Charleston Brewvival – A Festival For the True Beer Geek
Last weekend I attended the first ever Brewvival Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. I’m still a relative novice when it comes to beer festivals, having only been to a handful, but this one was truly geared toward the beer geek.
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| Beer under the Big Top |
The festival was organized by the Charleston Beer Exchange and Coast Brewing Company, and it was obvious their focus was on the beer. They know their stuff, and it came through in the rare and unique beers that the breweries brought in.
It’s About the Beer
After reviewing the list, I’d say I had never tried at least 40 of the 70 or so beers that were there. Of those 40, I only got to about 25 in the six hours of the festival.
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| Katie from Thomas Creek shaves dark chocolate on top of a Doppelbock |
The 27 breweries that attended brought out their best for this one. There were about 5 casks, a dozen barrel-aged selections, and several other oddities, like the Avery Meph Addict (like drinking an espresso on crack), Palmetto Watermelon Wheat (sounds weird, but it was actually good) and Thomas Creek Doppelbock topped with dark chocolate shavings (the shavings amped up the chocolate aroma to epic proportions).
There were also a dozen or so sour beers available, which is uncommon for this market. Usually at a festival around here you might find one or two. Among the sours was New Belgium Love, which was the first keg of that beer to make it east of the Mississippi.
Most people around here have never had a sour beer, and while it’s tough for many newcomers to palate, a fellow Greenvillian, Adam Gautch, after trying his first said, “now all I want is sour beer.”
My Favorites
Granted I did not try everything, but of those I had, a few really stood out. Avery Meph Addict was a coffee version of Mephistopheles Imperial Stout. It has to be the most intense coffee beer I’ve ever had. It tasted like they took an espresso, poured in some Mephistopheles and then added a tablespoon of sugar just for giggles. I’m still not sure how to feel about it, but it was insane. I’ll give them credit for that.
My favorite sour was Ommegang Rouge. It had a very nice balance of sour tartness and farmhouse funk without being over the top.
My overall favorite was the Stone 2008 Bourbon Barrel Russian Imperial Stout. It had the perfect amount of bourbon oak flavor on top of the roasted malt sweetness of the stout. Amazing beer.
Star Struck
Not only was there great beer to be had, but there were some heavy hitters in the beer world in attendance. Greg Koch from Stone was the keynote speaker. Also there were Patrick Rue from The Bruery, Oscar Wong from Highland and Grady Hull from New Belgium. I think every brewery in attendance had at least one representative. If you weren’t shy, you could certainly make some great connections and learn a lot about the beer and the breweries.
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| Me with Grady Hull, Assistant Brewmaster at New Belgium |
“We’ll Fix That Next Year”
With all the great beer and people, it’s not to say that everything was perfect. As with Version 1.0 of anything, there were bugs. The line to get in was long and a bit disorganized. The beer was all underneath a big tent, which wasn’t a problem in itself, but the back side of the tent went all the way up against a fence, creating a big horseshoe. Traffic could have moved more smoothly had we been able to move around in a circle.
From what I learned, one of the food vendors was a no-show, which created lines to get food and led to the other vendors running out of food before the end. Obviously, that’s out of the organizers’ control.
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| Cornelia sports her Handipants |
Speaking of food, while I missed out on the pulled pork sandwiches from Ted’s Butcherblock and the pizza from D’Allesandro’s, I did get my hands on an amazing Godiva chocolate cupcake made with COAST Blackbeerd Stout and topped with bacon from Madra Rua. Holy smoke, that was awesome.
So despite some hiccups, I thought the festival went really well and I had a great time. The issues that did occur were more an inconvenience than a bother, and nothing got in the way of enjoying the beer.
In Closing
Brewvival has raised the bar for beer festivals in the Carolinas. There are a couple more beer festivals coming up around here in the next few months, and several of my friends who went to Brewvival have asked me about the beer lists for those festivals. If they are only pouring “regular” beers, they have no interest in going.
I think that about sums it up.
7 Comments to “Charleston Brewvival – A Festival For the True Beer Geek”
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The Ommegang Rouge was my introduction to sour beers and it was a fantastic, eye-opening experience. After tasting that at Brewvival I searched out all the other sours around. My second favorite of the lot was the New Belgium Love. Both beers were intense and wonderful.
My vote goes to the Avery Moloch for the most outstanding beer at Brewvival. Singling out one beer does not do justice to all since there were so many rare and outstanding beers at Brewvival. You called it right that this was a festival for geeks. I doubt you will see a change to this format at many beer festivals because the majority of beer festivals are about earning a buck. If beer festivals that only poured rare and hard to find beers became common the luster would diminish. Promoting only rare and hard to find craft beers would not offer the level of support to craft beer in general which is a larger goal than entertaining geeks. The beer war is not going to be won by preaching to the choir. There is a lot of fine craft beer out there that needs the support of beer festivals to help develop their local markets. The geeks will find the rare beers.
I didn’t get to the Ommegang Rouge, but I loved Bruery Oude Tart. I wasn’t not huge on New Belgium Love. I thought Stone’s BBA Stout was top notch, and blows other bourbon barrel stout’s out of the water!
Great comments! Also, very good understanding of how festivals typically run. It is possible to woo folks over to the side of craft beer with the rare stuff. As long as they understand that it is rare, and that these are the amazing things that a brewery is capable of. Brewvival brought out beers that truly show what beer CAN be. We should stop thinking that the “BMC,” crowd is the focus for conversion. The fine wine and spirits folks need to hear the word as well!
Festivals don’t really expand much awareness of a brewery. Before I get jumped on for that, I make that statement after sharing countless conversations with brewery sales folks. This festival paid for every drop poured, not a common practice for festivals. Customers should feel confident that their money is being channeled properly. That also helps out breweries.
Ommegang Rouge was my pick for best beer of 2009. It is still right at the top of the list for 2010. Right now it’s in a battle with Rodenbach 2007.
I loved all of the sours mentioned. Duck Rabbit’s Cherry Madness was nothing short of spectacular. It was well worth the 8 hour drive from VA.
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