The two-sided tasting sheets (reproduced below – click to see full-size images) listed 61 beers. “Barrel Aged” is of course not a beer style in itself – you can put any beer into a barrel – so the variety at this festival is larger than at style-specific events like the IPA Festival. This also means there’s not a professional judging, just a People’s Choice Award voted by attendees. Most beers tend to be heavier stouts, with the occasional Belgian-style wild beers showing up and some crazy one-offs here and there.

(As of this writing, has not seemed to be announced.) [Update: folks on the Beer Advocate message board say that the winner was Lagunitas' Bourbon Barrel Cappuccino Stout.]

[Update: The Bistro's web site lists the People's Choice winner as Drake's Wild Stallyns. Runners-up, in order of votes received: Lagunitas Bourbon Cappuccino Stout, Avery Rumpkin, Glacier Big Woody, Bear Republic Nectarine Grizz, Fifty Fifty Imperial Eclipse Stout, and Sierra Nevada Barrel Life & Limb.]

This year I tried twenty of the beers. I’m worried that my palate can’t be trusted with that many, but I did rate (on a 10 point scale) and take notes on each, so I’m going to post each brief review here in alphabetical order by brewery. Almost every beer was good – only two didn’t pass muster, which indicates a pretty amazingly consistent level of quality. We live in the best time for beer the world has ever seen.

• Avery Rumpkin (8.5-): A heavy pumpkin beer done mostly right. “Yum, sweet, not syrupy to start.” Not overwhelming with weird additives, but still “lots of spice, nutmeg?” “Maybe too much alcohol?” No head, clear medium red/brown. Doesn’t linger, maybe a little boozy, very drying on the end. One of the day’s most interesting beers.
• Bear Republic Barrel Aged Ryevalry (7.5): “Yummy, fruity, yeasty, rye.” I love Bear Republic, and I love rye beers, but haven’t cottoned to the regular Ryevalry. The barrel aged version, well made as it is, doesn’t quite catch my fancy, either.
• Drake’s Brett Butler (8.0+): “Russian River-esque”. A light, tart, lean beer. Love the Brett in this one. Finishes a little weak, then some burn in the chest. But really 9.0%?
• Drake’s Volte-Face (7.5+): “Sour, but not too dry or puckering.” “Maybe a little flabbier than Russian River’s style.”
• Drake’s The Creator Has a Mastertape (9.0): One of the best of the day. Ugly, murky appearance, but otherwise the perfect porter style. Has that fizzy edge and powderiness, tastes like a heavier, higher-alcohol beer than it is.
• Fifty Fifty Imperial Eclipse Stout – 2010 Four Roses Bourbon Barrel (8.5): Fifty Fifty has nailed the barrel-aged imperial stout. They have a great base beer that they perfectly age in beautiful American whiskey barrels. Four Roses is my favorite bourbon, but this beer wasn’t quite my favorite barrel-aged stout at Festival this day or from Fifty Fifty ever. A little thinner feeling than its companion beer (see below). Still, a great example of what a beautifully aged beer can take from a great bourbon barrel.
• Fifty Fifty Imperial Eclipse South – 2010 Heaven Hill / Rittenhouse Rye Barrel (9.5): My favorite of the day. A great base beer aged in a barrel formerly holding my favorite rye (see my post here). “Sensational. Chocolate, hints of coffee, some sweet, some dry, some wood. Full of flavor, but not too much of anything.”
• Firestone Walker 14 (9.0): The annual blend from Firestone Walker is quite deservedly a cult favorite. I’ve loved every one since the initial release of X. “Smooth, well-crafted. Maybe a touch too perfectly honed? Such finesse.”
• Firestone Walker Nectar Black Xantus (8.0+): “Coffee, coffee, coffee – yum!” Not acrid or dry coffee, just thick and rich. Maybe a little hot on the throat. Is that what happens with a 12.0% beer?
• Glacier Brewhouse Big Woody Barleywine (8.5+): I love English-style barleywines (not so much the American version), and this is a great example. A tiny bit too much vanilla for my taste, but otherwise superbly made. Yum.
• Lagunitas Bourbon Barrel Cappuccino Stout (8.0+): A great introduction to barrel aged beer in general. Very good, almost great – all of the wood, whiskey, and dryness that barrel aging brings. “Reminds me of Schlafly’s barrel-aged beers.” Is the standard Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout 11.0%, or was this a ramped up base beer?
• Marin 21 Year Old Ale (7.0): One of my favorite breweries, though I think Arne is still dialing in the sour styles. I liked this one, but it’s not “tight” like what Russian River has shown us. The finish feels sort of flabby.
• Moylan’s Ryan Sullivan’s Imperial Stout 2008 (6.0-): Tied for least favorite of the day. I really like the base beer in its native form, but this seemed sour when it wasn’t intended to be. “Shows the perils and unpredictability of barrel aging.”
• Moylan’s Wet Hopsickle 2010 (7.0-): The base beer is inconsistent, but when good, one of my favorite beers ever. In this case I thought, “Hoppy but winey, tannic, doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. Simcoe-style burn down the chest.”
• Port Brewing Older Viscosity 2009 (8.0-): Dark beer, looks like a stout. But “smells fruity, winey.” Is that roast in there? “Nice to get some hints of roast, though this isn’t a stout at its heart.”
• Russian River Consecration 09 (9.0+): Consecration is generally in my top five beers ever. Such a masterpiece. The ’09 was dryer than the ’10 (see below), some vinegar-style acid. So yummy. What a slightly tart but still rich barrel aged beer should be.
• Russian River Consecration 10 (9.5-): “So good. Big favorite. Tart but not puckering, so taut.” Obviously a sister to the ’09, but milkier. A great beer.
• Sierra Nevada Life and Limb (8.0-): “Like the Lagunitas – no obvious coffee, but still very typical or well-done barrel aged beers in general.” Hints of coconut in this one.
• Speakeasy Bourbon Barrel Aged Payback Porter (6.0-): I love the base beer, and always sought it out when it was available only on tap as Hunters Point Porter. But this version is a failure. No flavor, only a thin texture of vanilla and stinging alcohol. A shame.

