Side Project / Shared (2020)

These are all interesting ways of spelling Monster Tones

 

Got my moneys worth 15-min into this event. First off classy AF to have a beer invitational in an art hall. Second, got multiple pours of everything I wanted (OWK, derivations, monster tones). This was planned to perfection. Will be hard to top this beer festival. The buckets that people dumped their unwanted beer in is probably retailing $300-400/750mL. A great event.

 

D9 has taken a steep turn for the worse since the initial release. was a mess honestly.

 

huge let down for me.

 

It was refreshing to be in agreement with you and your brother on D9 at the anniversary. It was a letdown. Tasted like everything had drastically faded except the cinnamon. Unbalanced cinnamon bomb.

 

virtually zero maple. faded cinnamon. a former shell of itself. oh well.

 

I drank an entire bottle of razzmatazz. The pips guys were great. I hung out with them Saturday night.

 

it was super cold but once it warmed I loved it. Different strokes.

 

tones was still good but def has faded some. We were drinking last years batch.

 

Holy shit what a day. There is zero chance that can be topped.

Absolutely incredible in every way

 

So what did everybody think of D8?

 

That D8 did not taste right. Tasted like it had green peppers in it, which is a shame. Still a favorite of mine, but disappointed people trying it for the first time didn’t get the true experience. I’m sure no one went home unhappy still.

 

i passed on that as the last time i had it on draft (StL craft beer week 2018 i think..) it was not very good. also passed on BA CSV as that beer has been well past its prime for quite a while now.

 

Since sobering up I have come to appreciate my experience even more. A few more notes that stood out:

1. The gold rim glasses that everyone got were really nice. These things were definitely not cheap to get made and really made a nice first impression.

2. What made an even better first impression was being handed a glass of O.W.K. as you walked into the door. I have been searching for this beer for some time. I had no idea it was going to happen and I was completely blown away. This is why within 5-minutes of entering the venue it was already a successful day. And then Karen started pouring more O.W.K. an hour into the event. Surprisingly this did not create a melee because there was so much other good beer.

3. All of the brewers were so nice (except the Pips guy) and were open to chatting.

4. By 2:30 there was no line for 95% of the beer. This made it easy to get 1-2 pours while you waited in line for a pour of BBT or D8.

5. My favorite beer of the event (by far) was the Other Half Bananaversary. What an unbelievable surprise of a beer. The beer I was most surprised I liked was Mikerphone BA One Man Wrecking Machine (I generally don't like Mikerphone stout, but this was great).

6. Side Project did an amazing job showcasing everyone's beer. However, as I expected there were a couple of stations that everyone kept passing by. I felt a little bad for the guys at The Bruery and Tired Hands - there were very few people lining up for them. You kind of felt like they were the kid no one wanted on their dodgeball team. Regardless they make amazing beers, but it's so hard to compete with some of the other beer that was being poured at the Invitational.

7. Finally, Side Project stole the show. Despite all the great beers being showcased Side Project constantly had the biggest lines (other than Monster Tones). They showcased some of their all-time favorite beers and it was a real treat.


What a great start to stout week. What is even more exciting is that there are going to be some amazing kegs available at the cellar on Tuesday. I know for sure that Monkish, Sante, Mikkeller, Goose, and many others were still pouring at or near the end. I would imagine that the brewers aren't going to take the leftovers home. Looking forward to trying some of these beers a second time if it's possible.

 

I had great interactions with the Pips crew. Awesome guys

 

Wow, what a jaw dropping event. OWK to start with? Which was probably my best in show. I even got to have the 2nd pour

But there were so many good ones, kinda hard to complaint, just an embarrassment of riches.

Anyway, the biggest thing that impressed me was the crowd. Maybe that's why they charged that much, so that they need less people. The longest I had to wait was 10 minutes, and everyone was pretty friendly, and there's no bumrushing. Excellent, excellent event.

Some people are saying the next invitational next year are all sours ..... In!!!

 

Zwanze is like that too at SP, not crowded at all. They do things right.

 

God I hope that monkish collab lasts on draft until I get out there later this month....but it won't.

 

It's possible that Snowy Window may be on. But, if you are talking about Meditatio it would be improbable.

 

Was referring to Snowy Window, but now I want both - thanks for that!