Upland Sour Fest 2016

I'll take a shot at a few.

Destihl - Hit and miss. Sometimes good, sometimes too vinegary.
Urban Chestnut has brought good stuff in previous years. Not as acidic as some
Rivertown brings good stuff every year. Their pomegranate lambic was the best thing there 3? years ago.

 

god that was so good.....i stayed at their table for a good 20 minutes just getting pour after pour after pour.....

 

Destihl: Beer has started to get better but as mentioned above, it's wildly inconsistent.
Goose Island: Sour sisters are still world class and you'd be silly to turn them down.
Penrose: I don't have experience but they're making a splash in the sour realm. Won a gold medal at GABF for a wild ale.

 

Une Année Brewery-Ill - Excellent fruited sours. Tart and delicious.

 

fonta flora is going to be there? wow! cant say that i've been fortunate to try any of their wilds, but their farmhouse and other beers are legit. small batch, inventive, locally sourced. good ppl, good brews. FF alone would make me consider going.

 

Madtree is a rapidly growing Cincinnati brewery. About to do a 18 million brewery expansion from what they currently have. On the sour side they just did a whole "Funk Series." I have not been able to try any of the offerings they put out but I've heard good things. Assuming they bring the funk series you can find information about the funk beers here http://www.thegnarlygnome.com/2015/10/madtrees-funk-series-bottles-from-the-can-guys/

Tafts is also a Cincinnati brewery. Been a couple of times but haven't had many sour offerings besides Louisas Dark Side which is a Sour style stout.

Seventh Son is out of Columbus and I've been to the brewery a couple of times. Smaller brewery that just started canning. Not much distribution besides Columbus. Haven't had any sours by them but they are definitely going to be a brewery people will know about.

 

Bearded Iris is pretty new in Nashville, but already very well respected. Haven't tried a sour/wild from them yet, though. They've only produced a handful of beers so far.

 

The MadTree funk series was excellent, and I really like Taft's, but I have not had anything sour by them. What I have had from August Schell's berliner series have been fantastic (starkeller peach and cypress blanc); got multiple pours of both of those at FOBAB last year.

CASA (had 3 beers, all good) and Fonta Flora (never had) both seem to be highly regarded, and paradox's sour line seems to be really unique/creative/different from your typical sours and flavors.

 

I'm glad that they'll be there. I've been eyeing their bottles on shelves in Chicago for months.

 

Anyone found any info on what beers the named breweries are bringing?

 

I would bet on it being similar to last year and most of it being a surprise when you get there. Upland didn't release a list ahead of time, and only a few of the breweries posted on social media what they were going to bring.

 

Bring your rain gear. 100% chance of thunderstorms.

Curious if that'll impact the fest at all. I know rain or shine is a thing, but..thunder and lightning.. Never been to a fest with that going on. Would guess that might be a no no?

 

Never been before and I saw City Market, so I thought it might be inside. It's outside? Yeesh, between this and Dark Lord Day, I'm having no luck whatsoever with beerfest weather.

 

Yeah it's outside on Market St. right out in front of City Market

 

The entire thing is outside; there is no unused area in City Market sufficient to accommodate a beer fest. Last year it absolutely poured for the first 2 hours of the fest. Unless they've made significant strides in planning for the chance of rain, you better prepare yourself. There was nowhere near ample cover from the rain. People huddled under small sections in the tents to stay away from the rain; most just got completely drenched (myself included). These factors also made getting beer semi-difficult because the fest was really designed to be open air, with only the brewery tables set-up under the tent. Instead, everyone created a mosh pit under the tent, blocking access to all the tables if you wanted to get beer. It was a cluster for sure.

The chances of this happening again, coupled with the fact that only 4-5 of the breweries in attendance made sours worth paying for, made not attending this fest again a no brainer.

 

Weather.com is at least saying the rain should stop by 3PM.