Kudos to Vic Kralj and team at The Bistro for putting on these festivals. The price for this one was $40 for a souvenir glass and ten tasting tickets, with additional tickets $2 each. Pours seemed to range from 2-4 ounces. Not cheap, but absolutely worth the price.

• Report: 2009 Barrel-Aged Beer Festival at The Bistro: Hayward, CA (my writeup of last year’s festival)
• Report: 13th Annual IPA Festival (2010) at the Bistro: Hayward, CA (previous Bistro festival)
• The Bistro Events Page

My blog covers all sorts of unrelated topics. You can find just the posts on beer here.

The two-sided tasting sheet (reproduced below – click to see full-size images) listed 54 beers. I think all of them were present, with at least one semi-secret “extra” beer not listed (see comments below).

My general thoughts on the selections and the India Pale Ale style have not changed from last year (my full writeup of the 2009 festival here), so I’ll just repeat them:

Although The Bistro’s IPA Festival is second probably only to the Great American Beer Festival in the number of India Pale Ales under one roof, the lineup does not try to give an overview of this beer style in general. The beers here are almost exclusively from California, and almost exclusively brewed in the West Coast style popularized by breweries like Stone in Southern California and Bear Republic up north. These are dominated by citrus-y American hop varieties, tending more toward a fruitiness than the grainy spiciness of the India Pale Ale style invented in England.

This “American IPA” sub-style is probably my favorite type of beer. The good news is that California brewers have really dialed this style in – these days it’s hard to find an outright bad one anywhere. On the other hand, even hardcore proponents would probably admit that there’s not much stylistic variation among California IPAs. So even though I focused on beers that were new to the scene or more obscure than most, they were more similar than they were different.

This year I tried sixteen of the beers (including four of the five named winners of the formal judging and People’s Choice, the full results of which you can find on Jay Brooks’ excellent Brookston Beer Bulletin here). But my palate got tired, so I’ve only posted notes for those that I think registered properly. They’re in alphabetical order by brewery.

• Ballast Point Sculpin (7.0+/10): A favorite of many beer geeks as the big brother to the brewery’s Big Eye IPA, and certainly priced as if it’s something special (22oz bombers sell for $8.99 in the San Francisco Bay Area). Generally in that citrus hop-forward American style, but I found the texture a little thin. Sculpin wasn’t on the printed list (Big Eye was), so discovering it was a special – if somewhat disappointing – treat.
  
• Bear Republic Racer 5 (6.5/10): The day’s surprise. This is one of my all-time favorite beers, a desert island go-to. Racer 5 helped pioneer the American IPA style. But today it felt a little tired and unassertive. This is the last beer I tried before I pronounced my palate unfit for reliable feedback, so maybe that was part of the problem. Or maybe the American Pale Ale style has caught up to Racer 5, with American IPAs dialed up farther (Bear Repulic enters Racer 5 in the APA style at the GBF).
  
• Drake’s Aroma Prieta (7.5+/10): “All bitterness, all the time. Slightly murky.” Interesting, but I don’t love the edgy bitter profile – I prefer some sweeter, heavier malt to keep things grounded.
  
• Fifty Fifty RyePA (8.0/10): First tried at least year’s Festival (see my writeup and the brewer’s comments for some context). I’ve since had it at the brewery, and today’s sample is what I’ve come to know as this beer. Very murky yellow, though not unattractively so. Clean tasting, with lots of rye tang that avoids sharpness. Downright wonderful silky mouthfeel, like a Pinot Noir. Still, although I want to love this beer, I always end up just really liking it.
• Fat Heads Head Hunter IPA (7.0+/10): This beer from Cleveland won the formal judging at last year’s festival, and this year rated Honorable Mention. I found it well made, but unusual – almost English tasting, with some heavy drying tannins reminiscent of a big American Cabernet. Head Hunter has personality, but it’s not one I want to revisit all that often.
  
