My trip to the KLCC Microbrew BEERFEST!

Tonight, my roommates and I headed out to the Lane County Events Center for the KLCC Microbrew Festival 2008. It's basically an annual beerfest where all these local breweries and some not so local ones come and serve samples of their beers. It was $10 to get in and $1 for every sample. They sold $10 worth of beer tickets at the gate, so for $20 we all got admission and 10 beers. We also got souvenir glasses to drink out of.

So, I decided that I was going to remember the 10 beers that I drank so I could know which ones I liked and which I didn't. Here they are, all 10 of them, in order from the one I liked least to the one I liked best.

10. Calapooia Chili Beer
This was my fourth beer of the night, and it was one of those beers made for one of these events. The experimental kind that you'll never see on the shelves, and rarely see on tap anywhere. It tasted like they put chili powder in beer, and I didn't like it. Hayley loved it, she had 2 glasses, and Bryan liked it too, but I thought it was the worst of the 10 I had. I gave it an F.

9. Steelhead Wiley RyePA
This was my seventh beer of the night, second IPA, and I got sick of them. I learned that, after a few of them, I'm not an IPA fan. They get old for me. I do enjoy one occasionally, like with food at McMenamin's, but this one was just your run-of-the-mill IPA. What we wanted was the Steelhead Bohemeth, which was 9.4% abv, but they were out, so we got this instead. I gave it a D.

8. Steelhead Double IPA
This one was the other IPA I had. It was my first beer of the night. It was alright, nothing special, but it was double, so that makes it better than the other one. Apparently I'm not a big Steelhead fan, or at least not their IPAs. I gave this one a D+.

7. Rogue Chocolate Stout
This is one of those beers I've wanted to try for a long time. I love Rogue beers, and thought a chocolate stout sounded delicious, but it wasn't that great. I wanted it to be so much better, so maybe my expectations skewed this one, but I like the Sam Adams Black Lager much better. It's still my fav. I gave this one a C.

6. Belhaven Scottish Ale
This one was my tenth and final beer of the night. It was, as the name suggests, from Scotland, and it was pretty good. It tasted, as Ryan put it, like a light Guinness. Imagine drinking a Guinness Light, and that's this beer. Had the same flavoring, just not as potent. I gave this one a B-.

5. Widmer Winter Ale '08
So, throughout the night, I tried to drink beers I had never tried before, and succeeded. But this one felt most like a cop out because, even though I hadn't tried it yet, I could have gotten it at Albertson's. Anyway, it was the third beer I had, and it was pretty good. Not amazing, but not bad either. I like Widmer as a brewery, and this one fell in line. I gave it a B.

4. Roots McAdams Milk Stout
This was the second beer I had. I like dark beers, and this was the darkest one I had tonight. Actually, the reason why I tried it is because I saw how dark it was. It was pretty thick and had a kind of coffee flavoring to it. It had a lot of taste and a good aftertaste. I gave it a B as well.

3. New Belgium Springboard Ale
This was my ninth beer of the night. I generally like New Belgium beers, the darker ones, so this one being one of their lightest, I wanted to try it. It was really good actually. It had a very clean taste, but still flavorful. Not sure what they plan to do with it, but I recommend it. I gave it a B+.

2. North Coast Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale
This was my eighth beer of the night, and a tie for my favorite. It was a pretty dark beer, but had a hint of apple in it that really made it stand out. It was delicious, and I would love to have it with a meal, but I'm not sure I could drink many of them, so that's the only reason why it didn't make number 1. I gave it an A.

1. Rogue Kells Irish Style Lager
This was my fifth beer of the night, and my favorite. It's a lager, which initially made me think of domestic American beers, but it was a bit different. All domestic light beers are like having sex in a canoe: fucking close to water. This one though was a pretty light beer but had a lot of flavor, and I think it was that combination that got me. I could drink it with dinner or drink it just to drink it. It's very drinkable I guess, if you know what I mean, so it is my number one. I gave it an A.

I had a lot of fun tonight, trying a bunch of different beers, and would love to do it again. I think I have a bit of a better grasp on beer than I did before tonight, which isn't saying much, but it's a start. You can see the full list of the beers they had there tonight here.