Beer Fest 2008

Well. A contingent of my close friends and some friends of theirs (i.e. new friends to me) and I all went to Beer Fest today (Sunday, Father's Day) over in upper Juanita and it was an amazing experience. There were almost 200 craft beers there and, though it was the last day of the festival, there was plenty of selection. From porters and stouts to blondes and pales or reds and ambers. Oh gosh! I alone of the company went for the ten taster purchase with the others choosing to stay at a respectable six or seven, depending on their wives' preference to share tokens. I offer you here, a list of the beers I tried. All of them were new to me except for my ninth and tenth token. I wanted to end the night with something I knew would be good.

1. Mac & Jack's IPA
2. Elysian ESB
3. Kona Longboard Lager
4. Widmer Brothers '08 Crimson Wheat
5. Water Street Imperial Red
6. Georgetown 9 lb. Porter
7. Scuttlebutt 12 Year Anniversary Scotch Ale
8. Pike Belgian Tripel
9. Mac & Jack's African Amber
10. Mac & Jack's African Amber

I believe the taster sizes were between four and six ounces (imperial or not) and seeing as how I don't honestly know ounce sizes very well, you can do the math on all possibilities and see that I got a sizable portion of beer in the space of two hours or so. Let's go over my selections very briefly. You can let me know if you want details. Here we go.

1. Delightful start. Can't fault Mac & Jack's at all it seems.
2. ESB, not bad. I like the Elysian Stout, and I liked this.
3. Yes, they're from Hawai'i and it was fun.
4. Right next door to the Kona, how do you pass on "Crimson" Wheat? Really good.
5. This s*** messed me up. I thought I was gonna hurl with each sip/gulp.
6. I thought a porter would help me out with #5. It was good, but probably ill-timed
***took a break for funnel cakes and brats around this time. I had a brat, they all had an elephant ear***
7. Scotch and beer. Incredible! So smooth.
8. Plain old fun. The gentleman told me he had just tapped the keg and I was getting the best part of the keg, which is the first third, or king level I believe he said. Let's be honest, I'd had 7 pretty rapid tastes by then. I'm not sure what he said.
9 and 10. The African Amber. A staple of the Eastside and no mistake. I love it and had to end with it. I downed 9. and polished 10.

Let's see what else. It was named a festival, and rightly so. Unfortunately, I didn't see much of the rest of things. There was a kiddie area, food stands, fake tattoo stand things and what not. The tents for the beer were what I was interested in. The only thing I can be sad about, was that by coming on the last day, we probably missed out on the variety they might have had Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Oh well. Man, I can't wait for next year!