It's off to Baltimore, Maryland ... for 72 Hours of Belgium.
Well, actually not quite 72 hours, but it'll be a nice afternoon of Belgian beers at the Belgian Beer Fest at Max's Taphouse.
A three day festival, it began Friday morning with a brunch and it will continue today through Sunday night. Available are over 120 different Belgian draughts, and 175 different bottles. (Go here for a semi-complete list.) There are several US premiers, including casks of Hanssens Young Lambic and Hanssens Old Kriek. And of the several beers (ha, ha!) I tasted, these two were spectacular, showing more of a soft lactic acidity than acetic sharpness.
UPDATE 2009.02.15:
In the interest of citizen journalism, I attempted to post tasting notes to Twitter and photos to Flickr. I was assiduous ... for awhile.
UPDATE: Statistics
- 132 different Belgian drafts
- 172 different bottled Belgian beers
- 40 different Belgian breweries
- 5 American breweries
- 3000+ attendees
- 4,800 gallons of draft and cask beer consumed (300+ kegs and casks)
- 100+ cases of beer consumed
So I'm a hardcore beer nerd living in Baltimore. My weakness - Belgian strong dark ales and tripels.
ReplyDeleteI stumble upon this blog a few weeks ago and have been enjoying it.
I return from 72 Hours of Belgium, late Friday night.... hoping to read some great updates, impressions, etc. from you and.... as of today (Sunday) - nothing!! Everything ok? :P