Favorite beers or the Great Taste of the Midwest

What was everyones favorite beers of of the Great Taste?

1. Short's S'mores Stout
2. Blue Cat Brew Pub's Tucks Tenacious Trippel
3. Three Floyd's Dark Lord 2008

Honorable Mention's. Sand Creek Hard Lemonade with Pomegranate (it was a hot day and after hours of drinking complex beers in the sun this was bliss)
Bent River Brewing Company Jalapeno Peppers ale.

i can't distinguish between the beers. I had a ton of great real ale, some excellent meads, and obviously some great beers. Goose Island King Henry was a standout, as was Bent River Brewing's Jalapeno Ale. anyone have a clone for that?

I was kind of disappointed by the real ale tent. I am not sure what I was expecting from it. I guess I was just expecting more "wow" factor after reading all about the real ale tent on one of the threads here........

After my first glass of real ale my thought was something along the lines of "so this is real ale eh? ...... I can have anytime I want by pulling a sample from one of my fermenters."

As far as the carbonated beers go there were tons of good ones and even some really bad ones I thought.

The standout beers for me were:

Hoppy Hoppy Joy Joy by Flossmoore - It was like hop nectar, absolutely delicious.
Furious by Surly
Sam Utopia (luckly just happened to walk by as the line for the 3:00 tapping was starting to fill up). It was more just the rarity factor that I enjoyed and knowing that I would never pay $150 to taste this lol.
There were so many more but I just can't put my finger on the names

yeast_infection said:

Sam Utopia

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THAT's why there was such a line at Sam Adams....

not being impressed with Real Ale is different than not being impressed with the Real Ale tent. If you're a fan of Real Ale (which I am), it was incredible.

Yeah I didn't mean it in a negative way ...... and I will admit that I am the last person who can comment on real ale ...... especially since I did not know what it was until 2 days ago lol.

Regarding sam adams, I had the same thought ........... I saw the line and and thought "why would these people come to a beer tasting and then stand in line for sam adams". We went to the next tent over which had no line. This was when we saw the utopia tapping sign. I hopped on the Sam Adams band wagon and got in line for the Utopia.

1. Dark Horse - Bourbon Barrel Aged Plead The 5th

Beyond that I don't recall anything overly distinct. Lots of tasty stuff, and a few duds

I didn't wait in line for the utopia because Ive had a serving before and by the time it was 2:45 then line was nuts. The real ale blew my mind this year.

Mad Anthony's had a IIPA in a cask keg at their tent (not the real ale tent), which was awesome. I made a little check mark on my program and named the beers that I really enjoyed, b/c I knew Id get drunk and forget. Im going to have to look at that now.

Bluegrass Brewery's US of Awesome was the biggest surprise of the day! Excellent APA!
Fat Head's Headhunter IPA was also delicious
Bell's Two-Hearted from the Real Ale tent was a nice as well as
Dark Lord from Three Floyds was a bit too much with the humidity and heat. I could definitely see myself enjoying it in cooler weather though.

See y'all next year!

BogusOwnz said:

I didn't wait in line for the utopia because Ive had a serving before and by the time it was 2:45 then line was nuts. The real ale blew my mind this year.

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I jumped in the line at about 2:55 and was sipping my Utopias by 3:05 lol. They had 3 people pooring and it went very quick. You've had it before so you know what you missed (or didn't miss, depending if you like it). I liked it.

1. Peanut butter stout - Old Hat Brewery
2. Pooka (Boysenberry Sour) - Brugge Brasserie
3. Jalepeno Pepper Ale - Bent River
4. 2007 Dark Lord - Three Floyds
5. Coriander & Orange Wheat - Blue Cat Brew Pub

There should be a few more on the list but I can't recal them off the top of my head. Though this was only my second time at the festival I was a bit let down this year.

The real ale tent in particular was a complete bust for me, I had a couple of interesting beers but nothing that I really liked. In fact, the only thing that sticks out in my mind was a pair of dry hopped ales that I think may have been from Great Lakes (?) one was amarillo and the other cascade and it was interesting to taste the difference in such pure form. I think a lot of others felt the same way since by my second trip to the tent around 4:00 it was almost completely empty while last year you could barely step foot in it all day.

I have a hard time remembering what I tasted...lol a few stand out from Three Floyd's. I was just too excited to be there for the first time and shocked at the size of the event. Missed Sam Adams booth for the Utopias. Goose Island was awesome as well. Had some Surly Darkness but I can get that here at home...about 5 miles from the brewery. Oh I still have an '08 Darkness in my basement!!!

Can't wait until next year!!!