Boston Bacon and Beer Festival 2010 (by Beth)

Yesterday was the much-anticipated Bacon and Beer Festival put on by @eatBoston and SoWa Sundays. I think it was a great festival, and I hope it really helped to get craft beer in more people's minds. I recognized a few local "celebrities." Top Chef season 1's Tiffani (I'm not your bitch, bitch) is apparently chef at the South End's Rocca Kitchen, the ladies of We are Not Martha were in attendance, and lots of brewers, of course. I also recognized lots of Beer Advocates, especially the festival organizers/captains/volunteers.

First, a little constructive criticism:

• The line--The line to get in was long and slow-moving. We are nerds and got there early, but I had friends who came 10 minutes after it started, it took them 30 minutes to get through, and there were more people behind them in line. Ticket holders had to get their names checked off a list--there was only one table for this, despite all the names being divided into four groups (A-C, etc). If you have to check names off a list, get 4 tables for the 4 groups, and make them not have to cross path with each other to get wristbanded (actually, with tables you could have check-in one end of the table and wristbands at the end of the table).


• Programs--would have been nice. I have no idea what I missed. Or what I ate.


• Slop buckets--a place to rinse beer cups and throw any unwanted beer would have been welcome


• Recycling/composting--I actually think they did a GREAT job at this. I was never looking for a place to put my stuff away. I never saw them overfill. Once things started winding down, though, some of the labels on the barrels disappeared and I didn't know where to throw things.


• Layout--interspersing beer and food would have made for a few more surprises. Going back and forth got difficult.


• Length--I think 4 hours was a bit long. We left between 4-5, when food started running out.


• Food and beer lines--moved amazingly quickly.

So, the fest! Unfortunately, I think I need a new camera as mine kept dying...then working again...then dying again. So, you get a picture of Ben chowing down on a beignet with lardon and mustard-IPA sauce.

Beer: Most of the beers I'd had before--this is not a criticism, just why I didn't take many notes. It was about local beer, and there was awesome local beer!
A few places I hadn't heard of before (Cody Brewing? I didn't remember to try them, unfortunately). Since there were no programs, note-taking got cumbersome. I did try Brooklyn's Dark Matter for the first time--it was oaky and went well with bacon. I tried to stick to dark/smokey beers for this fest. I got to introduce my friend Lauren to Pretty Things and she was quite impressed...Dann and Martha from PT also impressed my friend and her husband as people. They're so sweet. And they liked my wing-ed squirrel t-shirt my mother-in-law gave me! Always happy to get people to try beer I LOVE made by nice, local people. Cape Ann had a Tea Party Killer barleywine that I missed out on, but I did enjoy their pumpkin stout-a good, smokey choice for a bacon festival.

We tried a bunch of our usuals...Mayflower Brewing knew that Ben was wearing a Mike Doughty T-shirt ("More Bacon than the Pan Can Handle"); tried Old Brown Dog (with Bacon) again from Smuttynose...it was really cold. Raison d'Etra from Dogfish Head. That's all I remember!

Food: The food was all excellent that I ate (apparently someone made really bad chicken wings, though). I was especially impressed with The Fireplace's large chunk of bacon over some puree with a chickpea salad...thing (see, I WANT PROGRAMS). It was soooo yummy. The beignets with lardon and IPA/mustard sauce from Gaslight were amazing, too. B.good made an awesome bacon-chocolate shake, which I thought had peanut butter in it, but it might not have. Garden at the Cellar had stellar bacon-date-goat cheese things. To die for. Also enjoyed Atwood's bacon-egg steamed rolls with candied bacon and maple syrup topping. I ate other stuff, too, but can barely remember it.

Overall: I think this is a great idea for a festival. I really enjoyed getting to try all the foods--I've never been to a food event like this, and I actually had already felt like I was on Top Chef BEFORE I saw Tiffani walk by me! I was even thinking "did the chefs think about what it would be like to try to eat this standing up with a spork?" (The Fireplace's was surprisingly easy to eat with a spork!).

I heard people in line talking about how they hoped to learn more about beer and the event, and I hope they did! I hope this allowed people to reach out of their comfort zones and learn something new/appreciate a new beer. I definitely found some restaurants I want to try--must say I'm already a huge fan of b.good and The Fireplace, though!

Great idea, great venue, great recycling/composting, great food and beer. AWESOME value ($25...seriously. It was a fundraiser so all the vendors must have donated. The quality of beer and food would have made a $50 price tag a bargain, although one I couldn't have probably afforded anyway). I really really enjoyed myself while I was there, and my constructive criticism is just that--meant to be constructive in hopes that they offer this event again!

Return of the Christmas Beers (Beth)

We finally drank the beers we got each other for Christmas...we actually planned meals around them.

Last night was Kasteel Rouge, paired with bleu-cheese dried-cherry turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and salad (spring greens, tomatoes, onions, dried cherries, and a white wine vinaigrette).
The first time I tried Kasteel Rouge was at Beer Advocate's Belgian Beer Fest in 2007. I remember how impressed I was to find a dark beer with cherries. Yeah, well, apparently my tastes have matured since then! I've been to Belgium again, another Belgian beer festival, and tried a lot more cherry-based beers...this is not a star, to me, anymore. It tasted...well...like cherry cough syrup. Overly sweet and syrupy in texture. Just not my thing anymore.

The food, actually, wasn't cherry enough to hold up to the hit of cherries. The meatloaf, done in the crockpot, was super dry...my fault as I started it cooking about 12 hours before we ate it. I have a biiiiig crockpot, and apparently there was just not enough food for being in there so long (I usually cook huge beef or pork roasts in my crockpot on days I work, not a pound of ground turkey). Next time I'd do the covered dish within the crockpot trick. Anyway, the meatloaf was dry, and did not have any bleu cheese flavor in it, despite using a particularly pungent one. It was so dry that I had to make emergency gravy. Life is tough.
Kasteel Rouge C+
Meatloaf B-
Overall satisfaction: Eh.


Tonight we drank Mikkeller's Santa's Little Helper (2009). To pair with the Christmas beer we did a holiday meal...roast turkey breast, Ben's famous stuffing, and bacon-onion green beans, and gravy (I couldn't find any frozen cranberries to make sauce!). Oh my. This meal was good. The beer might have been even better. Hints of cola, cocoa, strong hop presence, excellent maltiness. Great beer. Delicate. The Bruery's 2 Turtle Doves, while excellent, is a wee bit...overpowering. It's in-your-face. This is just a much more subtle and nuanced beer. (Full disclosure: since my last post I've had more Two Turtle Doves on New Year's Eve and we bought another bottle as our first cellaring beer...maybe it'll mellow a bit with age).
Dinner was great, I might add. Ben's stuffing never disappoints, and the butter-sage-shallot rub I used gave the meat so much flavor. Can't wait for leftovers!
Santa's Little Helper A-
Turkey A-
Overall satisfaction: nom nom nom with a side of tryptophan