• Firehouse Hops on Rye (6.0-/10): I’ve still never had a beer that I enjoy from Sunnyvale’s Firehouse. I think the brewer and I have differently-calibrated palates. And I love rye beers! In this case I could see the beer polarizing drinkers in a “love it or hate it” way. Some earthy overtones, also maybe a minerality common in certain waters or wines. Very hard to describe.
• Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA (9.0/10): Such a great beer. Beautiful amber color, not straw/yellow like many others of this style. Hop-forward, but remembers that beer is made from grain, with a great rich malted barley undertone. One of my favorites since it was introduced (at this festival!) several years ago.
• Iron Springs The Crippla Version 2.1  (6.0/10): I love Iron Springs’ Casey Jones Double IPA, but Saturday’s beer bore little resemblance to its big brother. The Crippla Version 2.1 was thin and watery, closer to hop water than a robust beer. My notes read “Enough malt?”
• Midnight Sun Sockeye Red IPA (7.5/10): It’s always a treat to be able to try beers from Alaska’s storied Midnight Sun Brewing Company. Their “Red IPA” was good. Though the hops are traditional American – listed as Centennial, Simcoe, and Cascade – I tasted more of the earth and spice I associate with British hops. Not citrus-dominant like most others at the festival.
• Russian River Blind Pig (8.5/10): Always a great beer. Blind Pig has a downright wonderful hop aroma – such a hallmark of consistent quality. The character is just a little more “piney” than I like – more trees and less grapefruit than most other American IPAs.
• Russian River HopFather (9.0/10): Probably my favorite of the day. And most others’, too – this beer won the People’s Choice, though it didn’t place in the formal judging. That wonderful aroma, with a welcome sharpness in the texture. A nice, bracing beer. I’ve heard that this one is only good fresh – that it quickly changes character for the worse as it ages in the keg – so your mileage may vary if you encounter the HopFather on draft. But it’s certainly worth the risk.
• Sierra Nevada Chico IPA (9.0-/10): I loved this beer, made with “experimental hops.” A darker color than most, with a very substantial bitter character. The hops had the tangy character of New Zealand’s Nelson Sauvin, which I quite like (but probably isn’t to everyone’s taste). Chico IPA placed second in the formal judging, so I wasn’t the only one who thought it was great.
  
• Triple Rock IPAX IPA (9.0-/10): Another huge favorite for me. This was the beer I would most want to have two or three of. Wonderfully balanced, but still with the hop-forward character of an American IPA. Not a sweet beer, but still gives the palate some releif from bitterness. This is the second time a Bistro festival has pleasantly surprised me with a great beer from Triple Rock in Berkeley. I need to get over there more. (And IPAX placed first in the formal judging!)
  

Kudos to Vic Kralj and team at The Bistro for putting on these festivals – and for keeping the price the same this year! I think it was $25 for a souvenir tasting glass and four tickets, with extra tickets something like $2 each. Not cheap, but worth the price.

• Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2010 (by Jay Brooks)
• The Bistro Events Page
• Report: 12th Annual IPA Festival (2009) at the Bistro: Hayward, CA (my writeup from last year)

My blog covers all sorts of unrelated topics. You can find just the posts on beer here, including writeups of several other beer festivals.

However, the DIPA Festival has also become quite expensive! This year’s tariff was $35 for a souvenir glass and just five small pours (4-5 ounces each). Additional drink tickets were $2 each. I remember when it felt expensive at $25 entry and $1.50 drink tickets.

An astonishing fifty-eight Double IPAs were on tap (with a couple of notable exceptions to the style), nearly all from California. The average quality was very high, certainly much more consistent than several years back. I’ve scanned and posted the complete list below (click the images to view full size).

I tried eighteen of the beers (but missed two of three winners of the formal judging, the results of which you can find on Jay Brooks’ excellent Brookston Beer Bulletin here). Following are my notes on each, listed in descending order by how much I liked the beer:

• Firestone Walker Double Jack (9.5/10): My favorite of the day, but not typical of most approaches to this style. Double Jack keeps the malt as an almost equal partner to the hops. There’s tons of both in this beer, and that’s how I like it.
  
• Green Flash Pallet Wrecker (9.0+/10): My preferred profile, with lots of bready (but clean) malt backing up the hops. Marin Brewing’s White Knuckle, which I didn’t try at this festival, is my go-to beer with this character. Of the Green Flash I wrote, “Great balance.”
  
• Russian River Pliny the Younger (9.0+/10): The cult of this beer overpowers what can be rationally said of it. But yes, it’s very, very good – even great. Just feels more like a brewing parlor trick than an actual beer – a virtuoso brewer’s showpiece rather than something to be deeply enjoyed. No one else wrings as much flavor – and dryness – from the style as Vinnie Cilurzo does with Pliny the Younger.
  
