Say what you will about the price of the tickets, quality of the food, density of the crowds, or scarcity of supply by the end of the night. The fact remains D.C. beer fans owe gratitude to Savor. The tasting event, put on by the Brewers Association over the past four years, has played a large role in building D.C.'s craft beer culture, and been one of the reasons D.C. bars and shops have such a wide variety of craft beer from across the country.

Like many other area beer geeks who have attended the event over the years, I look forward to Savor as a chance to learn about breweries and beers that I have never tried. Out of my list of top ten Savor brews below, only four of the breweries are distributed in the District, and only one of them for longer than two years (Avery). It is my guess, and not a far-fetched one, that several will be shipping their suds to D.C. in the next year. In fact, Odell Brewing Company founder Doug Odell, who had no plans to ship to D.C. when I asked him at last year's event, told me this year that he is looking into sending beer our way.

1. Funkwerks Saison, Funkwerks, Inc., Colorado: Funkwerks was the table I made a bee-line for upon arrival and I was not disappointed. Their 6.8 percent alcohol-by-volume saison was a nice balance of ginger, pepper, and citrus. Its dry, refreshing finish was a great antidote to the heat of D.C. in June.
2. The Dissident, Deschutes Brewery, Oregon: Summer strikes again! The acidity in this oud bruin, or Flanders-style brown ale, was perfectly matched by notes of rich cherry and earthy wine. The Dissident ferments for eighteen months with wild yeast and is aged in part in pinot noir and cabernet barrels.
3. Hunahpu Imperial Stout, Cigar City Brewing Company, Florida: I enjoyed this impressive brew at Friday night's "Califlorida" salon featuring innovative beers from Cigar City and The Bruery. This was my third encounter with a bottle of Hunahpu, which is aged on vanilla, cinnamon, cocoa nibs, and pasilla and ancho peppers, but I was no less impressed by its complexity.
4. Dihos Dactylion, Avery Brewing Company, Colorado: This sour ale brewed with saison and three kinds of funkifying wild yeasts is aged for eighteen months in cabernet sauvignon wine barrels. The 10 percent-alcohol brew was tart and delicious, with fruit and red wine flavors.
5. Parabola, Firestone Walker Brewing Company, California: Another "not-for-the-first-time" brew, but what can I say? This Russian imperial stout from one of the newest breweries to hit D.C. is a perfect blend of bourbon, tobacco, dark chocolate, and oak.
6. Friek, Odell Brewing, Colorado -This Belgian lambic-inspired barrel-aged ale is a blend of beers brewed with sweet and tart cherries and wild yeast. Organic raspberries were hand-picked and added just before bottling, creating the bright tartness that made this 6.5 percent alcohol by volume brew stand out.
7. Rosemary Swamp Fox IPA, Moon River Brewing Company, Georgia: I really liked this herby, bitter India Pale Ale from the swamps of the South. (And I'm not alone; it won a gold medal at last year's Great American Beer Festival.) The brew had intense citrus, pine, and of course, rosemary flavors but was impressively well-balanced.
8. Oude Tart, The Bruery, California: Another stand-out from the "Califlorida" salon, this 7.5 percent alcohol-by-volume Flemish-style red ale is aged in red wine barrels for eighteen months. It's uniquely acidic and tannic, with flavors of tart, unripe berries and oak.
9. The Sixth Glass, Boulevard Brewing Company, Missouri: This Kansas City brewery's Belgian-style dark ale is not cloying or overly boozy like many quadruples. Its rich malt and dark fruit flavors are balanced for a brew with an alcohol content of 10.5 percent.
10. Hop Toddy, Schlafly Beers/The Saint Louis Brewery, Missouri: One of the more unique beers I tasted, this knock-off of a Hot Toddy cocktail had everything you'd expect: honey, lemon, and bourbon aromas and flavors, with a nice softness from the wheat and bitterness from Citra hops used for dry-hopping.

For those of you who attended the event, what were your favorites and which would you like to see at your local watering hole? For those who missed out, mark your calendar for June 8 and 9, 2012, which is when next year's extravaganza will take place, again at the National Building Museum. In the meantime, catch up on this year's tasting panels and brewer interviews at Craft Beer Radio. For other thoughts on this year's event, I recommend:

• Friday and Saturday night recaps from The Washington Post
• Eater DC's list of experiences and observations
• Photo slideshow from DCBeer.com
• A personal account from Saturday's session at Food Republic
• The Brewers Association's post-event press release

Photo by Eddie Arrossi Photography, courtesy of the Brewers Association

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Some of us have been drinking all week, but tonight the real party starts as Savor officially descends upon D.C. The Brewers Association, the trade group putting on the craft beer and food event, is taking over the National Building Museum for two nights of revelry. The great hall will be flush with reps from 72 American craft breweries collectively pouring more than 1,700 gallons of beer for an estimated 4,000 ticketed guests across two sessions.

