SAVOR 2022! All-You-Can-Drink Beer Fest in the Nation's Capitol Returns (Part 1)

 SAVOR is back! I first got wind of this through the grapevine back in December, and after a few months of patiently waiting, was once again granted a media pass to cover the event. 

For those of you unfamiliar: for many years, SAVOR is a project of the Brewers Association, an early-summer gourmet food / beer pairing event held annually in Washington, DC. Hundreds of brewers from across the US travelled to our nation's capital to lobby Congress, network, and showcase their two favorite beers at this capstone event. In the past, it's been held at the National Building Museum right near Judiciary Square, and is now returning after a two-year hiatus for obvious reasons. I've been lucky to attend now four times: 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022. This year, it's held at The Anthem, DC's famed waterfront venue. 

Aside from each brewery bringing two beers they want to show off, they also have food — the Brewers Association executive chef Adam Dulye and his team creates little bites to accompany, and amplify, the beverages. I reached out to Adam about this philosophy in pairing the canapés with the beer:

"From a chef perspective it is a challenging and fun process....from the outside looking in it may come across as a bit head-scratching 'it’s beer and food is that necessary?"

Well, of course, food and booze go along well with each other, and food certainly pairs with beer! Not to mention the benefits of not drinking on an empty stomach. And so as the breweries choose which beers to bring, Chef Dulye begins to assemble a team of chefs from across the US, who send in multiple menu ideas - before the beers are chosen. Once they finalized the beer information, Chef and his team began slimming the menu down. 

"We ended up narrowing the menu down to 60ish items, and then began lining them all up to menu items. The goal is to have no menu item to the same style more than a few times, and in most cases get a few different styles in to one menu item. That way when [guests] taste the same dish with a different beer, [they] get a different reaction." 

Then, of course, they have to order all the materials and cook up thousands of little bites for the hungry patrons of SAVOR. In the past, there's been such a neat spectrum of food - meat, seafood, veggie options, chocolate cake, coconut cream...this time, they've got everything from lava cake to lobster, pit beef to tacos, burnt ends with fennel, and more. 

Like the last few times, I relied on local beer aficionado Alex's comprehensive spreadsheet, which he makes each year for the event. This spreadsheet has all the info one would need to plan one's visit - table locations, styles of beer, ABV, classification, even score on Untappd. There are too many beers for one individual to try in one night, so we need to be choosy. My method was to pick out both breweries I know and love and styles that I'm interested in - and then permitting time to explore and try new things that might be surprising. 

Accompanying me tonight is former colleague and good friend Keenan, who has been known to enjoy a beer or two now and again. We sat down before the event, went through our spreadsheets, and got our list ready. 

20 minutes in an Uber later, and here we are: zero-hour at the Anthem. 

I'm breaking my SAVOR coverage into two parts - introduction and Best in Show, and then another post about the other fun stuff I encountered. In terms of my reviews, I don't like "ranking" things but I wanted to share my personal favorites of the night and those I believe did a fantastic job. I will not be reviewing all the beers I tried, nor are they all the ones worth having - I had a lot of tasty beverages this night that I'd be happy to revisit again down the road.

Without further ado, the SAVOR 2022 champion:

BEST IN SHOW

Drekker Brewing Co. - Fargo, North Dakota

Although every brewery did something right, best in show for SAVOR 2022 goes to Mark Bjornstad and Drekker Brewing Co. out of Fargo, ND. I believe this was Drekker's first time at SAVOR, and they really knocked it out of the park. 

Founded in 2014, Drekker is located right in downtown Fargo, not too far south from North Dakota State University. I've never been, but Google Street View shows a pretty rad-looking building and a neat outdoor patio. My thought was it would be too cold to sit outside in Fargo in the winter, but looks like there are firepits. 

They've got a *gorgeous* taproom, as well, with some solid Nordic beer-hall vibes. I personally love the industrial look, and converted factories are super cool. Also, they have pinball machines.

Drekker's taproom. Epic. Photo credit: Todd Shea, 2021 (via Google)

We'll get to their appearance at SAVOR in a minute, but first a big shout out to the brewery's artwork, done by local artist Punchgut Studios. Punchgut does their beer labels, as well, and man what a cool set of stickers on those cans! I love the aesthetic. 