• 21^st Amendment Hop Crisis (9.0/10): The ultimate exemplar of the fruit-forward style of DIPA, where citrusy American hops are the king and malt there just for texture. I loved this year’s batch of this beer so much I had it again at the brewpub on Monday night.
• Speakeasy IIIPA (9.0/10): This brewery is really coming into its own after several years of boringness. The IIIPA tasted like juicy fruit, almost bubblegum. Was there wheat in there? Quite scrumptious, and noticeably different from many others I tried. Loved it.
  
• Drake’s Donogginizer (9.0/10): This one’s becoming a local favorite, and I can see why. Just a great all-rounder. Heavy on malt, heavy on hops, but still relatively clean. A pleasure to drink.
• Moylan’s Hopsickle Imperial XXX IPA (8.5/10): This beer has changed a lot over the years (and seems they never know what to call it, either). But it has usually been very good, and the current version is excellent. I wrote, “Wow! All hop showcase. Less malt than others, but not bad for it.”
  
• Sierra Nevada Hoptimum (8.5/10): Nice, and different! I tasted grass, not just citrus and pine. Maybe some noble hops in here, like Saaz or Hallertau?
  
• Drake’s Hopocalypse (8.5/10): Edgier than Drake’s round Denogginizer. “Great hops, a little thin on the finish.”
  
• Rubicon HopSauce (8.0/10): The only beer I tried that placed in the formal judging. “Not overly hoppy, closer to a single IPA.” “Very good drinker.”
  
• Port Brewing Mongo IPA (8.0/10): I tasted this from a friend’s glass before knowing what it was. I said, “This is a really good regular IPA, but it’s out of place here!” Probably put itself at a disadvantage compared to its heavy hitting competition.
  
• Bear Republic 11 (8.0/10): Fascinating beer, and very well made, but not sure if it’s something I would want to drink regularly. Almost as if they denatured the hop flavor to focus primarily on bitterness – sort of like the essence of pure bitterness. My notes: “not too fruity” and “a little thin, some edge”.
  
• Glacier Brewhouse Double IPA (8.0/10): The prettiest beer of the day. “Beautiful head – clear, dark beer.” And “malty.” But even though I prefer relatively malty DIPAs, this one didn’t have the accompanying hop character. “Like a bitter brown ale.”
• 21^st Amendment Two Lane Blacktop Imperial Black (7.5/10): The “Black IPA”, pioneered by Stone Brewing with their Eleventh Anniversary Ale (now a regular release called Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale) is a favorite pseudo-style of mine. Adding that tiny bit of roasted flavor to the American IPA, and turning it black, just really appeals to me. But I didn’t love 21A’s attempt at a Black DIPA at the festival. Tasted little or no roastiness, and found the texture a little watery. However, I liked it better when I tried it again at their brewpub on Monday night.
  
• Lagunitas Hop Porno (7.5/10): Lagunitas’ Hop Stoopid is often one of my favorite DIPAs (though the bottlings have wild variation, so you’re never sure what you’re going to get). But Hop Porno had an off-smell and initial attack that put me off. The middle palate and finish were great, but this beer didn’t hang together as well as some others.
  
• Fat Heads Hop Juju (7.0/10): This Cleveland brewery won the formal judging at a recent festival (maybe the IPA Festival?), but I didn’t enjoy this beer as much as most others. “Minty – wow, mint!” was my note.
  
• Bear Republic Five Zero (6.5/10): Still my favorite brewery overall for their sublime Racer 5 IPA and Hop Rod Rye, but their festival-oriented one-offs have not been big hits with me. Based on the name, I was hoping on some relative of the juicy Racer 5, but I noted Five Zero as “close to flavorless” (presumably in comparison with the other richly-flavored beers present).
  

And I should mention the dark horse unsung hero of all of this year’s San Francisco Beer Week Events, the “Imperial Common” brewed by a collection of San Francisco Brewers:

• SF Brewers’ Guild Imperial Common in Jack Daniels (9.5/10): Not a Double IPA by any stretch. Wonderfully round all-around drinker, close to a perfect beer. Barely a hint of barrel, perfect texture – not too thick, not too thin. A beer that just feels right. I’ve tried it four or five times so far over San Francisco Beer Week – every sip makes you know you’re in good hands. Spectacular accomplishment.
  

Another great event, very nicely pulled off by Vic Kralj and the team at The Bistro. Let’s just hope the prices stabilize or decline – there’s no longer a hop shortage to use as an excuse!

• Bistro Double IPA Winners (with video of ceremony, by Jay Brooks)
  
• The Bistro Events (Hayward, CA)

Bamberg is a charming small city of about 70,000 in northern Bavaria. It’s reminiscent of Bruges in that it escaped bombing during WWII, retaining a twisty medieval character. Bamberg is home to eight old German breweries (plus a modern brewpub), two of which specialize in Rauchbier (smoked beer).

