Massachusetts Brewers Go Mild

If you've paid attention to the world of beer festivals lately, you've probably noticed something rather remarkable. Every year new events continue to appear, vying for the attention of excitable beer drinkers eager to sample the Next Big Thing. Large, small, well known or obscure, there are Oktoberfests, harvest festivals, Belgian fests, and celebrations for nearly every style under the sun, from mild mannered session ales to big, bad barleywines. At times, it almost feels like there are as many festivals as there are breweries, a reality that poses a challenge for organizers: How do you convince people to attend?

One way to do it is to offer a collaboration beer made exclusively for the occasion. There are precedents. For their fourth annual gathering, the Massachusetts Brewers Guild will offer a limited release cask English Mild created at Mayflower Brewing Company earlier this month. Many of the guild's 40 members participated in this collaboration, including Battle Road, Cambridge Brewing, Harpoon, Ipswich Brewing, Mayflower, Samuel Adams, Watch City, Wormtown, and Portico. The difference in this case however, is that the ale will serve as a base beer to which each participating brewery will add their own twist, be it maple syrup, oak chips, a favorite hop variety, or another ingredient that plays well with the style's light flavor and body.

Tickets for the event, scheduled for Friday, August 30th at Boston's World Trade Center Head House Concourse, are still available. The $40 price of admission includes beer samples from more than 30 member breweries, and proceeds benefit the guild, a non-profit organization established to promote and protect the interests of craft brewers across the state. Three Day Threshold, a local country group that also provided music for the Discovery Channel's short-lived "Brew Masters" series, will once again supply the live soundtrack, and casual dining options from the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center will be available for purchase. For a preview of many of the featured beers and breweries (including newcomers Riverwalk, 3 Beards, Banner Beer, Battle Road, Brewmaster Jack, and Kretschmann), visit BrewGene. As for the nine or so takes on the English Mild, you'll just have to get tickets to find out what they are, won't you? 

Split Thy Brooklyn Skull

Yesterday in Brooklyn it almost seemed like spring. For a couple of hours anyway. Here and there a stubborn pile of snow or two refused to melt, but sitting in the small patio behind Mugs Alehouse in Williamsburg, you could pretend that winter was finally over. Of course, the company of a few friends and an ample supply of strong ales always helps such imaginative leaps.

Temperatures fell as the afternoon wore on at the eleventh annual tasting event, but good craft beer was never in short supply. I didn't have the wallet or the stamina to sample even half of the 47 possibilities available, but that didn't keep me from picking favorites:

• Brewdog Tokyo (18.2% ABV). Call it what you will, but Tokyo packs a punch, even in small servings. Classified as an imperial stout, this nearly black liquid resembles a barleywine in some ways and has a smell that reminded me of balsamic vinegar. This may be due to the addition of jasmine and cranberries.
  
• Green Flash Palate Wrecker (9.4% ABV). Unless you can handle 100 IBUs, keep your distance. Pouring a bright yellow-orange with a thick, foamy white head, this creation from Green Flash is probably the hoppiest beer I've tried yet. With an intensely resiny aroma and a bold, oily flavor, I found it uniquely deserving of the title imperial IPA.
• Weyerbacher Blasphemy 2007 (11.8% ABV). A quadruple aged in oak barrels, Blasphemy is certainly a complex drink that I'd describe as buttery and intoxicating. The amber color is alluring, and yet the aroma of bourbon signals that this isn't a beer to be trifled with. Outstanding in small quantities.
• Southern Tier Imperial Mokah (10.9% ABV). Just about the closest anyone's come to Hershey's syrup in a 22-ounce bottle. If, like me, you're a drinker with a sweet tooth, then this exceptionally silky, malty stout is deserving of your hard-earned cash. Although the brewery only releases it seasonally, Mokah could easily be enjoyed year round.
  
• Spring House Kerplunk (8.1% ABV). Named for the sound that chocolate makes when dropped into a brew kettle, Kerplunk has the ebony color you'd expect in an imperial stout but was less dense than some versions of this style. Caramel and bitter cocoa stood out right away, as did a hint of tobacco in the finish.
  
• Voodoo Grand Met (10.0% ABV). Dry, deceptively strong, and the color of polished brass, Voodoo Grand Met is a nice example of a French biere de garde or maybe a Belgian spiced ale. Made in Pennsylvania with German pilsner malt, cane and beet sugar, it stood out in a field crowded with big beers.