This past weekend Santa Rosa hosted it’s own local beer festival.  This small festival was a delight to attend – the weather was perfect, the crowd energetic but respectful, the beer plentiful, and food included in the ticket price. 

 

 

 

 

Pictures and tasting notes after the jump…

In such nice weather, I found myself predisposed to go for the lighter, summery beers rather than the big heavy stuff.  Russian River was pouring Consecration, but in the sun, Little White Lie really hit the spot. New Belgium was on hand as well, and had a keg of Dandelion Ale, from their Lips of Faith series.  The dandelion added a slightly astringent quality to the beer, that lightened a surprisingly boozy pour.  Not my favorite, but a welcome new taste at a festival. 

 

 

 

As the day wore on, we needed to find some shelter in the shade.  I grabbed a spot alongside the Moonlight Brewing Co‘s tent.  This turned out to be one of the highlights of the day.  Where many tents had volunteers working the taps, here the brewers were handing out every pour.  Their enthusiasm was infectious, and backed up by great beers.  Most interesting were their non-hopped beers (which was ironic, given that their table was covered in hops).  They offered Working for Tips which is brewed with redwood tips, and Uncle Fudd which is brewed with cedar.  While good in the festival setting, I think both have enormous potential for food pairings – perhaps especially with more avant-garde cooking, where a dish might include a pine oil or other forest-inspired ingredients. These are the sort of beers where one sip doesn’t peel back all of the layers of flavor, and further investigation is needed. 

 

  

 

 

 

The only disappointment at Moonlight was they they weren’t offering Toast, one of my favorite brews. 

With these festivals, often what can really make or break a festival is the company you’re in.  I was lucky enough to be surrounded by some of my favorite beer bloggers. Brian Yaeger, Brewed for Thought, Better Beer Blog and Beer by Bart were all out, enjoying the sun (and twittering about it)  on this lovely afternoon. 

 

 

 

 

 

As usual, there are more pictures than I can fit into a post.  Find them all here.  OK, maybe a few more for this post, mostly since I want an excuse to show off Hopmonk Tavern‘s Marzen Marinated Lamb Chop. 

 

 

 

 

 

All that remains in this question: can someone from Napa Smith explain to me what the deal is with the beer-filled pineapples?

 

 

 

Tags: Festival, moonlight, santa rosa

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Stories, Taste Test. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.