Thursday, March 12, 2009

Beer, Waffles and lots of Oak

Extreme Beerfest 2009 - Highly Recommended
Boston, MA

Every year I look forward to the cold weather beerfests. The cold trudge to the venue is rewarded by the warm crowded interior; filled with complex, huge beers. The format for these events are usually two day sessions on Saturday, preceded by a VIP session the Friday night. The Exteme Beerfest's VIP night is "The Night of the Barrels" which showcases big beers aged in barrels of all kinds; oak wine barrels, whiskey barrels, bourbon barrels and all manner of wood. It is easy to get swept up in the tide of beer and not eat any food for me; except for the waffles. At every Beer Advocate fest there is a waffle maker from the Waffle Haus in Vermont. These super nice people crank out hundreds, no thousands of waffles every beerfest and simply put, they are the best waffles I have ever had. I once asked the "waffle lady" why they were so amazing and she let me in on the secret ~ real Belgian sugar makes up for about 25% of the waffle batter. This pearlized sugar heats in the waffle iron and melts to create a hot, sticky, gooey waffle that pairs well with high alcohol beers, Belgian beers and just about any beer you throw at it. Amazing.

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