FoBAB 2021

I have to agree with this as someone who has been going for almost a decade. It was an unbelievable collection of beers. Reading through this thread alone there were so many others that people loved that I didn't get to try and I still felt like I was able to try an insane number of amazing beers. FOBAB is truly one of the best days of the year.

Some random thoughts for people that don't mind long posts...

-Against the Grain Bo and Luke, what happened to this beer? I remember having it on tap maybe 4ish years ago and thinking it was spectacular. I poured out my taster last night.

-Bottle Logic Deprecophobia, amazed this didn't medal. Probably my best in show of the night. Just an absolutely perfect BA stout.

-Desthil's Dosvidanyas are still as good as ever.

-I was pretty surprised when DB Parabola won gold, I didn't think much of it honestly. Hailstorm's offering right next to it, Vlad vs. Zombie vs. Shark was much superior IMO. If you replaced DB Parabola with BL's I think they would have gotten that one right.

-Both Hop Butcher offerings underwhelmed, and their barleywine offering was, frankly, bad.

-Both Mikerphone offerings didn't do a ton for me either. Well, well, well was well, really hot.

-Both Phase Three beers absolutely knocked it out of the park and could/should have medaled in their categories.

-Imperial Oak 2 Year Quiet Giant was a real let down. I remember it being a very good offering two years ago, an under the radar hit, this one was just not good.

-As others said, Werk Force's DB Sleepy Bear was a real treat.

-3 Floyds brought Loadstar, which I was super glad to be able to try, and Rrari which has sadly faded from what it once was. Loadstar was still firing on all cylinders though.

-Despite all the hype for Xtra Dubl Benthic, I thought it was merely very good.

-Despite all the hype on Lua, I actually thought Here was not good. But I did really enjoy Peak Luxury so thanks for whoever shouted that one out.

-The Cuppa beers are really a lot, and I can't decide if I mean that in a good or bad way.

-I also agree with the person who said they poured out Prairie's DB Vanilla Noir, not impressed.

-Whiskey Hill had a couple of very tasty offerings.

-While I probably wouldn't have given Short Fuse a medal for Precious Little Treats, it was a very nice offering.

-Any worries about More's barrel program I think can go away now. I really liked both Roaming Elephant and Mendhi.

-My other real star of the show was Verboten's double oaked cognac grow old with you. An absolutely breathtaking beer in the vein of Mineshaft Gap. I honestly think it deserved gold over VSOJ.

-I wish I had tried more of the wild offerings, but the ones I did have were very good. I was surprised The Lost Abbey beers didn't medal, especially Yellow Bus. The beer that won best in show I thought was solid but a bit surprised it won best in show.

-A final shout out to the cider that won gold, Caramel Apple Cider was exceptional. I went with my missus this year and she wanted to try it so we did and wow were we glad we did.

-Finally, to wrap it all up, the Goose offerings. I'm so glad I sat out on lotteries this year honestly. I think it's a bit of a down year for regular BCS 2021 which I was a bit bummed by. We tried the cherry wood one which was alright, the first sip was tasty and then the later sips were a bit overbearing. I thought Toasted was very smoky in an overwhelming/off putting way, I won't be seeking a bottle. I actually sort of agree with the Cola take, I wouldn't seek it out but I didn't really hate it either. The only one I am interested in seeking out at this point is 14. It was a real treat to try it side by side with Prop 2014 - they really knocked it out of the park in terms of replicating what Prop 2014 is/was.

All in all, a great year for FOBAB. If I were to do a top 5 list, in no particular order it would be...

-Bottle Logic Deprecophobia
-Verboten Brewing Double Oaked Cognac Grow Old With You
-Phase Three Minutiae
-Phase Three Eunoia 2
-The Lost Abbey Yellow Bus

364 days until next FOBAB

 

@HawksBeerFan throwing medals around like they are participation trophies.

 

I’ll give a little push back one this one. Parabola and Dosvidonya are very similar beers. Dosvidonya always has more umami and soy, (BrickStone dark secret shares this quality but adds more sweetness) while parabola is always perfectly roasted malt mimicking the darkest of dark chocolate. Both are bitter, dry, and outdated by today’s pastrystout standards. I’m surprised you liked one and not the other. I thought DB parabola was just a significantly better version of old school BA stout. It was likely the best parabola I’ve ever tasted, aside from the coffee variant

 

I’ve only had Dos 1 time, but I thought it was nothing like Parabola. To me Parabola tastes a lot like BCBS with 2-3 years of age. Dos is very dry by comparison to my palate, and lacks the punch.

Just adding my opinion. I love reading how everyone’s palate differs.

 

To me, parabola has much more bitterness both from roast and hops. It’s not as slick and oily as BCBS and usually seems to have more carbonation that Goose puts in BCBS. I love both.

