In the years before the pandemic, the festival filled Arcata’s other, much larger, community center. This felt intimate and back-to-basics with maybe 20 brewers, several dozen brews of various kinds, with hard-driving band The Mojovators performing multiple sets.
It’s like the difference between a recent Platinum Edition Ford pickup and an F100 from back in the day. Both are awesome but there’s something to be said for the one where you can stand in the engine bay and get to everything. At that scale, I wouldn’t get to every one of those brews, but I could actually plan a tasting order that made sense: Go lighter to darker, less hoppy to hoppier, and save the palate-exploding sour for last.
I started with a beer I thought wouldn’t work, what brewer Dutch Sullivan termed a West Coast Bitter. If that doesn’t sound like a thing to you, you would be correct. This invention, an English bitter with a slight citrusy hop note rather than the earthier type normal to the style, was light but in no way dull, hitting the English/Californian combination nicely.
I moved over to Lane Millar’s German Pilsner, which I found to be clean and classic, a well-made beer. Like vanilla ice cream, with a Pilsner there’s no place for mistakes to hide.
Kenny Berry came next on my list, specifically for his Kolsch. Kolsch must be fresh to be its best, which makes it a beer that typically homebrewers and small commercial operations serve and bigger operations avoid. For this brew, Berry played with water chemistry to approximate the water of Koln (Cologne) Germany, the home of Kolsch. I’ve never been there, but I have brewed enough Kolsch myself to believe Berry’s hit the target.
Caitlin Berry offered up a hard peach tea. It tasted like Arizona Iced Tea, which is exactly what it was, fermented to produce nearly imperceptible alcohol. Delicious. And dangerous.
Landing next with Joshua Gruver, I tried his Red Ale. Gruver hit the style nicely, with hints of roast, a copper color, low bitterness and relatively dry.
Chrissy Gierek poured her Orange Cream Ale. Cream ale typically represents your classic lawnmower beer. It’s one that craft beer people use to bring mass beer drinkers over to the light side of the force. Hers is all natural, with moderate citrus flavors coming from orange peels rather than some kind of extract. I gave my people’s choice vote to Gierek for her Oatmeal Cookie Brown Ale. Without being cloying, the brew nailed an oatmeal raisin cookie. I loved it, and I don’t like raisins.
I visited Peter Carlson, who was pouring a Spruce Tip Pale Ale. It’s easy to overdo spruce, which then thanks you with a hard punch to the face. Carlson deployed a light touch, proud of pulling the spruce tips from his backyard 10 minutes prior to using them and producing a beer that tastes like a walk in the dune forest.
I loved that Matt Kowalski brought a California Common. More often — despite a pesky trademark — called a “Steam Beer,” I consider it the endemic beer of the Northern California coast. An ale/lager hybrid, it’s what German brewers who moved to San Francisco during the Gold Rush brewed in our region’s outdoor temperatures. Kowalski’s version was honest, accurate to the style and quaffable.
Ben Morales poured a couple of different Sake wines. I tried his lemongrass version, which presented a floral quality up front and a classic sake finish in the back, a posh Japanese flavor mullet. It desires to be paired with a big order of tempura.
Back to Mr. Gruver, for the Humboldt Homebrew Club’s barleywine. This heavy beer, with 11 percent alcohol, hit all the right notes.
Steve Martin served up a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, which succeeded in being all three — Belgian style, strong and dark. He also poured his Maple Sipper Cider, whose only fermentable ingredients were apple juice concentrate and maple syrup. Thick, highly boozy and sweet, it reminded me of a late harvest Gewurtstraminer wine I stumbled across decades ago.
Finally, it became time for Kevin Naset’s Cuvee de Rio Dell, a brew in the ZIP code of a Flanders Red. Naset has achieved local homebrew fame for both producing powerfully sour beers and for being a mad zymurgist. I suspect his house looks like Dr. Frankenstein’s basement. This version was the product of blending multiple batches, some more than 10 years old. Any more sourness and it would have been too much even for me. As is, it was a welcome punch in the mouth.
Naset won the Brewer’s Choice Award with the Cuvee de Rio Dell. Dutch Sullivan won People’s Choice with his Belgian wit, which was gone by the time I got there, doggone it.
When homebrewers get together to pour beer for the wider world, it typically benefits some cause. In this case, brewers support the work of the North Coast Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, the organizers of the fest. Their current project aids a small community in Mataro, Bolivia. Chapter President Katelyn Brady described the community as suffering from seasonal water shortages, which necessitate the use of less-than-safe water. They seek to build a pipeline to pump water from a year-round spring uphill. I feared that this smaller, more-lightly-attended festival might not produce the same financial return. Brady indicated that the reverse was true; the net from the current version of the fest exceeded that of the more elaborate shows I remembered. Points for the Ford F100.
Keep an eye out for this festival in the future. While 100 percent of the brewers in the room have the ability to make a bad beer, they won’t bring it here. Here, you get their best, a great variety, and all for a good cause.
You can connect with the Humboldt Homebrewers via their Facebook page facebook.com/groups/humboldthomebrewers.
Michael Kraft (he/him) consults part-time. In his free time, he is involved in the community, occasionally ferments something, and writes about Humboldt’s nonprofits and businesses and its beer/wine/cider scene. You may reach him at michael@kraftconsultants.com.
This article appears in Duane Flatmo Wants to Wow.