Strange Brew 2009 Report

Several club members made the trek to Port Townsend for the 5th annual Strange Brewfest at Water Street Brewing on Saturday, 1/24. This time around Chris Devlin came over from Seattle to join us in the fun. As always, there was a good selection of strange and unique beers to be sampled, although fewer breweries participated this year than in the past. Hopefully that is not a trend that will continue. It seems like every year we hear grumblings that Water Street may not host the event the next year due to various reasons. It would be a shame if that happens, because Strange Brew really gives area breweries a chance to stretch their legs and make some excellent beers you'll never find anywhere else.

As always, Elk Head from Buckley showed up with a strong contingent of fans and a solid lineup of beers. They brought four beers, but were only pouring two initially, hoping to save the other two for Sunday's session. I don't think they were successful as the first two ran out by late afternoon on Saturday and they started pouring the others. The first two they were pouring were a smoked beet ale and Sting Ya, a golden ale with stinging nettles in place of hops. Don't worry, heating the nettles destroys the compound that causes the stinging sensation. I guess Elk Head figured they couldn't beat the Habanero Porter they brought last year on the heat-o-meter, so unfortunately they didn't have a chili beer in the lineup this time around.

Another perennial favorite who showed up this year was Iron Horse out of Ellensburg. They bring solid beers every year and this time was no exception. Their Black Belgian (a black beer fermented w/ Saison yeast, with whiskey & oak) appeared to the a favorite of a lot of attendees (this one included). It had a lot of Saison character, with a noticeable bitter orange peel flavor produced by the yeast (no actual orange peel in this beer). Their other beer was a Black IPA (notice a theme here?), which unfortunately I didn't have a chance to sample.

Perhaps the most interesting/strangest beer was the Caramel Tiramisu beer from Flyers in Oak Harbor. It was amazing how much this beer tasted like its name. They almost nailed the tiramisu flavor and it would have been spot on if it had a hint of coffee. You could smell this beer from 5 feet away. It brings new meaning to the term "dessert beer." You wouldn't want to drink an entire pint of it because it was so rich, but a small snifter with a cup of coffee after dinner would be excellent. Flyers other beer, a bourbon/vanilla/oak aged imperial stout was also excellent.

Some other notable beers were Water Street's Chocolate/Mint Winter Ale, Naked City's Blackberry/Sage Dubbel (a lot of sage in this one, not much blackberry), Lazy Boy's Cactus Beer, and Georgetown Brewing's 9# Porter with banana, whiskey, and chocolate shavings sprinkled on top. There were several other breweries and beers that I should mention, but I didn't take any notes, and since I was driving I had a pretty low limit to the number of beers I could sample. Hopefully some of the other club members who were there will chime in with their thoughts and I'll add them to the bottom of this post. Click on the scan to see the list of breweries who participated. Not everyone on that list showed up, unless they were there for Sunday's session. If I remember correctly we counted 22 of the 26 breweries listed on the sheet actually at the fest.

Just like every year the fest was very crowded, but the masses were well behaved (at least while we were there) and you could make your way through the crowd to the beer with a little patience. The weather was partly sunny but cold, until the sun went down when it just got plain cold. The patio heaters were a popular place to congregate and worked well to take the chill off.

After leaving Strange Brew at around 7 pm, we headed over to Port Townsend Brewing's taproom for a couple sampler platters of their beers. The taproom is rather large, comfortable, and an obvious favorite hangout for the locals. I'm always impressed with the lineup of beers Port Townsend keeps on tap at the brewery (I think they had 12 on that night), but I guess that should be a post for another time.