There was plenty to smile at during the summer Kraftbrew Festival. // Photo by Jennifer Anderson.

Vitus
Brewery Weihenstephan, Freising, Germany
Style: Weizebock; 7.7% ABV
This beer is great for lovers of Hefeweizens. With a bright straw yellow pour, it’s bigger and bolder than most hefes. Bubble gum on the nose; banana and clove with a subtle, bready malt.
Similar brews: Ayinger’s Weizenbock, Aventinus (Doppel Bock by Schneider & Sons) & Moonglow Weizenbock (Victory Brewing out of Pennsylvania)

Dan’s favorites:

Lagunitas
Petaluma,
The brewers at Lagunitas continue to be the purveyor of aggressively laid-back craft beer that does whatever it pleases to your palette with no remorse. The brewery continues to help craft beer break through to the mass public with growing momentum. I am personally a huge fan of their often-changing seasonal beers, ranging all the way from strong bitter ales to bitter strong ales; but their year round line is well rounded and indiscriminately quaffable.

1500 Pale Ale
Drakes Brewing Co., San Leandro
This is my go-to Northern California pale ale, copiously dry hopped and packed with resinous aroma without pushing the ABV past 6 percient, so I can enjoy without being too wary of its after effects. Drake’s has established itself firmly over the last couple of decades in the East Bay and I’m really happy to see their presence and production expand at the rate it has the last couple of years. While definitely offering up some monstrous brews (like Denogginizer, a 9.75% abundant-everything imperial IPA), the brewers have really honed in on a niche market of highly hopped, lower-ABV session beers like 1500 and their seasonal release like Alpha Session.

California Ale
Telegraph Brewing Co., Santa Barbara
This amber ale is reminiscent of a lighter Belgian brune crossed with Anchor’s iconic lager, but offers a brighter and more pronounced malt character than its more caramel-heavy import counterparts, giving it a nice compliment to the earthy hop profile. The brewery notes that this beer is supposed to represent the agriculture of California and its history of brewing through the 1900s, and that really shines through in its ability to showcase subtlety and complexity in the form of an old style straight-forward ale.

Allagash Brewing Co.
Portland, Maine
To me, this brewery has done all the right things as far as representing itself as one of the very best domestic Belgian-inspired ales available on the West Coast. The luscious bourbon barrel aged Belgian-style black ale was their unique offering for the festival, but everything from the wit bier (White) to their Tripel are true to form and an amazing value compared to imports. Four-packs are available for about the same price as a single 750ml bottle shipped from overseas.

Duvel Moortgat family of beers (Duvel, Maredsous, Liefmans, Brewery Ommegang, Chouffe).
Flanders, Belgium
Duvel changed the game for strong Belgian ales with a crisp, clean and complex finish compared to the darker and sweeter beers of the time. Now a family of brands, almost all classic styles of Belgian ales are represented in superb fashion. Maredsous covers the tradition abbey styles of Dubbel and Tripel, Chouffe has its own spiced golden ale and modern double IPA/Tripel hybrid, Liefmans showcases oak-aged sour brown ales with or without fruit additions and Brewery Ommegang’s fantastic modern interpretations, produced domestically in New York, round out the bill. I am really happy to see this collection of beers gaining more recognition on the West Coast and providing a wider range of styles outside the standard—and slightly overdone—abbey-style blondes and brunes for the public to explore. Much respect for this lineup.