Just Enough of a Good Thing: The 12th Annual Festival of Wood & Barrel Aged Beer
I’ve never been to Comic-con. I’ve seen photos and read articles but I’ve never actually been there. Yet I think I might have a pretty good sense of what it’s like. If one were to take all the limited-edition merchandise, summer blockbuster previews, movie star panels, and passionately costumed cosplayers, and replace them with beer, beer, beer, and passionately bearded men, then the experience would be just about identical to that of attending FoBAB.
There may even be some parallels in the criticisms of the Convention’s growth over the years and the challenges faced by FoBAB, but I’ll get to all that later.
I have never experienced anything quite like the assault on the sense of taste that was FoBAB. Reach out in any direction and you would find a sample glass full of something amazing.
My personal taste in beer rests firmly in the “darker is better” camp. When given the choice between the dry-hopped, wet-hopped, hop-atomic bomb, IPA and an everyday, run-of-the-mill porter I’ll pick the porter every time. I adore all the roasted, toasted, earthy goodness of malt. Bring on that Scottish wee-heavy! That German dunkel! That liquid-midnight stout aged for X years in some obscure oak whiskey barrels! It comes as no surprise therefore that I was quite excited to attend the beer festival for all things dark, strong, and heavy. The surprise came an hour into the evening session when I looked down at my 2oz pour of deep, boozy perfection and found myself pining for a nice light-bodied lager.
Indeed, the greatest strength of the festival, having all of that incredible beer within easy reach, may also be one of its greatest weaknesses. There is no satisfying way to taste everything one would like to taste at the fest. When I walked onto that festival floor I was a man on a mission. I had all the beers I