Monthly Archives: May 2009

Best of Arborfest

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Here are my picks and pans for the 2009 Arborfest (at least from what I got around to tasting).

My best of Arborfest 2009.

Great Waters Imperial Wit – High-test and refreshing. Nice wheaty malt with Belgian yeast character, citrus, and spice. So light and quaffable that you will be tempted to drink several pints. But watch out for that.
Fitger’s Brewhouse Belgian Single – Everything you love in a Belgian Triple but with a moderate amount of alcohol. A golden beer with rich malty sweetness but spicy dry finish. Dashes of Belgian yeast and citrus. You can drink several of these in a sitting.
Flat Earth Sunburst Ale – Apricot infused Belgian Pale Ale. How can you miss? Better than Magic Hat #9, you get the malty/yeasty/bitter of Flat Earth Belgian Pale Ale with an explosion of fresh fruit that lasts from start to finish.
Town Hall Belgian Cherry Ale – Looks like the Belgian styles won the night for me. A Triple infused with cherries, the base beer character was the highlight with subtle cherry notes in the background. Nice balance and tasty.

My Worst of Arborfest 2009

Town Hall Cherry Smoked Porter – I love porter. I love cherry wood smoked beer (see my tasting notes for the Goose Island cherry wood smoked bock). The two didn’t work together. The char-pit character of the cherry wood smoke needs a sweeter beer. A case of the parts just not working well together.
Town Hall Oak Aged Honey Saison – I don’t mean to pick on Town Hall. I love their beers and spend a good deal of time there. But again, the parts did not add up to a wholesome whole on this one. The oak was too intense and clashed with the spicy saison yeasty character. The honey added a layer of odd sweetness on top of it all. Three good ideas that just didn’t add up.
Barley John’s Pale Ale – This just tasted wrong. Unbalanced, watery, unpleasant. It was the only beer of the night that I dumped.

My Question Mark of Arborfest 2009

Surly Ashy Cynic Cask – Here is the conversation I had with the person pouring at the Surly booth.
Me: Why is it Ashy?
Them: Because there’s a piece of ash in it?
Me: What does that do for it?
Them: Makes it taste like ash?
“Ash” jokes aside, I asked because this tasted to me like Cynic Ale from a cask. Not that this was a bad thing, I just wasn’t getting any ash. Perhaps it was because I came to this one late in the evening and my palate was already shot. I can’t say. I just didn’t get it.

Zipp’s Spring Beer Tasting

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A great crowd at the Cedar Cultural Center.

Zipp's LiquorA nice crowd gathered at the Cedar Cultural Center last night for the Zipp’s Spring Beer Tasting event. Part beer festival, part charity fund-raiser for the Cedar, this event brought together distributor, importer, and brewery reps in a showcase of over 100 regional and national beers. $20 bought your entry and included a tasting glass and all the samples you could consume. There was also a silent auction with proceeds going to support the Cedar Cultural Center. The auction included lots of beer swag, like glassware, t-shirts, and hats, along with biking paraphernalia and even a bike. Zipp’s did a similar event last fall that was not nearly as well attended. It was great to see so many people turn out to taste good beer and support a great cause.

I focused my tasting on beers that I had not yet tasted and I must say there were startlingly few. I ran through that list in fairly short order. There were a couple of standouts both on the good side and the Boulder Brewing Co. Flashback Imperial Brown Aledisappointing side. By far the best beer I tasted all night was Flashback, an imperial brown ale from Boulder Brewing in Colorado. This beer is currently only available as the mystery seasonal beer in the Boulder sampler pack. It has a luscious caramel and toast malt profile with a backbone of light roast. The malt is balanced by nice resinous hop character and medium bitterness. I would gladly drink a pint of this. I went back for seconds and thirds of this beer. Another beer that I liked was the Big Red Imperial Red Ale from Southern Tier. This is another balanced beer with rich caramel malt and citrus/pine hops and nice fruity notes. The bitterness is restrained making for an easy drinking beer even with the high alcohol.

The biggest disappointment of the night was 2009 from Lagunitas. All hop flavor, with too little bitternessLagunitas 2009 and too little malt, this was like drinking a lightly sugary, watery glass of orange-grapefruit juice. I like the beers from Lagunitas, but I’ll pass on this one. Another disappointment from an otherwise great brewery was Mom Hefeweizen from Rogue. A hefeweizen brewed with ginger and coriander, this to me was a so-so wheat beer with overwhelming ginger and a little bit of soapiness. I wanted more wheat. I wanted more hefe.

Crispin CiderThe real pleasant surprise of the night was Crispin Cider from right here in Minneapolis. They were there with three varieties of natural apple cider. The Brut was the best of the three, tart but with a mellowing sweetness, full of fresh apple, vanilla, and vinous fruity flavors. The lighter Original and even the 3.2% ABV Light were also quite tasty. I have only recently learned to like cider, but I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up a six-pack of Crispin.