Friday, August 9, 2013

The Beer Wench Goes To Belgium Comes To Cooperstown

I’ve been intrigued by Ommegang’s Belgium Comes To Cooperstown festival for years and, thanks to my awesome friend AJ at Ommegang, this year this Wench got to experience this ridiculous hullabaloo. What, you ask, is BCTC? Well my dears, for starters it’s an annual summer celebration of the best in Belgian and Belgian-style brews. There’s food, music, fireworks, bonfires, and beer. Lots of beer. There are also about 2,500 beer lovers and friends in tents. That’s right—tents. Everyone sets up camp and embarks on a three-day beer fest with one of the most scenic backdrops I’ve ever encountered. For those of you who haven’t made the trek to Cooperstown- do it! Just be prepared to sit in traffic for a lifetime and then drive through winding country roads surrounded by nothingness on the way. Book a B&B; they have real bathrooms—unlike the port-a-potties from BCTC.
Gotta say I was pretty psyched to be stuck in traffic behind the Allagash van near Yankee Stadium. My girlfriends had to keep me from Chinese Fire-Drilling my way out of our VW and into their beer supply.
Once you arrive at BCTC you have to pick your campsite and set up your homestead. Now, I may have been a camp counselor for years but we had cabins people! This Wench hasn’t been near a tent since one miserable family camp outing involving a gravel campsite and a lack of air mattress—roughly thirteen years ago. So when my lady friends asked me to help set up the tent (in the rain, I may add) I must admit I was useless. Lucky for us Amiee had lived in a tent for a while and had that sucker up in ten minutes, long enough for me to make friends with our neighbors in tent village who conveniently happened to be the staff of Keegan Ales. Our new Keegan friends also had kegs of beer, which they were nice enough to share during the downpour.
After the rain, there was this:
Friday night at BCTC is primarily industry night. Us gals took our drinks and meandered through tent city, stopping to sample Ommegang’s Game of Thrones Blond Ale, a random Kriek, and lord knows what else (sorry guys this weekend is a little hazy). On our way we found AJ from Ommegang, Tommy from Sunswick, Dan from Crescent&Vine and The Strand (whose tent I may have thrown open, demanding that he get out of his sleeping bag, severely freaking out his little brother) and a myriad of other familiar faces. AJ took us to the Duvel/Ommegang campsite and, once refueled with Ommegang Witte we set off to enjoy the bonfire and the electric glow of the ferris wheel.
There is no sleeping in at BCTC. There is also no privacy, think you’re having an inappropriate what-we-say-in-the-tent-stays-in-the-tent conversation? Yeah, everyone around you heard that. After getting up at 8am, we made ourselves as presentable as possible and enjoyed a morning mimosa at our portable picnic table before making our way to the brewery tour.

Ommegang Brewery began in 1997 to create Belgian style ales. The name was taken from the name of a Belgian parade and literally translates “to walk about”. Oddly enough, that’s exactly what we spent our weekend doing!


Following the tour, AJ brought us to the industry only happy hour. Under a swanky white tent we tasted every imaginable variety of Ommegang and Duvel while we sampled tasty snacks. Local cheese, mussels cooked in ale, fresh shucked oysters—was this a wedding or a beer festival? We ended our happy hour running into Shawn from Bronx Brewery and toasting with the un-released Game of Thrones dark ale. It was malty, coffee, chocolate high-octane goodness and a really good decision that we only had a sample of the stuff.
On to the tasting tent!! Every brewery had their own table with their kegs and they were more than delighted to share until the well ran dry. We made the rounds: Port Jeff, Dogfish Head, Lagunitas, Singlecut (yeah Astoria!), Keegan, Allagash, Bronx—and so many, many more. Sadly we hit the Allagash table too late to try the Curieux Saison, this Wench is hoping for a sample in the near future! Shawn at Bronx Brewery had saved us samples of some ridiculously remarkable limited edition brews: Gin Barrel Aged Bronx Pale Ale and (my favorite) Bourbon Barrel Aged Bronx Pale Ale.
The Gin Barrel Aged beer was almost indescribable—every note of juniper, smooth oak, fresh hops, mint, pine, caramel—it shouldn’t taste good but oh man, it sure does.

The Bourbon Barrel Aged became my favorite at the festival—you all know my affinity for things aged in bourbon barrels (ahem, Allagash Curieux). I need to get my hands on a bottle or five of this!
Post-tasting, still standing, we entered the Hop-Chef competition tent to sample delicious food all made with delicious beer. Wish I could tell you more about that but I was subsequently whisked away by Jimmy from Jimmy’s 43 to do a beer radio show. Jimmy and I chatted with various brewers as well as Pat from Smuttynose (their new pilsner is delectable) and Tommy from Sunswick. My ladies found me and we went on to enjoy tastes of Radiant Pig Junior IPA, a new brewery that I am particularly excited about.
Not going to lie, the haze began right around here. A few things I do remember kids:

-I cannot hula hoop and pour Duvel simultaneously, despite my trying. I can pour a mean Duvel but let’s face it; I’ve never been much of a hula hooper.

-I hate port-a-potties. I hate them more after they’ve been used all day for a beer festival and some people never learned to handle their booze.

-The Astoria contingent will always find each other—and throw the best tent parties.

The next morning we awoke to break down camp. Once again the lack of an air mattress had bit me in the ass, and sides, and back…sigh. Lesson learned: when camping bring an air mattress!! We stumbled down to the Ommegang CafĂ©, in hopes that Belgian waffles smothered in beer-cheese and fried eggs may revive us.