Reviews:
Rooftop Brew liked Boundary Bay and Hop Stoopid. Angelo has a nice review of the event, including beer reviews and pictures. Matt Dolman, a San Diegan, offers the out-of-towner perspective. Bill has two posts, a first look and a fuller review; he likes the Full Nelson, proving that you have to try the beers rather than trusting bloggers. Suds Sister, whose fine preview I failed to link, reminds me that I like Matilda from Goose Island a lot, too (her review's in the comments).
Something of a consensus is emerging on a few beers: Hop Stoopid, Boundary Bay, New Holland (Dragon's Milk), Rogue Glen, and of course, Pliny. A surprising amount of love was also given to the strange beers of Roots (Calypso) and Rock Bottom (Congo Queen), and I concur. (Suds Sister dissents on Roots.) Risky and successful experiments.
Pictures
John has a few nice ones, including a dandy of John Harris. Looks like he has a better camera these days, too. Also, Lighthouse Photo Art has 428 (!) pics, should you wish to get a full sense of the event.
Other Odds and Ends
I went back on Sunday for another dram of Dragon's Milk--I wanted a fresh taste--having both the mug and six tokens. I got there at noon, and there was a line of 30 people. I don't know the official word on "buzz beers," but that's gotta be in the conversation.
Also, I meant to say that I noticed one brewery had two beers at the fest, and I consider this an outrage: MacTarnahan's and Pyramid. I know that Mac's (nee Portland Brewing) was one of the founders, but it's unconscionable to give up two taps to a single brewery with two brands. I doubt it will change, and it is almost certain to worsen, as Widhook will probably get two taps next year. Nevertheless, my advice: cut it out, OBF.
My Pics
I'll download some of my pics today and post them here. I tried to do crowd shots at regular intervals to demonstrate the Friday crowd. We'll see how well they turned out.
Here they are (clear evidence only that it was super busy from midafternoon onward):
2 pm
4 pm
5:30 pm
7 pm
Widmer already had two this year… the Full Nelson and the "Collaborator" Rye… but I don't fault that as much, even if they had brought out Snowplow under the same monicker… I would've taken that over the majority of what I tried this year - a disappointing year to be sure, especially with PIB a scant week prior.
ReplyDeleteOld Market's Hopcask Triple Tripel gets my vote for Best in Show.
Yes, Widmer may technically have had more than one beer at the OBF (not 100% sure that Collaborator counts), but I think they deserve a break for having brewed Full Nelson especially for the occaision. I wish more breweries would follow their example instead of sailing in with their flagships year after year.
ReplyDeleteThe Old Market Hopcask _was_ quite good, wasn't it? I've never really been all that impressed by them before.
Collaborator is a special case, for two reasons. One is that it's not a Widmer product, really. It's a cool homebrew that gets a moment in the sunlight and as such is a nice thank-you to all the Brew Crewers who put in countless hours volunteering for the fest. Second, it's not actually one of the select 72--it's an add-on which doesn't bump any other breweries.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little slow on the draw here, but there's another brewery with two beers in the OBF: Rogue and Eugene City Brewery are the same, right?
ReplyDeleteI like the time-lapse photos. Proof of why I leave by 5pm :)
ReplyDelete