Recently, 90 small and independent craft brewers came together in Washington D.C. to serve up their best beers. On it’s 11th year put on by The Brewers Association, the event served over 180 beers alongside incredible food pairings prepared by some of D.C.’s finest chefs.
We tasted a lot of beers and bites over the two-day beer festival, but we have narrowed down our favorites to a top five list:
#5
Barrel Aged Raspberry Bigfoot in Trip in the Woods Series
This beer is a 2018 release. The Chico, Calif.-based brewery created the Trip in the Woods series to highlight the relationship between the beers and the barrels. Raspberry Bigfoot, a 11.9 percent ABV barleywine, has been aged for 12 months in wine barrels and prepared on 90 pounds of fresh whole raspberries per barrel for around three months. The new release uses Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot barleywine (9.6 percent ABV) as its base, a beer that debuted in 1987. If you like raspberries—this beer is a must! It went perfectly with a cheesecake dessert.
#4
Ideaal Tripel (Belgian Tripel)
Ideaal is a classic Belgian-style tripel that is only available for the summer months at Port City Brewing Co. With a dry body and honey-gold flavors, it went perfectly with a spicy curry dish. Port City is located right outside our Nation’s Capital, so we can’t wait to check out what else they have in store for us!
#3
Café Lumiere (Coffee Beer)
This special beer is a part of the North Carolina brewery’s rotating pilot batch, and maaaaan I couldn’t believe how delicious this was! So many brewers try to accomplish a solid coffee beer, but I hadn’t had anything like this. Can my office throw out our Keurig and start stocking the fridge with these Coffee Blonde Ales instead?
#2
Jam Band (American Fruit Beer)
I am a sucker for fruit ales, and this Midwestern Brewery knew exactly how to make the best summer berry ale I have ever tasted. The beer has a simple malt base, with incredible flavors of blueberry, raspberry and tart cherry with aromas of dark berries, citrus and melon. Kansas City is my hometown, so I was happy to find that Boulevard Brewing Company blew me away and made me ready to fly back to see family and friends and finally tour the brewery I’ve heard so much about. This beer was paired incredibly well with a delicious lemon curd and blueberry tart (yes, I had about 5 of them!)
#1
Fleur de Lis (American Sour Ale)
Aaand finally, our favorite beer of the night. The Fleur de Lis is made by some pretty new kids on the block, Four Quarters Brewing. The 10-barrel brewery was founded in 2014, but they are anything but amateurs. The 4.4% malt beer is light, tart, and dry, prepared first by kettle souring, then barreled with brewer’s yeast and wild yeasts in washed red wine barrels. I loved this beer so much I came back three different times to sample it again. The founder, Brian Eckert, went into detail about all the natural ingredients and fresh whole foods they use to create their delicious beers, and I cannot wait to try their Tomato Basil Fleur de Lis, conditioned on roasted tomatoes and fresh basils, and their upcoming release of S’mores Stout, an Imperial milk stout conditioned on marshmallows, milk chocolate & graham crackers. We loved these guys!
It was an incredible night at SAVOR. I am still full from all of the fantastic samples. We can't wait for next year!
For more information, go to: SAVOR
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