2004 Lighthouse Beer & Wine Microbrewery Festival
Posted on October 17th, 2004 @ 1:05 PM EST
;)
Yesterday, my wife and I went to the Lighthouse Beer & Wine Microbrewery Festival that took place at Hugh MacRae Park in Wilmington. It was a great day for the event. The weather was perfect; it was mostly sunny and the temperatures were in the low-70s. Over 35 microbreweries were there including one from Canada and another from Germany, along with a few live-bands and local restaurants. We arrived about 15 minutes before the festival started so we could get there before it got crowded.
The first brewery we went to was Dogfish Head. I hoped that they would have had more of a selection of their beers, but they only had their Shelter Pale Ale and 60 Minute IPA. One beer I was looking forward to trying was Highland Brewing Company’s Gaelic Ale. It poured a dark, amber color and had a nice caramel flavor in the malt then finished with a hoppy taste. All-in-all it was pretty good and I gave it a 4/5 rating. We learned of a new microbrewery that is opening here in Wilmington next month called the Azalea Coast Brewing Company. It’s good to know there’s another microbrewery that’s going to be in town!
Since it’s Fall, many of the breweries had their seasonal pumpkin ales which I really like. The Carolina Beer Company’s Cottonwood Pumpkin Spiced Ale was my favorite with Brooklyn Brewery’s Post Road Pumpkin Ale being a close second. I still like Dogfish Head Brewery’s Punkin’ Ale the most, but unfortunately they didn’t have it available since it’s over North Carolina’s lame 6% law that states that no beer can contain over 6% ABV (alcohol by volume).
After about three hours, the alcohol was really starting to kick in and the lines to the port-a-jons were getting long so we decided to leave. We had a great time and discovered a lot of new beers that we really liked.
Listed below are all of the beers that I sampled at the festival along with my rating for each beer on a scale of 1-5.
| Microbrewery | Beer | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Apex Brewing Company | Sir Walter Raleigh Lager | 3 |
| Azalea Coast Brewing | Helles Lager | 3.5 |
| India Pale Ale | 4 | |
| Blue Moon Brewing Company | Harvest Pumpkin | 3.5 |
| Brooklyn Brewery | East India Pale Ale | 4 |
| Post Road Pumpkin Ale | 4 | |
| Carolina Beer Company | Cottonwood Pumpkin Spiced Ale | 4.5 |
| Dogfish Head Brewery | 60 Minute IPA | 4 |
| Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery | Amber Ale | 4 |
| Edenton Brewing Company | Joseph Hewes Revolutionary Ale | 4 |
| Pumpkinhead Ale | 4 | |
| Flying Dog Brewery | Road Dog Ale | 3 |
| Front Street Brewery | River City Raspberry Wheat Ale | 4.5 |
| Green Mountain Cidery | Woodchuck Draft Cider | 3.5 |
| Highland Brewing | Gaelic Ale | 4.5 |
| Pyramid Alehouse | Hefeweizen | 4 |
| Red Oak Brewery | Red Oak | 4 |
| Redhook Brewing Company | India Pale Ale | 4.5 |
| Winterhook | 4 | |
| Samuel Adams | Boston Lager | 4.5 |
| Sierra Nevada Brewing Company | Pale Ale | 4 |
| Spaten Brewery | Franziskaner Hefe Weiss | 4 |
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