Way.

You probably remember recent posts that Russ and I shared about our trip to the 2018 Beer Bloggers Conference in Sterling, Virginia. Along the way, we regaled you with stories of the visit to Dogfish Head, Farm Brew Live, and other awesome experiences. There was also a brief hint that I checked in 106 new and unique beers into Untappd. In other words, I sampled 106* beers that week that I had never tried before. One-hundred and six.
* These are only the ones that I remembered to check in. Who knows? There may have been more.

May I also point out that the majority of these were samples. I don’t think it’s advisable to try to drink a case of very heavy beer every day for four days. I’m assuming that if I did that, I’d be writing this post from the great beyond. I found it quite interesting that I didn’t see people interested in drinking a lot … trying to get drunk. These were people who legitimately wanted to experience as many different beers as possible. And I truly didn’t see anyone getting in trouble or getting out of control. But that’s a story for another day.  For today … here’s the list (my Untappd ranking in parentheses).

1. 2 Silos Brewery
1. Bill-iner Weisse Sour (2.75)
2. NOVA Witbier (3.25)
3. Old Dominion Imperial Stout (3)
4. Planet Druidia Galaxy IPA (1.5)
5. Silobration Marzen (3.75)
6. Virginia Cream Ale Cream Ale (4)
2. Adriot Theory Antithesis DRANK (red punch) Sour – Gose (3)
3. Alewerks
1. Pumpkin Ale (4)
2. Weekend Lager Helles Lager (3.25)
4. Ardent Craft Ale IPA X NE IPA (3.5)
5. Aslin Double Orange Starfish DIPA (4)
6. Barnhouse Quarter Horse Porter (3.75)
7. Bear Chase Mr. Pink Belgian Blonde (4.25)
8. Bearded Iris
1. Ever Clever NE IPA (3.25)
2. Homestyle NE IPA (4.25)
3. Offbeat NE IPA (4.5)
9. Belly Love 50 Shades of Gold Belgian Strong Golden (3.75)
10. Beltway Brewing 1776 Stout (4.5)
11. Bike TrAle Yellow Jersey Pilz Pilsner (3)
12. Black Hoof Island Pond Hefeweizen (2.5)
13. Blue Mountain
1. Dark Hollow Imperial Stout (4.25)
2. Raspberries on Acid Witbier (3.75)
14. Bolero Snort La Taureau Tripel (3.5)
15. Brothers Craft The Admiral DIPA (4)
16. Canon & Draw Welchers IPA (2.25)
17. Crooked Run
1. Heart and Soul IPA (3.75)
2. Katana DIPA (4.25)
18. Deschutes
1. Fresh Squeezed IPA (4)
2. Mirror Pond Pale Ale (3.75)
19. Devil’s Backbone
1. Black Lager Schwarzbier (3.5)
2. Gold Leaf Lager (3)
3. Mile 842 India Pale Lager (3)
4. O’Fest Marzen (3.25)
5. Pear Lager Fruit Beer (4)
6. Trail Angel Weiss Hefeweizen (3.5)
20. Dirt Farm Som Peach Fruit Beer (3.25)
21. Dogfish Head
1. 120 Minute (2008) IPA (4.75)
2. Ball Peen Hamster Kolsch (3.5)
3. Covered in Nuggs IPA (3.75)
4. Firefly Pale Ale (3.75)
5. Flesh & Blood IPA (3.5)
6. Fruit-full Fort Strong Ale (4)
7. Green Light Means Go Belgian Pale (3.75)
8. Liquid Truth Serum IPA (4)
9. One-Eyed Cheshire Pale Ale (3.75)
10. Outdoor Shower “other” (3.5)
11. The Grownups Are Talking Pilsner (2.75)
12. Wood-Aged Bitches Brew Imperial Stout (4.25)
22. Finback Telephone Lines Pilsner (3.25)
23. Free Will Ella Quadrupel (4.25)
24. Garden Grove Tri-Lemon Saison Farmhouse (4)
25. Heritage B-A Kings Mountain Scotch Ale (3.5)
26. House 6 El Bombero Kolsch (4)
27. Jackie O’s Herringbone Sour (4)
28. Kindred Spirit Orange Dream Cream Ale (3.25)
29. Legend Imperial Brown Ale (3.25)
30. Lithermans Limited One Hit Wonder IPA (3.25)
31. Lost Rhino
1. Dawn Patrol Session IPA (3.75)
2. Final Glide Hefeweizen (3.5)
3. Meridian Kolsch (3.25)
4. My Imaginary Girlfriend IPA (2.25)
5. Pumpernickel Honker Rye IPA (3.75)
6. Rhino Chasers Pilsner (3.25)
7. Shooter McMunn’s Irish Stout (3)
32. M.Special  Barbeerian Special Belgian Strong Dark (4)
33. Mast Landing Wessie IPA (1.75)
34. Monocracy Riot Rye Pale Rye IPA (3.25)
35. Moonlight Meadery
1. Breathless Mead (4.25)
2. Indulge Mead (4)
36. New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb Fruit Beer (4)
37. Odd Sides Pineapple Tangerine Fruitsicle Fruit Beer (3.25)
38. Old 690
1. Oktoberfest Marzen (3.75)
2. Gnarly Boar Pale Ale (2.25)
39. Old Bust Head
1. Table Talk Witbier (4)
2. Vixen Red Ale (3)
40. Old Ox Funky Face Sour (1.75)
41. Ono Brewing Island Time Brown Ale (3.5)
42. Phase 2 Thank You, Babe Cream Ale (4.25)
43. Port City Oktoberfest Marzen (3.75)
44. Quattro Goombas Resistance is Fruitile Pale Wheat (4)
45. Reason Saison Grisette (4)
46. Rocket Frog Angry, Angry Alice DIPA (3.5)
47. Rogue
1. Combat Wombat NE IPA (3.25)
2. Dead Guy Maibock (3.25)
3. Honey Kolsch (4)
4. Hot Tub Scholarship Helles Lager (3.75)
5. Marionberry Sour (3)
6. Paradise Pucker Sour (2)
48. SingleCut Beersmiths Softly Spoken Magic Spells DIPA (3.5)
49. Sinistral
1. Hello Sunshine NE IPA (4)
2. Jackson’s Fish Taco Lager (3.5)
50. Solace Partly Cloudy NE IPA (3.5)
51. Starr Hill
1. Grateful Pale Pale Ale (3.5)
2. Last Leaf Brown Ale (3.75)
3. Raspberry American Sour Fruit Beer (3.25)
52. Strangeways Woodbooger Belgian Brown (2.25)
53. The Farm Brewery
1. Acoustic Science Belgian IPA (3.75)
2. Cherrydactyl Fruit Beer (3.5)
54. Three Notch’d Ghost of the 43rd Pale Ale (3.5)
55. Twinpanzee
1. Galaxy of the Apes IPA (3.25)
2. Galaxy of the Chimps IPA (2.75)
56. Vanish Farmwoods Andre Brut IPA (3.75)
57. Waconia Chocolate Peanut Butter (4)
58. Water’s End
1. HopDrop White IPA (3.25)
2. Sauvin Saison (4)
59. WeldWerks Brownie Batter Milk Stout (4)

