KT Goes Ale Tasting TR

[KilgoreTrout]

tl;dr - the Warden took me to an ale tasting for our anniversary. We drank lots of good beer and a couple of stinkers.

For our 6th wedding anniversary this past Saturday, the Warden surprised me with tickets to the Festival of Ale at the Higgins Armory Museum in our fair city of Worcester, MA. The Higgins is a great location for such an event. It boasts a large collection of ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and colonial arms and armor. The main gallery is designed like the promenade of a 16th century castle. Vendors from dozens of local and national craft breweries set up shop on two of museum’s floors.

The Warden and I decided to sample each brew together, compare notes, and avoid trying to sample all of the beers represented. When we arrived the second floor was packed, so we headed up to the main gallery on the third floor. Below are the brews we sampled with notes.

John Harvard’s Brew House, Nut Brown Ale. This is my favorite Harvard’s brew. It’s a traditional pub-style ale with a rich caramel color, a mellow hoppiness, and a rich malty tone. A good one to start with. A friend who we ran into on the way in suggested starting with a familiar brew. Good idea.

John Harvard's September Lager – Light and mild, this brew is one I could enjoy watching a football game. A hint of spice wraps around the finish (coriander?), not overstated, and very slight carbonation reminded me of English pub bitters sans hoppiness.

Long Trail Brewing Company , Harvest Ale. Glad I had the Harvard lager before this one. The maltiness surpasses the Harvard brown ale, and this brew has a fine caramel finish. It compares well to Newcastle, but with heavier malt flavor. IIRC, this was fairly light on the alcohol, somewhere around 4%.

I’m not usually a fan of lambics/fruity beers, but the Warden wanted to try the Long Trail Blackberry Wheat. What a pleasant surprise! It tasted like beer. Well, beer with a very subtle fruity finish. The blackberry was so understated – just a tease to the palate – and the nose was such a waft of wheaty-hoppy-maltiness – this too could be a football gamer. Delicious.

Berkshire Brewing Company, Coffeehouse Porter. The Warden’s a coffee freak. She saw this one and shoved her way to the front of the line for a sample. My expectations were low. I like my beer to taste like beer: malted grain, hops, yeast, water. I stuck my nose in the sampling glass and, yep, it smelled like coffee. The rich brown head was creamy and sweet – reminiscent of cappuccino, and the nose was all coffee. Coffee was evident on the first sip, too, but then the sweetness of the porter took over – a rich chocolaty caramel and a slightly bitter finish. I had expected something like Drew Carey’s Buzz Beer, but what I got was a delicious, heavy, brew that would be excellent for holiday parties. Strong at 6.2%, this beer can sneak up on you, as the Warden found out later, after her fifth 6oz glass.

After cleansing the ole palate, I tasted BBC’s
Oktoberfest Lager (yes lager). This is a real beer. Malty, hoppy, and strong at 7%, it has a crisp spicy finish that’s not too over the top. I bought two growlers of the stuff Sunday. Let’s say that I enjoyed watching the games.

Smuttynose is another favorite, and I was eager to see what seasonal brews they brought. Thing is, they didn’t bring a seasonal ale. No worries, as Shoals Pale Ale is a real treat with rich hoppiness atop a tasty malt. Their Old Brown Dog Ale really seemed like a darker version of the Shoals, with too much hops for a brown ale, IMO. A good beer, just not what I’m looking for in a brown. I want rich caramel and malty smoothness. This one explodes with hops, more like an IPA.

Things took a turn for the worse when we went downstairs. We sampled Owen O'leary Brewpub's Oktoberfest. It tasted like the brewmaster was trying too hard and dumped half a spice rack in the wort. This was the first beer I dumped. Next.

Paper City Brewery's Ireland Parish Golden Ale: very hoppy and anything but subtle, this is an IPA, not a Golden Ale. Still, it was tasty if overstated, and welcome after the terrible O’Leary’s beer.

Gardner Ale House is a brewpub, and I hope their food is better than their beer. Their Chair City Pale Ale was way too overdone – so much so that it tasted like Pledge (the cleaning product) rather than the intended coriander. It was gross.

New Hampshire's Pennichuck Brewing Company presented Firehouse Red Ale. It was a delicious red. It has a clean nose, slight hoppiness, and a woody malt character. The rep said that they try to keep their brews low key because they’re located near several factories, and the workers there expect their beer to taste like beer, not carrot cake. Here’s a pdf of their spec sheet for the red.

We skipped the Wachusett, Shipyard, Redhook, Magic Hat, and Harpoon stations because, well, we know what to expect from them.

The biggest surprise was from a tiny brewery called Sherwood Forest Brewers from Marlborough, MA.
Sherwood Forest Brewers Their Archer Ale was a real English-style Ale-in-a-can similar to Tetleys or Caffrey’s, but without the foamy widget. It was smooth, draft creamy, and I think it really nailed the pub style ale. Gonna pick some up sometime after work (their brewery is about a mile from my office).

So it was mostly good with a couple of disappointments. A great time, for sure, in a great venue. Can’t wait for the next one.

[MrWookie]

You know if Berkshire Brewing bottles/distributes their beer? Their Oktoberfest sounds like something I'd like to try.

[KilgoreTrout]

Many of the brewers were pimping their pumpkin ales. I am not a fan of these, but more than one rep told me that Octoberfests are too common for the craft beer afficianado. I sampled a couple and I still don't like the flavor. Maybe it's because I expect pumpkin pie flavor and the beer delivers squash.

Wookie - The BBC owners were there and they seemed really cool. They do bottle their stuff (it's available throughout Massachusetts). Not sure how the rules work for shipping in interstate commerce. Here's their homepage If you follow the link you should be able to contact them.

edit - I guess I need to find synonyms for "rich." LDO

[dcasper70]

You need to inform me of this next year.

Interestingly, my old haunt was Owen O'Leary's on rt 9 in Southboro. And yeah, their beer has never seemed to be more than a noob brewmaster's failed experiment.... Good Irish Stew though.

Did you sample any Post Road Pumpkin Ale? I have that in the collection and recall it being much tastier than expected.

[MrWookie]

I've got a sixer (or what's left of one) of Post Road in my fridge. It's the best pumpkin ale I've had to date.

[Aces McGee]

[ QUOTE ]
Many of the brewers were pimping their pumpkin ales. I am not a fan of these

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't like most of them, but I had the Shipyard Pumpkinhead a couple years back and was blown away by how flavorful it was.

Also, Long Trail rules. Last time I went home to Vermont, I brought sampler 12 packs of Long Trail, Magic Hat, and Otter Creek back to DC with me because it's hard to get that stuff here -- although I do see Magic Hat and Otter Creek more and more these days.

Nice report.

-McGee