 

Picked up my FOBAB To Go this morning & received:

- 048 // Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.-Chico // Barrel-Aged Narwhal
- 051 // Tighthead Brewing Company // Chocolate Malty Balls
- 302 // Imperial Oak Brewing // Savage Oak - Currant Ruby
-
112 // Prairie Ales // Double Vanilla Noir

- 098 // Modern Times Beer // Peak Luxury Imperial Stout
- 027 // Haymarket Pub & Brewery // Indignant
and
- 158 // Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. // Grain Bill Barleywine
- 308 // Penrose Brewing Company // Cellar Reserve : Boysenberry (Bronze)
- 104 // Odd Side Ales // Toasted Marshmallow and Coconut Hazel’s Nuts
- 088 // Ike & Oak Brewing Co // Kodiak’s Revenge - Peanut Butter Fudge
- 253 // Cellar West Artisan Ales // BA Checkerback Saison
- 330 // Tin City Cider // Earl Simmons (Silver)

Other than the couple of grocery store beers there's a nice mix of styles in here that I am excited to try. The great thing about FOBAB is finding excellent beers that I have never heard of by breweries that I don't know

 

“Grocery store beers”

I’ve never seen or had Barrel aged Narwhal in my life! The pain is real

 

Dm me your address & I'll send it to you

 

My shot has been fired

 

Some of the best beers in the world are grocery store beers. Drink em blind. See what ya think.

 

Thanks for hosting a couple of Minnesotans who decided at 1:36 PM on Friday to buy plane tickets, FOBAB tickets, & a hotel room & scoot down to Chicago for a weekend. And I have to say that Chicagoans are much, much, much nicer people that I remember. Perhaps that's because I wasn't at a White Sox game in my Twins gear...

Highlights for us
* Hailstorm Vlad v Zombie v Shark is insanely good. Had this at the Great Taste (possibly a variant) a few years back & it stole the show. Came close here, too.
* FW Double Barrel Parabola was wonderful. A noted improvement on an old classic.
* Verboten Double Oaked Cognac Grow Old With You was the best non-stout of the afternoon. My first beer from this brewery & it impressed.
* Will County Brewing Caramel Apple Tripel - Apple Brandy was fantastic. Wish I'd had it two hours sooner on a cleaner palate but this was a winner.
* Phase 3 Eunoia B2. The rare beer that towers up to the hype. Along with Vlad a top 2 contender.
* Modern Times Peak Luxuty. Went back for three pours.

Unhighlights for us
* Prairie Double Vanilla Noir. Easily the worst Prairie stout I've ever had. Poured out.
* BCS Prop 20. Our first pour. Fine, but remarkably unremarkable.
* BCS 2021. Whether this is an off year or it was the quality of the competition, this tasted rudely roasty with little barrel. Nothing like any BCS I've ever had. Both my wife & I dumped ours. I'll only buy one bottle this year to test before investing any more & hoping this wasn't a true representation of what's coming.

Overall a fantastic festival. We've already discussed going again in 2022 if possible. Cheers to some great breweries!

 

I always find it interesting that the breweries that win medals are rarely the beers/breweries that people masturbate over. Critical success v Commercial success...

Is it just me or rarely, if ever, do the breweries people masturbate over, win medals? Critical/technical success v Commercial success..

 

Can you say "jerk off" like a normal person?

 

I should hope they don't win. I would imagine semen to be an off flavor in beer.

 

I find it interesting that the breweries have an oral fixation over never seem to win medals. Like the breweries that get no shaft strokes win medals but the ones that people always digitally penetrate don't bring home the medals.

 

This. This is what happens when we don’t have an appropriate Dark Lord thread.

 

lol

 

I don't envy the judges who have to rate a peanut butter, banana, coconut, raisin, cinnamon stout aged in rum and sherry barrels to style....

 

The official style is "Not What God or Nature Intended".

Sometimes it's shortened to "Abomination".

 

According to my Untappd, I had 44 beers at FOBAB, yet stayed sober enough to not get kicked out of Lou Malnati's afterwards.

My tops were:

Somniphobia
DB Parabola
MoRE Roaming Elephant
VSOJ (duh)
Wolf's Ridge VIII - 100%
both of Afterthought's saisons
Lost Abbey/Hill A Small Still Voice

I didn't understand some of the award winners, but, DB Parabola earned it IMO. Way better than any other Parabola I've had, while knocking out a lot of other hyped garbage at the fest, for me.

I was also surprised to get to try some old school whale's like Clare's and Yellow Bus without even the slightest line, literally just stumbling upon them. Every time I went down an aisle I thought I had already read through, I saw something else I needed to try. It seemed impossible to try everything I wanted to, but I certainly tried my best.

My biggest waste of time was standing in the Goose line. The only reason we did was because when we walked up and Toasted was out, we just got a pour of Cola, so we intended to sip on that for the next hour's line. We thought it'd be quick, but it wasn't, because apparently everyone had caught on to what they were tapping, while we dawdled outside in the fresh air for a bit. I should have just let it be, because the 14s were fine, but the original was way past it's prime, and they were totally incomparable. Plus there was a lot of immature line drama. On the up side, I think the wait helped keep me sober for that third hour.

I was also shocked at just how jam packed it was. They said this was their biggest venue ever, but we sure made it feel small. Sure, there were plenty of empty seats if you wanted to take a load off, but the trafficked areas were just as packed as could be. My session was Saturday 1-5.