If that title makes you say “Gesundheit” – I wasn’t sneezing, I’m talking about the German Beer Purity Law. If you don’t already know what it is, it’s a 502-year old law that only allows for four ingredients in the production of a beer: water, barley (or malt), hops, and yeast. Beer brewed in Germany must have nothing else in it.

This law was first created to protect citizens from beer that may have included toxic ingredients that were causing sickness and even death. (Delicious stuff, like wood shavings, nightshade, poisonous tree roots, etc.) The law worked and continues to still today. Having attended a very authentic German Oktoberfest celebration, the quality of the ingredients led to no nasty side effects of excess indulgence the next morning. So, it definitely has its advantages.

On the other hand, US brewers are quick to throw just about anything into a beer in an effort to create recognition and break new flavor barriers. Chocolate, every fruit imaginable, pizza, bacon, smoke, wads of cash, habanero … basically anything. It would seem that German brewers and US brewers are on different sides of the aisle.

Side note: German brewers ARE starting to brew with crazy ingredients and bowing to the pressures of craft beer enthusiasts. But there’s a catch … they cannot refer to the final product as beer. They have to market it as “mixed beer drinks” (Biermischgetränke). And as it turns out, Germans are choosing to stay with the traditional beers, leaving the ‘mixed drinks’ for visitors and tourists.

I attended a Beer Bloggers Conference last week and was able to hear from the founder and CEO of Dogfish Head, Sam Calagione. He said that DFH’s stance was to almost fly in the face of the half-millennium old Reinheitsgebot … focusing on bringing in flavors that you wouldn’t expect in beer. They took a lot of arrows, especially when they were doing this in the years before craft’s big boom in the US. Once told, “Fruit belongs in a salad, not in your beer, a**hole,” Sam and the team ventured on, believing in what they were creating. They now stand as one of the preeminent craft brewers in the world … and have not changed that stance. (Read an article by Sam himself on what he calls ‘beer censorship.’)

Listening to the presentation, I found myself torn. Part of me was in love with the nostalgia and the quality borne of the Reinheitsgebot. And part of me was excited about the almost brash nature with which Dogfish Head eschewed it. Which was right? Who was right and who was wrong?

