Great taste 2013 retrospective thread

#1 Mornin Delight, #2 BA Abraxis, #3 Goose Buffalo Trace BCS, #4 TH Russian Roulette, #5 Psuedo Sue.

 

The real tent was incredible as always. Almost like a mini festival in and of itself. Enjoyed the Side Project (Cory King) Blueberry Flanders (and thought it was better this year than last year) and the Perennial Oude Bruin with Cherries a great deal, and the Headhunter dryhopped with Simcoe was my favorite hop forward beer of the day (even more so than the Toppling Goliath Zeelander w/ Mosaic). Probably spent the most time at this tent & Goose Island throughout the day.

Really enjoyed spending a few minutes by the Tenth and Blake folks trying beers, and the Apricot Sour with kiwi fruit bubbles was a fantastic idea.

Least favorite beers of the day go to Bell's Mad Scientist and Surly Seven (or however they spelled it).

Many good memories of the day, but enjoying near unlimited Boring / Baudoinia while watching folks get down at the silent disco is near the top.

Cheers!

 

Cumberland (KY) Dee's Coconut Porter! Finally, a beer that really tasted like coconut!

 

My favorite thing was asking people if anyone wanted some of my An Ale Pleasure (from Against the Grain). Wasn't half bad.
I may have been really drunk, but I really liked Mid-Westvletran from Great Dane.
Kuhnhenn Carnivale Series was great. Mai Tai was straight up Hawaiian Punch.
Kill All the Golfers is my now my 2nd favorite mead.
Was really disappointed by Napa BCS and thought Diablo BCBCS was worse than regular BCBCS.
4 Hands Volume #1 was pretty great.

 

Highlights for me were:
Blueberry Flanders
Head Hunter w/ Simcoe
Town Hall Backyard Rustic (anyone have any info on this? I have a hard time believing it was 100% raw strawberries added, there had to be syrup or something added) but amazing nonetheless
Bo & Luke
Bunch of others were great as well!

 

Thanks for reminding me of that one. One of the few beers I got a second pour of.

 

Yup, it was a chili beer. A stout but with a nice, hot spicy finish.

 

I agree, something was wrong with the Creme Brulee stout...way more astringent then earlier versions

 

The Thank You Berry Much from Kuhnhenn in the Real Ale tent was fantastic, and I enjoyed the Sazerac too. The happiest part of my day was going to Revolution to get Repo Man, not knowing what time it was, and being told that Straightjacket was on instead. Really enjoyed the Lakefront 25th anniversary (right?!), the NG strawberry rhubarb, and the Dark Horse BA Plead the 5th and Sasparilla Six Stout. Lowlights for me included being annoyed with the closest brewery to me (Two Brothers) and deciding to chew them out for not bringing ANYTHING that hasn't been sitting on shelves for three months. Thankfully, those pouring laughed at my complete takedown of the owners (the workers knew it wasn't directed at them) Finishing the day with a LOT of BCBS Buffalo Trace, in hindsight, made for a short evening.

 

What did the fest-workers for Two Bros. have to say for the owners' shitty GTMW line-up?

I was just as pissed about Great Lakes pulling the same lazy line-up. They have so many great brews: Nosferatu, Cleveland Brown Ale, Rye of the Tiger, Christmas Ale, Burning River, Doppelrock, Lake Erie Monster, Conway's Irish Ale, Pumpkin Ale, Alchemy Hour. Where were some of these? Variants of any of these would have been cool, too. They could have even whipped up some crazy BA Blackout variants that probably would have stolen Goose Island's BCBS thunder! I e-mailed them in regards to their apparent apathy to this beer fest of beer fests. Hopefully my "tough love" words switched on the light-bulb and gave them the boot in their ass that was needed so they bring it hardcore for next year's Taste. Here is Great Lakes brewer Luke Purcell's response:

