.

Birra del Borgo
Rubus-Lamponi--sour ale made with fresh raspberry. If I recall it was refreshing, but apparently forgettable.

Brewery Ommegang
Ommegeddon "Funkhouse Saison"...a little too much for me at the time I drank it

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
They had this special contraption called "randall" where the beer would filter through additives like wood chips, orange peels, additional hops leaves, or espresso beans as they poured it. Added a lot of flavor.
Burton Baton Meets Randall w/Wood Chips
This was pretty woody. I liked it.
Red & White Meets Randall w/Orange Peels
This was fruity, refreshing, but still held its own. Really enjoyed this one.
World Wide Stout Meets Randall w/Espresso Coffee Beans
Probably my 2nd favorite beer of the night. The espresso was just an amazing complement and the way the flavor was used with the Randall was just amazing. An awesome treat.
I tried a sip of Wrath of Pecan from Ben and it was nice and smokey. Enjoyable.

Founders Brewing Company
Canadian Breakfast Stout--a syrup-barrel-aged chocolate coffee stout. My favorite beer of the festival. Smooth and complex. Definitely get maple, chocolate, and coffee flavors in it. Sweet but balanced. At the end of the fest, after clean-up, the volunteers got to drink some of the leftovers of this. I could have had two glasses, just relaxing. Loved it. A+

Ithaca Beer Company
LeBleu--a blueberry sour. I enjoyed this immensely. Tart.

Russian River Brewing Company
The Much Lusted After Pliny the Younger--Triple IPA: it was good, dry, hoppy, drinkable, enjoyable. But not my favorite beer ever. I didn't dislike it, though, at all. Great beer, just not what I was looking for that evening.
Supplication--Brown ale aged in pinot noir barrels w/Brett and sour cherries-- this was a very good beer and I liked it a lot.

Short's Brewing Company
Key Lime Pie--brewed w/lime puree, graham cracker, marshmallow, and milk sugar. I would NOT have tried this if I hadn't been asking all the volunteers what their favorite beers were. This was, actually, very very good and drinkable. Sweet and tasty. It felt like you were drinking a beery key lime pie, but not disgusting like that sounds. Awesome job on that.
I tried some of Ben's Plum Rye Bock and it was okay
Turtle Stout--another very sweet beer, stout brewed with chocolate, caramel, and pecans. Really enjoyed it, very decadent.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Vintage 1994 Bigfoot Barleywine--I tried a sip of Ben's. This beer had mellowed, was really balanced and just great. A 16-year-old beer! Really impressive
Chocolate Chili Imperial Stout--stout with cocoa nibs and chipotle chills....I'd heard that most of the chili beers weren't very good, but this is exactly what I wanted. Smokey heat and chocolate. Yum.

Smuttynose Brewing Company
Bacon Brown Dog--I had really built this up in my head. 1) it was lighter in flavor and color than Brown Dog 2) The bacon flavor wasn't at the perfect level. I was disappointed in this beer, but again, I had built it up a lot in my head.
Potato Maple Porter--this was really enjoyable. Apparently I like maple flavor in beer (or, really, anything--like Starbucks Gold Coast Blend paired with maple!)

The Bruery
Mischief--still very good since the last time I had it. Very enjoyable hoppy golden strong ale.

I alluded to the fact that at the end of the night we got to drink from some of the kegs. One of the volunteers actually did a keg stand of Sam Adams' Utopias. Umm....it's like $100/bottle. But hey, he can say he did it. I tried some, and it's definitely a sipping beer. It'd be nice to try when I had time to enjoy it better. Apparently lots of the volunteers had combined Utopias and Canadian Breakfast Stout, which sounds good, but really my sample of Utopias was enough!

The next morning was the Hair of the Dog after-brunch at Cambridge Common. I had done such a good job of being social the day before that I sat by myself (Ben was working) and just people watched. The idea of chatting someone up was too much, though Candice Alstrom was super sweet to me which I appreciate, inviting me to sit with them. I just couldn't! Anyway, I had Dogfish Head's Black and Blue, which was great. And then a DFH World Wide Stout (since I'd enjoyed it so much with Randall). It was great, but way stronger than I anticipated. Being tipsy by 2pm is awesome. I wandered over to Ben's store after and he laughed at me.

Oh, and at this festival? I have never been flirted with by so many guys. Some dude even put his arm around me when I was standing next to Ben and declared me his "Canadian Breakfast Stout Girl" (well, he slurred that part). Ben was not amused. I was amused that I really did talk to so many guys! Now Ben knows what it's like when I see him being Barista McFlirtyPants. HA!

Volunteering is awesome, and soo soo worth the 13 hour day we put in. Our feet were killing us, but we were so happy and had a great time.


*I seriously told ONE person about this beer and then that's all anyone wanted. We had no signs for some reason, so no one knew where Lost Abbey was, so no lines. People who knew where we were came up, no joke, 10 times asking for the freakin' framboise. It was awesome, but still...there are other beers to try, people! The guys from Allagash, though, were so cute coming over and looking guilty asking for it. "Um, may I try the 'secret' beer?" YES!