Busy Weekend
This weekend marked two special beer events within 20 miles of my house - The Bistro’s 10th annual IPA festival, and Toronado’s 20th Anniversary party. In an attempt to be proactive and synergize, I decided to attend both. Various parties were contacted in the week before this event, and tentative plans were made. As usual for me, I forgot all but one of those tentative plans the day of, and Jen and I set out by ourselves to embark upon the Great Beer Adventure of August 11th, 2007.
The Bistro’s 10th Annual IPA Festival
We hit Rockridge BART around 1:15pm Saturday afternoon, hoping to meet our friend Christy, with her group of fellow drinkers, around 2:00. As we entered BART, Jen noted that we had either just missed the Fremont BART, or we were going to hit it perfectly, so I threw a $20 into the ticketmaker and got us each a $10 ticket, instead of figuring out how much we’d need. We arrived at the festival around 2:00 and settled in. Christy and co. showed up around 2:45, I’d say, and Rob, who I’d forgotten to call in the hectic planning stage that morning, came around about 4:00. Unfortunately, our schedule demanded we take off for SF around 4:00, to be picked up by my good friend, Dan.
My first impression was disappointment. The commemorative glasses were plastic. Jen, who is not a beer drinker, took that as a bad omen, her rule of thumb being that a beer event’s quality can be judged by its commemorative glassware. This obviously frivolous rule paid out later in the day.
Results of the judging at the event can be seen here. Due to the specificity of that link and the ethereal nature of the internet, here’s what that page says:
Our 10th IPA Festival Saturday, August 11, 2007 was a great success - the weather was great, 55 different IPA’s were flowing and the music was sensational. San Pablo project kicked it off followed by Batuka who brought it home. The results of the professional judging are as follows:
Gold: 21st Amendment IPA
Silver: Bear Republic APEX IPA
Bronze: Pizza Port Carlsbad Wipeout IPAPeoples Choice: Bear Republic APEX IPA
We were honored to have representation from each brewery to accept awards.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the beer list on me, so I’m not sure what I rated those. I know that I did not try the 21st Amendment IPA. I tried a friend’s sample of the Silver and People’s Choice winner, and it won my heart and soul, as well. I also found the Port Brewery Wipe Out IPA (not to be confused with the Pizza Port Carlsbad Wipeout IPA) to be excellent. The Pizza Port El Camino IPA, from which I expected greatness, was cloyingly sweet, though it probably had the most interesting hop profile of any of the beers I tasted.
I’ll try to come back to these when I have my notes. I do remember the Ninkasi Brewery’s IPA, because they used five hops for bittering, five hops for aroma, and five for dry hopping - the same five throughout - and it came out a muddled mess to my taste buds.
Toronado’s 20th Anniversary Party
We hit 16th and Mission around 5:20, and were at the Toronado around 5:40. It was a horrible mess. It took a lot of nerve just to push my way in 10 feet from the door, just to hear a frustrated would-be drinker on his way out the door tell his friend that he’d been waiting 40 minutes and had yet to be served, so he was out of there. Upon hearing that news, we went across the street to Molotov’s, which has a small but good selection of beers. We were joined shortly thereafter by members of the Mexican Metal Mafia, and we all had a couple drinks, then some sausage from Rosamund, checking every 10 minutes or so to see if the crowd at Toronado had dispersed at all. It hadn’t. Finally, frustrated, bummed, and thoroughly thwarted, we took off for BART, to embark upon our journey home in defeat.
As we walked out the door, one of us, I forget which, said “let’s give it one more try.” Back into Toronado. With strong encouragement from Jen - “Be Aggressive. You’ll regret it if you don’t” - I shoved my way through the thick crowd, past a largeish dude in a worn leather jacket, who looked up as I shoved by and said, “hey, I’m waiting for a beer, too.” I hate when I’ve been a dick, so my instant response was “what are you having?” While he tried to remember the name of the beer, the bartender came around and, it turned out, knew the guy, so he got shoved to the front of the queue. As he ordered, he turned to me and asked me what he wanted, and I got my wish - the Russian River 50/50! He paid, but I gave him a fiver for it, since I was only having one beer before heading back home. Ha! I had no idea.
The crowd was still insane, but now I’d been served, so I could bide my time and look for other ingresses. I noticed that Jen had somehow scrowled her way to a relatively empty spot at the corner of the bar, and was motioning for me to come over there. I gave her a taste of the 50/50, which she almost spit back in my face. A very sour beer, that one, also sweet. I read a description that it is subtly sour - that’s bullshit. This was similar to a sour gummy candy, though much more delicious and not so horribly sweet.
At the corner of the bar, I soon discovered a couple of allies, fans of the band whose back patch I was wearing on my vest. They let me poke in between them without punches, kicks, or even glares. While at Toronado, I like to ask people what they’re drinking, as there is absolutely no way I’m ever going to get through half the great beers on tap there. A woman sitting next to the friendly couple was drinking a Rodenbach Belgian Red (that’s the name from the board), and told me it was highly recommended and equally rare, so I ordered that one next. I also ordered a commemorative glass ($5) to be nerdy. Somehow, the beer and the glass came out to just the price of the beer, which was awesome.
The Rodenbach Red is another sour beer, but a bit more subtle, with a nice, round malt character. I’d thought the Russian River was good, but the Rodenbach rendered its memory harsh and almost jarring.
At this point, I was too excited to give up, so I kept going. Christy and Laura and Rob showed up, and awesome fun was had. I remember having the Alpine Bad Boy Double IPA, which was awesome, as you’d expect from Alpine - not cloyingly sweet or harshly hoppy - well balanced. And the Ommegang Omegeddon, which was golden and sour. And the Allagash Interlude (I think) - another sour one. None of them were quite as nice as the Rodenbach, at least as I remember it. I also had a barrel aged Bear Republic Rye, which I remember as thick, vinous, and delicious. And I tried Rob’s Lagunitas Anniversary Red, which, unsurprisingly, was warmly alcoholic, sweet, and chock full of West Coast hoppiness. At some point, while I was in the bathroom, someone (the owner?) opened a bottle of 2001 Chimay and passed around glasses. When I came back, Rob, Christy, Jen, Laura, etc., all had special 20th Anniversary Commemorative Chimay Toronado glasses of said 2001 vintage. It was the first beer Jen truly enjoyed that night, and it just may have beat the Rodenbach. Unfortunately, I was two or three sheets to the wind at this point, and my palate and I were hanging out in the back of my head giggling at each other’s inane jokes.
Around 10:30, we headed down the hill, quickly hailed a taxi (I can do so quickly only when I’m drunk, somehow), and made our way back toward BART, stopping first for a couple tacos at Cancun, with our two commemorative glasses tucked safely into Jen’s bag.
Powered by ScribeFire.