The 3rd Annual Strong Ale Festival, which continues to get bigger and better each year, was held at the Scottsdale Stadium on January 18th this year. The beer selection at this year's event was outstanding as many local Arizona breweries brewed special high gravity beers just for the event. The event drew some Breweries from Southern California too. Pictured above are Jeremy Schossow and helper from Stone Brewing Company in San Marcos, CA serving up Stone Ruination IPA and Old Guardian Barley Wine to thirsty patrons. You have to love that Stone Old Guardian! This event, first launched as a small tasting at the Mill Avenue Beer Company in Tempe a few years ago, continues to burst the seams of every venue that it is moved to. Last year, the event was held in the back lot behind Papago Brewing and it was at maximum capacity. This years event was expected to draw around 2000 people but the actual attendance was probably somewhere around 3000.
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Joe Bob Grisham, pictured above, was serving his most excellent Imperial Almond Stout at the Bandersnatch booth. This beer is one of my all time favorite big beers as it has a creamy consistency and light nuttiness from the almonds. Derek Osborne from BJ's Brewery in Chandler was serving a very intersting beer called Bitternacht. This beer was brewed specially for the event and it contained over 100 pounds of hops. The wort was boiled for over 3 days to give the beer a rich, caramel flavor. Very interesting beer Derek! Another very interesting beer that I tasted was the Barrel aged Doppel Schwarz Bier from Rio Salado. The beer was twice as strong as a traditional Schwarz and it had a unique mouthfeel from the barrels.
Other beers that really stood out were the Hop Rod Rye and Samichlaus that Little Guy Distributing was serving. Hop Rod, brewed by Bear Republic Brewing in California, has a creamy mouthfeel from the the rye malt and is truly a unique, balanced beer. Samichlaus, from Eddenberg in Austria, clocks in at 14% ABV which probably made it the strongest beer at this year's event. Speaking of unique beers, Four Peaks Brewing from Tempe was serving a beer called Fat Bastard. This dead sexy beer, specially brewed for the event by Four Peaks owner Andy Ingram, was a Belgian-style Trippel spiced up with some Arizona grown Medjool dates.
Prescott Brewing Company was also serving some of it's Raven Maniac Stout, a Silver Medal winner at the 2002 GABF. It didn't last long as I noticed Prescott was one of the first booths to run dry. Other Arizona standouts like Sonora Brewing were also in attendance and represented with Old Saguaro Barleywine and Festivus, a strong ale hopped with Hallertau hops. Todd Arnold from Alcatraz Brewing in Tempe was serving a very tasty Scottish Ale. Tucson was well represented by Gentle Ben's, which was serving it's Ben's IPA and Blane's Outmeal Stout. Rock Bottom was serving a very interesting Belgian Style beer called Cezanne Saison, a farmhouse style ale made with orange blossom honey and various spices, was served along with Old Cluster-Fugg, a cask conditioned strong ale. Everywhere you turned, there was another unique and special beer to be sampled.
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Strong Ale Festival 2003
