World Beer Festival-Columbia, SC-Jan. 16

Posted by Bottle Report on Jan 16th, 2010 in Event Coverage, Featured Articles | 2 comments

Event: All About Beer Magazine brought their World Beer Festival to Columbia for the second year in a row. This is one of 5 being held in 2010. 250+ World Class beers plus educational seminars from the nation’s leading beer experts were held. This was a big event.
Where: Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, 1101 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC 29201.
803-545-0001 or 800-264-4884
When: January 16, 2010. Two sessions: 12-4 pm, 6-10 pm. Each session requires a ticket.
Cost: General admission tickets were $40 per session plus fees. VIP tickets were $75 per session plus fees.

What Happened: You can’t really cover an event like this and do it justice. There’s too many brews and not enough time. But it was great to wander about and discover breweries, some just up the road from Augusta, that you’ve never heard of.

Off the bat I will say, of the new breweries (new to me) my favorite was Thomas Creek Brewery out of Greenville. Their Dirty Monk, a test brew, was great. What was really awesome, but never to be duplicated at a tap near you, was their Up The Creek Extreme Pale Ale. They were serving the beer through a special filtering process that ran the beer through fresh hops, the same hop varieties that it was brewed with. (Thomas Creek brews are available at Wine World)

My favorite labels were from Foothills Brewing, of Winston-Salem, their cool poster style labels make you want to try the entire line. They had their very limited distribution Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout available. It’s not even supposed to be released until February. If you like chocolate stouts you will like this beer. If you haven’t heard of them you need to check out their labels on their website.

Steven Carter and Riley Maxwell compare two brews they tried. Riley had the Holy Mackerel Golden Ale and Steven had the Weihenstephaner Original Premiu

My biggest disappointment was the Monty Python Holy Grail Ale. I saw Spamalot in London several years ago and wanted to try it at the theater. But you had to buy a six-pack and carrying a six-pack around London would have been a pain. This English Ale did not appeal to me at all.

My hats off to the All About Beer magazine folks. I talked to editor Julie Johnson briefly and knew she was probably ready for a beer. She had been through the afternoon session and was waiting for the start off the evening session. The sessions included Beer 101, Your Next Beer and Brews in the News. She agreed that a tasting this large can be overwhelming to some so they prepared a suggested Beer Flight list so people could try the types of beer they might prefer. The flights included The Hop Head’s Delight, Belgian and Belgian-style Beers, Not Afraid of the Dark and You Put What in My Beer, to name a few. She said she would be presenting the last seminar and she was going to surprise everyone with “Chocolate and Beer” using Famous Amos chocolate cookies as the pairing with pale ale.

She said attendance was up from last year’s event in Columbia. I would estimate the crowd to be around 2,000 for the afternoon session and probably closer to 3,000 in the evening session. A well planned event that had an incredible number of beers and some great food from local restaurants.

I never made it to the VIP lounge so I’m not sure what the VIP’s were treated to.

Another great new brew was from Terrapin Beer Company up the road in Athens. Hopsecutioner, a super hoppy brew that’s been added to their year round list. (Terrapin isn’t new to me-just this brew. I also found out Terrapin is available at Wine World. The rep told me this new brew is coming to South Carolina soon)

I stopped at Highland Brewing to tell them how much I liked their Oatmeal Stout. I tried their Mocha Stout. It too is a great stout. I know some folks who I need to try this. (You can find these at Vineyard Wine Market). I stopped by R.J. Rockers and had the First Snow Ale. I wish I had some of this at our little Winter Ale tasting last week. It’s got a slight hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. But light body. Nice balance.

I stopped by Fort Collins Brewing on a recommendation of a friend to try The Kidd. It’s a lager but it’s the darkest lager I’ve ever tasted. It has some of the traits of a porter but lacks the bitterness. I’m not sure a 2 oz. pour was enough to really get a handle on it.

There were too many brews for me to try so I enlisted the help of my father-in-law, Dave Nagel. He scouted out to find new things to try. He really liked the Original Sin Cider. I had to agree. I think I could sit in the backyard and relax with this one on a nice spring day. The pourer told me that it was brewed in New York City but all the apples come from Vermont and any with blemishes are automatically rejected. It was a nice, light cider with a light spritz to it.
Dave also liked the Holy Mackerel Special Golden Ale from Gordash Brewing. He liked it so much he bought one of their T-Shirts (which are cool).

Speaking of T-shirts or other branded items. I really liked the Smuttynose hats and pint glasses (and their IPA. I bought a pint glass). Another cool classy T-Shirt was the Duck-Rabbit Brewery (I liked their Amber as well). Panties seemed to be popular. Carolina Beer had both panties and a thong (didn’t buy one of those) for sale with the Carolina Blonde logo on them. (Dave didn’t buy one of the Holy Mackerel panties either). I was disappointed that most of these brewers don’t sell this stuff on their websites. (You can get Smuttynose and Duck Rabbit brews at The Vineyard)

I passed by the Chimay booth. I’ve had numerous friends recommend Chimay as being a great Trappist style brew. Here was a chance to give it a try. I liked the Chimay Red. I have to admit that from time to time I like something that has a slight fruitiness to it. The aroma and the taste complimented each other. A citrus flavor without the sharpness. Slightly bitter yet retains a creamy feel. (I found out this is also available at The Vineyard)

Seminars like "Beer 101" were popular

Rick Lyke, of Charlotte, holds up one of his "Pints for Prostates" t-shirts

I met Rick Lyke, whose business card says he is a ‘Drinks Journalist.” (He’s a columnist for All about Beer). He says a friend got prostate cancer and had to endure lengthy treatment. His friend convinced him that he get tested. He’s thankful he did because he too had prostate cancer. He was lucky and caught it early so he didn’t have to endure ongoing treatment after the surgery. He considered himself the luckiest man in the world and decided to do something to help convince men to get tested and then support men with prostate cancer and their families. Why not use something that bonds men together? With that he started the Pints for Prostates campaign. Check out his site.

It wasn't just beer! Dave Ward, of Blue Marlin in Columbia , serves up some Shrimp and Grits

Charleston Brewing's Half Moon Hefe Weiz

Foothills Brewing gets my vote for the best labels. Here's one for their seasonal Sexual Chocolat

Daniel Kershner, shows off his Victory Brewing sign saying it "is the best beer in the world."

Fort Collins Brewing's The Kidd, a really dark lager

"What's Wrong With This Pitch

During the festival I was stopped three times by people asking to take a picture of the back of my T-shirt (It was an empty pitcher with the slogan “What’s wrong with this Pitcher?”. Here’s a shot of it from Crazy Shirts, a company in Hawaii. Here’s a link to their web site.

Angie D. holds up one of the Carolina Brew's Blonde thongs for sale

2 Responses to “World Beer Festival-Columbia, SC-Jan. 16”

Vern says:

January 17, 2010 at 9:41 am

Your report make me feel like I was there, Wait…..I was there.
Darren says:

January 22, 2010 at 12:28 pm

This was a great write up about a great festival. I look forward to more next year.

Thanks for coming by and checking out the HeBrew and Coney Island beers

Darren
Shmaltz Brewing