I have been told the mouth of a perfectly happy man is full of beer and Friday night at the 3rd Annual Raley Field Beer Festival I had more than a mouth full. When I decided to attended this festival of intoxication I felt I would need a little back up so I recruited a friend of mine who tends bar at the painfully hip Shady Lady, an amigo that is an honorary beer expert; he drinks a lot of beer, and my wife who is savvy in how to take care of people that “know” to much about beer. As we approached Raley Field I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. Needless to say anticipations ran high but at the sight of the eighty person line to get in my heart sank into my shoe. Surprisingly enough the line moved very quickly which was good because the ratio of douche bag to cool people that live in West Sacramento is weighed pretty heavily towards the douche side. Once inside only one of us (not me) possessed the insight to go threw the line twice to get more free tickets, whatever we shortly discovered you can buy more tickets for a dollar each. Equipped with cups, drink tickets, and a mighty thirst we where like drunks coming off twelve months dry fully tweaking at the sight of all the different beers to try. We all scattered like cockroaches in different directions. Just to calm my shaky excited hands I started off with the commonly found Lagunitas WTF, a brown ale. Not very thrilling tasted a little hoppier than your average brown but I had to get the party started somehow. Trying to make up to my disappointed taste buds I spied a local Folsom brewery I had never heard of, Lockdown Brewing Company Despite the cheesy slogan “home of the Folsom Prison brews” the blonde wasn't bad, dry and clean. Suddenly our entire crew reunited and I honed in on the same stand to assault, Marin Brewing Company and of course all four of us had to try one of the strangest brews of the night ES Chi, a Chinese herb infused ES. The odd stoner hippy who poured this intriguing beverage told me “It's good for you, it'll even you out”. I am not entirely sure what he was talking about but it diffidently was one of the three most memorable beers we tried, it had a vaguely spice grassy tea taste to it. Mr. Suave* commented “It taste like an herb tea and beer mixed together”. Oddly enough this beer does not appear on their website. Less than an hour into this lovely event and already the obligatory drunk fool in a reggae colored California shirt shouted something to the effect of “Let's get F***ed up bro”. This is why even the other states in our own country hate us. Anyway, next we made a stop at Marin Brewing sister company Moylans. The Scotch Ale caught my eye and if I don't say so myself it was a good choice it had a really great woody taste, almost as if it had been aged in oak barrels. As we walked threw the festival I noticed a lot of larger Northern Ca breweries North Coast, Blue Moon, Lagunitas as well as a lot of standard Sacramento stuff Rubicon, Hoppy, Sudwerks etc. I guess it is to be expected but I had hoped for a few more obscure breweries. My point exactly came in the form of the next brewery Sierra Nevada. Being that I grew up in Chico and Sierra Nevada happens to be one of my beers of choice I had to get a Harvest ale. Taste like home, it's my security blanket. By this time I started to feel effects of the inebriating libations. We decided to take our ragtag bunch over to the Ele River stand to try the Acai Wheat. Apparently Acai is a berry native to Brazil similar to the pomegranate. The Acai berry gave a remarkable unique flavor and a texture similar but a little more beer like than a hard cider. Unsurprisingly this was my wifes favorite of the night. The Acai Wheat and the next beer I sampled, Mate Veza Golden Blonde, where the other two memorable beers. The Mate Veza is brewed with the African Yerba Mate tea leafs which naturally caffeinated the beer. I honestly do not remember what it tasted like because I had been drinkin and I could help being completely enamored with the fact they figured out how to naturally caffeinate beer with tea. Not my proudest of moments holding up the line of people behind me trying to get beers while having the poor brewer explain to me three times how they brew it. I still do not understand the process but I do remember really liking it. While I was still trying to throw the Mate Veza down my guilt someone handed me a Two Rivers Granny Apple Cider it tasted like champagne. At this time my pal Mr. Brown Bottle* made the astute observation that “we should probably get something to eat if we are going to survive this”. Watching the worst cover band in the world almost ruined the glorious sausage dog I tried so desperately to enjoy. That broad took shreky to a whole new level, gives me chills just thinking about it. About the time we wondered back to the beer garden area the owner of Rubicon Brewery who also organized the event approached us to ask what we thought of the event and if there was anything we'd like to see improved upon. That kind of approachability really made us all want come back. Around 8:45 less than two hours into our extravaganza a lot of the breweries started to run out of beer. This limited us to some of the more major breweries and to tell the truth I had tried so many beer it all really started to taste the same. I did continue to drink beers but nothing stood out I had North Coast Scrimshaw, the Grandteton Double IPA it had a citrus flavor, at the Fox Cider table they gave me something from behind the counter that my notes call it “kinda amazing” (not sure why), Auburn Ale called Gold Digger the over hoppiness reminded me of Sierra Nevada. I aspired to finish my Gold Digger while watching some drunk girls stumble into people shouting “bitches be crazy!!!” Sensing it might be time to go I made the appropriate decision to have two more samples Iron spring double IPA and Mad River Red Ale. The only notable thing about the double IPA was the pregnant girl they had pouring beer and all my notes say about the Red is “taste like beer”. We all agreed it had come time to call our cab. The only thing I'd like to see changed is better music. Come on if you are going to play covers get a DJ at least they'll play good versions of crappy over played songs. As the event grows in popularity Im sure they will attack more and more breweries therein adding to the diversity of the suds selection.
*Some names have been changed
Anthony
Ps I know I can't spell or punctuate correctly
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