#SippyTimeBeer Review – #Cbus Winter Beerfest – @OhioBeerfest

Me at Winter Beerfest '14A picture is worth a thousand words, right? I’m going to test that theory because this picture will be accompanied by a few words. I went to the Columbus BeerFest and I made a rookie mistake. Saturday started like a normal day. I got up, walked the dogs, my lady & I had breakfast then we planned out the day knowing that the VIP entrance for the Beerfest at 6:30 PM. We normally eat lunch at 2 and dinner around 7:30. To make up for that, we decided to eat lunch at 1 PM so we could eat around 6 before we headed down. We got lunch early but then ended up trying to fit too much in after that and neglected to eat before heading out. It’s a rookie mistake to not eat before going to any beer drinking activity especially a festival in which I would be drinking for four hours. My lady didn’t have a problem because she was the designated driver. Unless you count the two drunks she had to corral. I am trying to talk her into recording a podcast about the night but haven’t do so yet. On the upside, I did record comments about some of the beers before getting to the point of no return. I will review those beers now.

When I took a glance at the useless map, I didn’t see too many breweries I hadn’t tried. Because I can get the local beers, I took them off the list. So a lot of the night was spent drinking offerings from companies. When I first attended the Great American Beer Festival I had a 4 ounce tasting glass. I thought it was too small but it worked out because I got to try a boatload of beers. The mug you see above was 8 ounces, which was also part of my undoing.

21st Amendment BreweryBrew Free Or Die IPA – So the smartest thing to do after not eating before going to a beer festival is to get a tasty beverage that is 7.7% alcohol with a 70 IBUs (bittness unit).  I bring up the later because the Rivertown Hop Barron clocked in at 103 which was too much for me. Now, I know that I can tolerate at least 70 before my “too hoppy” stage hits. I’ll fine tune that over this year. It’s their top selling beer. Although it isn’t my favorite, it’s a good beer.

Founder’s Brewing CompanyImperial Stout – The second smartest thing I did after not eating was get an Imperial (aka Double) stout that clocked in at a mere 10.5% ABV with a 90 IBU. I’m not surprised by the bitter limit as this taste was very heavy in the coffee department. Though I’m getting used to that taste and enjoy it in small dose, this one was too much for me. It drank pretty smooth though.

Green Flash Brewing CompanyDouble Stout – Continuing a trend of heavy ABV beers, I got this one which was “only” 8.8%. It had a low 45 IBU which made it better than the previous stout in my eyes. It drank just a bit smoother.

Triton Brewing CompanySin Bin Belgian Pale – When I read about this one on my Untappd app (difrango11) I saw that it was a sour beer. I didn’t need that heads up though after the first sip of this beer. I’ve had some other Belgian Pale Ale’s recently and they weren’t anything like this one. The Belgian yeast taste was not all that present. The sour tasted was toned down compared to the other sours I’ve had. At the present time though, I don’t think I’m going to fully get into sours like I have IPAs. I did finally drop down to closer to a regular ABV at 6.2% with an IBU of 19. This beer was also the first one from a company I had never drank from before. They’re out of Indianapolis so it’s not far away from me.

Oskar Blues BreweryDeviant Dale’s – My reprieve from high alcohol content beers didn’t last long as this one is 8.0% ABV.  This beer has an IBU of 85 and even though that’s a little high, the bitterness wasn’t the problem to me. It didn’t have too many other notes to help highlight that single profile.

Hinterland Brewing CompanySaison – No fancy name for this beer from Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was the second brewer of the night that was new to me. I’m glad I found them too. Or at least I think I am. This was the last beer I reported on and my note was “Saisons are tasty” which they are. I like the lightness which I thought would help since at this point in the evening, even I knew I was in trouble. I went from having an almost full pretzel necklace to desperately eating them. They say it has a nice peppery finish with citrus flavors which may have been what I meant in my inebriated state but who knows.

Cutters Brewing CompanyEmpire Imperial Stout – So one of the problems with going to a beer festival is that companies tend to run out of their popular beers around the halfway mark of the last evening. This festival was no different. Cutters didn’t have any beer left except for this absolutely delicious 10.0% ABV Imperial Stout. Another brilliant choice on my part. It’s also the part that I forget what else I tried. My lady assures me that I couldn’t stop talking about how smooth this beer was and that it had great head. I don’t remember that though. And it’s around the time my buddy Ken took the picture in the header. My food deprived, alcohol overdosed body wouldn’t allow me to record a segment like I did last year. I’m quite sure if I had recorded though, it would have been hilarious.

So that’s the end of my drunk, rookie mistake adventure this year at the Columbus Convention Center. My lady also assures me that I tried other beverages after the last one listed above. It’s not worth reviewing since I don’t really remember Cutters. Note to self, eat food in 2015 and if you don’t eat, don’t drink every high alcohol content beer in the damn joint. – Kevin

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