GABF '11

Gotta love the Great American Beer Fest. I covered twenty-two breweries, 50 beers before nearly passing out.

The sweet 16:

1. Sam Adams' Utopias
Certainly not the best beer I had, but it's the most brag-worthy. At 27-percent alcohol and a ridiculous price tag on the open market, this was a good get. It was so strong, it tasted like bourbon and even burned going down. The 1-ounce taste was enough.

2. Goose Island Bourbon Barrel Coffee Stout
Had it last year, and it was awesome. Liked it even better this year. A really wonderful stout.

3. The Bruery's Black Tuesday
Had it last year, and it was awesome. Liked it a little less this year. So over the top and really sweet. Damn good though. Their Oude Tart Flander's red was a nice surprise, as well.

4. Ballast Point Victory at Sea Imperial Porter
I've always wanted to try Ballast Point's beers, and they didn't disappoint. I thought Sculpin IPA (see below) would be the best, but this imperial porter, which checks in a 12.2 percent was amazing. Smacked of vanilla.

5. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
Very high-quality IPA. Read a lot about it, and it didn't disappoint.

6. Brooklyn Brewery Black Ops
Amazing imperial stout, black and chocolatey.

7. Three Floyds' Zombie Dust
A hoppy pale ale that was refreshing and highly drinkable.

8. Troegs Perpetual IPA
Really hoppy and crisp. A nice drink.

9. Port Brewing's Doheny Double IPA
Big and hoppy. A serious hop bomb.

10. Lost Abbey Veritas
Excellent sour with hints of oak. Their whole line-up was amazing, but this jumped to the top.

11. Allagash Mattina Rossa
Great sour with many different flavor levels. I got the last pour of it at the festival. Glad I did.

12. AleSmith Speedway Stout
This is another brewery I wanted to hit up. A nice stout. The AleSmith IPA was really solid, as well.

13. Alpine Nelson
The rye IPA had a big hop nose and was very crisp. Really delicious. The Ugly black IPA looked really dark but hardly had any malt notes at all. I liked it, as well.

14. Cigar City Hunahpu's Imperial Stout
Cigar City was the belle of the ball -- long lines and tons of beer. I tried their White Oak IPA, Jai Pai IPA, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. Hunahpu, though, is a world-class beer that I could drink forever.

15. Nectar Ales (Firestone Walker) Black Xantus
A strong imperial stout. Rich, robust, and coffee-like.

16. Bear Republic Racer 5, Racer X and Cafe Racer 15
I've had the previous two, and the 15 didn't disappoint. I love Bear Republic.



The flat 5:

1. Kern River
I really wanted to try their raved-about Citra Double IPA, but they ran out. Thumbs down.

2. Bell's
They didn't bring anything interesting. Really weak showing.

3. Russian River
The only new thing they had was Defenstration. It was an OK blonde. Don't get me wrong, Pliny and Supplication are still amazing. I was just hoping to try new things from them.

4. Founders
They didn't show up this year. WTF?

5. Minneapolis Townhall Brewery
Their Mango IPA was interesting, but I was expecting more from this raved-about brewery.


Notable trends:

1. Oak-aged imperial stouts dominate
They still rule the beer world. Big, bold and boozy is the way to go to prove your brewing chops.

2. Sours surge
Sours are increasingly becoming mainstream. Lost Abbey, Russian River, the Bruery, Allagash, Cascade and others lead the way.

3. Experimentals emerge
Short's Brewing, which created a bunch of off-the-wall flavors like Key Lime Pie, created quite a buzz. Cigar City's oatmeal raisin cookie still rules that category, though.

4. IPAs passe?
Seems like fewer and fewer IPAs pop up at GABF. In the adventurous swell, maybe the good ol' standbys are losing favor.

5. Breakfast beers abound
I had a bacon and egg porter that was gross. Saw tons of other similarly themed beers.

The big one

In the beer geek culture, no beer is bigger than Westvleteren 12. The Belgian-style quad affectionately known as Westy jockeys with Pliny the Younger for the top spot on Beer Advocate's best beer list. Usually, Westy gets the nod.



The bad thing is that Westy is really hard to get. It's brewed by Trappist monks in a small, rural Belgian town, and you can only buy the beer from them or a handful of licensed stores in the area. So many Americans are SOL.

But for my 31st birthday, my roommates Jake and JK ordered a bottle off eBay for around $30. Yep, 12 oz. for $30. Probably the best birthday gift I ever got. We cracked it on the last day of school. By the way, the long lag in the blog can be contributed to said school. I've been drinking -- just not writing about it.

The Westy comes in a brown bottle with no label. The only way you know what it is is by it's legendary bottle cap. It poured a rich brown with beautiful lacing. That lacing -- the frothy white stuff that sticks to the glass -- is what really sets Westy apart. The beer looks like none other. It also feels very thick, frothy, and effervescent in the mouth. It almost seems to come alive after you take a drink. I've never had a beer feel like that before.



In terms of taste, it's very delicate. It's roasty and sweet. It's rich and smacks of alcohol. I got hints of pear. That said, it was a lot more subtle than I thought. It was nice, just not as spectacular as I thought it would be. In fact, St. Bernardus Abt. 12 packs more flavor, but is otherwise quite similar in taste to Westy 12.

Westy, though, stands alone in lacing and mouthfeel. I know that sounds like super-snobby beer talk. Those categories seem like minutia until you have a beer that really excels in those areas. And Westy sure does.



The details:
Name: Westvleteren 12
Brewer: Brouwerij Westvleteren (Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren)
Beer Advocate rank: 1
Style: Belgian Quad
Alcohol: 10.2 percent
Cost: $30-ish for a 12-ounce bottle
My Grade: A
Skinny: No beer has a mouthfeel or lacing like Westy 12. The taste is very subtle, and I'm not sure I grasped it all. Is it as spectacular as its legend? Probably not, but it's still damn good. Wish I had easy access to the beer for repeated tries.