DATE: Friday, October 31, 1997              TAG: 9710300263

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CAROLE O'KEEFFE, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

BEER TASTERS WEATHER BOTH SUN AND RAIN FOR WEEKEND BREW FEST

Mix a sunny, warm, fall day, sea air and a willing crowd and you have a prime setting for tasting malts and hops at the Beach's third annual October Brew Fest.

Close to 100 lagers and ales: pilsners, bock beers, Octoberfest styles, India pale ales, bitters, stouts, porters and wheat beers were available at the 24th Street Park.

Although the taste fest lasted all weekend, Saturday was the better day. Diehard Sunday sippers were under umbrellas for much of the event.

An exception was Norma L. Reyes of Virginia Beach, who used her umbrella to keep the sun off herself and her son, Dorian, 7, Saturday, while she sipped some of her favorite, the dark stuff.

Other sippers, Randy and Carolyn Carter, had traveled from South Hill for a weekend and came upon the Brew Fest by chance. ``This is nice,'' Randy Carter said. ``I've got 75 beers to go. This is a neat idea.'' Carter said he had not come upon a favorite beer. ``All of them have been good.''

Four-month-old McKay Sibley had only milk, while wearing a tiny pair of sunglasses. His parents are local residents, Justin and Rhonda Sibley, who were entertaining McKay's grandfather visiting from Washington state.

And Otto and Mary Voss, of LaPorte, Ind., who were in Virginia Beach for his military reunion and decided to check on the crowd at 24th Street. ``There's standing room only,'' Mary Voss said.

Most of the tasters had the sole goal of basking in the sun, fraternizing, enjoying the scenery and reveling in the sweetness of the malts and the bitterness of the hops. Experts were around to let people know the tongue senses malt on the tip and bitterness at the back.

It wasn't just a fun day. There was a lot to learn about beer, too.

Color is determined by the type of grains used as well as times and temperatures of cooking.

Serious beer tasters roll the brew around in their mouths to enjoy the fullness of a stout or the lightness of a lager.

Some of the beer terminology used over the weekend:

Black malt: Partially malted barley roasted at high temperatures. Black malt gives a dark color and roasted flavor to beer.

Hops: One of the four principal ingredients in beer, hops are flowers added to beer as a preservative and aromatic ingredient.

Bouquet: The collection of smells, usually floral, that a drinker smells before tasting the beer. Produced by the hops.

Body: The particular feel of a beer is described as full-bodied, medium-bodied or light-bodied, depending on sense of ``thickness'' or ``thinness'' in the mouth.

Fermentation: The process of producing alcohol and carbon dioxide through the action of yeast on grain-based sugars.

All that aside, for John Billone of Virginia Beach, who was entertaining his daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren from New Hampshire, it was just a great day to be out. They had seen signs along the beach from the beginning of the week and decided it would be a great weekend treat for the whole family. There were also soft drinks and lemonade, plus several foods.

The event was presented by Farm Fresh. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by CAROLE O'KEEFFE

Carolyn and Randy Carter enjoy a sample from the October Brew Fest.

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