Yesterday, Anne and I went to the Barley’s Smokehouse 7th Annual Mini Real Ale Fest 2009. (Right now, their page has info about the fest, but it is likely to change now that it is over). The event was from 2PM to 5PM at their Smokehouse restaurant, and this is a review of the event from the perspective of a regular patron and beer lover. I’m not, however, a food/beer critic.

About the event

The event is held in the back portion of their restaurant, while the front room and bar remained open to the public. They sold $25 tickets in advance, which were exchanged for a custom pint glass and eight drink coupons. They then had 18 firkin/mini-kegs set up in 6 locations with employees filling glasses to the line on the pint glasses labeled “Fill Line (at Fest), Refill Line (at home)”. This line is exactly 4 ounces, but every sample I got was filled above the line, so an average sample was probably 5-6 ounces. They would also fill a glass for two coupons. For the true bargain hunter (rather than the ‘beer sampler’) this was the way to go.

First Impressions

When we got to the Fest at 2:15PM, the place was packed like a popular frat party with tons of guys holding glasses with only a little bit of beer in them. There were a fair number of women, but I would guess guys were in the majority, 2 to 1. So when I say the place was packed, I mean it was difficult to get from one room to the next without physical contact with other patrons and at least a few “excuse me” requests to squeeze through. Of the whole event, this is the most negative. According to the website, they sold only 92% of the tickets intended for the event. I heard someone claim that they limited sales to 500, which puts attendance this year north of 450 people. I never tried to count, but this “feels” right. If they held it in a tent in their back parking lot, I think they could get a lot more people, and have it feel less claustrophobia-inducing-crowded. That aside, the folks were all easy going, and it was easy to strike up a conversation while waiting in line, making the time, and the beer, pass quite smoothly.

The other first impression was that the lines to get the beer were long. We immediately adopted the technique of getting a sample, and drinking it while standing in line for the next sample. This is the way the first 4 samples were consumed. After that, we got some food ($2 mini pulled pork sandwiches were a real steal!) and sat down at a table reserved for us by a friend of Anne.

During the later portion of the fest, there were no lines to get samples, and a number of the more popular beers had run out. We’d heard this was a risk early on, which explained why some lines were huge–evidently Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster Double IPA was a crowd favorite.

Beer Impressions

Between the two of us, Anne and I sampled 14 of the 18 beers, and at the end graded the beers according to our final impressions. This is important to note: we didn’t write anything down while we were tasting because we aren’t beer critics. We gave the beers we tasted a letter grade after we’d tasted a lot of them.

The Best of the Fest

We gave these an “A”, presented here in no particular order. We absolutely loved these beers, and I fully expect we’ll get more of these in the near future.

Barley’s Twisted Ivan Double Porter. Anne loved this one for the chocolate notes.

Bell’s Brewing Two Hearted Ale. This one had a very nice balance of fruity hops.

Columbus Brewing Company Turkey Neck Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout. This beer had a strong, but not overpowering, whiskey flavor that really added something unexpected to the beer.

Barley’s Bitter Dan eXtreme IPA. Contrary to the name, it really wasn’t that bitter (or perhaps I’ve become accustomed to very strong IPAs). There were strong hops flavors, but they were pretty well balanced.

Barley’s Cherry Infused Saint Joan’s Revenge. This Russian Imperial Stout was absolutely fabulous. I generally don’t care for cherry flavored beer, but it was sublte enough in the Stout to not overpower the rest of the flavors.

Barley’s Barleywine. Their barleywine is incredibly strong and complex. I’ll have to try it again when it isn’t the last beer of the evening.

When pressed, Anne could not pick a top favorite. She had to call it a three way tie between Bell’s Two Hearted, Saint Joans Revenge, and the Barleywine. I think my “best of fest” is also a tie–the Barleywine and the Saint Joans Revenge.

Honorable Mention

The following beers were graded by us as B or B+ which basically meant that we enjoyed them but they weren’t as great as the top-tier.

Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster Double IPA

Weasel Boy Brewing Bitter Sable Imperial Black IPA

Elevator Brewing Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Porter

Rocky River Firelands Pale Ale

Columbus Brewing Company Belgian Trippel

Finally, the worst of the ones that we tasted. We would not choose to drink these again.

Gordon Biersch Maibock, which Anne labels the “Budweiser of Microbrews” for its lack of flavor. At least one other person at our table called the Maibock “horrible”.

Great Lakes Blackout Stout — gets a “Fail” for the overpowering coffee flavor. I’ve had oatmeal stouts and can appreciate their subtle coffee notes, this beer felt like I was drinking cold, carbonated coffee.

The Beer we didn’t try for no reason in particular

B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout

Thirsty Dog Belgian Bock

Great Divide Extra Special Hercules Double IPA

Bell’s Hopslam Ale

Lessons Learned

To reserve a table, our friend had to get there an hour before the start of the tasting. It was absolutely wonderful to have a place to hang out with samples (or full pints).

The mini-pulled pork sandwiches were perfect. At $2 each (I had 4 total throughout the fest) they were really a bargain.

Some folks had laced pretzels on string and wore them as necklaces. When I asked about them, they told me it was to munch on between samples while waiting in line. Brilliant!

With friends there, it is easy to kill the whole 3 hours (or more!). The fact that we had arranged for our kids to be watched until 7PM (which turned into 8PM) was fabulous.

Conclusion

It was a great time, especially after the lines died down a bit. We had a great time sampling and generally goofing off with the folks at our table. We’ll definitely go again, so long as the price doesn’t go up significantly.

Full Disclosure: I do not work for Barley’s, nor do I know personally anyone who does.  Through Anne’s efforts at selling Girl Scout cookies, we’ve become acquainted with a server (I’ve forgotten her name, but I’m sure Anne hasn’t) and a manager, Ian.