Last weekend was Eugene's annual Sasquatch Brewfest - and I'm pleased to report it was a big step up from last year's in several ways.
The location's changed again - this year, it was held in Hop Valley's parking lot. Initially I was worried that it would be too small and crowded for the available space, but thankfully this turned out not to be the case. There were over 40 breweries and ciderhouses represented, with 60-70 available libations to sample.
Logistically, I thought everything was handled far better this year. Hop Valley's a much more centrally-located venue than Ninkasi, and having all the breweries set up alphabetically along one wall made navigation a breeze. Too, ticketing and check-in were much smoother and quicker, water was plentiful and spread out, and the live music stage was set up in the far corner, past all the beer and food - meaning those who wanted to dance or revel weren't in the way of everyone else, which I really appreciated.
It was one of those brutally hot Eugene summer days - the mercury peaked over 90, and there wasn't a cloud in sight. Thankfully, one of the best features of the fest made up for this - there was a mist test to help keep everyone cool. Other covered seating was hard to find, however, and the grass pollen was almost as bad as last year's. I confess I don't really understand the appeal of having an outdoor, shade-scarce event in the middle of summer - why not in the fall or late spring when the weather's a little cooler?
The food selection was adequate - Hot Mama's, Bates, and Red 5 were all in attendance, and of course Hop Valley's kitchen was right inside.
All of that's window dressing, though. To me, beer festivals live or die by the quality and variety of their beer offerings. And this year's Sasquatch did a pretty good job in that regard. Plenty of the beers on tap were seasonal, rare, or one-off - always a pleasure for a novelty-drinker like myself.
To my great surprise, the highlight of the fest was an offering by barely-open Mancave, the newest hometown brewery. They had what they called a farmhouse ale - a blend of ingredients used to make pilsner and witbier fermented at saison temperatures. It's one of those combinations that shouldn't work, but somehow did - it had the color and character of a hefeweizen, the minerally bite of a good pilsner, and the soft/rough dichotomy of saison yeast to smooth everything over.
I also rather liked Sunriver Brewing's Fighting Falcon - a double IPA almost oversaturated with citrus hop flavor (and alcohol, at 8.6%) - and Plough Monday's Summer IPA, which had a lovely citrus/pine hop character.
The most offbeat thing I tried was definitely from 2 Towns - their Hop and Stalk, an imperial hopped apple cider. I wasn't expecting to like it at all, but the citrus tinge from the Citra hops balanced out the generally too-sweet/boozy nature of imperial ciders.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with Sasquatch this year. I just wish they'd hold it in cooler weather or move it back indoors.