For a non-beer tourist, Bamberg is worth a day trip if you’re already in Bavaria – perhaps touring Neuschwanstein castle or other local attractions.  The old city hall, towers, and other medieval buildings are just wonderful to see and explore.

For beer aficionados, Bamberg is an absolutely required pilgrimage. A unique bit of beer history preserved here (by the way, Evan Rail wrote a superb overview of beer travel in Germany, including great pointers to Bamberg and Rauchbier, in the New York Times a couple of years ago).

Here are a few of my notes and recommendations, followed by a photo album:

• Take a cab from the train station to the old part of the city or to your hotel. The station is just far enough away from the action, and in a relatively grim-looking part of town, to make walking unpleasant.
• Stay at one of the breweries. At least two have guest rooms – Spezial and Mahr’s Bräu. A very nice way to get at heart of what Bamberg’s about.
• Try some Rauchbier at the source. Spezial (my favorite) and Schlenkerla (better known) are the only two breweries that make it. Rauchbier is described in many ways: “bacon beer,” “like licking an ash tray,” “the beer equivalent of a peaty single malt Scotch whisky, like Ardbeg, Laphroaig, or Lagavulin.” A must-try.
• Visit the Geyerswörth Palace. I’ve no idea if there’s anything worth seeing in the actual buildings, but you should climb the tower (key is available from the Tourist Office a block or two away) and take in the beautiful views of the town and the hills around.
• The Weyermann Maltings is a can’t-miss destination for the beer geek. Professional- and home-brewers both will know the Weyermann name – one of the world’s best-known and highest quality malted grain providers. Call in advance to arrange a tour. They’ll happily show you around if you give them at least a day’s notice, but are much less willing to accommodate immediate requests. The well-stocked gift ship is open only on Fridays, but you might be able to get them to open it for you on a different day. Amazing selection of beer-related gear, the most interesting being beers brewed at their pilot brewery on site. The only ales I saw in Bavaria. Weyermann beer is ultra-rare, sold only at this gift shop.
• Our favorite breweries, in descending order: 1) Spezial (definitely smoked beer, but not over-smoked), 2) Mahr’s (try the “ungespundet” – head and shoulders above their others), 3) Schlenkerla (the classic richly-flavored Rauchbier), and 4) Klosterbräu (decent all-around lagers).
• We did not like any of the beers at Fässla, and we tried them all. The service was also distinctly unfriendly.

Here are some of my photos from Bamberg. As always, I suggest viewing the slideshow directly on Flickr here, but you can also get a sense from the gallery I’ve pasted below (note that there are two pages of photos):

A few months back I went to Munich for the world’s oldest and greatest beer festival. I loved it – Oktoberfest wildly exceeded my expectations.

I had been to Munich at least once before, but not during this time of year. I expected a New Orleans Mardi Gras-like crush of drunken screaming twenty-year-olds to ruin the vibe. But no – though things were occasionally rowdy, the entire feel was one of, well, gemütchlichkeit! Just lots of happy folks celebrating beer and food in a Germanically-organized way.

You can find tons of Oktoberfest travel/tourist information all over the web. The official website is excellent and a great place to start. But here are a few tips from my experience:

• You can enjoy yourself mightily without ever getting a tent reservation – the outside Biergartens always have space, and they serve the same food and beer as inside. And the regular Munich beer gardens, like Augustiner and Hofbräu, are going full tilt, so you don’t even have to be at the Wiesn to have fun.
• However, you should definitely get at least one reservation for at least one tent, just to have the full experience. You haven’t been to Oktoberfest until you’ve sung “Take Me Home, Country Roads” alongside an oom-pah band and 4,000 of your newest friends.
• Eat the chicken. It’s amazing. We called it “crack chicken”. No idea what they do it back in the big rotisserie areas, but it tastes like no other food. Downright sensational.
• The BMW Museum has been around for more than thirty years, but has recently expanded with some new buildings (essentially comprising a fancy dealership). Worth a visit – most efficient way to get a feel for the Bavarian fetish for engineering.

There are six breweries allowed to brew and serve Oktoberfest-style beer for the festival. I tried five of them in situ at Oktoberfest tents. Generally I found them much lighter in color and dryer in both flavor and texture than American renditions (Sam Adams does a great Oktoberfest in the richer style I’m used to).

