That was the delicious challenge attendees of “The Festival 2014” faced this past weekend in San Pedro, California, just outside of Los Angeles. Presented by beer importers The Shelton Brothers and the nonprofit Sharefest, in collaboration with Brouwerij West (with Craft Beer & Brewing as the media sponsor), it was the third annual festival but its first appearance on the West Coast, following the past two years in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine.
Among beer festivals, it’s unique, not just for the incredible selection of beer, but for its ambitious mission of flying in brewers from across the country and overseas. So there was Ron Jeffries (founder of Jolly Pumpkin in Dexter, Michigan) pouring his La Parcela pumpkin sour while Jean Van Roy (owner of Belgian sour beer legend Cantillon in Anderlecht, Belgium) shared pours of decade-old Cantillon lambics with small groups of festival attendees (pictured at top).
The biggest challenge for attendees was deciding which beer to try first. With breweries such as Drie Fonteinen (Beersel, Belgium), Crooked Stave (Denver, Colorado), and Sante Adairius (Capitola, California) lined up and pouring rare and exclusive beers, it may have been hard to choose, but it was also hard to go wrong.