On December 10th, 2008, Manderes celebrated its first anniversary of opened its doors and the eyes of Folsom residents to "no crap on tap." About 15 hopheads attended, but didn't know what to expect beyond several tastings and some delicious appetizers. The restaurant was packed with the usual suspects, employees, and of course, beer lovers new and old to Manderes.
At 7 PM, Dave and Brent started the festivities by thanking their patrons, wait staff, and giving us a brief history of the beginning of Manderes. Quickly thereafter they broke out their first tasting: a 3 Liter (a jeroboam for you winos) of Duvel. Several of the hopheads describe this Strong Belgian Pale as having notes of dry grape, similar to a Muscat.Shortly after finishing the sample of Duvel, Dave and Brent started drawing raffle tickets. Our fearless leader, the Chadd, won a Manderes t-shirt. Actually, the first Manderes t-shirt. Sheelagh also won another shirt as well. There were other hop heads who won prizes, we did pretty well at the raffle.
The next sample poured to the packed house was presented by the brewer himself, Matt, from Great Basin brewing in Sparks, Nevada. Matt seemed to be a familiar face to many. From the Sacramento area himself, Matt brewed as a member of the Gold Country Brewers Association and completed the zymurgy (fermentation aka brewing) program at UC Davis. Manderes purchased a keg of his Harvest Ale and decided to let the brewer present it himself. Matt spoke at length about the Harvest Ale: Freshly picked sage, juniper berries, pinenuts, and of course freshly picked hops. The hops lended notes of citrus and flowers, while the pinenuts rounded out the beer to a smooth balanced finish. 
The third beer poured was Brasserie D'Achouffe's, McChouffe. This belgian strong dark ale uses American hops to provide a citrusy quaff backed by some dark candi sugar and belgian malts. The waitstaff brought the appetizers to our table. Two types of fried peppers (jalapeno and unsure of the other red one) and some bbq beef ribs. The peppers were spicy while the bbq beef ribs were excellent and glazed with a tasty, yet not overly sweet sauce.
After making pigs of ourselves, Brent's distributor presented the fourth sample, the Cuvee van de Keizer from Carolus. I have never heard of this beer, so this was new for me as well. Another belgian strong dark ale infused with maple syrupy sweetness and what I would describe as hazelnut liqueur. A really good selection by the Manderes crew.
The next beer brought out was one of my favorites: Ommegang. Brewed by Ommegang, this is a Belgian dubbel that has notes of caramel and belgian candi sugars. If stored properly, this abbey style ale ages very well and the living yeasts add new flavor to the brew over time.
Brent and Dave had a trick up their sleeve for us yet. They took the sixth sample off of a fork lift: A methuselah sized bottle, or 6 Liters, of St. Bernardus 12. The number 12 represents a certified, abbey brewed quadrupel, and an original gravity (fermentable sugars after boil) of about 1.120. This was the best bottle of St. Bernardus I have sampled: notes of sourdough bread with belgian candi sugar.
By now people were starting to really enjoy themselves. Most of these beers way in at over 8% ABV and the waitstaff was very generous with their pours. The grand finale of the night was an Austrian beer called Sammiclaus. Sammiclaus is brewed once a year on December 6th. Again, another great beer to cellar. This Sammiclaus resembles an Eisbock and was brewed on December 6, 2007. Fresh out of the tap, this was very sweet and bready, kind of lke a fruit or rum cake.
So for the big question, what was the favorite beer served tonight? There is an adage, that homebrews are generally better tasting than commercial beers. The least produced beer won. Congratulations to Matt @ Great Basin. The Harvest Ale had a beautiful presentation, excellent spices, and a very well-balanced mouthfeel.
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