The BeerFM crew spent the day at the first year fest and here’s what I took away from it.
First off, what made this fest unique was two main factors; the first thing being the food. I’ve been to countless beer festivals and only a small handful incorporated food into the activities, let alone “feature” the food as a co-star along with the beer. The other factor was being able to speak with the brew masters and owners on a personal level. Quite often the brewers and owners are tied up and have to send reps to pour their beer. For a true “beer geek” this can be disappointing. Well, on Saturday I managed to get mini interviews with more brewers/owners than I can count. Talk about “beer geek” nirvana!
Here’s the run down on how our day shook out.
As our group walked up we noted there was no clear signage pointing out where to go. This will be an easy fix next year. Once we grabbed our tickets we met with the festival’s liaison Jackie. She greeted us with a smile and asked if we wanted a personal tour of the layout. We politely declined since this wasn’t our first beer fest and we pretty much have a grasp on how things work. We took a deep breath and a quick survey of the grounds before diving head first into some serious beer and food tasting. The brewers were paired side by side in a long block of booths with food pairings to either side of them. This made for an easy access walk from one end to the other. A lot of times at beer fests you lose track of booths when they are scattered throughout the grounds. (Especially after you’ve had a sample or seven) So it can be easy to miss some really good beers. The set up here pretty much guaranteed you could hit every booth with ease.
Almost all the pertinent Wisconsin breweries and brew pubs were represented. A few were absent but summer is a busy time so I give the Wisconsin Brewers Guild credit for drawing in the number they did. I don’t have the space to go through each brewer and restaurant so I will just give some highlights. A couple of my favorites in the beer category were Hinerland’s Barrel aged DIPA. It had a great nose of bourbon and wood with just a hint of pine and citrus. The flavor was spot on DIPA bathed in barrels of booze. Another winner for me was Central Waters Illumination DIPA. The nose is a bouquet of pine and citrus with just enough tongue bruising bitterness to keep you coming back for more.
Now let’s look at the food. Our collective group award for best food was the Solly’s sliders to which I agreed. Just the perfect size and packed with so much flavor. You couldn’t help but get back in line for another. Another sure fire winner was Zambonie’s Silver Creek Imperial Mai-bock marinated steak. It simply melted in your mouth with a burst of flavor from the steak, beer, and mushrooms.
Unfortunately I have to address a few negative things. Without criticism how would we learn? There was a gap in the middle of the “alley” of booths where you could not walk with your beer. So if you wanted to cross you had to slam your sample or wait for everyone to finish. This should be roped off to incorporate into the fest next year. Another minor misstep for me was seating. If you wanted to get some shade and relax in a chair you were not going to do it with beer in hand since it wasn’t included in the fest grounds either. This should have been blocked off to allow fest-goers to enjoy a beer and listen to the band. The other main sticking point was no Port-O-Potties. Going into the mall for bathroom breaks was very annoying. A simple row or two of Port-O-Potties on the backside of the fest would have shored up this problem.
Overall the fest looked like a success from our viewpoint. As usual bottom line will be the real judge. Some minor tweaks could make this fest a top stop for all beer and food enthusiasts each year.
I would like to give special thanks to all the brewers and owners who took time out of their schedules to make this fest one of the more memorable ones. I really hope this fest continues for many years. I know I will be back.
-Beerwolf
