United Nations of Beer

Belgian Beer Fest

by Joel Perry
(Beer Delegate, MD, USA)

Belgian Beer Fest
Max's Tap House, Baltimore, MD

Over the weekend my "team" and I decided to partake in some Belgian debauchery in downtown Baltimore. It was the third annual Belgian beer fest at Max's Tap House in historical Fells Point.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not too familiar with Belgian Beer. My only experience with this style of beer, previous to the festival, was some sort of raspberry flavored beer that tasted like poorly mixed Kool-aid.

Upon entering the tap house, my team and I immediately noticed that we were the youngest people in attendance by about a decade. At first this caught us all off guard. Why on earth are there no young people at a beer festival?

After I ordered my first beer it became quite clear as to why there were no young people in attendance, the damn thing cost me $8.50! Eight-fifty for a single glass of beer? Disturbed by the dollar-fifty in change I received from the bartender after handing him a ten, I slowly raised the glass to my lips.

What I had ordered was a Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel. IPAs are my favorite and so I figured, why not try an IPA from Belgium? After all, I was attending a Belgian beer fest!

This beer did not disappoint. It had a fantastic aroma of citrus and honey malt. The taste was a unique mix of bitter hops and sweet citrus.

All in all, the Belgian beer fest was a blast. They offered up a full menu of Belgian food and a list of 35 beers on tap and 120 in bottles. Max's Tap House is always a great time.

I would have liked to have seen more young people but again, at $8.50 a glass, it would be hard to convince a 24-year-old to spend the day taking a crap-shoot with each new sample. I still wouldn't consider myself a big fan of Belgian beer, but I did find a few beers that I liked, so I will definitely be attending next year's festival.