Saturday, July 15, 2006

Beer Event: Belgium Comes To Cooperstown, Day 2 (Afternoon)

2006 Belgium Comes To Cooperstown Festival Ok, now the reporting is gonna get real fragmented and choppy. We're sure you can imagine how chaotic it's starting to get as the afternoon wears on. We toured the brewery shop for some ideas of beer and clothing to bring home with us. We got the scoop on brewery tours, which we will probably take on Sunday morning before leaving for home. Then, the morning drizzle that we reported earlier turned to the torrential downpours of the afternoon. The weather folks got it completely wrong. When we left on Friday, there was a 10-20% of rain in Cooperstown. Guess we came up on the wrong end of probability this time! In any case, no big deal as the whole event is under two large circus tents. Under one tent is located all of the breweries and under another is the food, the music, and tables/chairs. So, let's get on with it. Here are some sights, sounds, and tasting notes from the afternoon tasting festival, which "officially" ran from 2-6pm. - Offshore is making big waves in New England, finally coming off the island; featured some nice beers, esp. the Hop Goddess - Meeting so many fun people - Garrett Oliver still working the crowd - Patrick from the Drafting Room continuing to show his excitement for the Heavyweight Final Countdown on 8/5 - So much Belgian Beer (esp. from the Shelton importer) - Duchesse. I've had before and raved about. Adam tries one and wholeheartedly concurs! - Hanssens Kriek, a mouthful of puckering cherries - Cambridge Brewing Tripel and Gruit. Will Myers continues to impress. - Allagash Four and 10th Anniversary IPA. Absolute winners! - Stewart's in Delaware now has us thinking we need to check them out - Keegan's Mothers Milk. Ladies are a bit perplexed by the name, but the surprisingly smoky milk stout was a crowd pleaser - Got the story behind North Coast's Thelonious Monk. Not a collaboration on the recipe, more of fundraiser for the foundation - The Shed's Black Saison is more fully-rounded flavorful saison - Gotta give more domestic props to Brewer's Art (can't get enough of the Resurrection and Ozzy); Bullfrog (Busted Lawnmower); Troegs (Naked Elf) - And from overseas, the gueze from Cantillon, the Saison Voisin from Geant's, the tripel IPA from Houblons Chouffe, and the tripel from Val-Dieu Tripel were favorites Late night frivolity to follow.....

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