Add in more than 80,000 small dishes and that's a lot of ground to cover in less than four hours. For über-geeks like me who look to Savor as a time to expand the list of beers you've tried and breweries you've become familiar with, focusing your efforts is a must.

After glancing over the participating brewery list for this year's event, I was blown away by the impressive array of so many of the nation's most well-regarded brewers. (Drool alert: The beer list is pretty sick as well.) But below is my checklist for the evening, comprised completely of breweries I've never tried and many I've never even heard of. Had any of them? Which breweries and beers would be on your list?

1. *Funkwerks, Inc., Colorado
2. Yazoo Brewing, Tennessee
3. Nebraska Brewing Company, Nebraska
4. Trinity Brewhouse, Rhode Island
5. Willimantic Brewing Co., Connecticut
6. Elm City Brewing Company, New Hampshire
7. Crown Valley Brewing and Distilling Company, Missouri
8. Bayou Teche Brewing, Louisiana
9. Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company, Mississippi
10. Bohemian Brewery, Utah
11. Caldera Brewing Company, Oregon
12. Fort George Brewery, Oregon
13. Laurelwood Brewing Co., Oregon
14. Oakshire Brewing, Oregon
15. Standing Stone Brewing Co., Oregon*

*Note 1: I'm totally cheating with the first three, as I've heard great buzz about each of these new breweries and expect to be wowed by their offerings.

*Note 2: Notice a pattern? It looks like I'll be booking a beer trip to Oregon soon to make up for this gap in beer knowledge.

For more info on the breweries attending Savor this year, check out the complete list, as well as DCBeer.com's ambitious brewery profile series.

For those of you without tickets to the event this weekend, sorry about this torturous post, but don't forget you can take advantage of many of the satellite events that D.C.'s bars and restaurants are hosting.

Photo by Eddie Arrossi Photography, courtesy of the Brewers Association

This coming Sunday, June 5, yours truly is hosting All 'Ale the Ladies 2011. (Last year was a blast!) The event will give suds-loving gals an opportunity to meet each other, hear special guests talk about their paths into the beer profession, and learn about pairing beer with food. The party starts at 6 p.m. at the Black Squirrel in its new downstairs tap room. Visit the Washington City Paper's RSVP page for more details and a chance to sign up. [Note: While the evening's theme is all about the ladies, gentlemen are also welcome to attend. We have a couple on the RSVP list already.]

A full list of speakers is after the jump.

This night may be especially for the ladies, but if you're a female fan of craft beer, don't forget to check out all the other events going on all week long. (It'd be nice for this Lagerhead not to be one of the only ladies out there.)

Speakers:
Julia Herz, Craft Beer Program Director, Brewers Association and Craft Beer.com
Sebbie Buhler, Rogue Advocate, Rogue Ales
Ginger Johnson, Founder, Women Enjoying Beer
Lindsey Miller, Brewer, Baying Hound Aleworks
Kristi Mathews Griner, Brewer, Hops Grill and Brewery
Jessica Muskey, Marketing Vice President, Premium Distributors of Washington, D.C.
Emma English, Market Manager, at Starr Hill Brewing Company
Lauren Boveington, Marketing, Great Lakes Brewing Company

The Black Squirrel, 2427 18th St. NW

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Tickets sold out quickly, but thanks to local bars, restaurants, and distributors, who take advantage of so many talented brewers being in town for Savor, everyone has plenty of opportunities to taste many of the same beers being served and to meet several of the same brewery founders and brewmasters who will be at Savor.

Check back here over the week, or add my DC Beer Events Calendar to your arsenal of Google apps, and you'll have the most complete and accurate list of events. My tired fingers thank you.

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The release, a group effort appropriately called Syndicate Saison, will flood District bars at the same time a host of brewers and beer enthusiasts are in town for Savor, the annual craft beer and food event on June 3 and 4 at the National Building Museum.

Syndicate Saison is a light, spicy farmhouse ale brewed with red, white, and black peppercorns. 3 Stars founders Dave Coleman and Mike McGarvey, who tend to make beers on the intense side, thought about D.C. weather in choosing this 6 percent alcohol-by-volume brew. "We didn’t want to do a big, hoppy IPA or imperial porter. It could be 105 degrees in D.C. in June, so we decided to go with something very drinkable, very quenching. We wanted something nice and crisp that would make a great summer beer," says Coleman.

