United Nations of Beer

World Beer Fest

by Greg Barbera
(Beer Delegate, NC, USA)

World Beer Fest
NC, USA: tales from the inside

Twice a year, the fine folks behind All About Beer magazine put on the World Beer Festival here in North Carolina. Now I know what you are thinking, "World Beer Fest... in North Carolina?"

But the magazine is based in these parts and up until his passing, the Beer Hunter Michael Jackson was a columnist for the magazine, so clearly the peeps have their hearts in the right place (on a frosty mug no doubt!).

Recently, one of the catering companies I moonlight for on the weekends was contracted to provide the food for the VIP tent. I had worked the spring Fest which was held in Raleigh (the capital city of NC) pulling double and slinging food for two sessions. That's a lot of drunk people, folks. But one of the selling points to the VIP tent is that you get beers that aren't available to the public and you get a question and answer session from the publishers of All About Beer.

In the spring, I was turned on to the yummy, malty goodness of Two Hearted ale from Wisconsin's Bell's Brewery. I also discovered Dragon's Milk stout, which out is part of the new trend of cask and oak barrel conditioning of beers. So this recent session I was super excited to find out what awesome beers I would be exposed to in the VIP tent.

The first session was awash with logistics nightmares on who had a voucher to eat and who didn't, so my ability to sample any brews was limited. I did managed to taste Port Brewing's High Tide IPA. (Click for full review.)

I had yet another forgetful beer that tasted like ass and took up on the cask tradition. But mostly I was serving food and sampling the stellar jalapeno cheddar bock beer soup the chef made (with beer bread, no less).

There was a keg of Two Hearted Ale in the tent but it never was tapped. WTF? I spotted a keg from some brewery in Baltimore (my old stomping grounds) called Loose Clipper that had a Loose Cannon Hop ale, but that keg wasn't tapped either.

They did have a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA that me and my fellow co-workers sampled between sessions. My lad screamed, "Is that mint I smelled? Smell the mint in that beer dude. I can't taste it but I smell it!" Turns out - according to the brewery's web site - that it's pine my friend was smelling.

I didn't happen onto the Dragon's Milk stout, but that supply was drained from the tent during the first session when I was knee deep in food slingin' and never got a chance to put my tongue to it.

Unnerving was the fact that they had Heineken Light and Singha in the tent like that was something special. Coming out of the blue though was the Slovakian Golden Pheasant, which is a pilsner along the lines of Urquell. Not bad, not great, but a decent change of pace beer which at 5% ABV does the job.

Next time I think I'm going to forgo getting paid and try and sample the brews...