Brewvival 2017

It was the last beer served at the brunch on Sunday last year.

 

Y'all missed this? Dafaq...via a post that Jeppe made earlier this week...

If you are attending this, you might want to know that we will be pouring:

Some People Are Immune To Good Advice Imperial Toasted Coconut Maple Stout 10.7%

Some People Are Immune To Good Advice Imperial Cold Brew Coffee (!) Maple Stout 10.7%

Both are one-off world premieres that we never plan to make again. Ever.

 

First leak. Well done sir. Last year I don't think a. Single beer was leaked before the event, which was pretty impressive if you think about it.

 

fonta flora was killing it all day. what a treat.

 

Sooooo, that didn't suck. Not one bit.

 

Anyone care to share some of the highlights this year?

 

Here's a list of what I tried, I attempted to log them as I drank. Probably missed a few but this should be most:

Berkshire passion fruit sour
CCB Bourbon BA Marshal Zhukov
J Wakefield manatee at the power plant
Logsdon peche n Brett
Cantillon iris (multiples)
Cantillon classic (multiples)
West Ashley (multiples)
Tradesman the dredge
Rum BA Bo and Luke
MacFanny Scotch Barrel Aged
Avery BA Tangerine quad (multiples)
Evil twin Some People are Immune To Good Advice with coconut (multiples)
Evil Twin SPAITGA with coffee
3F gueuze
3F kriek
Ocelot nocturnal Barrel Aged stout
Holy City Bread
Holy city Salad
Holy city app
Holy city entree
Holy city dessert (Holy city did a "coursed" meal of beers)
Fonta flora Amigos Appalachia
Bells Hopslam
Coopertail guava pastellios (?spelling)
Copper tail rum coconut BA supervoid
Central waters the promise tequila BA
AgT London balling
Burger lobster with nugget
Six point dubbel
Snafu blood orange with hanenero
SARA four legs good
Blackberry farm alban red
Blackberry farms hanging fruit
Tradesman white coffee Stout
Fullstrean stream steak knife
Fullsyream carpenter hill
J Wakefield Oi Oi Oi
Jackie O's dark apparition
Jackie o's wood ya honey
Knees High Nutella
Knee high iambilla drunk Porter

Personal highlights for me were the Bourbon Zhukov, West Ashely, Evil Twin SPAITGA with coconut (probably my favorite of the day), CW Tequila Promise, and SNAFU Blood Orange and Habanero. Tradesman White Coffee Stout, Fullstean Steak Knife, and Averery BA quad were up there too. And of course the "Shelton Bros" table which was killing it with large supplies of Cantillon and 3F. AtG BA MacFanny was probably he worst beer I've ever had in my life.


Will be back later on to post some overall comments about the event (which was amazing).

 

Good lord...that was a good time.

Highlights: Evil Twin's SPAITGA coconut and the coffee, both were phenomenal. SNAFU SoD w/ cacao, coconut, vanilla. West Ashley, BA Zhukov

Honorable mention to the fresh baked pretzel and awesome people everywhere.

 

First Brewvival..definitely worth the trip up from Florida. Had a great time from Thursday night on. Cool events at Craft Conundrum on Thursday, Edmunds Oast Friday, and Brewers party at Coast Friday night. And the BBQ in Charleston now..DAMN!
As Arnold said..."I'll be back!"

 

Just out of curiosity, any Westbrook at this festival?

 

Yep. '16 Tequila Cake, Rum Panther, regular Panther, a couple other standards.

 

For all the discussion about their wild ale society, I have to say that Rhythm Rug from Fonta Flora was my beer of the fest. Absolutely a stand out in an afternoon full of world class beers. Congrats to Fonta Flora and all the attending breweries. First class as per usual.

 

Back to post a couple of quick thoughts.

First off, what an amazing event. This was my 3rd Brewvival (past 3 years) and it was my favorite yet. I don't know if they ended up not selling out or just sold less tickets but I think its fair to say there were definitely less people there. I also think there may have been a few more breweries. This combo lead to, you guessed, much shorter lines. I essentially didn't have an empty glass due to waiting in line all day. There were a couple places that had long lines (Westbrook and Fonta Flora primarily), but there were also many places with NO one getting beer, and most every line had just a few people that moved quickly. This led to the ability to consume much more beer than last year (which can be a dangerous thing!). This also led to me getting to try literally every single beer I targeted as ones I wanted to try at the start of the fest, which is almost unheard of at a beer fest these days. Another important point is that there was plenty of beer this year. I didn't see any breweries run out (although I'm assuming some did and I didn't notice), so the concern raised last year seems to have been resolved.

Other positives, the beer list was fantastic as always. There probably weren't any super rare beers this year compared to last year, but there were plenty of home runs, one offs and rarities. And there was almost no line for anyone of them (West Ashley literally had NO line, I walked up and got multiple pours instantaneously). The Cantillon table had intermittent lines, but then someone had the genius idea of walking to the back of the line with bottles and pouring for the people waiting in line (sure I've have a Cantillon Classic Guezue as I wait in line for Iris!).

Only negative thing was the food trucks didn't bring their A-game in my opinion (tragedy that Short Grain didn't do that amazing Big Mac Rice again this year; and Lewis BBQ don't get me started). Other negative, and the massive elephant in the room, was the very odd choice by COAST to not have a table at the event. As a self admitted COAST fanboy that always looks forward to their Brewvival offerings, I found this quite disappointing (and fairly odd).

But all in all, a fantastic event. Best beer festival I have ever been to. Thanks to COAST, Edmunds Oast, and everyone who helped to put on Brewvival '17!

 

What was wrong if Lewis? just curious

 

Just massively disappointing. All I hear about for what seems like a year is how good this place is supposed to be, and I got a brisket sandwich (they only had two items) and it was like pulled brisket that wasn't at all like real brisket. It was just super plan, not that flavorful, fairly dry. The potatoe salad was real good though. For comparison sake Big Boned is at COAST like every week and is 100x better in my opinion.

But enough of the negativity, Brewvival was awesome! Anyone know what that chill lounge bus thing was? For some reason I forgot to check it out.

 

Been twice to the restaurant and its the best BBQ in charleston IMO. I would give it a try there. Events can be hit or miss with that type of thing.

 

This fest sounds bad ass, I will have to keep it on my radar for next year. I don't really care about "rare" beers, I'd much rather have good beers instead. Would rather drink stuff like 3F geuze and West Ashley than some novelty one-offs. That's why Raleigh Rare sucks now, it's just beers that are super small batch without regards to anything else.

As for the BBQ, I'll just say that if you get pork when in the Carolinas and leave the brisket to the folks in Texas you'll rarely be disappointed.

 

Lewis BBQ is from Austin. Only two locations, Austin and Charleston. The brisket is the best I've had (haven't been to Texas though).