According to their website, and despite battle-ready, horned mascot, the they aim to "do good, give back, and unpillage" by staying active in the community. Aside from river cleanups and other events, they have donated over $80,000 to local non-profits - a good sign of community involvement, which is hallmark for many sustaining breweries.

So here's my criteria for best-in-show, and I'll explain why Drekker excelled:

1. Thoughtful, inventive, exciting beer. I don't like boring, unless you can explain what you're doing. I also prefer to see some unique and funky styles. Some breweries opt to bring basic, core beers to this event and I don't understand it.
2. Good beer. Trying and not hitting the mark is fine, but don't bring that stuff to SAVOR.
3. Attitude. Come with a smile and a sense of humor!
4. Knowledge. I love hearing about the process and procedure for each beer, so telling me "you're not sure what's in it" isn't cool. 

So on to Drekker, perched on the second level, stage left, kind of where I like to stand during Anthem performances. Clad in a tuxedo t-shirt, but regrettably not wearing a horned Viking helmet, Mark was on hand to pour his two beers of the night: 

• "Coconut Killer Secret Handshake Milkshake", a 7.00% ABV experimental IPA
• "Narfle the Garthak", a 10.00% ABV wood-aged beer

...or at least that's what the SAVOR guide said. There's always more to the story, so let's find out.

• "Coconut Killer Secret Handshake Milkshake": My research shows this is part of a wider lineup of Secret Handshake Milkshake IPAs they make. All fruit / dessert themed. I start with this one, and it's opaque in the glass with a strong orange Creamiscle vibe. Looks lactose to me. Made w Sabro hops, fresh toasted coconut, and vanilla bean, this beer is lovely! I admit I'm somewhat wary of lactose IPAs, but when done right - as this is - it's awesome. The coconut comes through, nice and bright, and the sugar they use softens up the flavors and makes it creamy. The coconut is tastes natural and not sweet, which I prefer. Finish on the beer is rather short and pretty snappy, which isn't a bad thing.

2. Narfle the Garthak - the description provided by SAVOR doesn't do this justice. It's a 10.00% ABV imperial pastry stout, aged eighteen months in Stranahan’s & Old Fitzgerald whiskey barrels, then conditioned on banana, peanut butter, cacao nibs, cinnamon, marshmallows, Graham crackers, honey, and milk sugar. Wow. This "kitchen sink" approach is a risky gamble, so let's see how they do.

Dark as the night is long, smells like banana French toast (Keenan coined that.) 

Oh man, this so wild. It's perfect. Just perfect. Silky smooth, full of natural-tasting flavors, warming, mouth-coating. Bright, milky, fresh, not too sweet, and all the flavors listed above make an appearance. It's like warm banana nut bread slathered in Nutella. I had three. Three! Keenan and I immediately started singing the praises to other attendees, and convinced a few to try these beers. The wood barrel age softens out the "base" beer pretty well, and you do get some of the vanillins in there, but the stars of the show are the banana and peanut butter. Luscious, full, velvety, and soft, and the finish lingers for a long time. Cinammon, malts, and peanuts are what I get most from the finish. 

Few beers really strike my fancy like this one does. Narfle is perhaps one of the finer stouts I have a had in a long, long time. Something to enjoy in a big snifter in front of the fire on a snowy night. Something to have on a sultry summer night at the beach, watching the waves and feeling the salt air on one's face. Something to have on a crisp autumn afternoon, listening to the wind blow dry leaves across the yard.

Sorry, this was really good.

So Drekker took best-in-show because Mark did a great job bringing two delicious, unique beers to the event, was on hand to describe them and talk about the process, and didn't rely on gimmicks or an overweighed reputation (as some brewers do) to make up for any potential shortfall. He was cool to just chill out, talk to us, and his explanations of the beer didn't seem...canned, no pun intended. Drekker seems like the kind of place I would hang out often, were I to live in Fargo. 

Fantastic job, Mark - your beers are awesome and I wish I could try the other stuff you do. With that, Drekker is king of the hill for this year's SAVOR, and stay tuned for my next post where I dive into all the other standouts, standbys, and oddities I came across.