Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting

So I don't really have one specific beer to review from last night...instead, I have fifteen. Not really. Joel (you'll hear his name frequently) and I went to the 8th annual Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting event, so below is just a brief summary of the event and the brews that I sampled.

It's not really my thing to go to "festivals" but since this one was billed as having very limited ticket availability and also touted some higher end beers, I was convinced.

Overall, the event was very well organized and was (for the most part) not attended by obnoxious over-indulgent douches. Add this to the incredible array of brews on hand (38 casks from breweries all over the country and the UK), and it made for a great time. Of the 38 casks, I was able to sample 15...while it doesn't sound like much, you have to figure that these were all generous pours of high ABV beers, and that I didn't want to get destroyed.

So we started off the afternoon on the 5 Seasons patio, where I sampled the following (some of which I have had bottled):

Allagash Interlude - a farmhouse with massive brett flavors
Cigar City El Lector - a mild dark ale similar to other sessionable CCB brews
Heavy Seas Siren Noire Imp. Choc. Stout - Huge chocolate flavors, certainly not sessionable
Highland Cold Mountain - a winter warmer with tons of vanilla
Jailhouse Hop Riot Imp. IPA - a great balance of hops and smoothness - incredibly drinkable
O'Dempsey's Your Black Heart Russian Imp. Stout - never fails to please
Harviestoun Schiehallion - disappointing Euro lager
Weyerbacher Fireside Ale - another disappointment from the guys in PA

After bumping into Eddie from Ale Yeah and the Jart, we moved on (in a larger group) to the Taco Mac side of the tasting to sample the remaining casks...needless to say, I b-lined it over to the Terrapin/BFM cask and dropped several tickets on a big pour...it was completely worth it. Here's the tasting list from the other side:

Moylan's Chelsea Porter (w/ TLHO Chocolate) - incredible...if you like coffee, buy this now!
Red Hare Chocolate Porter - bummer that the Creme De Menthe overpowered the brew
Ridgeway IPA - solid 5.5% IPA from the UK
Sierra Nevada Torpedo - an old standby - great drinking IPA
Sweetwater Long Strange Trip, So Far - billed as a warmer, but incredibly hoppy and delicious
Terrapin Bourbon Wood Barleywine - this is the collab. with BFM...love this stuff.
Wadworth 6X - another disappointing euro beer..

Not a bad haul for three hours...and we met some cool new beer geeks from the west-side. Based on all this, the event was certainly worth the price of admission...good times.