I went to Beerfest and all I have to show for it is a cheap plastic mug and a mild hangover. By cheap, I mean the materials cost not the price tag. I shelled out $4, but is made of cheap, milky, translucent plastic. It has the 2007 Beerfest logo stamped into it, straddling the seam where the two halves of the mold did not quite join together as well as they could have. It is the sort of “mug” you might expect to get for free as part of your Chuck E. Cheese birthday party experience, if Chuck E. Cheese were giving out mugs with a Beerfest logo instead of a Pizzatime Theater logo. The hangover is not a full-blown one, just a mild headache and general lack of lists (listlessness) and malaise. It came from six (count ’em, six) pints of beer. I know this because at the currency-exchange, I converted 16 genuine US dollars into 16 wooden nickels–enough for 4 drinks–plus two more at Henry’s over a plate of Cajun mac & cheese.
The drinks were, in order:
* A completely forgettable IPA
* An attempt at a chocolate stout from Bison Brewing, only to be told they were out once arriving at the front of the long line, with a raspberry heff replacement from Cascade Brewing. I liked it–it was sort of a raspberry wine cooler, it was so light.
* Black Dog Ale, which was nice, but perhaps a bit too sweet for my tastes
* Rogue Imperial Porter–always good.
This was followed by a trip to Henry’s with some Canadians, whose names I don’t remember, but one of which looked a lot like a younger Charlie from Lost and another looked like a younger Jey from Mind Candy (okay, I expect very few people reading this to know who that is.) One was a geologist and the other was a geophysicist. I have walked past Henry’s several times before and always wrote it off as a trendy Pearl-district fancy restaurant. Little did I know that past the fancy restaurant tables in the front window was an extremely large back patio and lots of beer, all on tap. LOTS of beer. No joke. Seriously. Two pages of the menu, slightly larger than legal-size paper, all in fine print and broken apart into sections. Here I had:
* Boddingtons on nitro–absolutely outstanding
* Guinness on nitro–holy crap, this is so very good, like heaven in a pint glass
This was followed up by a walk home (with a brief stop at Powell’s as they were closing.)
I am very very lucky that the Irish pub around the corner from my house has Boddingtons on tap. I pitcher costs $14 and will fill 4.5 glasses. Since you like Boddingtons, you should also try Tetleys. You will not be able to find it on tap, but it does come in the can with the widget, like Boddingtons.
If you ever make it to Seattle for a trip, visit the Redhook Brewing Plant. They have a Guinness like beer called Nitro. Its really good and you feel special because you can only drink it there cause they do not sell it anywhere in the stores.
Thanks for the tip. I know that we get a bunch of Redhook around here, so I’ll keep an eye open in case someone actually manages to get that kind around here. Otherwise, I’ll have to wait until whenever the next Seattle trip will be.