After a few days of reflection, something amazing occurred to me. What if they’re both right? We don’t have to live in a binary society where there has to be a yin and a yang; an up and a down; a hero and his foil. Isn’t the world a better place because of the variety that we have these days? I love that I can go to Germany and order a traditional lager with only those four magical ingredients. But why shouldn’t I be able to slide down the road and have a “mixed beer drink” that includes coriander and orange peel? And then I can fly home and have Terrapin’s Raspberry Truffle Wake-n-Bake Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout!

So, who’s right? The German purists or the Dogfish Heads of the world? If you ask me, the answer is yes.

If you’ve been following our adventures for the past few days, you may have noticed something interesting about this conference. On Day 1, we drove to Delaware and drank beer. On Day 2, we drank beer in Delaware and then drove home and drank beer in Virginia. There hasn’t been a “conference” yet … no sessions! That all changed on Day Three. It was time to get some learnin’. (If you want to don’t want to read about the day, skip below and see our pictures from Day Three.)

First speaker out of the blocks was Julia Herz, Craft Beer Program Director for the Brewers Association. This one is a fireball. Tons of energy, she shared a lot of facts and figures about the continued growth of craft beer versus mass-produced; and also the dominance ber has over wine and spirits in the American marketplace. Next up was a panel discussion on diversity in the brewery world. .Julie Verratti (Founder, Denizens Brewing), Bev Armstrong (Founder, Brazo Fuerte Artisinal Beer), and Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham (Diversity Ambassador for the Brewers Association) discussed the evolution of increased diversity in the brewing industry. The quick takeaway … don’t ask a person of color or a female brewer what it’s like to be a minority in the beer world. Ask them the same questions you’d ask any brewer.

For lunch, we had two food truck choices. Pro tip … Dave’s Dogs was the way to go, especially if your order the Old Bay tater tots. Yes!!

The afternoon was off with THE keynote of the event: Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head. He speaks with great passion about his company, why they’ve always been a little different and have stuck to their ways in the face of criticism. He’s an incredible evangelist for his brand (something I would like to do better as well.) We finished his session with a Facebook live Q&A – really interesting media.

The learnin’ portion of the day was capped off with an expo … there were about 10 exhibitors placed around the room, and many of them brought beer for us to enjoy. Let the revelry commence! (Side note – if you see a trivia contest poop up during the sessions, run over and answer as quickly as possible. I did and scored two bombers of Rogue Dead n Dead.) Thank you to Rogue, Terrapin, Devil’s Backbone, Dogfish Head, and others for a great afternoon!

And finally … the evening reception. Yet another bus ride took us to Vanish Brewery, or more like a farm with a brewery hidden in it. You can see in the pictures below, it was a beautiful setting, and they had representatives from 19 local breweries serving one of their beers. (One group brought two, so 20 total beers.) Stickers, hats, glasses, bottle openers … the SWAG is seemingly endless here. Below the slideshow, I’ll list the 19 breweries and the beers they were pouring. And that’s a wrap on Day Three!

CLICK the picture below to see more photos from the day …

The beer from the evening (along with the score I gave it on Untappd):

• Adroit Theory Antithesis D.R.A.N.K. Hawaiian Punch Gose (3 out of 5). This stuff was so odd. Smelled, looked and tasted like straight Hawaiian Punch. There was legitimate debate between on us whether it was beer or just Hawaiian Punch. It’s the pink beer in the pictures.
• Barnhouse Quarter Horse Porter (3.5)
• Bear Chase Mr. Pink Tart Cherry Ale (4.25). It wasn’t tart … really nicely balanced.
• Belly Love 50 Shades of Gold Belgian Strong Pale. (3.75)
• Beltway 1776 Rye-aged Stout. (4.5). Powerful and tremendous.
• Bike TrAle Yellow Jersey Pilz (3)
• Black Hoof Island Pond Hefeweizen (2.5)
• Crooked Run Katana Double-IPA with cherries and vanilla (4.25)
• Dirt Farm Som’ Peach seasonal. (3). I was very hesitant, as I don’t like peach beers. But this was surprisingly pleasant.
• House 6 El Bombero Kolsch. (4)
• Lost Rhino Dawn Patrol session IPA. (3.75)
• Old 690 Gnarly Boar Pale. (2.25)
• Old Ox Funky Face Hibiscus Gose. (1.75)
• Phase 2 Thank You, Babe Cream Ale (4.25). Add a smashed basil leaf to it. Seriously.
• Quattro Goomba’s Resistance is Fruitile – Mango Passionfruit Wheat Ale. (4)
• Rocket Frog Angry Angry Alice Double IPA (2.75)
• Solace Partly Cloudy NE-style IPA (3.5)
• Twinpanzee Brewing:
• Galaxy of the Apes IPA (3)
• Galaxy of the Chimps IPA (2.75)
• Vanish Andre Brut IPA. (3.75). Very interesting and quite refreshing. As the name implies, it had a champagne quality to it.