Duck fat fried poutine w/ duck gravy and a duck fat fried duck egg and more duck fat, probably

Ok, so I left off with my review of THE Festival, but I want to include a couple updates:

1) You’re probably wondering what that epic looking food is up there. Well, it’s poutine (Eric would call it poutineeny). But it’s no ordinary poutine. It’s from Duckfat in Portland, where they fry their fries in duck fat, then cover the fries in duck gravy, then place an optional fried duck egg (fried in duck fat of course) on top, and add some delicious cheese curds. Now, why is this important to know in regards to a beer blog? Well, if you’re going to a beer festival, you need to be prepared. Coat your stomach in a dense layer of fat and carbs before hitting up the enormous beer onslaught. You won’t regret it. I didn’t! I walked out of The Festival feeling great! (Water is just as important.)

2) Before THE Festival, we went to one of the best beer bars I’ve ever been to called Novare Res. All I can say is HOLY CRAP! Amazing. Thanks to the festivities in town, the bar received several kegs of Cantillon. We started with a glass of Iris and then had a glass of Band of Brothers by Brasserie de la Senne. Apparently they only distribute BoB to “friends of the brewery”, so you know this bar is amazing. Iris was also amazing. You would think by the taste that there are actual flowers in the beer, but there aren’t. The hops really shine in this lambic and taste really flowery. Here’s a pic:

Cantillon Iris at Novare Res

3) Finally, I’m sad to say that THE Festival will never go back to Maine unless Maine stops being so lame about their alcohol laws. Check this out: Shame, Maine! Shame!

Ok, I know the time sequence of these posts are all out of wack. After THE Festival, my friends and I returned to their house and shared a delicious KBS nightcap.

KBS served in Westvleteren 12 glasses!

BEERCATION Day 2:

Panorama of Lion’s Pride hand-blown taps from Stone Brewing Co.

You already heard about our trip to MBC, but we started the day off in Lion’s Pride. Here we split a bottle of Cantillon Saint Lamvinus, a lambic brewed with Merlot and Cabernet-franc grapes. And HOLY CRAP (again) this lambic was incredible. Such an incredible mixture of beer and wine. Not super sweet, not super acidic, just right. I don’t know how they do it, but the lambics they make go down so nice and smooth.

Cantillon Saint Lamvinus at Lion’s Pride

We then went to MBC (as you know). And then back to my friend’s house, where we chilled out and drank some solid beers, including some nice Allagash beers. Their House Beer is a great “anytime” beer. Nice maltiness, hops and Belgian yeast flavor. Then we ended the night with a doozy and one of my favorites from the weekend. Allagash Coolship Cerise. It was like drinking a sour cherry in a glass. My friend was explaining to me that the Coolship beers are brewed in a shallow pan kinda thingy (it’s called a coolship, hence the name) under an open roofed building, which allows the open air to settle on the beer and cause it to funkify. This process is called “sponteneous fermentation”—when wild yeasts in the air settle on the “wort.” Click on the following link for a cool article about spontaneous fermentation from the Ecological Society of America. It was so delicious and a great way to end the amazing beercation.

Allagash Coolship Cerise