Last month, Coleman and McGarvey met with Evolution brewmaster Geoff DeBisschop and assistant brewer Joseph Lemnah to plan the project and then returned to Delaware last week to brew. The D.C. duo also spent time with Evolution founder Tom Knorr, who offered a wealth of advice to the entrepreneurs. "They are some of the nicest people that we’ve met in craft beer. You wouldn’t think that a brewery would give another start-up so much help, but they were a total open book–the spirit of craft beer personified," Coleman says of the Evolution crew.

Knorr founded Evolution with his brother just over two years ago, but the small batch brewery already has a strong reputation for producing quality craft beer. Evolution's Lot No. 3 India Pale Ale, Lot No. 6 Double IPA, and Rise Up Stout are solid brews widely available in D.C., the last of which recently received top honors in The Washington Post's Beer Madness competition.

Fifteen kegs of Syndicate Saison will be placed at craft beer bars throughout D.C. by the end of the month. 3 Stars and Evolution are tentatively planning a May 31 release during Savor Beer Week, and the collaboration will be featured during Evolution's tap takeover on Saturday, June 4, at The Big Hunt where Coleman oversees the beer program.

As for when 3 Stars will be producing beer in their own digs, Coleman and McGarvey are currently working out final details for the lease on their space up in Takoma. They plan to move in and start purchasing equipment over the next several months, in time to begin helping quench the District's thirst for local beer by November.

Photograph by Darrow Montgomery

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For the fourth year, SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience will bring talented brewers and their beers to D.C. from all over the United States. The popular tasting event, which will be at the National Building Museum on June 3 and 4, sold out in less than 20 minutes again this year, despite doubling in capacity from one to two sessions.

But not having a ticket will not leave you thirsty come June. The excitement of having so much great craft beer in the city has motivated the D.C. beer community to once again create a beer week around the Brewers Association event. Only this time things are more official, as the logo above suggests.

SAVOR is two months away, but nearly 40 events have already been planned for the days leading up to and immediately following the event. Read on for a sneak peek at what's in store for SAVOR Beer Week DC, which runs from May 30 to June 5. (But grab a hankie because the list will make you drool.)

Kick-off events don't get much better than the craft beer and crab fest that Policy is planning for all day Monday, May 30. What better way to spend your Memorial Day than chasing down some softshells with beer from Heavy Seas, Flying Dog, and Dogfish Head?

The active planners at Flying Dog are leading the pack with events so far, starting with a book reading with CEO Jim Caruso at Kramerbooks on Tuesday. Caruso will mostly likely read from the works of Hunter S. Thompson, the "Gonzo" journlaist who is near and dear to the brewery and its founders. The same night Flying Dog has invited Lagunitas Brewing Company of Petaluma, Calif., for a double brewery event at The Big Hunt. On Wednesday, the Frederick, Maryland, brewery is hosting a late night comedy showcase at the Gibson Guitar Showroom. On Thursday, Flying Dog is throwing a brewers symposium draft night at ChurchKey featuring beers from several breweries participating in SAVOR. Finally, on Saturday Farmers & Fishers will serve a beer pairing brunch featuring Flying Dog brews.

RFD is pulling out the big guns again, with their "Toast to SAVOR" tasting event scheduled for Wednesday night and the annual Lupulin Reunulin on Thursday. The Lupulin slam began as a best India Pale Ale contest between teams of east and west coast brewers. These days it is a brewers' reunion that brings big names like Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, Kim Jordan of New Belgium Brewing Company, and local legend Bill Madden of Mad Fox Brewing Company in Falls Church to the stage for a night of beer, and often, comedy. RFD will also be the site of one of several SAVOR after parties on Friday night.

ChurchKey has an excellent line-up with events every night and a Saturday brunch featuring paired courses from the breweries they host over the course of the week. Standouts include a Sierra Nevada beer dinner at Birch & Barley on Tuesday and a tap takeover night with Short's Brewing Company of Bellaire, Michigan, on Thursday.

Pizzeria Paradiso is planning a five-course pairing dinner on Monday at the Georgetown location and a brunch on Saturday at the Dupont Circle location featuring two special breweries. The Georgetown and Old Town Alexandria locations will see two draft nights throughout the week as well. At this point the participating breweries are a secret but they are sure not to disappoint.

The Black Squirrel will be partnering with New Holland Brewing Company of Michigan for a special event sometime over the weekend. On Sunday evening, the ladies of Black Squirrel will be hosting an educational beer and food pairing event for women in the new downstairs bar that will showcase some of the biggest female names in the beer industry.

