Big Pour Pre-Tasting at Blue Dust

Just as I said, I did make it down to Blue Dust on Friday evening to partake in the second night of the bar's Big Pour Pre-Tasting event. Craft breweries that were featured on Friday included Troegs, Victory and Dogfish Head.

The night was lead-off by the tapping of a Flying Mouflan firkin while it was on the bar. That was an exciting way to begin the event, even though I'm not the world's biggest fan of barley wines. It wouldn't have mattered to me what was in that firkin.

I decided to go with the Victory Flight since I have been wanting to try its Golden Monkey for a while now. The flight also included its new Festbier and I'm always up for trying a new Oktoberfest. The third brew that was aside the other two was Hop Wallop.

I was slightly disappointed with what I tried. The Golden Monkey I had seemed watered-down, the Festbier didn't taste anywhere close to an Oktoberfest and if any beer has "hop" in its name the odds are I won't like it.

I was also confused as to the true identities of both the Festbier and Hop Wallop. They both were hoppy as all hell. In my opinion, one thing that can screw up the tasting potential of a decent Oktoberfest is way too much hops. To be frank, I couldn't tell which I was drinking because of the intense hop presence. Look for more details on these brews when I actually get a chance do review them individually.

Blue Dust to Have Big Pour Preview Tasting

For all of you out there that half to work and miss the Big Pour this weekend (myself included) Blue Dust is having two nights of preview tastings on Thursday and Friday evenings, according to the bar's Facebook page.

Beers from the following breweries will be present on Thursday: Great Lakes, Ommegang and Southern Tier. On Friday, you can expect to see Troegs, East End, Bell's and Dogfish Head.

From what I can read and what I've been told, some really good brews will be there to be sampled such as Southern Tier's Pumking and Creme Brulee, Dogfish's Punkin and Great Lakes Burning River.

I will try to be present for one of these tasting nights. More likely to be there on Friday rather than Thursday. I'll be in the fedora. Come and say hello.