Thursday, Apr. 09, 2009
beer fest ruminations
Boulder Beer Co.'s Hazed and Infused
The inaugural Myrtle Beach Beer Fest barely dodged spring storms and drew roughly 850 enthusiasts of unlimited 2-ounce beer samples across two sessions.
I enjoyed it so much, I can’t quite remember what I sampled.
The beer fest, held at The Market Common on March 28, began at noon, with the first session running until 3 p.m. and a second session running 4 - 7 p.m.
Aside from a short-lived rain shower around 12:45 p.m., the fest benefited from the cloudy weather – no sun beating down on our sampler cups.
Mike Shank of Festival Promotions, Inc., worked with the Weekly Surge to make the event happen. He said about 300 people went to Session One and about 550 to Session Two. The second session appeared busier than the first, as hundreds of people got an early start on their Saturday night.
Of the 850 who attended, about 100 opted for the $70 VIP ticket, which included admission to a tented area with food and additional beers. The regular admission ticket – $25 in advance and $35 at the gate – provided more than enough beers to sample, roughly 80.
I especially liked Boulder Beer Co.’s Hazed and Infused, and my wife, still a devoted follower of Woodchuck Amber Cider, took a sample from the Original Sin Hard Cider booth and said it was good. Original Sin certainly was lighter and crisper than the Woodchuck Amber.
I saw Brock Kurtzman of New South Brewing Co. and he said his long-time favorite has been the Sierra Nevada Torpedo Ale, a seasonal that was available in the VIP tent. The Torpedo Ale was outstanding, but among the VIP offerings, I was really into the Stone Brewing’s Arrogant Bastard Ale, which some might think fitting due to my beer snobbery.
Later Kurtzman and Dave Epstein, owner of New South Brewing, showed me the likely label for their soon-to-be-released canned White Ale.
Next door to New South was the R.J. Rockers booth. The R.J. Rockers guys, down from their Upstate brewery in Spartanburg, said we would soon see a Son of a Peach summer seasonal in our area.
In the end, everyone seemed plenty happy, and I didn’t see anyone get rowdy.
“It turned out better than I imaged,” Shank later told me by e-mail. “I’m also considering doing an Oktoberfest event. More to come on that soon.”
beer pairing notes
The night before the beer fest, I went to the Brewmasters Dinner at TBonz Gill & Grill in Myrtle Beach.
The five-course dinner was hosted by Epstein of New South Brewing, which makes the TBonz brand beers.
As the evening progressed, Epstein offered some pointers worth passing along.
1. Beer-and-food pairings are subjective, but the first rule is simple: “The stronger the flavor, the stronger the beer,” Epstein said. So lighter beers went with lighter fare. The Lowcountry Light Lager was paired with the Tomato Florentine Soup, and the Market Street Wheat went with the salad.
2. Spicy foods – like beer-boiled shrimp with Old Bay or calamari with a spicy marinara sauce – go well with beers like the India Pale Ale, which relies on the bitterness of hops. (That bitterness will strike some palates as spicy.)
3. For steaks, you probably want something robust, like a red ale. “The red still has a little bit of a hop bite to it, but it relies more on malt character,” Epstein said. The Cooper River Red paired well with the New York Strip.
The big surprise for me: Irish Stout is sublime with cheesecake drizzled with chocolate sauce.
blackberry wheat
While I was at the Brewmasters Dinner, I talked with Eric Lamb, chief brewer at Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery at Broadway at the Beach. He said he had been brewing a Blackberry Wheat beer in place of the usual Raspberry Wheat. The prices on raspberries have increased drastically, he said.
Contact Colin Burch - the Beerman - at beerpour@yahoo.com or visit his beer blog at http://maltyhops.blogspot.com
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