Scion in Dupont Circle is teaming up with Allagash for a paired tasting event on Wednesday featuring some of the Maine brewery's rarest beers. The list includes Odyssey, a barrel-aged dark wheat ale, Victoria, a Belgian-style ale brewed with 150 pounds of Chardonnay grapes, Big Little Beer, a collaboration with the founders of Beer Advocate, and Vrienden, a brew made with New Belgium Brewing Company of Colorado.

The Big Hunt is planning some fun stuff for the week, with the marquee event being a tap takeover with Evolution Brewing Company of Delaware on Saturday.

On Wednesday, Rustico is hosting a Sierra Nevada meet the brewers night and glassware giveaway at the Ballston location. On the same evening in D.C., Capital Lounge will be throwing an event with Great Lakes Brewing Company.

Iron Horse has some unique stuff planned including a backwards SAVOR, called "ROVAS" which will run Monday through Thursday evenings. For opposite week, all craft beers will be $5 a pint and light domestic beers like Miller and Bud will be $10 a pint. Iron Horse is also hosting a tap takeover of beers featured at SAVOR on Friday night and a SAVOR after party on Saturday.

Brewery Ommegang has a full week of events planned including beer dinners at Smith Commons and Meridian Pint on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. There will also be Ommegang beer featured at a SAVOR after party at Brasserie Beck on Friday and a brunch at Granville Moore's on Sunday.

Brunch fans will be pleased to know that in addition to the wealth of options already listed, both Saturday and Sunday Bourbon in Glover Park will be putting on a "Beer Can Revolution" brunch featuring beers from DC Brau, Oskar Blues, Avery, and Butternuts.

There are also rumors of a beer bar bus tour with Dogfish Head brewmaster Sam Calagione Saturday afternoon starting with a book signing at D'Vines in Columbia Heights.

All event details are tentative. For udpates, keep an eye on our D.C. Beer Events Calendar.

Logo by Joel LaPointe developed through a contest with DCBeer.com, Premium Distributors and the Brewers Association

The event will bring 72 independent craft breweries and their beers to the District to be paired with a variety of dishes from Federal City Caterers under the direction of expert chefs Adam Dulye of Monk's Kettle in San Francisco and D.C.'s own Teddy Folkman of Granville Moore's. Like previous years, in addition to the general tasting event educational and private tasting salons will offer a more personal setting to taste and learn about special brews and pairings directly from brewers, chefs, and other experts.

The good news after last year's quick sell-out is that there will be two sessions, which means twice as many tickets will be available. The bad news, in addition to a price increase from an already steep $95 per ticket last year to $110 this year, is that the Brewers Association is on track to break their record despite expanding the event to two nights.

For comparison, two years ago tickets were on sale for two full months. Last year pre-sale tickets were sold in two days and general sale tickets were snatched up in just ten minutes. This year's pre-sale, which was held on Tuesday, March 1, for previous SAVOR attendees and American Homebrewers Assocation and Brewers Association members, sold out in just under an hour. If you do the math, there is a high probability that SAVOR tickets will go as quickly as they did last year. Check back here for more details and updates about the event.

Photo by Eddie Arrossi Photography

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Monday starting at 4PM, ChurchKey is pouring their last reserve keg of this season's batch of HopSlam, the sought-after honeyed Double India Pale Ale from Bell's Brewery in Michigan.

Also Monday, Pizzeria Paradiso in Georgetown is hosting a beer dinner featuring Stoudt's Brewing Company. Brewer and sales representative Mike Pearlman will talk about the Pennsylvania brewery and the seven beers he is bringing, including Karnival Kölsch, Imperial Schwarzbier, and Old Abominable Barley Wine. As of this weekend spots were still available for the 9pm seating.

Tuesday holds another chance to enjoy Stoudt's beers, this time at Meridian Pint in Columbia Heights. The draft night will feature eight beers on tap with a two-dollars-off special from 5 to 7PM and then one dollar off for the rest of the night. Beers include Stoudt's Double India Pale Ale, Scarlet Lady ESB and Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout.

Also Tuesday, ChurchKey is host a D.C. launch party for Old Schoolhouse Brewery, a small brewpub in Washington state. The five featured drafts include Hooligan Stout, Epiphany Pale Ale, Rendezvous Porter, Blazing Amber Ale, and the slightly offensive (in name) Double D Blonde.

Across the river in Clarendon, Lyon Hall is hosting their first beer dinner this Tuesday. Chef de cuisine Andy Bennett and beer director David McGregor have put together a four-course menu featuring dishes like scallop ceviche and grilled pork belly paired with beers from Brewery Ommegang of Cooperstown, New York.

