By: John Kelly
The Beer Was Strong With This One
On Saturday, February 19, 2011, a gathering of biblical proportions, along with beers with equally amazing alcohol contents, assembled at Steel Indian School Park in downtown Phoenix for the 11th Annual Strong Beer Festival. As the name and tag line of this article allude to, the beers served here were specially crafted to subtract one’s sobriety at an alarming rate. They were, of course, craft beers and being such, had the utmost respect for taste, body, texture and fragrance, but the brewmeisters who concocted these deadly libations were in a bit of a contest to test the physical limits of yeast’s ability to convert malted barley into alcohol. Between this and the fact that the beer gods decided it was a good day for wind and rain made the Strong Beer Festival resemble the original Woodstock by the time 4:30pm rolled around. The Festival also featured an eclectic mix of local food and musical entertainment for the patrons to enjoy, and was a welcome compliment to the quality of beer being consumed. Unfortunately, the Festival is over but listed below are just a handful of the brewery’s that participated this year. Hopefully this list will entice many of the loyal readers to join in the ruckus next year:
Four Peaks Widmer
SKA Brewing Rogue
Arizona Society of Homebrewers Stone
Sierra Nevada Brewing Odell
Grand Canyon Brewery Dave’s Electric
Big Sky Brewing Nimbus
Sam Adams Left Hand
Breckenridge Full Sail
Deschutes Dogfish Head
The Steele Indian School Park is located directly next to the Light Rail station located just north of Indian School Rd. and was a short walk into the park. This convenience made the Festival a huge success this year and it will probably re-take the title of “Best Beer Festival” for the year 2011. The plan for all festivals down the will be to follow suit and plan their location very close to a light rail station. The convenience of the newest addition to our public transportation system cannot be overlooked.