Team Wet Dog

beer, beer & beer

The 12th Annual World Beer Festival was in Durham over the weekend,  but somehow to call it by that full name makes it sound like something it wasn't. BeerFest — a four hour party during which you start out honestly tasting new brews but wind up frantically alternating between gyros, fries, pizza and more beer.

It was quite a scene in the old Durham Bulls ballpark: some 300+ beers available to try, and we did our best to get through as many as possible. We failed spectacularly, of course, but a few did stand out.

Founders Brewery, from Michigan, had some exceptional beers - the Centennial IPA was amazing, as were a couple of others I tried. This was the one brewery I tasted that made me stop and say, "wow, that's a great beer."

The Kuhnhenn Brewery, again out of Michigan, had a Creme Brulee Java Stout that I really liked. Definitely the sort of beer you can only drink one of, or maybe split with someone. A little too heavy, but it certainly made me stop and take note.

And the Unibroue Brewery in Quebec made an apple beer (not a cider) that was really interesting, refreshing and only slightly tart. It's a white ale, not a cider, brewed with apple must.

Obviously there were countless other great beers, but those are the ones that stand out. There were also countless other average or bad beers, and of course more pumpkin beers than you'd ever want to try, with cream stouts, mocha porters and Belgian style ales everywhere you looked.

I'm a fan of beer and all the food that inevitably goes with it, but I've got to find a way to eat lighter for a while. Some friends came into town for the event and so we spent two days eating ribs, sausage, pizza, gyros, cheese steaks and nachos. And, of course, beer and more beer.

"Wretched excess is just barely enough." -- Mario Batali.

Maybe just on the weekend though...

— Robert

(10/8/07) 
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