A new beer festival, the King of Prussia Beerfest Royale, debuted this weekend, and I was fortunate enough to attend the Friday Night Preview Party which included a great selection of beer tastings, butlered hors d’oeurves, cigars and cupcakes!
After registering and picking up our giant commemorative beer steins, we headed into the huge tent to quench our thirst. The beerfest, set up in the parking lot of the King of Prussia Mall, was nicely decorated with bales of hay, and a whole setting of trees and bushes provided a beer garden atmosphere. The sounds of the Hoppin’ John Orchestra, a self described “soul fried brass band,” wafted through the area. The sun was setting in the distance, and we could sense this was going to be a beautiful night.
Our first stop was to sample the exclusive beer of the night — Boxcar Brewing Company’s Beeron Von Steuben’s Reserve. We chatted with Jason Kohser, the brewmaster from Boxcar. This marked the first time he’s made an exclusive beer for a beer festival. “It’s huge!” He said with a smile. “When they called and asked if we wanted to make the official beer for the KOP Beer fest, we said YES!”
I explained how much I enjoyed the beer, and Jason grinned. “We tried to make a traditional Oktoberfest that had that toasty, bready thing going on, that’s the hallmark of a good Oktoberfest.”
As we sipped, Jason explained the Beeron Von Steuben’s Reserve was brewed with the help of the West Chester Beer Ladies. “We used all three of the German varietals — we used pilsner, Munich and Vienna malts. The Beer Ladies were there stirring the mash. The brewery is not that big, they were hanging in the tasting room since brewing is hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. They hung out drinking — I think they went through a keg of mango ginger that day!”
We stopped over at John Hay Cigars to pick up our two free cigars, which were all part of the night’s festivities. John Hay Cigars is based in Intercourse, PA, and their cigars are grown and made in the USA using tobacco from Lancaster, Chester County and York Counties. They offered two flavored cigars, vanilla and chocolate flavored. We chose two delicious smelling chocolate cigars that I’m anxious to try.
One of the unique parts about the KOP Beerfest was that, in addition to the great list of local craft breweries on hand, they also were featuring excellent German breweries also. It is Oktoberfest season after all! With that in mind, we next hoisted our steins with Paulaner Oktoberfest and the Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest!
The beer tent was really set up well for this preview party. With the band at one end, small tables were set up throughout to place your steins while devouring the food. At the other end of the tent, a comfortable lounge area, complete with couches and comfy chairs was set up, providing a respite from the tastings. An ice sculpture with the KOP Beerfest Logo sat in one corner.
In addition to the wandering servers, a few table stations were set up. We sampled the Southern Pulled Chicken on a sweet corn cake with wilted greens and a balsamic reduction and also tried the Yards Love Stout Braised Short Ribs with crimini mushrooms. We also had to return for a second helping of Gnocchi tossed with sage butter, roasted butternut squash and caramelized onions. The servers at the stations and those wandering the floor were all smiling and courteous, providing excellent service to all.
Throughout the night, we sampled such excellent beers as the Mango Ginger IPA by Boxcar Brewing Co., Saison DuPont, Rogue’s Oatmeal Stout, Weyerbacher’s AutumnFest, Dogfish Head’s Raison D’Etre and more. We chatted with friendly beer lovers and met photographer HughE Dillon, who is known for his weekly appearances on Fox 29, his website phillychitchat.com and his twitter handle @iphillychitchat. Hugh was snapping photos throughout the night and he told us, “one of the things I’m hearing is that people are excited about having this in their own back yard. They don’t have to travel into Philadelphia to experience the beer culture and they’re so excited that the King of Prussia District (KOP-BID) brought a lot of the business together here under one tent. It’s a great turnout too.” (Click here to view Hugh’s photo from the Preview Party.)
Another corner of the tent that was not to be missed was the Cupcake Corner. Cupcakes Gourmet had a fabulous display, teasing our taste buds with all choices of cupcakes — both mini and regular-sized. About halfway through the party, they also started custom crafting Beer Floats! I tried the vanilla ice cream with a pour of chocolate stout and topped with shaved chocolate and whipped cream. My date opted for the vanilla ice cream with pumpkin ale.
This proved to be a great finish for an the excellent preview party, and I found myself wishing I was able to return for the Saturday sessions, which were going to feature an even broader selection of fine crafted beers.
Stay tuned to Main Line Dish for the full tasting report of Saturday’s beer tasting sessions.
