Review: Durham’s World Beer Festival ’11

In North Carolina’s rapidly expanding beer culture, people are always looking for brews that are new and interesting. Durham’s World Beer Festival, held at the beautiful Durham Bulls Athletic Park, gave the people what they wanted yet again this year.

By keeping their lineup fresh and including breweries that aren’t available in the state, the folks at All About Beer Magazine made sure that all kinds of beer lovers were fully engaged. Hardcore devotees were able to experience esoteric offerings, and the rest of the assorted revelers had their pick of more than 100 breweries. A wide variety of food, plus music from World Beer Festival favorites Children of the Horn and Funkuponya, completed the experience nicely.

My first order of business was to visit the breweries new to the festival and check out the lineup’s more adventurous offerings. Thomas Creek Brewery (Greenville, SC) obviously raised some adventurous eyebrows when they listed their Banana Split Chocolate Stout in the festival program, as they had a considerable mob in front of their booth just a few minutes after opening. The beer looked better on paper, though. I found the banana flavor to be out of place in such a roasty stout, and the “split” aspect was completely lost on me since the beer wasn’t especially creamy.

One of the most successful forays into the wild beer yonder was the Imperial Crème Brulee Java Stout from Kuhnhenn brewing Company (Warren, MI). I found this Michigan brewery’s take on Crème Brulee much more drinkable than the more readily available Southern Tier Brewing version. The bitter coffee elements helped cut the sweetness of the creamy vanilla and caramel flavors, and the result showed why Kuhnhenn has quickly become a player in the craft beer world. I’d go as far as to say that they “won” this edition of the festival. Everything they brought was fantastic, and the line to sample their beers was a dozen folks deep all day.

With any event, there are disappointments, and some of the less frequent visitors to the festival failed to deliver in the same manner as Kuhnhenn and Boulevard (Kansas City, MO), who brought their wonderful Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale. Wisconsin’s New Glarus Brewing has become synonymous with regional craft beer, and I couldn’t have been more excited to see their Wisconsin Belgian Red on the lineup. However, they didn’t actually have the cherry-laden treat, and I was not impressed with the Black Top Black IPA that I tried instead. Minnesota’s Summit Brewing Company (St. Paul) makes a fine Extra Pale Ale, but the Octoberfest they offered here was quite unremarkable.

As always, North Carolina was well represented and the focus shifted firmly to the Triangle area and “down east” for this year’s festival. The eastern part of the state has previously hung its beer hopes on Mother Earth Brewing out of Kinston and Duck-Rabbit in Farmville, but there are other noteworthy brewers in the region and Fayetteville’s Mash House scored big with their spot-on and superb take on Hefeweizen.

The Raleigh/Durham area has more to be proud of than ever, with breweries like Fullsteam, Aviator, Bull City and Roth solidifying their presence alongside the well-established Big Boss and LoneRider. Fullsteam’s Working Man’s Lunch Stout and Roth’s Forgotten Hollow Cinnamon Porter have become two of the Triangle’s most innovative and representative beers, drawing a devoted following each year upon release.

Hillsborough’s Mystery Brewing jumped into the fray with a ballyhooed special release at 2 PM. The gathered crowd chanted a countdown as the staff tapped a brand new keg of Six Impossible Things, a “chocolate breakfast stout” with striking coffee and cocoa powder notes. Sadly, breweries from the western part of the state were noticeably absent. Foothills Brewing (Winston-Salem, NC) always brings a strong lineup, though, and their Festive India Brown Ale was a unique addition to the regular harvest offerings.

I tried 26 different beers at the event this year. Below are my five favorites and some others worth mentioning.

My Five Best: Kuhnhenn Imperial Crème Brulee Java Stout, Foothills Indian Brown Ale, The Mash House Hefeweizen, Kuhnhenn Loonie Kuhnie Pale Ale, Kuhnhenn White Devil

Worth a Buy: Roth Brewing Dark Construct Stout, Crescent City Pilsner, Unibroue Ephemere, Boulevard Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale, Roth Brewing Forgotten Hollow Cinnamon Porter, Peak Organic Espresso Amber, Fullsteam Workingman’s Lunch Stout, Mystery Brewing Six Impossible Things Stout

Worth a Try: 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon Wheat, Allagash Black, Bottletree Belgian Blond

Avoid: Summit Octoberfest, New Glarus Black Top, Thomas Creek Banana Split Chocolate Stout, World Brews Taproom 21 Pale Ale

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