"Thanks for being a loyal fan, your feedback is appreciated. I agree that the Great Taste is one of the premier beer festivals in the country and am lucky enough to have been to it many times over my 17 years with the company. I am very sorry to hear that you feel that we didn’t care about what we brought to this or any other festival. We put a lot of time and thought into our beer line-ups at every event. In celebrating our 25th year this year, we though it appropriate to bring 2 beers that we brewed especially for our anniversary, the Silver and Gold IPL and the Imperial Smoked Porter. The Silver and Gold is our anniversary India Pale Lager, a unique IPA brewed with our house lager yeast, and the Imperial Smoked Porter is a collaboration with Deschutes Brewery who is also celebrating their 25th year. Both of these brews are one-time only offerings that we thought would be great for people to get a chance to try who haven’t had the opportunity. The Barrel-aged Blackout, while it is available every year, is a very small batch brew and we save it for the best festivals and tastings. We did timed releases of both the Deschutes collaboration and of the Barrel-aged Blackout which for some reason they didn’t put in the program. There was a long line for both of these at their respective tapping times and all seemed pleased to try them. We also offered a cask at the real ale tent, a grapefruit infused IPA, which was a very tasty twist on our Commodore Perry. As for the other offerings, The Wright Pils, our summer seasonal, seemed appropriate for the weather and was one of the first beers we were out of, and I feel that the Edmund Fitzgerald is still one of the best Porters around. We get people asking for their favorite Great Lakes brews all day and wanting to know why we didn’t bring them, from Dortmunder and Eliot Ness to a new beer that they just had in our pub last week. It is a great source of pride for us that people regularly ask for our everyday brews at this and other festivals even while they are tasting something new from us. It is a difficult balance to try and achieve the best line-up for everyone. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to express your concerns. I, along with our staff, take everyone’s opinion very seriously. Without loyal fans like yourself, we wouldn’t be celebrating 25 years! I have copied my co-workers who worked the fest with me on this email and can assure you that we will take your comments into consideration when putting together our line-up for next year’s Taste."

 

I agree I was fairly underwhelmed with a few of the breweries there, too. However, I think we as BA's are in the minority when it comes to our tastes at these kinds of beer fests. Great Lakes' response was pretty good, IMO, and I feel like it justifies the beers they decided to bring pretty well. I worked the GTOM at the booth for Dragonmead Brewery this year and I was surprised at how many people asked why we didn't have a lager at our booth. I guess my point is it's hard to please everyone all the time, and we need to respect the decisions the breweries make regarding their beer selection.

 

My very first taste of Dark Lord ever happened at the Great Taste. It was the 2011 batch. I thought it was wildly mediocre. Iv heard its very good and just a notch below Darkness. From what I tasted, not even close. Did anyone else get some of the 2011 Dark Lord at the fest? Was there maybe something wrong with it? It didn't taste bad i guess, just bland. I'm pretty sure that it was tapped early enough that my taste buds weren't destroyed yet because I really enjoyed that Baudonia towards the end of the fest.

 

Fixed

 

So instead of just moving on and finding crazy selections and variants elsewhere (there were a bunch of them, believe it or not), you decided to focus on the ones who didn't live up to your expectations and be one of those people who writes whiny complain-y letters. Sounds like you'd be a blast to hang out with there.

 

Hahaha! Yes, that's exactly what I did......(sigh). Love it how when someone makes any kind of constructive criticism/minor negative comment that probably won't effect anything other than stirring up good, intelligent (hopefully) convo that it's construed as a rage-hate-rant. But thanks for playing ASS-U-ME...better luck next time!

Best of Fest: Zwanzigz (OH) Bourbon-Barrel Imperial Stout w/ Ghost Peppers
2nd of Fest: Perennial (MO) Barry Rye (Rye Beer w/ Blackberries)
3rd of Fest: Odd Side Ales (MI) Mayan Mocha Stout
Best Real Ale: Upstream (NE) Dundee Scotch Ale w/ Caco Nibs & Siracha
Real Ale Runners Up: Lakefront (WI) IBA w/ Sorachi Ace, Kuhnhenn (MI) DRIPA

Runners Up:

• Zwanzigz (OH) Chocolate Beer
• Destihl (IL) Strawberry Blonde
• Great Dane (WI) Tri-Pepper Pilsner
• Dark Horse (MI) Long Polymer John Donut Ale
• Dave's Brew Farm (WI) Choco Kaffe
• Wild Onion (IL) Drago RIS
• New Glarus (WI) Serendipity
• Great River (IA) The Dark One (Black IPA)
• O'so (WI) Brett Dank
• New Holland (MI) Smaug's Breath (Dragon's Milk w/ Chiles)
• One Barrel (WI) Bilbo Baggins (Black IPA)
• Summit (MN) Saga IPA
• Black Husky (WI) Sproose Juice
• Blind Pig (IL) Samburro Chili Beer
• Schlafly (MO) Pumpkin Ale
• Stevens Point (WI) Chai Tea Porter & White Stout
• Upstream (NE) Castaway Coconut Porter
• Piece (IL) The Weight Pale Ale
• Short's (MI) Strawberry Short's Cake
• Minneapolis Town Hall (MN) Thunderstorm
• Cumberland (KY) Dee's Coconut Porter.

 

Since no one else had had the 2011, I decided to open my 2013 DL. It's very, very good. I now assume DL doesn't age for sh*t. Glad I drank my bottle now. Delicious!!!

 

I am so upset that I didn't find out about this until just after we left.

 

The problem with all the available Baudonia, is after standing in the GI line getting multiple pours of it, the rest of the day/night gets a bit hazy. I barely remember what the Blackberry Rye BCS I was standing in line for tasted like. Fortunately that was right around closing time, so didn't miss out on much else.