Wednesday, December 2, 2015

2015 Holiday Ale Fest Preview

Today marks the opening day of our favorite beer festival in Portland: Holiday Ale Festival!

http://holidayale.com/index.php

This year, Kelly will be busy selling raffle tickets for Children's Cancer Association throughout the weekend and Katie isn't planning to get to the fest until Saturday, but here's what beers are on our radar:

54*40’ Brewing Co. Snowball Headed for Hell White IPA
Why: 54*40’ Brewing was opened this past summer by GABF medal-winning brewer Bolt Minister (what a name!), formerly of Old Town Brewing, and it’ll be our first chance to try his new beers.
Tent Location: 1 

Alameda Brewing Co. Cookies for Papa 
Why: We should probably be put off by all the flavors Alameda is trying to cram into this beer (cranberries, cocoa nibs, bourbon vanilla) but it actually sounds pretty good. Let's see if they make it work.
Tent Location: 1

Eel River Brewing Co. Gargantua III
Why: This is the third installment of what has become one of our favorites at the festival. Last year’s was the perfect combination of vanilla bourbon deliciousness.
Tent Location: 1

Ex Novo Brewing Co. Weapons of Mass Fermentation
Why: Alcoholic af. At 11.5%, this Belgian quad will either keep us warm all night or melt our faces off.
Tent Location: 2

Gigantic Brewing Black Pieter
Why: Gigantic never disappoints and while we're not really sure what a "Belgian-style strong black ale" actually is, we're willing to find out. 
Tent Location: 2

Natian Brewery Pumpkin is the New Black
Why: Everyone loves a train wreck. Nation blended their milk stout with pumpkin ale to come up with what is best-case scenerio: an ironic take on novelty holiday beers and worst-case scenerio: something you'll want to spit out immediately.
Tent Location: 1


Also, head-ups: on average, this year's beers are higher in alcohol than last year's so make sure you have a solid, safe plan for getting home.

Cheers!