Here’s my force-ranked list of Munich Oktoberfest-style lagers, in order of preference (loved one, liked three, disliked one). German beers tend to be more alike than different (largely due to the preference for lagers, and the ongoing oppression of the Reinheitsgebot), so we’re looking at a relatively narrow spectrum here:

1. Augustiner: head and shoulders above the rest. Had it at one of their beer gardens, at one of their tents, sought it out again several times. Scrumptious.
2. Hofbräu: tasted at the one tent in the Wiesn that pours it. Very well made. No sense that they’re phoning it in given the popularity of their eponymous Hofbräuhaus.
3. Spaten-Franziskaner: better-known internationally for their Weissbier (wheat beer), which our hotel served at breakfast. But Spaten-Franziskaner also does a nice job with the Oktoberfest style. A touch too dry for my taste, but still excellent.
4. Paulaner: one I had liked a lot in bottle in the USA, but a bit disappointing compared to the others. Quite drinkable, just not the “a-ha” I got from Augustiner.
5. Löwenbräu: probably the neatest-looking tent (see photos below), but by far my least favorite beer. Tried it twice at two different places. Just harsh and unpleasant to my palate.

Now to the photos. As always, I think they look much better in full-screen slideshow format on Flickr here, but I’ve inserted a gallery below if you would rather poke through that (note that there are two pages of the following gallery).

• The Barrel Aged Festival
• The Bistro Wood Barrel Aged Beer Festival
• West Coast Barrel-Aged Festival

But whatever it was called, Vic Kralj and his team pulled off a great event. Like several attendees, I was hit by some sticker shock – $40 for ten 2oz pours, up from last year’s already-high $35. I hope that’s because The Bistro pays the breweries for their beers (some festivals get brewers to provide beer for free – saying it’s for marketing).

In any case, there were 65 beers on tap, most from the West Coast. Here are scans of the beer list provided to attendees:

Today’s was the fourth annual barrel-aged festival at The Bistro – I’ve made them all except last year’s. Unlike at previous years’ barrel-aged festivals – and unlike at The Bistro’s other annual festivals – there was no professional judging at today’s event. “Barrel-aged” isn’t really a style in itself, so it’s very difficult to compare beers of such varying types.

(There was still a People’s Choice ballot, but as of this writing I haven’t seen any word on the winner. Usually Jay Brooks posts this information, but I don’t see it on his event writeup here. I’ll update this post when the winner is announced.)

Regardless, two general categories could describe the majority of beers on offer: 1) sour (generally Belgian-style, inoculated with wild yeast or bacteria) or 2) dark and sweet (usually aged in an American whiskey barrel).

Although I love sour beers, today I stuck almost exclusively to the latter type. All told I tried twelve beers, not quite 20% of what was being poured. I did not have a bad beer today. While it’s possible I just got lucky in my selection, I would rather believe that it’s because American brewers are getting the hang of how to use wood to age their beers.

Here are my thoughts on each beer I tried, stack ranked from favorite to least-favorite:

• Grand Teton Bourbon Aged Doppelbock (9.5/10): My favorite of the day. Loads of vanilla, but the overall character was simultaneously sweet and dry, somehow. Quite complex. (At heart I’m a lager guy – I’ve got a soft spot for lager yeasts and styles.)
• Fifty Fifty Brewing Imperial Eclipse Stout 2008 (9.5/10): Sublime. Rounded, chocolatey, warm, a bit of bourbon wood without overpowering the beer. A big beer, but balanced. Really wonderful.
• Deschutes Black Butte XXI (9/10): The same as the bottled version? Regardless, downright sensational – this beer beats the better-known “Abyss” hands down. Surprisingly mellow, lots of coffee without overdoing it. Just a great beer that does not shows its 11.0% alcohol.
• Moylan’s Wet Hopsickle 2009 (8.5/10): A little bit of the Double IPA Festival right here on Barrel-Aged day! But seriously, the super-juicy hops are balanced really nicely by the Chardonnay barrel. Previous editions of this beer have been sickly sweet, obscuring that American hop character. But this one nails it – excellent.
• Linden Street Burning Oak Black Lager (8.0/10): Much different from most others I’ve tried, in that this was truly the texture of a lager (thinner than the robust ales typically aged in barrels). Just up and down good. This one aged with bourbon-soaked oak chips – the type of thing a homebrewer could do. And should, based on the subtle character it adds to this great Schwarzbier.
• Glacier Brewhouse Oak Aged Glacier Eisbock (8.0/10): Smelled to me like a beer from a bourbon barrel, but no – listed just as a “used American oak wine barrel”. Scrumptious malt (my note is “yummy!”). The brewer’s description (see p2 above) says it’s “brilliant dark ruby red in color”, though mine was a murky but not unattractive brown.
• Sierra Nevada Porter on Scotch (7.5/10): Sierra Nevada brought the only two beers explicitly stated to have been aged in Scotch whisky barrels (which were of course used for bourbon or sherry before going over to Scotland). I really liked this porter, which was bone dry. In fact that was its only flaw – just dry and a bit smoky, without any respite. I would love to add a bit of a sweeter beer, see how it helps round this one out.
• Bear Republic Clobberskull (7.5/10): “Brewed with 10% raw wheat and 10% split peas[!]“. Wow. I described this one as  “fascinating mess”, with no perceptible pea flavor. Fruity, some latent tartness, also some sweet viscosity. But not too much of anything.
• Bear Republic Trebuchet (7.0/10): Belgian Tripel from a 100 year old Cognac barrel. Unusual. Not quite sour, but some fruit. This one lacked “beerness”, turning more into a spirit-type taste.
• Fifty Fifty Brewing Imperial Eclipse Stout 2009 (7.0/10): Very good, but not great. Hard to believe it’s the same beer as the 2008 vintage mentioned above. Thinner mouthfeel, a tiny bit harsh. Is the only difference the barrel (this one’s Jack Daniels vs. the ’08′s Pappy Van Winkle) and a year of age?
• Maui Black Pearl (7.0/10): Coconut! This must be Maui’s flagship coconut porter with some barrel aging, though the writeup doesn’t make that clear. I love the base beer and used to buy it all the time before they changed it from six-packs to four-packs and increased the price. But the barrel doesn’t seem to add much here, and it certainly doesn’t tame the slightly edgy texture.
• Glacier Brewhouse Beam Black Rye Bock (6.0/10): The day’s only misfire. Which was a shame, since it was the only beer mentioned to be made with rye malt, which is always a favorite of mine. The flavor seemed like it could have been great, but the finish on this beer was super short – over before you even could get at it.

