Good Beer Week: North Coast Brewing Company Launch

Well, it's over. The inaugural Good Beer Week is over and detoxification begins. Nothing but veggies, sushi and water for the next two weeks! No, I don't think so, but I'm at least going to have lots of vegetables and lay off beer for a little while. We'll see how long that "little while" is.

Overall, I felt Good Beer Week was a definite success, and I hope many other punters, venues, brewers and international guests felt the same way. There were of course some things I hope the organisers will learn from, but it's all part of the process; it was the first one.

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Good Beer Week began for me on Monday, May 16 at Beer DeLuxe for the North Coast Brewing Company launch. Having never been to Beer DeLuxe on a Monday evening, I can't speak to how many customers were there for after-work drinks and how many were there for the launch, but there was certainly a decent amount of people and from what I could see, there were plenty with their North Coast postcard or shiny new glass in hand. It's nice to think that perhaps some of those people had no idea what Good Beer Week was, and just thought ten tastings and a free glass for $20 was a pretty sweet deal.

The tastings were served from bottles by the barstaff. The first few at the lighter end I was happy to have poured into my new Old Rasputin Imperial Stout glass – I was lucky enough to have been given a choice – while the later samplings I had poured into a proper tasting glass. I'm generally of the opinion that tasting from bottles isn't the ideal scenario, but we manage.

North Coast Brewing Company boasts "some of the best beers in this world... or any other" and has a pretty good average going on beer rating websites like Rate Beer and Beer Advocate. They'll have to forgive me for not finding any of their beers particularly memorable, save one. That said, some highlights for me were the Red Seal Ale, the ACME California IPA, and the Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. Personally, I found the Scrimshaw Pilsener, which I started with, to not be as bad as some were commenting, but I definitely agreed with the consensus on the ACME California Pale Ale. I'd be tempted to give it another try from the tap, but for as long as it's available to me just in a bottle, I will avoid.

Now, the interesting sample of the night for me was the Brother Thelonius Belgian-style Abbey Ale. As someone relatively new to the whole beer tasting thing, this is the first beer I've had that I really felt a difference after giving it a swirl. At first, I got a rather unpleasant junkyard aroma as you get with some cheeses, but after oxygenating, it really opened up and possibly ended up as my favourite. But I am quite the sucker for Abbey and Trappist ales.

For those not content with a free glass, there was even a raffle of various items. A cap, a six-pack of the IPA... I could speak more positively about this, but I have that ever-present grudge you only get from being a consistent loser of raffles.

Anyway, that'll do. I will go and plot my revenge now.