It looks like they have a good lineup of people and it would be worth the listen.

I have heard a few breweries are looking at beer for dogs. While it may be beef flavored I doubt it will be my trusty hound's beer of choice. The reason is simple, my dog is a hophead if you don't believe me go listen to this old episode of Speaking of Beer (Listen closely during the Interbeer Interlude).

Probably the beer blogger's most mentioned article of the week but this Wired article is a great review of the current state of the industry. It's also a great look at the 21st Amendment. Jeese Houck was a great host when we toured last year, I hope to visit again this year. Shaun's comment that the Watermelon Wheat "has virtually no hops in it" rings true with the prediction that adaption was the key to future success for brewers.

If you look at Jay's experiences at Boonville beer festival the Redwood tips beer made quite an impression on him.

Other brewers such as Sam Adams is using lemon zest and grains of paradise in their Summer Ale is another approach to brewing.

Hops may be scarce but brewers will find other ways to get a fine brew made. The fun is just beginning.

You never know what you will get for weather and I am just fine with it. Saturday 98 in Phoenix and a few days later Flagstaff gets snow.

Sshhhh, don't tell anyone but I got Flying Dog Garde Dog for free. Not from the brewery or even a distributor, but a retail shop owner who some how got an extra sample and decided I was worth the gift. No beer is taster than free, except maybe your own.

The appearance is a yellowish coppery color with good head retention. It is a brilliantly clear beer. A slight sour sensation in the nose with slight phenolic character. Falling somewhere between a Maibock and a Berliner Weiss in aroma.

Malt character dominates the palette, that slight funk in the aroma is gone in the flavor. The beer feels a bit heavy on the tongue with some sweetness apparent almost crystal malt like but it is not excessive or overly complex.

Looking over the Biere de Garde at the BJCP page it seems they hit the mark on the style pretty well. It is a bit light for the style at 5.5% ABV, but makes it to closer to the blonde with the hop levels. Though the color seems a bit closer to the amber to my mind.

Overall I enjoyed this beer, I could easily see it as a great Summer beer here in the mountains of Flagstaff. Enough flavor to keep one's interest, but not excessively heavy.

As Summer approaches we are in full swing of beer festival season, so it seemed the perfect topic for the June Session. Do you have a favorite beer festival you like to attend or a particular memory of inspirational moment at a festival? Or perhaps talk about what you would like to see out of festivals or perhaps the future of them. All is fair game, I look forward to seeing where people take this topic.

So what is the Session?
Is a monthly meme or writing activity by any and all interested beer bloggers. On the first Friday of the month the host selects the topic of the month and we share our experiences on the topic. This month’s posts should be on Friday June 6th. The Session originated by Stan Hieronymus of Appellation Beer and has been going on for just over a year. For more information check out Jay’s Session page.

Because of spamming I do have registration for comments enabled, but feel free to email me geistbear(at)gmail(dot)com your Session post if you don’t want to register and would like to participate in this month’s Session. Also if you using tagging on your posts please use 'beerfestival' in the tag.

I'd like to congratulate Eric Greene for his Silver Medal in Smoke-Flavored and Wood-Aged Beer and Keith Mycek for his Bronze in Amber Hybrid beers. Great to see friends doing well in the competition.

William Brand talked a bit ago how the Silicon Valley beer scene wasn't very impressive and while I only had a limited exposure on a work trip the last few days I am inclined to agree.

I stayed at the Domain an upscale boutique hotel. It was generally a pleasant experience, great wifi, stylish rooms, and they even had a local wine happy hour for samples at the bar. That said for being in California the beer selection was rather disappointing.

Besides the generic list of mass produced domestics they had Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and Gordon Biersch Marzen. These are all very fine beers, but frankly very safe choices. If I had a hotel bar that had travelers from all over the country and probably the world. Why not expose these travelers to some of the best beers in the Bay area?

Start off with Speakeasy. They makes some amazing ales and lagers while they are starting to be seen in Arizona I don't think they are much known outside of California. Bootleg Black Lager is a favorite and the Big Daddy IPA and Double Daddy are great examples of the California brewing.

Or how about some bottles of Russian Rivers Belgian style ales Vinnie Curlizo just won the “Russell Schehrer Award For Innovation In Craft Brewing” award at the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego. I don't know that Pliny the Elder is sold yet in bottles, but I would offer that or I am sure they can find a few unique things to offer.

