Back to Beer, Part 2

Attempting to jog my fuzzy and quickly fading memory of the summer beer fest was...difficult. But through the power of caffeine and aided by a jumbled mess of soggy handwritten notes, which I discovered in the back pocket of my shorts the following day, I think I have come to some level of comfort by way of discussing the beers that highlighted the evening for me.

So here we go - back to beer:


Kuhnhenn's Alien Ale spiced with Chile peppers and served with dry ice

This was one of, if not the most talked about beer at the festival. Why you ask - have you read the aforementioned description? Pours a turbid, straw-like green and the dry ice effect when they served it to you was a little jarring to be perfectly honest. If they were going for the, "I thought we were supposed to be at Beer Fest, not David Bowie's backyard BBQ," then they hit the nail on the head.

Hot sauce, salsa, green vegetables come up front and finishes with spiciness (hotness) that lingers in the throat. I don't enjoy Chile beers much like I don't care for pumpkin beers because I tend to shy away from heavy handedness in one particular flavor profile. On the other hand, how can you not love something like this? Kuhnhenn is known for their quirkiness, producing high gravity beers (summer release Solar Eclipse is at 18 percent ABV) and distributing in painfully small batches. They showed up well at beer fest bringing a boatload of beers I have never seen before and I have a feeling we won't see again. They seem like the child who can't sit still in church.


Jolly Pumpkin Roja De Kriek, Bamagranite, Blanca with Hibiscus and Biere De Mars

The Jolly Pumpkin table was a welcome sight in the midst of 98 degree weather with 105 percent humidity. For this year, Brewmaster Ron Jeffries brought a handful of one-off beers, all served in firkins, and found a hidden treasure in locating and happily dispensing a firkin of the brewery's version of a French Biere De Garde - their Biere De Mars.

I believe that I tried every beer that Ron was personally dispensing along with his staff except for the Weizen Bam with lemongrass and they were all savory and refreshing each finishing with that beautifully subtle oakey sour finish. The Roja aged on whole cherries stepped up slightly to the head of the class for me, but each beer was delicious. And the conscious effort to serve each beer cask conditioned was great - they even had a few of those thermal, silver wraps that they give runners after they finish a marathon in an attempt to maintain the temp in the firkins. Those guys think of everything.

Oh and by the way, the pomegranite for their one-off Bamagranite (Bam Biere) was peeled by hand by Ron himself. Does he not have anything better to do?


Founders Black Biscuit and Kentucky Breakfast Stout

For the first time since I have been going to the summer beer fest, Founders brought both of its twin pillars of brewing in the Canadian Breakfast Stout (an imperial stout aged in maple barrels) and the Kentucky Brekfast Stout (an imperial, chocolate and oatmeal stout aged in bourbon barrels). I have never had the pleasure of sampling the CBS as it is not bottled and from what I have read up about it, is only served at the Grand Rapids brew pub.

So, needless to say I was more than a little excited to get the chance to enjoy such a sought after and highly regarded beverage. That excitement quickly turned into sadness, and then downright blinding anger mixed with the shame of failure, and then back to sadness as I saw that the CBS had been kind of pre-served at 5 p.m. to Brewers Guild Enthusiast members. Now, I was in the festival at 5 p.m. because of my media credentials but by the time I realized what was going on, it was 6:15-ish and the wonderful black gooiness of CBS had been long tapped by all of those lucky (expletive deleted).

But, I had no time to fret as Founders version of old/strong ale was ready to go in their Black Biscuit and soon after that, the great KBS was to be tapped. Biscuit pours an engine oil black flatness and delivers a malt-forward aromatic nose of apricots, dried fruits, bourbon, sugar cane and comes on real strong with a bready, oakey and somewhat oily mouthfeel. As for the 2010 Kentucky Breakfast...this beer can stand alone as a reason to come to beer fest. What words would I have for something like this to do it justice? Not much, I guess you can try here .

On a sidenote for KBS, my buddy John was the first person in line to try the KBS for Friday. He felt that it was a real accomplishment.


Bells?

I would like to throw some kudos to Bells Brewery which made, by all accounts, a highly successful return to the summer beer fest but I gotta be perfectly honest - I was never in the right place at the right time. I was absolutely dying to try their Biere De Gardes, of which the brewery sheet said they were bringing two different concoctions, but when I asked a few different times about those beers I could never get a straight answer. By the end of the night with the mud and the chaos all around I straggled over to Bells again and sort of demanded one of their Biere De Gardes, to which they quickly replied, "Sorry, all closed up for the night."

The whole way home as my friend and I were being graciously chauffeured by my very pregnant wife (what a treat for her!), we had a discussion on whether the Biere De Gardes even existed. In addition, their beer sheet reads that Bells was slated to bring a barrel-aged stout, a Berliner-Weisse, a Doppelbock and a barrel aged Hell Hath No Fury ale (an awesome seasonal). I guess it just wasn't meant to be for me and Bells because I didn't see any of those beers and probably would have flipped out if I would have been able to try just one.

Oh well, better luck next year.