Real Strong Beer Festival

The 4th annual Real Strong Beer Festival begins tonight at Collins Pub in Pioneer Square, Seattle.

This festival kicks off a month of strong beer gatherings in the NW. Is this enough to get a group of Seattle based HBT'ers together?

Details can be found on the link below for the Real Strong Beer Fest as well as other upcoming events.

http://seattlest.com/2008/02/21/real_strong_ale.php

At least one HBT member besides you will be showing up.:rockin:

BARLEYWINE & BIG BEER TASTIVAL March 7 & 8, Noon to 10 p.m. (Quimby Lucky Lab, Portland)

Well I'm off to Collins.
I have to do a little quality control before McKBrew gets over here tomorrow.

Looking forward to the beers. Catch you tomorrow, I mean today. Just got back from the movies with SWMBO.

Tried four beers at Collins, Abyss Imperial Stout, Stone Old Guardian 2005, Left Hand Brewing Oak Aged Widdershins, and the Naked City Hoptrocity Rye IPA. The Stone Old Guardian was very impressive for a beer nearing 3 years old. Still retained excellent hop character. Brewtopia's Hoptrocity was excellent as well.

Afterward we headed up the hill to Naked City Brewing Company's corporate headquartes (AKA Brewtopia's Condo) where I sampled his Saison, some more Rye IPA, and the Berliner Weisse. More excellent beers that will be sucessful on a commercial scale.

I finished the night up at Elysian Brewing Company, at their winter beer festival. By that point my tasting skill had been dulled by too many good beers, so I can't really say which beers stood out with the exception of the Great Divide Hibernation Ale.
I would say that the opportunity to taste aged beers, not readily available to the consumer is one of the benefits of these type of events. While I have read quite a bit about beer aging, I have had limited opportunity to see what mature beers can become.