The OC Brew Ha Ha

The second annual OC Brew Ha Ha was this past Saturday, September 10th at Irvine Meadows.  The morning of the event looked pretty ominous, as thunder, lightning, hail, and rain rolled through many parts of Orange County.  Luckily, though, the Brew Ha Ha was spared (I'm guessing that thunder and lightning aren't allowed by the Irvine Company, so the clouds had to make a detour...).

The location was once the home of Lion Country Safari, which included the famous escaping hippo Bubbles that lived in the wild along Laguna Canyon Road for a few weeks, however on this day it was home for different types of wild animals, those looking for some great craft beers and some tasty grub.  The event benefitted a portion of the proceeds to the Fallen Firefighter Relief Fund, a great idea to allow people to have fun, drink some good beers, and also help support a good cause.

Introductory speech about the craft beer industry by Dr. Bill Sysak from Stone.

Those of us that were able to make it in time were greeted by a short talk from Bill Sysak from Stone about the history of the industry, and also got to begin the day with a pour of the Stone black imperial 15th anniversary IPA (which I had tasted before, but is delicious).

Welcome to the Brew Ha Ha!

After taking a quick walking tour of the grounds to get the layout and see which breweries were able to make it (not all breweries showed, for example I was looking forward to having some Russian River because they were on the list, but they were no where to be seen), I then decided to jump right in to it.  I attempted to taste mainly from breweries that I did not get to drink from often, and as many new beers as possible.  My tasting list throughout the day was:

• Stone Black Imperial 15th Anniversary IPA
• Inland Empire Dark Strong Ale
• Black Market Brewing Brown Anglo American Style Ale
• Craft Brewing Co. Holly's Belgian Pale Ale
• Hangar 24 Fall Seasonal Oktoberfest
• Belmont Brewing Co. Top Sail Amber Ale
• The Bruery Mischief
• The Bruery Mischief Gone Wild
• Addison Homebrew Privisions Scotty's Big IPL
• TAPS Imperial Russian Stout
• Iron Fist Spice of Life
• Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
• Bootlegger's Wildfire Wheat
• Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest
• Old Orange Brewing Street Fair Kolsch
• Backstreet Brewery Malanga

In addition I was able to sneak a few sips from other beers that friends had tried.

Craft Brewing Co.'s tent

Just a few of the beers we got to try...

The VIP tickets included tickets for 14 four ounce tastes.  Prior to the event I was a little concerned that this wouldn't be enough and wouldn't allow me to try as much variety as I would like.  Luckily, the breweries made sure that this wouldn't be an issue.  My favorites during the day were the Black Market Brewing American Ale, the Hangar 24 Oktoberfest, and the Iron Fist Spice of Life.  Black Market was a new one for me, they are located out of Temecula, and I haven't been able to make it out that way yet.  I pretty much love everything from Hangar 24 that I have had, and the Oktoberfest was no exception.  I had tried a few Iron Fist beers before, but particularly liked this Spice of Life from them.  

I also really enjoyed being able to simultaneously taste The Bruery's Mischief and Mischief Gone Wild.  The difference between the two is that Mischief Gone Wild has the addition of brettanomyces, which apparently happened accidentally, and they decided it was worth brewing.  I love Mischief, it is definitely one of my favorite Bruery beers, and it was interesting to see the characteristics that the brettanomyces brought in comparison.

The event also included a few bands that played throughout the day, a few special guest speakers giving talks, and several different food truck or other food options.  The bands were all decent, mostly cover bands, but provided a good background for the event.  The food did not disappoint either.  As a snack, I shared a pretzel from the Stone World Bistro booth, and it was delicious, one of the best pretzel's I have ever eaten.  And for lunch I went with a tri-tip sandwich from the always delicious BT's Southern BBQ.

Mmm, BBQ.....

My only complaint, which I think is a relatively minor one at that, was that it became difficult to attend the guest speakers.  I was looking forward to sitting in on several of the speakers, but the event was running a little behind schedule, and it became hard to know when the speakers would be speaking.  They had the band make announcements of when the speakers were going on, but it wasn't always easy to hear those announcements.  The downside of it was that I missed out on some speakers I was hoping to hear.  The upside, though, was that I got to spend more time trying new beers!

Bootlegger's Brewery won the "People's Choice" award, and deservedly so.  I love pretty much every beer Bootlegger's puts out, and enjoy spending time at their brewery as well.  Aaron (the owner) is a really good guy, and I would love to see them continue to grow and brew more great beers.

Overall it was a fantastic day and I am already looking forward to next years event!