FirkFest, Orange County’s first cask beer festival, is ready for Round 2!
Two weeks from now 34 Southern California breweries will bring their cask game to Farmer’s Park in Anaheim. And not only might there be a “wait list” for the drinkers but there is on for the brewers, which shows that brewers are a bit excited about creating a special one-off 10-gallon cask.
Here is the list of who will be pouring on the 21st: (with my selections of breweries to watch in BOLD)
Anaheim Brewery
Artifex (new to me)
Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits…
Barley Forge
Beach City (been hearing good things about this Huntington Beach brewery)
Beachwood BBQ & Brewing
Belching Beaver
Bootleggers Brewery
Bottle Logic Brewing (a crowd favorite last year)
Bravery Brewing
Cismontane Brewing Company
Coachella Valley Brewing Co
El Segundo Brewing Co
Firestone Walker (‘cause it’s Firestone)
Four Sons (new to me)
Golden Road Brewing Co
Good Beer Co
Hangar 24 Craft Brewery
Hoparazzi (new to me)
Karl Strauss
King Harbor
MacLeod
Monkish Brewing
Noble Ale Works
Phantom Ales
Pizza Port San Clemente
Saint Archer
Smog City
Strand Brewing
The Bruery
Three Weavers
Tustin Brewing Co
Twisted Manzanita
Valiant Brewing
Firkfest
This event stands out on the SoCal beer calendar not only because it is the first one but because of the cask ale angle that is the focus of Firkfest. So I was excited to venture out to the OC for some serious beer geekery.
And there was a delightful array of choices curated by Greg Nagel of the OC Beer Blog on hand
I started with Karma Kolsch with kumquats and Masala chai from L.A. Aleworks then moved on to El Segundo’s Hyperion Stout with rum barrel aging. Down to San Diego and Ballast Point for Sculpin with Wai ti hops.
Bootleggers put their infamous Knuckle Sandwich hop bomb in Rum barrels and Belching Beaver mixed peanut butter with Mexican chocolate. Golden Road had an unnamed pale ale on hand. And I had my first beer from Coachella Valley Brewers. A rye pale.
Lemoncello from the Bruery then Last Flight from nearby Valiant followed by an Amarillo Red from Saint Archer and a chile pale from Bottle Logic. And an apricto Citizen from Cismontane.
And I am still not done! Then it was Haven Brewing with a dry hopped IPL and Eagle Rock with a hoppy Creamsicle. Keeping in the fruit theme, Lizards Mouth from Figueroa Mountain had dried tropical fruit. Then I finished with Manzanita’s Oh Nose Brett IPA and a cask of Simcoe Showers from Noble.
I will discuss what my favorites were and what I thought of the festival in general in a post over on Food GPS in a post this Thursday after I have sifted through my notes and reflected a bit more. But I can tell you now that this was a really well run and fun festival for a first outing.
Firkfest
FirkFest, Orange County’s first cask beer festival, is scheduled for March 22, 2014 from noon to 4.
This new addition to the beer fest scene will be located in the Farmers Park in the Anaheim Packing District located at 400 S Anaheim Blvd, (which was recently talked about in BeerPaper LA).
I will let Greg Nagel the driving force behind this and the OC Beer Blog describe the rest, “Firkfest highlights Old World beer serving technique and blends them with new creativity of today’s burgeoning local craft brewers. Thirty Southern Californian breweries will participate in this unique event that pays homage to how beer has been traditionally served for centuries.
The name Firkfest is a spin on the name “Firkin” which is a 10-gallon cask. A cask of beer is traditionally considered “real ale,” meaning the carbonation is supplied naturally from the yeast finishing secondary fermentation in the vessel. Cask beer is served directly from the vessel in which it finished fermenting and is normally served at cellar temp 50-55F. Cask beer is also a one-time blank canvas for brewers, who typically add specialty ingredients for the one-time serving. The use of extra dry hops, coffee, tea, spices, fruit, and peppers are commonly added to base beers.
“What you drink at Firkfest can never be replicated exactly,” says Nagel.
Restaurants from the much-awaited Anaheim Packing House – ADYA (Indian), The Kroft (specialty sandwiches), Ecco (Italian fare), Wheat and Sons (butcher) – will sell locally-crafted food. The Packing House, due to open Spring 2014, will serve as a culinary center that brings together artisan food producers and purveyors in a public market type setting.”