Shore Craft Beer Fest, Ocean City’s first major craft beer festival, will originate from Sunset Park on Saturday, October 24. The festival will feature unlimited samples from only local breweries, an assortment of food trucks, live music along the bay, and the chance for attendees to grab cans and growlers to go.
To help make the 1st annual Shore Craft Beer Fest extra memorable, brewers from Assawoman Bay Brewing, Backshore Brewing, and 3rd Wave Brewing teamed up, dusted off their homebrewing equipment, and went ‘back to their roots’ on September 21 to collaboratively brew two ‘O.C.toberfest’ beers exclusively for the event. With these one off creations safely stored away for fermentation until they are ready to be tapped, the brewers are turning to local beer lovers for help with the naming process.
The two people who come up with the best names for the beers described below will receive a VIP ticket to the inaugural Shore Craft Beer Fest, an official ShoreCraftBeer.com t-shirt, and will have their name featured on event signs. The contest will run through October 16 and all entries must be submitted on the ShoreCraftBeer.com Facebook page.
Since the O.C.toberfest beers will only be available for tasting at Shore Craft Beer Fest, we’ve called on Doug Griffith of Xtreme Brewing to provide us with detailed descriptions of the brews to help you with the naming process. Doug, whose business is the area’s leading provider of brewing supplies and equipment, is one of the most widely respected members of the local beer community and was tasked with overseeing the collaborative effort to brew the O.C.toberfest beers.
Beers to be named:
The first is a breakfast porter. This dark porter has notes of chocolate, coffee, smoke, and toffee. It was brewed with a base of Gleneagles Maris Otter malt from the north of Scotland, along with Mesquite Smoked Malt for smokiness, Dark Crystal Malt for a touch of caramel sweetness, Flaked Oats for nuttiness and mouthfeel, and Pale Chocolate Malt to add a roast nuttiness and darker color with a small percentage of Midnight Wheat and Black Patent Malts for a little coffee/roasted/chocolate flavors. A pound of regular molasses at flameout tops out the fermentable ingredients and the use of Fuggles, Hallertau and Cascade hops balance the sweetness of the residual sugars to create an autumn beer that is good all day.
Next up is a harvest ale made with ingredients that grow above and in the ground. The base is a Red Ale made that incorporates Red X Malt and Red beets, both producing a noticeable red color, plus some Dark Crystal Malt for a touch of sweetness and more reddish color. Northern Brewer hops for bittering and East Kent Golding hops for flavor and aroma provide the balance for a malty beer fit for the cooler season.
For your chance to win, enter your ideas at the ShoreCraftBeer.com Facebook page.
Also, tickets for the 1st Annual Shore Craft Beer Fest are currently on sale at www.ShoreCraftBeerFest.com.
