There were dozens of Missouri breweries all set up like a festival, and even a live brass band, making for a really fun day for those of us who came in from out of town. They had food trucks outside, facility tours, and even someone making custom T-shirts. All this was held in their brand new facility that isn't even finished. We snapped some shots of the work in progress and were very impressed. 
For me the icing on the cake was the man dressed up like a Wolpertinger. For those of you not familiar with Bavarian folklore, a Wolpertinger basically looks like a jackolope with bat wings, and UCBC knows German because their head brewer moved from Germany to America to work for AB before starting this wonderful craft paradise.
UBCB named their anniversary beer Wolpertinger, after this bizarre Bavarian creature. It's an imperial barrel aged version of their Wingnut, which is a German style Weiss beer. Yeah, that's not exactly easy to explain... but damn it tastes good. There were a few different variations on the Wolpertinger there to try and take home. My favorite was the version aged in red wine barrels. It poured out a really dark mahogany color with an off white head. It was big, sweet and boozy with enough heat that it will age wonderfully. There was a ton of German character with big raisin and dark fruit flavors. I picked up a slight hint of nuttiness left over from the original Wingnut. The wine barrels gave it just a hint of sourness, which I loved because it was a great foil for the big malty sweetness. I give it a solid 4.5 fresh with all the hope in the world that it'll be a 5 in a few months.
They were running tours through the new building and it is about as state of the art as it gets. They've put in a huge tasting room that looks like a modern take on a Viking long house. There are tons of picnic tables all set up for people to get friendly and hang out. There will also be food! This looks like it will be an awesome place to hang out, and I can't wait to go back.
No comments:
Post a Comment