Sold-out Real, Wild & Woody may be model for future fests

The first-ever Real, Wild & Woody beer festival debuts Saturday at the Tempe Center for the Arts. With a limit of 1,000 tickets, it sold out early, just as the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild hoped.

The indoor event, which will run 2-6 p.m., will showcase specialty cask (real), sour (wild), and barrel-aged (woody) beers from 31 breweries, all but three from Arizona. The $50 tickets sold out last week.

That means organizers won’t have to spend this week trying to sell remaining tickets, like they had to with last February’s Arizona Strong Beer Festival, the state’s premier beer festival, also sponsored by the guild.

Rob Fullmer, the guild’s new executive director, notes the guild didn’t have to pay for an advertising or marketing campaign, instead relying on free social media.

That’s significant, he says, as the guild plans to launch another new beer festival, Baja Oktoberfest, in Tucson this fall. “In general, we’re going to get better at identifying who we’re marketing to,” he says.

It also may force a change in the behavior of some Valley beer festival fans, those who wait for a last-minute Groupon sale or rely on getting leftover tickets from a brewery. For Real, Wild & Woody, participating breweries received only a few tickets for their on-site staff.

Fullmer says next year’s Real, Wild & Woody likely will have a bigger footprint at the arts center to accommodate more people, but will remain a more intimate event than Strong Beer, which drew more than 6,000 people this year.

Real, Wild & Woody beer list:

Arizona Wilderness

• Dos Double IPA Mango
• Woolsey the Wild: Sour wit beer aged in Russian River Sonambic barrels
• Old Brood: Belgian quad Braggot aged in red wine barrels. Collaboration with Superstition Meadery.

Barrio Brewing

• Vanilla Bean Cask Porter
• Barrio Blanco-Chai Tea: Simcoe dry-hopped white IPA cask
• NCAAle: Whiskey barrel-aged strong ale
• Dark sour beer blended with raspberries

BJ’s Brewery & Restaurant

• Woody Scottsman: Scotch ale aged in whiskey barrels
• Jeremiah Red cask
• Cask Hopstorm IPA cask

Borderlands Brewing 

• Citrana Sour: Lemon-forward Gose with sea salt and coriander
• Flemish Red

Cartel Brewing

• Birch: Birch-aged pale ale firkin
• Cupid’s Delight: Amber rye ale aged on cherry wood with cherries added
• O.C.P. (Oak Coffee Porter): Porter aged on oak with whole-bean coffee added

College Street Brewhouse & Pub

• Fraternity of Hops 1: West Coast-style IPA pulled before end of fermentation and allowed to finish and age in a firkin
• Fraternity of Hops 2: Same IPA aged on American oak spirals soaked in tequila

Desert Eagle Brewing

• Black Sugar: Barrel-aged Russian imperial stout
• Red Mountain Ale: Casked amber dry-hopped with Amarillo

Dragoon Brewing

• Saison Blue: Farmhouse-style ale aged 11 months in tequila barrels
• Scout Porter: Smoked porter aged 12 months in rye whiskey barrels
• Stronghold Session Ale with Exo Roasters cold-pressed coffee cask

Epic Brewing

• Hopulent IPA firkin
• Elder Brett: Brettanomyces-infused saison aged in wine barrels

Fate Brewing

• Puffs Imperial Coffee Milk Porter: Cask conditioned with Cocoa Puffs cereal
• Pebbles Session IPA: Cask conditioned with Fruity Pebbles cereal
• Into the Wild Sour Stout: 1055/Fate Collaboration
• Fate Berlemoner
• Fate Cedar Aged Pale Ale
• Fate Breakfast for Dinner: Barrel-aged porter with glazed donuts and Cartel coffee

Firestone Walker Brewing 

• Stickee Monkee: Central Coast quad aged in bourbon barrels
• Lil Opal: Saison farmhouse ale barrel-aged and spiked with Brett and Lacto yeast

Four Peaks Brewing 

• Sirius Black: Barrel-aged Russian imperial stout
• Tequila Raj: English-style IPA aged in tequila barrels
• Sour Peach cask

Grand Canyon Brewing 

• Shaggy Bock: Traditional bock conditioned in fermenter with toasted oak

Granite Mountain Brewing

• Double English brown ale aged on U.S. oak. Collaboration with Lonesome Valley.

Huss Brewing

• Southern Hussy: Peach ale aged in bourbon barrels
• Barrel-Aged Snowbird: Imperial oatmeal stout aged in bourbon barrels
• Barrel-Aged That’ll Do IPA

Lumberyard Brewing

• Fireside Red: Imperial red aged in bourbon barrels
• Black IPA firkin

Mother Road Brewing

• Wooden Spoke 3: Bourbon barrel-aged Lost Highway black IPA
• Gold Road: Kolsch-style brew aged in Heaven’s Hills barrels with Brettanomyces yeast and pear puree
• Roadside: Dry-hopped pale ale cask

Mudshark Brewing 

• 2014: Scotch ale aged in Jack Daniels barrels
• La Travail: Saison aged on oak with orange, lemon peel and grains of paradise
• Frausboise Requin: Raspberry lambic
• Shark Funk: Barrel-aged Oud Bruin

New Belgium Brewery

• Paardebloem: Wood-aged ale brewed with peach juice, grains of paradise and dandelion greens. Collaboration with Red Rock Brewery.
• Wild Wild Dubbel: Dubbel-style beer brewed with Schisandra berries
• Love Oscar: Oscar is the base beer for La Folie
• Biere de Peach: Biere de Mars aged in Leopold Brothers Peach Whiskey barrel with Brett and lemon peel

North Mountain Brewing

• N.I.B.: Russian imperial stout brewed with maple syrup

OHSO Brewery

• Praying Monk Belgian-style quadrupel
• OHSO Hoppy: Dry-hopped IPA
• Oaked Barleywine: Malty, hoppy and smash-aged in a whiskey barrel
• Oaked Saison

Old World Brewery

• Whiskey Sour: Scotch ale aged in bourbon barrel
• Yard Dog 1: House porter soured and dry-hopped
• Yard Dog 2: House porter soured and aged in red wine barrel
• 4 Leaf Irish Red aged in red wine barrel

Papago Brewing

• Papago Park: Barrel-aged pale ale
• Otis: Barrel-aged milk stout

Peoria Artisan Brewery

• Artisan Arsonist: Smoked and oaked red ale

SanTan Brewing

• Saison di Aleatico aged on oak
• Barrel-aged saison vs. Cabernet Franc
• Beer Gone Wild

Sonoran Brewing 

• Saison
• White Chocolate

Sun Up Brewing

• TBD

The Beer Research Institute

• TBD

The Perch

• Rosemary IPA cask
• Very Cherry cask

Thunder Canyon Brewing

• Continuously hopped cask IPA
• Belgian Brick: Barrel-aged Belgian-style pale ale
• Buckmaster: Barrel-aged brown ale
• Good Vibe: Barrel-aged sour IPA

Wanderlust Brewing

• 928 Local: Belgian-style farmhouse ale brewed with locally harvested wild yeast
• Ostro: Sour saison brewed with Lactobacillus
• Farmhouse Rouge: Wine barrel aged dark saison
• Pan American Stout Cask: Coffee stout aged in the cask with whole vanilla beans

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