Stout Wars - No Worries

Stout Wars

The force is strong with this beer competition. The guys over at Full Pours Podcast teamed up with No worries brewing to host a home brew competition to raise money for the Sleeping Giant Park Association.

There are so many beer festivals and beer events around our little state, it’s impossible to get to them all, but this one is about so much that I love: beer, Sleeping Giant, Star Wars, and home brew. How could I resist?

Sleeping Giant Park Association

Back in May there was a terrible hurricane that swept through Connecticut. It took out massive amounts of trees and disturbed so many homes and wildlife. My own home had a big old tree crash into it. With help from an insurance company we were back up and running a few weeks after the storm. Hobbomock, also known as the Sleeping Giant, however is still closed to foot traffic. The volume of downed trees is incredible. Along with the State, the Sleeping Giant Park Association volunteers have been going out on the trails and clearing downed trees and limbs to make the park safe for hiking. It seems like a herculean task, but they are giving it their best shot and need our help. Check out their site and join the group or just throw them a buck if you can. Also, they are having a pop-up next week on the 9th where you can visit the lock keepers house by the canal in Hamden and buy some Sleeping Giant swag that will help support the efforts to get the giant back in hiking condition.

This is a cool logo.

Home brew Competition

Stout Wars, is a fundraiser but it is also a home brew competition. Home brewers from all over showed up with a keg of their best stout to see how it fares against the competition.

The first place winner was Alike Brewing with their Cinnamon Toast Crunch Stout. 

My Winners

So much good beer flowing at the Stout Wars. The dark side was definitely on tap.

The winners for me were three delicious stouts, the gold for me went to a Candy Cane Stout, minty and chocolatey and awesome. The mint flavor cut though much of the “normal” stouty mocha flavors everywhere else. The silver was a “Cher-Rey Stout” a stout loaded with tart cherry. A fruit bomb for sure. It reminded me of the moment you bite into a cherry tootsie roll pop to reveal the yummy soft chocolate inside. The bronze was the “cinnamon toast crunch stout,” it was a tad sweet but loaded with cinnamon. 

A good Star Wars pun is not lost on me.

I tried pretty much every option and to my surprise I liked something about every home brew. There were lots of interesting beers and tons of interesting people. 

The oyster stout was a unique experience a - I approached it with trepidation. It was alittle briny but much better than I was expecting.  I was expecting a weird meaty, salty, fishy tasting beer, like a clamato. Which didn’t sound great to be honest, but I had to give it a go. While it wasn’t the best stout of the night, it certainly wasn’t bad! I would definitely give it a sequel episode.

The head on the cinnamon toast crunch stout was foamy and full of yummy cereal smell.

 Cookie Pairing

It’s hard to prepare a cookie for an event like this. The subtleties of home brewed stout can vary widely, so I went with a simple, timeless butter cookie. Many remember these blue tins for many disappointments, you open the top hoping for a delicious butter cookie just to reveal needle and thread. Grandmas can be resourceful and these tins are just too nice not to re-purpose. 

Anyway, the tin I brought with me was full of delicious crisp danish butter cookies. They are a simple buttery crisp pairing for all of the stouts battling it out.

Stout wars was seriously fun. I hope this is a yearly event. Cheers to all the home brewers who rocks it out and don’t forget to visit the Sleeping Giant Park Association to help them out if you can.