In what may be the final brewfest of the year, we went to the 2010 Wine & Brew Harvest Festival sponsored by Ryan and Casey Liquors in Greenfield. As the name suggests, this one had lots of wine to sample in addition to the standard beer offerings. I tried exactly 0 wines, because that's not how I roll. Maybe you can jump on the Mmmm, [nouns] bandwagon and start up Mmmm, wines. We'll even cut you in on the profits, to the tune of 5%.
The samples at this particular fest were 2-oz, which means I tried a whole lot of them. Settle down for a long read, because we're going to be here for a while. Once again, I chose to use the same system as last time, which is an absurd method using ok, good, and great along with exclamation points to capture my initial reaction to each beer. It's not the greatest system, but it is easy to use on my phone so I'm keeping it. I can't be writing well thought-out synopses of everything when I'm walking around in crowds. Sorry.
And away we go!
I started off with an old favorite, Shipyard Pumpkinhead, because I wanted to get off on the right foot. This beer is "Great," but some people (like silly Melissa) think it's too sweet. But then she goes and likes the banana bread beer, which is like pure sugar. Silly women. I find that pumpkin beers fit into two categories: pumpkiny, and pumpkin pie-y. This one is in the pie-y category, so drink accordingly.
I went across the tent (this fest had 4 small tents on the outside and then little stands in the center) and got Ommegang Abbey Ale. This beer is a Belgian non-white ale, so it wasn't immediately banned from my consumption. I found this beer to be "Good!" I would enjoy a couple in the future.
The next table had a couple interesting beers, and I tried the Pumpkin Ale by Dogfish Head (a brand that I am pretty sure is named after Chloe). This one is in the pumpkiny category, and it was "Good." I think there are a lot of other pumpkin ales that do it better though.
Moving on, I tried a beer that Bill and Melissa both recommended, Hooker Octoberfest. This is a quality Oktoberfest beer, which I thought was "Good!!" Bill also thought it was funny to call the beer "Melissa's beer," which I'm sure he will pay for later.
The next beer was one I had to try based strictly on name alone. It was called Merlin's Ale and came from Broughton Ales. I should have read more carefully and not just tried it because it had a wizard on the bottle, because I thought it was only "Ok." To be fair though, I am not generally a fan of scotch ales, so you might have a different opinion of it. Also, it's about 18 times better than Sam Adams Scotch Ale.
Alright, so that was a low point. Luckily I found Coopers Best Extra Stout at the same table, and that stuff was much better. I would classify it as "Great!" and that's a high rating. Stout seems to be the current title holder for the classification of "Favorite Type of Beer." Go stout!
After that, it was time to leave that tent and try some new places. I tried Watermelon Wheat from Blue Hills Brewery next, and it was a good choice. This was another "Great" beer, but the watermelon flavor was very strong. If you like watermelon but don't love it, you might want to pass on this one.
Next to Blue Hills, I found the Harvest Kölsch, a special brew from BBC that is only available on draft in special locations for a limited time. This is an unfortunate situation, because this was a "Good!!!" beer, and that means I probably won't get to have it again any time soon. Stupid special beers.
We then went over to the Sam Adams table where they had two new styles of beers that people could vote on for their next beer release. One of them was something stupid and Belgian, so I skipped it. The other was American Rye Ale, which was "Good!" I'll probably drink some of them when/if it gets released.
Wachusett Green Monsta Ale was up next on the docket. I guessed from the fact that the bottle was green and hops are green that this was going to be a pale ale. And it was! Maybe I know more about beer than I thought. Not too shabby for a pale ale; I gave this one a "Good!" rating.
As I was drinking the Monsta, I saw a sign that said Fogbuster and became quite excited. You might have read before that this beer from Paper City was "Great!!" last time I had it. Well, it still is. I am going to track this stuff down somewhere and buy a ton to gear up for a long winter. I'll have to get a second beer fridge just to handle it all.
At this point, we called an intermission and got some food. I had a pulled pork sandwich, which was ok but not swimming in BBQ sauce. The pork should be soaked in that stuff! Who's in charge of these things? This should be a law.
And back to the beer. The first beer of the second half was Lefty's Irish Style Stout. "Great" beer, silly name. I don't like the word "style" included in the name of a beer because it makes me thing they're trying to put one over on me. "It's not really Irish, but it's Irish style." Ok, now I'm suspicious. What kinds of shenanigans are you trying to pull here, Lefty's?
I then found that Long Trail has a new (to me) beer called Harvest. I didn't like it very much. I rated it as "Ok..." which I think means that it was barely ok, but I don't know what is below Ok on the meter. Basically, pass on this one and drink something else that they make.
Alright, let's get past that disappointing beer and try something else. Perhaps this Octoberfest from Harpoon will do the trick. Or perhaps not. This beer was also only "Ok," but without the ellipsis afterwards. That means that it was better than the Harvest beer before it, but still not one I would drink frequently.
I decided to get a little wacky and try Banana Bread Beer from Wells. This beer is way too sweet. I love pretty much anything with sugar or chocolate or candy, and even for me this was too sweet. I didn't even give it a normal rating; all it says here is "Way too sweet." So there you go.
Alright, we're on a bit of an off streak right now, so I guess it's time for a new tent. The next beer up was Red Racer Craft Lager, which comes in a can that Kathryn thought was cool. The beer itself was "Good," but that's all.
Needing to turn things around, I went with Opa Opa's Oktoberfest for my next choice. Now, even though they have apparently no skill in correctly cooking a steak or in customer service, they have the beer thing working. This beer was "Good!!!" which means we are back on track.
Although that last beer seemed to turn things around, I was wary of trying something else that wasn't good. That meant that I needed to go with a known quantity, such as Magic Hat. I chose their Hi.P.A. because it has to be good, right? Even better: this beer was "Good!!!" Super hoppy too. You should probably be expecting that though, from the name.
Moving on, I saw that Peak Organic was here, so I was hoping that they'd have that coffee beer I wanted to try up in Burlington. They did not, so instead I tried their IPA. It was a decent substitute, and it was "Good!!" And it was organic, so that's also good. I guess.
Next up was Coopers Pale Ale. This beer was "Not Great." Let's move on.
Goose Island Harvest Ale was the next beer I had. I think it might just be their Honkers Ale in a new bottle, because it tasted a lot like it. That's not a bad thing though, because I enjoy that beer and I enjoyed this one, which was "Good!!!"
The last two beers I had were both from Kona, so they can both go here. The first was the Longboard Island Lager. It was "Good!!," but it wasn't nearly as good as the Fire Rock Pale Ale. That second one was "Great," and it was a nice way to end the day.
Overall, this one seemed like a better festival than the last one, but I had better beers last time. Either way, I'll probably go to both of them next year. These things are great!
-Jon
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