A great – if pricey – beer festival. Amazing to see the fun brewers are having with wood aging. See you at next year’s!

(P.S. My blog covers all sorts of unrelated topics. If you’re interested in just the posts about beer, you can subscribe to those here.)

1. 1516 Brewing Company in the First District. My full review is on BeerAdvocate here. To summarize, an American-style brew pub in Europe. Everyone speaks English, styles are generally highly varied (and highly hopped – they even brew Hop Devil IPA from Pennsylvania’s Victory Brewing), and the food is generically average. The beer is overall superb, though – I tried everything on the menu and the blackboard and didn’t have a single clunker. Just don’t come here expecting to explore the nuances of Austrian beer history or culture.
2. Siebensternbräu in the Seventh District. Still an easy(-ish) walk from the center of the city. Absolutely charming inside, with a tendency toward more European styles in the beers. I had a couple of very good lagers there, and an awesome Käsespätzle (cheese noodles) with bacon. Went beautifully with their signature Hemp beer.

My general sense was that Vienna doesn’t have much of a craft beer culture, that big-company lagers (and some macro wheat beers) are the main offering nearly everywhere. I couldn’t even find a good, “native” Vienna lager anywhere – one of my favorite styles when produced by American craft brewers.

You can’t go wrong with the beers at either of the above-two brewpubs, though, nor the food at Siebensternbräu.

My photos are probably best viewed directly on Flickr here, but I’ve also inserted them as a gallery below. (Most of them were taken with my BlackBerry, so they’re not the greatest quality.)

Thanks again to the authors of the web pages below, which helped me quite a bit on such a short trip:

• BeerAdvocate BeerFly
• Vienna Beer Gen
• Vienna Pub Guide

(P.S. My blog covers all sorts of unrelated topics. If you’re interested in just the posts about beer, you can subscribe to those here.)

While in The Smoke I took some photos, a handy ninety-two of which I deemed suitable for the public.  The focus is primarily on the Fuller’s Brewery, the last major brewery operating in London (and always my first stop when I visit the city), with some shots of St. Paul’s, The Vintage House whisky shop in Soho, and a random burnt up Ferrari on the street in St. John’s Wood.

You’ll find it easier to browse the photos directly on Flickr here, but I’ll insert a gallery into this blog post, too.

The tasting list (scans inserted below; click to see full size) included a mind-boggling sixty-two beers. But unfortunately at least ten “hadn’t arrived yet” as of two hours into the event. And even more unfortunately, five of those were included in the seventeen I wanted to try (marked with a “+” on my tasting list). So I tasted an even dozen IPAs.

Although The Bistro’s IPA Festival is second probably only to the Great American Beer Festival in the number of India Pale Ales under one roof, the lineup does not try to give an overview of this beer style in general. The beers here are almost exclusively from California, and almost exclusively brewed in the West Coast style popularized by breweries like Stone in Southern California and Bear Republic up north. These are dominated by citrus-y American hop varieties, tending more toward a fruitiness than the grainy spiciness of the India Pale Ale style invented in England.

This “American IPA” sub-style is probably my favorite type of beer. The good news is that California brewers have really dialed this style in – these days it’s hard to find an outright bad one anywhere. On the other hand, even hardcore proponents would probably admit that there’s not much stylistic variation among California IPAs. So even though I focused on beers that were new to the scene or more obscure than most, they were more similar than they were different.

The twelve beers I tried, in alphabetical order by brewery name:

• 21^st Amendment “US IPA” (6/10): I’m not sure if this is the “Brew Free or Die” IPA that 21A started contract brewing and canning in Minnesota, but it did remind me of that beer, which tastes like a lighter, dare I say “dumbed down” version of the 21A IPA that used to be canned at the brewpub in San Francisco.
• Ale Industries “Rye’d Piper” (3.5/10): I’ve not heard of this brewery, apparently in Concord, but I love the character of rye in beer. This one tasted crude, like the ingredients weren’t integrated. I didn’t finish my taste.
  
