FOBAB 2016

I thought the the '16 Coffee was decent, but not worth the wait in the line. It snaked around the corner past the entrance.

Having never had Jackie O's stuff, Champion Ground and Oil of Aphrodite were killer.

 

I'm planning on going for the Peach as my first pour tonight. Is it in the back sour room?

 

Yes

 

Even though the Prop 16 was kind of a disappointment I thought there were more good beers available this year than I can remember. Overall this year's Fobab is great.

Also they seemed to improve the ventilation. The venue stayed cooler and had less trouble with odors.

 

Completely agree with the wide variety of really good stuff and the ventilation. I was not overrun with rough smells.

 

It was also available on the floor. It didn't last last imbibe, and was one of the first beers many people tried.

Hope you like it, but I thought it was terrible.

 

This will be my first time attending FoBAB. Just want to confirm, unlike a traditional beer fest it seems like you line up for a beer rather than a brewery here, is that right ? Just wondering if my friends and I want to try different beers will we be split up a lot.

 

Maybe your booth didn't, but GI put it on tap at 9pm during their last tapping (they tapped new beers every hour) so it Prop was there for non-imbibe folks.

I thought Prop 16 was excellent. It is like Mikkeller Chocolate Shake without any hop bite and tons of spicy pepper. It's like eating a chocolate covered chile pepper. Didn't get any bourbon flavor out of it. As the pepper fades over time, I think this will be highly sought after. They had Prop 14 which is still awful, complete cinnamon bomb. 2016 Regular was not as good as it usually is, lacked the bourbon flavor. 2016 Coffee was as good as ever, best of this years variants. The 2016 barleywine was delicious, but had a standard barleywine coloring. When compared to the 2013 barleywine they put on, its flavor and look started to pale in comparison (the 2013 has a color closer to BCBS thanks to its time in the 2nd use barrels).

Also, let's not forget when released Vanilla Rye was rough and the brewers were the first to volunteer that info adding that they thought it needed another 6 months.

Best Fobab organization yet in my opinion. Signage and lay-out were much easier to navigate and get around. The quality of stouts is amazing. You could easily remove the whales and still have an amazing fest. Congrats to the brewers who have honed their craft. The days of half the brewers bringing water down, light bodied imperial stouts is thankfully in the past.

 

They group beers by style, not brewer.

 

Yea that's what it looked like - so my question is do you line up for a single beer, or a group of beers similar in style.

 

You line up for the individual beer you want. Outside of the GI production line, they weren't bad at all.

 

I was a pourer last night at the table with Utopias (Fruit table). We had it on until at least 7:30, well into the regular session. Most people were lining up for DDG one row away and didn't seem to notice us. I'm not much of a fan usually, too boozy for me, but the cherries were a very nice addition. Don't forget to get a pour of Haymarket's Clare's Thirsty (right next to the Utopias), was a bit too sweet for me last year, but it's very good this year.
I know people already posted the program, I took a snap of the big sign with all the brewers and beers, didn't get quite all of them.

 

I had several pours throughout the evening including at 5:00. While I agree with you that it's not a good idea to applaud or dismiss something based only on a tiny pour of something not at optimal temperature, I can tell you that I and everyone but one person I was around last night were not fans. It's very, very sweet (again), the chili (and I'm a big chili beer fan) is not a pleasant or complimentary flavor--it's smoky and just kind of kills everything else. I also got an unpleasant taste on the finish that was somewhat reminiscent of blue cheese. I might go to LP Binny's for BF, but it will be in hopes of getting a few vintage bottles, not for 2016 Prop.

 

So, aside from the general dislike for '16 Prop (which I'll judge for myself tonight) and some of the sours mentioned (which I'm not a fan of), what were some of the stout highlights? Any stuff that ran out pretty early?

 

So goose island just posted their fobab lineup for today and no 2016 prop on the list, maybe they realized it wasn't good?

 

No Rules kicked pretty early. I really enjoyed the the whiskey victory at sea.

I think the sours were the standouts this year. Especially since breweries like Bells, Perrenial, etc, decided not to bring stouts, but other things.

The off color papillon was fantastic also. One of my top 3 or 4 of the night.

 

I'm heading straight to BA Malevoence at the back of the room. It was the first thing that I saw kick yesterday and couldn't make it there in time. All of Odd Sides offerings were great if you haven't tried those.

 

Pipeworks Barrel aged end of days and Half Acre Bethnic were both great.

 

No, that is their noon release. They release new stuff every hour on the hour. Prop like yesterday, will probably be released after 3 hours.

 

It was a delight to pour Spon 4 last night. I wish we had more than 2 cases. Most folks were very cool about the situation. Many brewers had multiple pours. Some IMBIBErs did have lots of pours. I dropped it to about 1.5 oz in general session to make it last as long as possible.

The Jester King folks were very cordial as well. Great showing by them. It's an incredible beer. If you enjoy lambic, take a left and walk right past DDG.