On Wednesday Meridian Pint will have their own four-course dinner, this one showcasing some of the rarer Samuel Adams beers from Boston Beer Company. The menu includes two wheat beers, Blackberry Witbier and Imperial White, and Latitude 48, an India pale ale brewed with hops grown near the 48th latitude in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

And don't forget Tuesday means trivia at Biergarten Haus on H Street Northeast.

Send submissions for the D.C. Beer Events calendar to thelagerheads@gmail.com.

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The beer and food festival, which returns to its original two-day format for its fourth year, will take place June 3 and 4 at the National Building Museum. Tickets cost $110, plus $30 for the optional educational salons, and go on sale March 3. (Pre-sale tickets are available to American Homebrewers Association and the Brewers Association members on March 1.) But enough minutiae: What will we be drinking?

The D.C. area is ably represented by Flying Dog, Mad Fox, Brewer's Art, DOG Brewing, Ruddy Duck, and Flying Dog, who is sponsoring this year after its absence last year. (For more detail, read this excellent piece by The Lagerheads on how Savor selects its breweries.) Fellow nerds will be excited to see some cult breweries added to the mix for the first time, including California's AleSmith, Florida's Cigar City, New York's Captain Lawrence, Michigan's Short's, and Illinois' Two Brothers. I think I just sold 50 tickets there. Check out the entire list on the Savor website.

Before we begin, it should be noted that we took a new approach this year. At previous SAVORs, our passion (ahem, obsession) has driven us to fastidiously plot out a course and budget time to get to as many beers as possible. At this year's SAVOR, we decided to take our time, talk to folks, and leisurely mosey across the floor.

The positive result of this "stop and smell the...noses" attitude is that the night felt less like Supermarket Sweep; the drawback is that we only got to a fraction of the beers we hoped to sample. This is mainly a result of our pacing but also because many tables ran out of at least one of their beers fairly early. Still, out of the brews we did try we had some clear favorites. Read on for our top beers, some fun quotes, and a list of post-SAVOR write-ups.

TOP BEERS:

• Alaskan Smoked Porter – This dark beauty of a beer has been pleasing palates and winning awards for over two decades. We thought it had the perfect proportion of smoke and porter qualities and look forward to sharing a full bottle sometime.
• Upland Raspberry Lambic – This super refreshing beer was funky and tart like unripe raspberries. Its brilliant red color drew us in but the taste made us go back for a second pour.
• Coronado Idiot IPA – We really enjoyed this big, 8.5% ABV, unfiltered IPA. It's the only of our SAVOR picks you can actually get in D.C., and although Coronado has hit the area like wildfire over the past few months, we hadn't had this one. (But we've had several bottles since.)
• Boulevard Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale – This base beer for the Saison-Brett we thought so highly of last year is part of the Kansas City brewery's Smokestack series of experimental limited-edition brews. Floral hops, biscuity malt, and plenty of spice made this beer stand out to us.
• Barrel-Aged Salon Beers: Odell Woodcut No. 3 Oak Aged Crimson Ale & The Bruery Black Tuesday – These Imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels were both phenomenal but quite different. The Odell had the typical vanilla and coconut flavors of bourbon barrel aged beers but had a nice cola, spice character underneath. Black Tuesday was everything we dreamed it would be; at 20% ABV, the giant was as sweet and intense as they come.

TOP QUOTES:

"Some women shy away from beer, but not this girl." –Diane Robinson, whose husband Larry Robinson has been running Chevy Chase Wine & Spirits for decades.

"I don't know. We just make the beer." –Boulevard Brewing Company founder John McDonald, when asked his thoughts on cross-state "bootlegging," which is when people buy beer out of state and bring it to an area it is not officially distributed.

"He should have called it 'Game Over.'" –Bruce  after tasting Black Tuesday for the first time and hearing The Bruery founder Patrick Rue explain that Black Tuesday was named after a terrible, no good, very bad day of brewing, which happened to be a Tuesday.

SAVOR ROUND-UP:

Visit Craft Beer Radio to listen to all the salons and private tastings from this as well as past years of SAVOR. It'll be just like you were there...except for not getting to taste the beer or food. Below is a list of write-ups from local bloggers and journalists who attended the event. Some are more of the portrait-heavy, society page variety but we have no right to knock that. Enjoy!

• DCist
• DCFoodies
• Washington Post
• DCBeer
• Brightest Young Things
• MetroMix

Photo by Eddie Arrossi Photography

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