Pictured is the beer engine that Brad & I put together for our Yard City Cask Festival.  Brad cut mine out and I assembled it and fixed it up real purdy.  His is just a different shape and the important details of the machine (which I'm too lazy to write up) can be found here.  (Note the Rochefort 8 coffee container in background!)

Hand pumps

The Yard City Beer Brewery, in absolutely no conjunction with CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale) or the town of Wigan (having the Wigan Beer Festival the very same date!), presents to you a one and only event of monumentis proportions: The Yard City Cask Beer & Real Ale Festival/Party 2010!  (YCCBRAF/P10)  Reserve please! Saturday, the 6th of March.  This in celebration of the great British contribution of the spectacular workings of Real Ale.  (That is, beer receiving it's condition in the vessel from which it is dispensed.)  We hope you join us for the tapping of no less than 3 (and probably no more than 3) English styled beers of modest gravity and full flavoured to the delight of your taste(s).

To this we say... now be on with it!

 

 

 

 

All of the bier I had at Washington Beer Commission's Belgianfest was at least good bier.  Well made, local, fresh beer, made in Belgian styles or Belgian inspired styles...  great! Totally happy, and none sucked.  The din of the crowd seemed to reflect the same notion.  Everyone seemed pleased and happy to talk about the beer in their glass.  (Nice little glass snifters!)  I had as great a time at this fest as any in our puget sound region and I hope the good people at Washington Beer Commission put it on again.

 

Must've had:

 

1. Fremont Brewing's Solstice Saison:  Blond, hoppy, turbid, fresh, fruity.  Not unlike one I might make.  Nice and fresh.
2. Ram - Northgate:  Flat Tire:  It was a 6.9% nutty, amber beer with Belgian Yeast character.  I liked it a lot and enjoyed the biscuity MFB Kiln Amber Malt.  I think it was on cask!?  (Already gettin' fuzzy?)
3. Skagit River Brewery:  Watou's Ale:  Tard tricked me into going out of order on this one.  This woulda been my last bier.  I was good.  Rich, dark, 9.8% abv.  A Bernardus 12 type of bier.  I was tricked!
4. Black Raven: Pour les Oiseaux wine barrel aged Saison:  Nice.  Really nice.  A blonde colored Saison that was put into Chardonnay and Voingior barrels from a Western Washington Winery.  I was gettin' plenty of wood, but not much tannin. (?) Everyone else I think was saying grape, but maybe that was another bier... oh well.  I liked it and it was well made bier.
5. Dick poured my Elysian beer. It was the bier called Groaning Board Trappist-style Table Beer.  I liked it then, the carbonation was real creamy.  I had it a few days later on capitol hill.  I would call it a Belgian Pale Ale.  Tasty!
6. I had Jesus' bier.  It was the Malaprop 8 from Big Time in Seattle.  Good, as the Lord's work usually is.
7. Another bier I remember was the crazy blended sour bier from Ram... kinda...
8. ?
9. ??
10. I know the last bier I had was the Port Townsend Hop Diggity that was fermented with a Belgian Yeast strain.  It stood out.  I don't drink a lot of IPA, but one that I always like is this beer from Port Townsend.  I can honestly say that creating it with a Belgian strain didn't mess with what  a great beer it is.  It was GREAT!

 

I hope to see the BelgianFest rear it's head again next January.  I wasn't sure about heading way down to Georgetown for a bier festival, until I went way down to Georgetown for a bier festival.  GREAT!!

Someone else writes about SaisonFest

here.

A great professional Saison Drink a' Thon we had one Saturday in September. A bit blustery as I remember. It worked fine inside our cozy shack. While men and woman drank and nodded their heads at one another, the merriment and radiant laughter of children was heard.

Did you ever notice that any informal beer tasting seems to gravitate toward a certain space or area or object? It's probably that way with any gathering. But, I notice that the kitchen is a popular spot. We have some good kitchens in our circle! There's even one with an island and it's own separate sink! We don't have a good kitchen at my house. Our gatherings are best had out on the back patio, but the weather dictated an indoor festivus. Apparently this event married itself to our dining table. It was a great time, with a healthy turnout of over a dozen-ish folks plus some offspring. We had just enough drinkers for the 750s so everybody got a little taste.

Now, the list:

1. Dickey - YCB
2. Bobbie - YCB
3. Ne Goeien - Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA
4. Saison du Pelican - Pelican Pub & Brewery, Pacific City, OR
5. Li'l Jib - YCB
6. Thiriez Blonde - Brasserie Thiriez, FR
7. Tannum - YCB
8. Saison Lo Terminal - YCB
9. Hunca Munca - YCB
10. L' Amalthee aka "Goat Biere" - Brasserie Lebbe, FR
11. NeDe Gard - Brewery 'Smoga', East B-town
12. NeDe Gard Dry Hopped - Brewery 'Smoga', East B-town
13. Le Bon Temps, draft - YCB
14. Brise Bon Bons, Fantome, Soy, BE
15. Saison de Janice - Altman Brasserie, Indianola, WA
16. Hennepin - Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, NY
17. 8% - YCB

We also opened a bottle of YCB Super I somewhere along the way, but it was an oxidized messy drainpour.

My favorites include: The Thiriez Blonde up against the Li'l Jib. It was great to be able to see that the Wyeast 3711 French Saison strain is the Thiriez strain. I was surprised to see that Li'l Jib tasted as good as it did next the the Thiriez Biere. I really enjoyed Smoga's homebrewed Biere de Garde. It was awesome. Balanced, flavorful, malty. Smoga's beer and the Le Bon Temps that was on draft were an interesting comparison. Same strain, two very different beers. I was sad that the Brise Bon Bons hadn't sealed properly and was more lactic than it would've been normally. It was all good. I don't know if we can top it next year. I'll have at least four Yard City beers that were not available this year, probably more.