AZ brewers put on impressive show at crowded Strong Beer Festival

Take the state’s fast-growing craft beer scene. Add a picture-perfect, 70-degree day. The result? One very crowded 12th annual Arizona Strong Beer Festival on Saturday at Steele Indian School Park in Phoenix.

Official attendance figures were not available, but I estimated 4,000 people. It certainly was the biggest crowd I’ve seen at what’s become the state’s premier annual beer event.

An hour after the general-admission gates opened at 1 p.m., the line to get in was still more than a block long. Organizers had announced in advance that attendance would be capped to prevent overcrowding. By mid-afternoon, the entrance to the park was closed and cars were being turned away.

By that time, though, the lines inside the fest were 15 to 20 minutes long at many of the brewers’ tents (such as the Odell tent, pictured to the left) – something unheard of in past years.

The supply of
complimentary bottled water ran out at mid-afternoon. A volunteer told me they went through 5,000 bottles.

Surprisingly, though, I heard few complaints from those sampling the nearly 200 beers from 70-plus breweries.

My guess is most people would rather put up with some lines than the strong winds and steady rain that battered last year’s event.

Some observations on local breweries:

• Chandler’s SanTan Brewing brought four of its popular beers, including seasonals Winter Warmer and Sex Panther (the latter the 2011 barley-wine version, not this year’s double chocolate porter).

But it also was one of the few breweries to bring a new beer just for the fest. Two, actually.

One was a rare and delicious Wheatwine, sort of an amped-up version of its Hefeweizen, called What the Final? because its alcohol content was unknown. The other was a date-infused version of Winter Warmer.

• As usual, Tempe’s Four Peaks (shown at right) also brought an impressive selection – a whopping 13 beers, including its 2007 Hopsquatch barley wine, 2010 Hopsquatch and a bourbon-barrel version of the 2010 (which was fantastic).

It also used bourbon barrels to age its Sirius Black Imperial Russian stout and Kilt Lifter.

• I finally got the chance to try the impressive 2012 Scotch ale from Mudshark, but was surprised to hear Friday was brewmaster Guy Bartmess’ last day at the Lake Havasu City brewery.

Bartmess, who previously brewed at the now-closed Rock Bottom in Ahwatukee, is moving to Las Vegas, I learned.

• I also finally caught up with Sonoran‘s Arizona Centennial Copper Ale, the Scottsdale brewery’s English ESB commissioned for the state’s 100th birthday. The very drinkable ale was surprisingly refreshing on the warm afternoon.

• The most unusual beer of the day had to be Baconator (pictured at left), a bacon-flavored doppelbock from Mother Road, which opened in Flagstaff just three months ago.

Rich, oily and overly smoky, the beer is still a small-batch work in progress, according to head brewer Urs Riner. Once dialed in, it’ll be brewed as a seasonal.

Overall, Arizona brewers did a superb job representing the state Saturday, more than holding their own against the out-of-staters.

I guess huge crowds are gonna be the norm at the Arizona Strong Beer Fest from now on.