here's no such thing as a bad beer," said Top of the Hill's brewmaster, John Withey. "Some are just better than others."
And at the fourth annual World Beer Festival this Saturday at the Old Durham Bulls Park, beer lovers will have the opportunity to enjoy the best of the best.
Sponsored by the Durham-based All About Beer Magazine, along with several local restaurants and corporations, this year's festival promises to be the largest ever, with over 100 breweries from locations as exotic as Czechoslovakia to Brightleaf's own Tobacco Roadhouse. Over 300 different beers in 40 different styles will be available to sample, from Belgian Ales and English India Pale Ales (IPAs) to Japanese black beers and American specialty brews. There will be beers that have a hint of orange to them and chocolate stouts to rival the creamiest milkshake. From wheat beers to white beers, stouts to pilsners, beer will be in massive, gut-swelling abundance, with more types and more flavors than anyone can possibly sample in one day.
Thank God for two-ounce pours.
It works like this: an $18 ticket (or $23 at the gate) buys access to the festival grounds at the Old Durham Bulls Park (within stumbling distance of East Campus), as well as a commemorative beer mug. Keep ahold of that.
Once inside, the festival offers a live music stage, food from local restaurants like Ocean Emmy's and the Down Under Pub and even a cigar garden. For folks with kids, a games tent promises to keep the tykes entertained from 12-4 P.M. Face painters and clowns will wander the grounds making merry, while non-profits and merchandisers vie for your attention.
That is, if you can pull yourself away from the brew.
Under the massive beer tent, each brewery will be ready to fill your mug with a two-ounce sample of your choosing. If you like it, you can ask for more. Or you can try something else. Or both. The taps will flow as long as there are mugs to fill.
But the concept is sampling, not slamming. "There's a difference in appreciating and guzzling beer," said Julie Bradford, managing editor of All About Beer Magazine.
Beer, to true aficionados, isn't the stuff of quarters and keg-stands. Like a fine wine or single-malt whiskey, its production and appreciation is an art. Or, as Withey puts it, art and science: "One of the problems [in brewing] is that home brewers just assume they can brew. They haven't got the training."
Not so for Withey, whose training began at Cambridge University's biochemistry department in Britain. "Back in those days, biochemistry meant food, drugs or brewing. I chose brewing." After four years of school (including graduate work) and a one-year apprenticeship, Withey began his career as a brewer.
Withey's 21-year stint in Britain ended in 1996, as he was hired off to America to open the brewery for Top of the Hill. Recognized as one of the top twelve breweries in the United States, Top of the Hill's beers have won six World Beer Championships and countless praise from patrons.
The restaurant offers a constant rotation of six different brews ranging from a pitch-black porter to a light, sweet Belgian white (pronounced "whit," to be proper). Whatever the style, Withey's beer has the unusual feature of combining both cask and tank-brewing techniques. That means that while Top of the Hill uses large tanks instead of traditionally English casks, its beers are clarified, or finished, by a process called fining, the way a cask beer is. Because it doesn't require filtering, that adds up to better flavor and color.
Withey offers flavors both robust and subtle: his Hefeweizen (made with a distinct brand of German hops) has a complex combination of banana, clove and bubblegum flavors, while his Kenan Summer Ale offers light, delicate malty flavor with a delicate hop aroma. To understand what all that means, the easiest way is to sample them at the festival.
Beyond the jargon, Withey offers some basic advice on how to judge a quality beer. First, unless it's a wheat beer or a white, the drink should be crystal-clear. If it's cloudy, it could have been processed improperly, or even "infected." Next is the taste. Beer's most basic flavors are malt and hops, in varying degrees of intensity. There's also bitterness, which can be both a matter of taste and quality. Some beers, such as Belgian white, offer hints of orange or coriander. Young's Double Chocolate Stout, a popular English import, uses a chocolate-flavored malt to produce a sweet flavor without bitterness. Beyond taste is the beer's hop aroma, which you can taste as well as smell.
The most crucial ingredient in a brew is balance. Malt and hop flavors should come in balanced proportions. An IPA is extremely difficult because its strong flavor requires large quantities of both malt and hops.
While Withey notes that, "Americans consume an impressive amount of ale," his best seller remains the Kenan Summer Lager. "People in the south want light beers-light in color, light in flavor.... Down here, they're not ready for too big a change."
While most of the beer consumed in this country is still of the light-colored, light-tasting and canned variety, the past twenty years have seen an explosion in quality craft beer, with over 1500 breweries nationwide. In fact, Bradford notes that America just surpassed Germany in total number of breweries. Americans may still be Bud drinkers at heart, but like our economy, our beer culture is surging.
"We're probably on the cutting edge," Bradford said. "Nowhere in the world can you get a greater variety of beer styles than in the U.S."
Not only will the World Beer Festival bring the best of American and international brewing to Durham-it's going to benefit downtown development as well. The proceeds will benefit the Durham Central Park, a plan to redevelop the ball park and surrounding area into a vibrant area for recreation, shopping and upscale living.
But overall, it's still the beer that has to draw the crowds, and Bradford says everyone should feel welcome.
"When someone says they don't like beer, they probably mean they don't like light American lager," she said. "We believe there's a beer for everyone."
But bring ID-you have to be over 21 or under 12 to enjoy the festivities.
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