Crafts & Drafts Spring Beer Festival 2014

Saturday, April 26, marked the beginning of Milwaukee Beer Week 2014, a week long celebration of craft beer in and around the Milwaukee area. Dozens of events will take place at some of the finest restaurants and beer bars Milwaukee has to offer. There really is no shortage of great events in which one can imbibe on the freshest, locally brewed beer around. On Friday, though, I went to World of Beer on Brady Street for a special treat. They were tapping the highly sought after Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, an imperial stout brewed with massive amounts of chocolate and coffee then cave-aged in bourbon barrels. Along with the mighty KBS, World of Beer also had Founders Smoked Porter, Rubaeus, and Imperial Stout. It was quite the pre-Milwaukee Beer Week celebration.

One of the bigger events during Milwaukee Beer week, and the reason I'm writing this, is the Crafts & Drafts Spring Beer Festival 2014.  After speaking with the folks at Discount Liquor and learning of the amazing beer that would be available at this event, there was no way I was going to miss it, so I purchased VIP tickets. It's really the only way to go. VIP tickets allowed me to arrive one hour earlier than general admission and gave me the opportunity to sample as many as thirty very rare and special beers that are not normally available to the general public or are just extremely hard to find. If you've never been to a beer festival, you need to have a plan. With over 250 beers available, it's not possible to try them all. Fortunately for me, I've sampled many of them before. This is why I went VIP. I knew ahead of time which beers I would start with and then I played the rest by ear. I tasted many great beers and spoke with some great beer people too. One thing that also helps prevent this from becoming a drunk fest, aside from the cost of the tickets, is that these events normally attract craft beer fans and those who appreciate finely brewed beer. I want to tip my hat to Discount Liquor and other sponsors for putting on one fantastic festival. Each participant was given a nice three ounce tasting glass, which was rarely filled over half way. If you got a little extra of one of your favorites, consider yourself lucky. The limited pours also helped with keep attendees from getting too drunk. My VIP ticket gave me twenty tickets specifically for the VIP beers and there were some amazing beers. The most potent beer of the day was Mikkeller Blackfist which came in at 26.1% abv. Talk about starting off with a punch to the gut. Amazingly there was still a lot of flavor amid that alcohol burn. Here's a run down of the VIP beers I sampled:

• Mikkeller Blackfist - Imperial stout aged in 10 different bourbon barrels for 10 years. 26.1% abv. Extremely rare!
• Surly Darkness - Imperial stout.
• Dogfish Head Bourbon Barrel Aged World Wide Stout.
• Cantillion Cuvee des Champions - Two year old lambic, dry hopped.
• 3 Floyds Backmasking - Oatmeal stout w/vanilla beans.
• Bell's Bull in a China Shop Barleywine. Normally only available at the brewery.
• Widmer Bros. Ginger Barrel-Aged BrrrBon '13.
• Widmer Bros. Vanilla Barrel-Aged BrrrBon '13.
• Rodenbach Caractere Rouge Sour Ale - Sour ale w/cranberries, raspberries, and sour cherries aged in oak vats.
• Big Sky Olde Bluhair Barleywine.
• B. Nektar Kill All The Golfers Dry-hopped Mead w/black tea, honey and lemon.

Other beers I had:

• Unibroue 17 Grand Reserve - Belgian strong ale.
• Goose Island Ogden - Belgian style tripel.
• 3 Sheeps Hello My Name is Joe - Coffee wheat (Amazing!).
• Coronado Idiot IPA.
• Black Husky Sproose Juice IPA.
• Mobcraft Mayan Chocolate Chili Ale. Very nice chili flavor and warming.
• Barley's Angels Smoked Bacon Amber Ale (Homebrew).
• Barley John's Old 8 Porter.
• Barley John's Rosie's Old Ale - Bourbon barrel-aged old ale.
• Door County Goat Parade - Smoked imperial stout.
• Pearl Street Brewing Lava Java.
• Beer Barons Imperial Red Ale run through a Randall of Amarillo Hops.
• Beer Barons Toasted Coconut Stout.
• Stevens Point Whole Hog Bourbon Barleywine.
• Stevens Point Peach Mango IPA.
• 3 Floyds War Mullet Imperial IPA.
• Sam Adams Tetravis Quadrupel.

I definitely has some fantastic beers and found a few that I'll be looking for at my local bottle shop...or on tap. Stevens Point's new IPA series, of which the Peach Mango is one of them, is something I'll be looking to have as the weather gets nicer. Great sweet peach aromas and a light crisp taste. The barrel-aged beers, while favorites of mine, might not be flowing as much during the hot, dog days of Summer. I'll be looking for lighter, flavorful options. There are a lot of great ciders out there too and more are coming to the market all the time. All in all the Crafts & Drafts festival was an amazing time. I can't end this blog without telling you about my favorite beer of the day. Every time I attend an event like this, there is always one beer that surprises me. This time, my favorite was Rosie's Old Ale from Barley John's. It's a bourbon barrel aged old ale that has such a defined sweetness up front followed by an very nice bourbon flavor. Not overpowering at all. Barley John's is a brewpub in New Brighton, MN run by a husband and wife team, John Moore and Laura Subak. John and Laura are such great people with such passion for what they do. They are working on opening a location in New Richmond, WI soon. Hopefully it'll be up and running in 2015 they told me. Barley John's Rosie Old Ale was so delicious, I must have went back at least ten times. If you are ever in their neck of the woods, make a point to stop in. Thank you John and Laura!

Milwaukee Beer Week isn't over yet, but it's off to a great start. Look for beer weeks near your city. If you don't have one nearby, don't worry. Just crack open a freshly brewed craft beer and enjoy. Cheers!