Saturday, July 11, 2009

Countdown to Ommegang's BCTC 2009: some new goods from the host

If all goes according to last year's plan, I'll again be sharing the BCTC menu with you before the event. If not, I do have some insight to new beers that Ommegang themselves will be sharing with us at this year's festival. Like last year's debut of Rouge, a Triple IPA and Holiday Strong Ale ("Adoration") will be debuted, most likely at Friday Night's VIP session...then again at the main festival on Saturday. Also word of a Belgian Scotch Ale...or is that Belgo-Scotch? This news comes from brewer Brian Enrici, who made an appearance with Megan Maguire (Duvel/Ommegang sales) at Jose Pistola's this past Thursday night in Philadelphia. Quite commendable that Brian made the trip down from his hometown of Cooperstown, NY just for this event. The notes above were the Brew Lounge-permitted comments. Ones I'm obliged not to discuss, for now, promise continued excitement coming out of Cooperstown's flagship brewery. And...one possible disappointing piece of news. Brian was quite adept at making the social table rounds for those that were there for the special Ommegang event (Rare Vos, Witte, Abbey, Hennepin, and Rouge were all on tap...very nice, Casey). This looked good as I can just never understand the brewer/sales rep who participates in events like this, while hanging at the bar waiting for customers to approach them. Well done, Brian. While we're talking Ommegang in Philly, they've got an interesting looking event coming up this Wednesday at Tria, home to all events including beer, wine, and cheese. This one pits the Duvel family of beers against wine in a cheese-pairing showdown. These events are popping up everywhere, it seems, since Sam and Marnie took their Mars and Venus show on the road a couple of years ago. Looks like it's sold out, but if you're interested, it never hurts to give a call and find out for sure. Also discussed was how if O'Reilly's Stout can bump aside Guinness from tap towers, then why can't Witte do the same to Hoegaarden? Afterall, which would you rather partake in?

1 comment:

kmudrick said...

Nice bumping into you! That rouge is just fan-freaking-tastic every single time I have it.. Will be a shame when it is gone forever :(