The Beer Retard - March 6th, 2007

San Diego was great. We tried a lot of incredible beer, which I'll write about when I have time to go through my notes. Now I'm back in Seattle and suffering with allergies. I really need to live near the ocean so I don't have to deal with this every spring. But at least I have another beer-related event on the horizon. This Saturday is the Washington Cask Beer Festival at Seattle Center.

I'm attending the early session (12-4), which means I'd better eat a huge breakfast. Most of the breweries participating are from Washington, with a few Oregon and California brewers and one big name from the East Coast (Ommegang). I'm going to try and plan better than I did for the Winter Beer Festival. At that one, I tried 12 beers one after the other and couldn't really appreciate the last couple I had. I also didn't organize the beers from lightest to strongest in terms of flavor and strength (although I did save the Imperial stouts for the end). This time, I'm going to split it up into two parts. Six tastes, then a half hour break for food and water. Then six more. After that, if there's time left and I'm not all drunk I'll try a few more. Here's how I'm going to do it:

Round One:
Skagit River Clear Creek Pale Ale
Diamond Knot Slane's Irish Ale
Ommegang Hennepin Saison
Heads Up Bi-Polar IPA
Ice Harbor IPA
Boundary Bay Double Dry Hopped IPA

Food and water break

Round Two:
Latona 20th Anniversary ESB (Elliott's Special Brown)
Fish Mudshark Porter
Ommegang Abbey Ale
Flyers Bottleworks VIII-Special Oak Aged Version (Scotch Ale)
Harmon Two Dog Stout
Hair of the Dog Adambier