The Great Nebraska Beer Fest: Part 1

It is my opinion that, cities like Milwaukee and Chicago notwithstanding, the Midwest was late to the microbrew revolution.

It's the fifth year of the Great Nebraska Beer Fest, my first year attending and proof that they are learning fast, boy.

The great thing about the Great Nebraska Beer Fest (hereafter known as the GNBF because I am freaking lazy, deal with it) is that they bring the Midwest beer out in force.  Besides the major cities in the area, the hinterlands of Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska are well represented.  Some of big breweries from elsewhere have a presence as well, but they are a minority.

It is a celebration of Midwest Brewing.

The other cool thing was the size.  I've been to beer fests in  Idaho and Oregon and they very much bring the crowds.  This means, however that one gets a beer and immediately jumps into the line again for the next one.  By the time they get to the front of the line, it will be time for another beer.

Here, this is not the case.  It's a smaller event then I've been to in the past, but there are more then enough breweries bringing strange and unusual beers to make it interesting and there are rarely any lines whatsoever.

The location has something to be desired.  I have no knowledge of what went into the process of finding a venue for the GNBF, but a strip mall parking lot?  For one it was one of the hottest weekends of the year in Nebraska that weekend and there was probably three square feet of shade, each crowded with pale drunks trying to keep from catching on fire in the direct sunlight.  The blacktop doesn't help.

Anyway, on to the avalanche of beers.

Nebraska Brewing Company, Fathead: A new selection from a brewery I've covered in a previous post.  Very new, actually.  Truth be told, it's not even available for another month, but this is a special occasion.  It has a nutty, dark fruit and red wine aroma.  I picked up licorice, vanilla, roasted nut and a surprising dash of bitter hops.  It reminds me of a bitter scotch ale.  The flavor combination was interesting, but they clashed a bit.

Big Wood Brewing, Morning Wood: Coffee stout, a beer style for those mornings when a drunken haze is the best way to approach a day.  It has a heavy sweet mocha, espresso aroma, but those qualities diminish slightly in the flavor.  It was lighter and watery.  Good but lacking some of the body I was hoping for, I think.

Big Wood Brewing, Bark Bite IPA: This, appropriately, had a woody, pine aroma with a hint of honey.  It was quite sweet and malty at first, and it helped temper the herbal pine hops that followed soon after.

Blue Blood Brewing, Blue Blood IPA: This is a brewery that I just recently became aware of, I found a couple of their brews at the supermarket and included them in the last bottle beer tour.  The aroma carried the promise of citrusy hops.  A promise that was kept, although not to the intensity I expected.  Like the Morning Wood, the flavor just wasn't there, especially for an IPA.  In that heat, it was a welcome and refreshing beer, but lacked something for the style.

Free State Brewing, Ad Astra: Though I had never had a chance to sample their beer until now, I've always had a soft spot for Free State Brewing.  Kansas is a state that gave up prohibition very, very grudgingly... which is strange because you'd thing people would be in favor of anything that makes the state more livable.  Anyway, until 1989, brewing was still illegal in Kansas.  Just to emphasise what we are dealing with, there was a time that Kansas even outlawed any liquor on aircraft crossing Kansas' airspace.  (So next time your flying over Kansas, feel free to raise your drink and a middle finger) When the law was finally repealed, Free State became the first legal brewery in Kansas in over 100 years.

Anyway, history lesson over.  Beer!  The Ad Astra has a very light aroma.  The flavor is nutty, fruity and contains hints of red wine.  Very nice, sweet, malty amber ale.

Free State Brewing, Storm Chaser: Seasonal offering from Free State.  Citrus hop aroma that pretty much follows in it's entirety to the flavor.  The hops are enough to produce a back-of-the-throat bitterness, but there's enough flavor that I didn't find it overpowering.

CIB: Yola: Here's the best description I can offer for CIB Brewing.  Somebody has gone out and started doing legally what Grandpa had been doing in the barn for years.  CIB specializes in 'high alcohol farmhouse ales', specifically beers fermented with wild yeast and bacteria.  That makes CIB the place to go for sour beers, a style so obscure that only Portland or a pack of lunatics in the wilds of Iowa could possible pull it of.   The Yola Artisnal Ale starts off with a fruity honey aroma.  The first thing I noticed on the flavor was a very sour citrus that was followed by some nutty dark fruit notes.  It was one of those beers that took me quite a while to decide whether I liked it or not.

CIB: Cherry: There was some considerable plum and cherry sweetness on the aroma here.  The flavor had much more sour cherry along with some very complex earthy flavors.  It was quite nice, but I don't know if I would drink a lot of it although the complexity of the flavor would have me reaching for another glass.

Left Coast Brewing: Voodoo: One of the few breweries from outside the neighboring states.   This had a roasted coffee aroma.  The flavor has a lot of that coffee along with some dark roasted grain.  There was a heavy dose of herbal hops that showed up and kinda clashed with the rest of the flavor.  I kinda enjoyed this beer right up to that point.

That's the end of part one.  More goodness from the Midwest to follow in the coming weeks.  Cheers until then.