Ales for What Ails You: The Winter Brews Festival

People are doing strange things to beer. And I’m not just talking about Dogfish Brewery in Delaware, adding juniper berries and “cardamom, coriander, ginger, allspice, rampe leaves, lemongrass, curry powder, and black tea, custom blended …  in India” then fermenting their beer in ironwood barrel staves, for the pungent flavor of the oils imparted.

Across the continent, on the comparatively brewing traditional left coast, I went to a Winter Brews Festival yesterday, and early on I stood in line and enjoyed watching a guy try to order Russian River Brewery’s Rejection  Ale. “When they ask if they can have Rejection,” one of the bartenders informed another, “tell them no.”

I have a friend, E,  who is interested in brewing with us, and has invited me a couple times to a new Belgian bar in Oakland, called The Trappist. It hasn’t always worked out, so I was glad to have a chance to hook up with him this Saturday. Mrs. O  went to see the Cartier jewelry exhibit at the Palace of Legion of Honor, so I was free to whistle the hounds into the back of the car (the mobile den to them; they love rides) and cruise on over to Oakland to the Brewing Network’s Brews Festival.  E has wanted me to join him at a Linden Street Brewery event for a while anyway, so this worked out well.

It was easy to find. Cruising through Chinatown, past downtown and the port of Oakland, even if I hadn’t had the brewery’s address in an industrial part of West Oakland, all I needed to do was follow all the guys walking there. I left the dogs in the car a block away, windows quarter-open, and found the gate.

It was sunny. The event was outside–I wasn’t prepared for that, especially after all the rain we’ve had. And the site was filling fast. I got my $25 9 oz. glass, with five tickets, and the list of the breweries and beers available, and went looking for E.

I had suspected it would be a fairly young event, and predominantly male, but there were a few older guys there, lots of people wearing unique beer garb, and actually a good number of women, too. The beer list had a little over 50 beers, but a number of breweries didn’t show up. Magnolia, in San Francisco, was a no show. And we never found either the Elysian Brewery’s The Wise ESB (alusive to the goddess Athena, patroness of warriors, weaving and wisdom), or Ale Industries’ Fuzzy Sno-Beck.

No longer interested in mass quantites so much as qualities, we shared tastes. I kept notes. (I’m a beer geek. What can I say?) I liked Linden Street Brewery’s Burning Oak Black Lager a lot, and gave it an 8-9, on a scale of 10. Good lager flavor, with that pleasant roasted taste you expect. We were less impressed with Iron Springs’ Dark Path Black Lager, and I gave it a 4-5.

Linden Street’s Urban Peoples’ Common Lager was worth an 8-9 score; it had great body and might have been a bit too hoppy for some, but I liked it. We also tried two Uncommon Brewers’ beers. The Rubidous Maple Red noted that it was made with maple sugar and added candy cap mushrooms. Mrs. O is a big candy cap mushroom fan (and an amatuer mushroom hunter) so, out of loyalty, I tried it. Meh. I gave it a 4-6, the higher end for their effort (you can taste the maple) and the 4 for how the result struck me. (But is maple good in beer?)  We also tried the Bacon Brown. (“The means to produce our first commercial batch of Bacon Brown Ale arrived in the form of two massive slabs of pork belly….”)  That was worth a 5-7; I’m not sure it would work on a regular basis, but the marriage of malted barley and roasted pork was pleasantly complementary then. Sooweee!

Lots of t-shirts with the Ben Franklin quote,  and a couple with allusions to beer’s aphrodisiac properties. Perhaps inspired by beer’s famous philosophical properties, E noted that in terms of fashion and culture a lot of things haven’t changed that much over the last 20 years, as compared to the difference between 1970 and 1990. Generally true, I agreed, then commented to E on how you could tell the young guys from the older:  just look at their shirt tails. Older guys know how to tuck in a shirt. The young are terminally untucked. 

Some of these discoveries were made as we sipped the Marin Brwing company’s Old Dipsea Barleywine, which was a bit sweet but which we gave an 8-9, and two thumbs up. The Lagunitas Brewery’s Hop Stoopid Ale was also worth an 8-9: great hop flavor and a mouthful of malt richness. One of the last beers we tried is the Green Flash Grand Cru, a Belgian style dark ale that is “designed to satiate and keep your taste buds dancing.”  It was good, but I was distracted from my scoring system.

We were out at the end of the lot at this point, by the port-a-potties, and I made a minor-yet-amusing discovery. People-watching can be good if you position yourself just beyond the johns. We didn’t do this intentionally. We were actually escaping the crowds.  But far from the sardine lines at the beer counters, a steady queue of festive beer drinkers marched, pranced and advanced on the pivotal point of relief, the head of the line for the head, as it were.

If I were a better notekeeper I’d have more to offer, but at this point, we were slowing down. They had decent sandwiches available, but the line for the barbecue was longer than any line for beer. We paced ourselves now, having had our fill of good beers at a few ounces each, and basking in the late afternoon warmth of a sunny January day.

Oh, and the Rejection Ale? They had served us. It was a nice dark Belgian Ale, and we gave it a 6-7. They brew it for Valentine’s Day. Is that perfect for Cupid’s holiday, or what?  However else we’re disappointed in life, when you queue for a Rejection Ale and get to the head of the line, the bartender actually smiles and says yes.

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