• Bear Republic “Apex IPA” (7/10): Bear Republic’s Racer 5 IPA put this style on the map, and it’s still probably my single favorite go-to beer of any style. Apex is leaner, more aggressive. Excellent, but I like more malt sweetness than the brewer is going for here. The slight burn usually indicates Simcoe hops to me, but the tasting notes mention only the standby “C hops” (Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus) common to most American IPAs.
  
• The Bruery “Humulus Lager” (NR): The Bruery – in my brother-in-law’s hometown of Orange, CA – has been establishing itself as a specialist in Belgian styles. Certainly the hardcore American hop bill (see tasting list) takes this one away from Belgium, but a lager? I love lagers, including (especially) the IPA-like Reality Czech from Moonlight, but this one didn’t do it for me. It was ruined by a skunky smell – perhaps lightstruck in the pitcher that The Bistro was using in between keg and glass? So I’m guessing it was flawed and not what the brewer intended (otherwise I would give it a 5/10).
  
• Drake’s “Aroma Coma” (8.5/10): My favorite beer of the day, though not the best, if that makes sense. Tons of citrus all over, but very well integrated – many of these super-dry-hopped beers give it all up on the nose and forget to follow through with the flavor. A really nice, complete beer.
  
• Drake’s “Bass Ackwards” (7.5/10): Another great showing. This one was a little edgier than the Aroma Coma, with that throat-burning that comes from Simcoe hops.
  
• Fifty Fifty “Rye PA” (NR) and “Rockslide IPA” (NR): I think this brewery in Truckee won an award at a recent Bistro festival – maybe the Double IPA? So I was extra-excited to see they brought a rye beer today. But I’m convinced these two beers were mixed up. The beer labeled “Rye PA” was a very clear light yellow, almost like a macro-lager, and had no rye character – also a little thin in the texture. The beer labeled “Rockslide IPA” was a murky dark brown, some reddish highlights, tasted like it needed to settle a bit. Several other seemingly-knowledgeable attendees commented independently that they also thought these were mislabeled.  [Update: both Alan, the brewer of these beers, and Vic, the festival organizer and Bistro's proprietor, have confirmed in comments below the beers were correctly labeled and were being poured correctly. I stand by my perceptions of the beers, but we can assume they were not mixed up as I and several others thought.]
• Firehouse “Hops on Rye” (4/10): Another rye beer – woo hoo! But another misfire. The rough-edged character of a poor homebrew.
  
• Russian River Brewing “The Hopfather” (8.5/10): A new IPA by Vinnie Cilurzo, apparently based on an old recipe he contributed to Sam Calagione’s book Extreme Brewing. Just beautifully crafted – all hops all the time, but a light-medium mouthfeel that keeps it from being edgy, as if the malt is lending texture without too much flavor. The best beer I had, but not my favorite. Though I did go back for a second pour.
  
• Speakeasy “Midnight Run IBA” (6.5/10): I love the emerging style of “Black IPA”. Pioneered, I believe, by Stone with their stellar one-off Eleventh Anniversary Ale, now reincarnated as the regularly available Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale. One of my favorite beers ever – and I like almost nothing else from Stone. I also love the version brewed at 21^st Amendment in San Francisco. Now fellow SF brewery Speakeasy has one, presumably a new recipe by their new-ish brewer. Very very good, but just shy of great, at least with this small taste. I hope I can find this at Toronado, so I can spend some more time with a bigger pour.
  
• Triple Rock “Puffy Shirt” (7/10): Nice to find an American IPA that’s not just hops, hops, and hops. Seems like the brewers were going for something session-able. Still tons of character.
  

The five beers I wanted to try but couldn’t find:

• Auburn Ale House Gold Digger IPA
• Devil’s Canyon Devil Rye IPA
• EJ Phair Retro Fit
• Tied House Menage a Sing Black IPA
• Triple Rock IPAX IPA

Tip for those attending festivals at The Bistro: you can almost always get a table if you show up by 10:30. To my mind it makes for a more pleasant experience than standing in the crowd that shows up in the early afternoon.

Update: Jay Brooks, who writes the beer stories on local newspaper blog Bottoms Up and also his own excellent Brookston Beer Bulletin, has posted the winners of the formal judging here. After all my talk of California, a Cleveland brewery wins First Place!

• 1st Place: Head Hunter IPA (Fat Heads Brewery & Saloon)
• 2nd Place: Wipeout IPA (Port Brewing)
• 3rd Place: Aroma Coma (Drake’s Brewing)

• People’s Choice: The Hopfather (Russian River Brewing)

(P.S. My blog covers all sorts of unrelated topics. If you’re interested in just the posts about beer, you can subscribe to those here.)