The 21st Amendment is also not far and they sell beer their beer in cans, why not talk to Shaun and Nico about getting cans at your hotel, change people's perceptions about beer.

Or looking to the greater California Firestone Walker is one of my favorite breweries. I have been a fan ever since a buddy brought back a six pack of Double Barrel ale from California. I can now find it it down in the Phoenix area and I can't wait until it makes it to Flagstaff.

These are just a few examples that come to mind but there is a great opportunity to introduce people to something special and unique in a boutique hotel. From the Domain's use of local wines I suspect they see that, they just need to open their eyes that beer can function that way as well.

Big Brew turned out great. Zach, John, Jim, and the brewery were great hosts. I suspect they enjoyed seeing the individual homebrewer rigs as much as we enjoyed coming down to Oak Creek to brew.

We were able to sample their Imperial Porter and Rare Earth, a Saison that was aged in Oak Wine barrels from Page Springs winery. I had Rare Earth at this year's Strong Ale festival in Mesa so I was looking forward to trying it again as soon as Zach mentioned it would be there. The wood aging clarifies and added an interesting red color to the brew. The wine character is apparent in both the aroma and flavor so it was great to get to enjoy again.

The brew day went well for me I ended up coming up with my own partial mash recipe based on some scraps at the shop and a few things offered by Oak Creek. Among them was some of hops they had won in the Sam Adams raffle, so it seemed rather appropriate that Jim Koch's generosity was further passed along.

The brews went well for myself and everyone else, we look forward to sharing the finished beers with the guys at the brewery in the future. It was a great opportunity to teach some of the breweries customers that you can brew at home.

John, a brewer at Oak Creek, was the day's archivists with his photos and he has just started blogging so check them both out.

Uerige Alt is a Dusseldorf Alt beer. While the website states the alcohol at 4.7% my bottle listed at 4.5%. It has a reddish coppery color with good clarity. White foam with good head retention and a mix of small and medium sized bubbles. There was a slight alcoholic aroma with caramel notes apparent in it's malty aroma. Malty character dominant with bitterness to balance but no other obvious hop character present. The beer had a medium body with moderate carbonation.

On the website they mention they use umbel hops a variety I am not familiar with, but seems to be more a term about the way they are raised than specific variety.

The malt character definitely fits what I would consider to be a session beer because more than one seems to be the perfect idea as you finish your first glass. My only disappointment in buying three bottles I suppose is that I sent the other two off so that my BJCP classmates could enjoy a sample as well. I suppose I'll have to find more in Phoenix this weekend, I know just the place to find more.

A quick reminder that today is National Homebrew day aka Big Brew. I'll be celebrating with Northern Arizona Homebrewers at Oak Creek Brewery in Sedona. For those of you who aren't in the area check the AHA site and you can find where folks are participating in your area. It's a great way to learn how to brew for yourself.

Postscript: I forgot to say thanks to Boak and Bailey's UK beer blog for hosting this month.

It all started for me in college. I never liked beer really but all I saw was typical mass produced light American lager. I was in the middle of struggling with German as a foriegn language, I had walked past the foreign study section and noticed language classes in Germany. I had the thought how much easier it would be to learn German studying there. That week I got a postcard from my Father saying he was in Germany and that he thought it would be much easier to learn German if I was there.

So we made it happen.

Fast forward a few months and I am in Tuebingen about to start NAU's Spring Intensive Program. The first night before classes even started our group met for dinner in the Greek Restaurant near the dorms. My Father suggested I try the Dunkleweizen before my departure describing it's dark color and bready character. I had to give it a try. I scanned the menu closely looking for the beer and once I found it I had one of the class tudor confirm I was reading it correctly.

The flavor was wonderful, powerful and lingers in my memory. It hooked me on Hefeweizen as a style and the malty side of beers in general.

It's not to say I didn't in time develop a taste for hoppy beers, I do drink them fairly often, but malt beers will be my first love always. The majority of my homebrew the last 14 or so years has been the malty beer, I only brewed an American Pale Ale for the first time last Fall. For our BJCP class a few weeks ago we had Bock beers and they called to me immediately. So while I may wander to the hoppy side, it was that first taste of malt that hooked me for life.