{"id":21520,"date":"2016-11-15T15:00:32","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T21:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=21520"},"modified":"2021-08-17T12:22:39","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T17:22:39","slug":"fobab-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/fobab-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"FoBAB 2016: Dark, Wild Beers in a Darkened Room"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, FoBAB can seem a bit like a dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You wake up, you head downtown, you wait in line, you check your ticket, you drop off your jacket and bag, you grab your sample glass and you dive headfirst into a sea of humanity. Hundreds of people swirl around you, your ears can only register a constant rumble of crowd noise, you quickly fill your head with a potent dose of high-ABV crazy beers, your eyes zip from pitchers to signs to screens to banners to volunteers (who you thank for their efforts).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You drink real good beer. Beer from all over the nation. Some of the most sought-after beers in all the land. They’re yours. You can have them. You can have more of them. You can have things you never knew could be done with beer, and things you’ve loved before that maybe never expected to see again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, all of a sudden, you’re back on a Red Line train headed north, wondering “did that happen?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"fobab-2016-5\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

FoBAB reigns supreme. It’s a palate rollercoaster, from wild to acidic to fruity to candybar to rich, rich chocolate to rum to bourbon and back around on itself again. It’s a room full of riches that defies belief and creates legends. Spiteful’s BA Chocolate Caliente. DESTIHL’s Dosvidanya. Perennial Abraxas. Bourbon County Rare. All lustworthy beers, and I’ve had them all at FoBAB and didn’t even need to trade anything on the internet for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Check out the rest of our FOBAB coverage<\/a> through the years<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Suffice to say it was another good time at one of the country’s best beer festivals, even if they decided dim the lights on us like they wanted to make out with us or something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to ICBG Director Danielle D’Alessandro, the total attendance this year was 8,000 attendees between brewers, sponsors, media jerks like me, IMBIBE members and General Admission. It’s a pretty herculean effort to get that much incredible beer judged, set up, poured and imbibed safely and sanely, but it worked out for another year. Even if I do miss the nicer space at the Bridgeport Arts Center, the UIC Forum was another lovely spot to drink beer on a November Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of the high points I stumbled across:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"fobab-2016-19\"
All hail the dump bucket.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My first stop was to the handful of beers from Odd<\/strong> Side<\/strong> Ales<\/strong>. The Hazel’s Nuts and Rye Hipster Stout — the latter which apparently included bacon, though I didn’t find any evidence of that — were both fine, but man, that BA Mayan Mocha Stout was worth the price of admission. A little hotter from the habanero than the last offering I had, but only by a touch. Just astounding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this year’s Beer Under Glass<\/a>, I told you that one of the most entertaining things I tried was a dryhopped mead from Valpo’s Misbeehavin<\/strong>‘ Meads<\/strong>. FoBAB was no different. I went back for not one, not two, but three pours of their Bourbon-Barrel-Aged Sweet Potato Mead. The rich brown-sugar notes of the sweet potato played astonishingly well with the orange blossom honey wine and added a touch of bright barrel character on top of it. Not just good tasting, but unexpectedly fun<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there was a breakout star of this year’s FoBAB, it had to be Weldwerks<\/strong> from Greeley, Colorado. A few people gave me a heads up on the Peach Climacteric and the crowdmind was right — this started out as a pretty good fruited sour, and then at the finish, bam — a big whallop of ripe, delicious, fresh peach careening over the head of the puckering tartness. I also have a soft spot for Mexican hot chocolate spiced stouts, and the Weldwerks version didn’t quite<\/em> come through as highly as my preferred version from Tin Man, but it was still quite good as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always find something new to love from Excel<\/strong> at FoBAB, and this year it was their Mint Julep beer, which ended up taking bronze in the Experimental category. Sometimes it’s just fun to see what people can do with beer to stretch the boundaries, and this wholly succeeded in that — sweet simple sugar and fresh mint merged with bourbon and wood to make the most successful beer-riff on a cocktail I’ve ever had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not a gin person, but I am becoming a gin-barrel-pilsner person, and I have Metropolitan<\/strong> to thank for it. Half Acre’s gin-barrel Pony is the progenitor of the form, and it’s quite good, but Metro’s “My Little Flywheel” pilsner aged in a gin-barrel had just enough of a malt-forwardness to let the gin notes rest right on top of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Folks lined up ASAP for a pour of Lost Abbey’s Duck Duck Gooze, which I certainly enjoyed, but along the same lines, I didn’t expect to be as blown away as I was by Jester<\/strong> King’s<\/strong> Spon 3. Listed as a “100% spontaneously fermented blend of 1, 2 and 3 year old beer” made with “malted barley, raw wheat, turbid mash, extended boil, aged hops, coolship knockout, oak fermentation (spontaneous)” and then blended. If all of that is adding up in your head to say “hey that sounds like a natural gueze in the style of Cantillon” you would be spot f’ing on and I’m still thinking about how this one transported me over to a dark brewery taproom in Belgium in two ounces of beer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Favorite name of the festival: Ten<\/strong> Ninety’s<\/strong> “Free FoBAB Ticket.” Points for honesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"fobab-2016-12\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Until this year I’d never bothered to try to find my way into the Brewers\/VIP area — not my scene — but this year I stumbled into it and found myself craving something a little less…massive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Hickster cream ale from Scorched<\/strong> Earth<\/strong> was just the thing. Nice, light, a little sweet, purely a refreshing beer. Much needed at the moment, and much appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"fobab-11\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

At 2:45, Goose Island tweeted this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The following beers will be tapped at 3pm. #FOBAB<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/wSjcr7qD9X<\/a><\/p>— Goose Island Beer Co. (@GooseIsland) November 12, 2016<\/a><\/blockquote>