Attended VA Beach BrewFest Observations

[passlaku]

1. Of the two Black IPAs I tried, both had the aroma of soy sauce. This was very odd and wanted to see if any one else has picked up this aroma?

2. The LHBS in the area was out there serving hb and I am sorry to say it was a disservice to homebrewers. Both beers we tried were simply unpalatable, fermented too warm, dirty jockeybox lines (maybe), a sip of each made me want to gag. I wonder how many people were turned off of homebrew because of the examples there?

3. Loose Canon IPA by Heavy Seas is one of the best 7% East Coast IPAs I have ever tried.

4. Can people taste beer after they smoke? There were lots of smokers there I just couldn't fathom that they could actually taste beer after a cigarette.

5. One of the fun things we did was seek out all the Octoberfest examples and try them out. Gordon Beirsch makes two very descent O'fests.

7. Pumpkin, Punkin, PumpKing beers are not my thing, no matter what one calls them.

8. Homebrewers will overhear some really dumb things being said about beer by people at these events.

[platypotamus]

Glad to see some more love for Heavy Seas on here. I agree that their Loose Cannon IPA is up there with the greats. On cask, it is in a league of it's own. Stupendous.

I saw that The Session did an episode with Hugh Sisson from Heavy Seas (which was Clipper City back then) way back in 2007. The brewery has been doing some great things in the past few years. It would be awesome to get another interview sometime.