ELBOW ROOM: The inaugural 12 South Winter Warmer was limited to 750 tickets, ensuring there were few lines and plenty of room to sip the high-gravity beers and chat.

Talk about bad timing. Less than 24 hours after being diagnosed with a sinus infection I was in line with friends waiting to gain entrance into the inaugural 12 South Winter Warmer beer festival. The Dec. 10 event, conceived and presented by East Nashville Beer Festival founder Matt Leff, was held in Sevier Park in the 12 South neighborhood of Nashville. Tickets were limited to 750 and sold out within hours of their release in October.

Many locals predicted that the Winter Warmer might turn out to be Nashville’s best beer festival ever. They were right.

Not only was the festival the first of its kind in town—a winter fest focusing on so-called “winter warmer” beers like stouts, porters, and barrel-aged varieties—but its raises the bar for beer events in the city. Lines were minimal to non-existent. The tasting glass (yes, glass) was a small, branded snifter well suited to the majority of beers being poured. The food selection was a plentiful mix of popular local food trucks and hip Nashville eateries. The innovative guest brewers tent—a carry-over from the East Nashville Beer Festival—housed nascent Nashville breweries, top-notch area homebrewers, and respected commercial breweries not currently distributing in the Nashville area. And a portion of ticket sales benefits the Oasis Center, with even $1 of the on-site ATM fee going to the charity Halcyon Bike Workshop. Founder Matt Leff is big on community and education, and it shows.

With regard to the beer itself, the selection was strong across the board. A select few beers did generate a buzz among the friendly crowd, though. Nashville startup Black Abbey Brewing Company made one of the bigger splashes, and its beer The Champion—a deftly smoked pale ale that was my first pour of the day—held up as my favorite of the event. I heard a lot of praise for Black Abbey’s tasty black IPA, The Fortress, as well. Fellow Music City startups Double Door Ale Works (whose heated Wassail provided a welcome barrier against the 40-degree temperatures) and Nashvillion Beers garnered compliments among the masses too, offering a promising glimpse of what Nashville’s beer scene might look like within the next five years.

Among the more established players, Nashville’s Yazoo Brewing debuted its most adventurous beer to date: Fortuitous is a blended beer that combines the brewery’s cherry-smoked porter, Sue, with bourbon-barrel-aged and soured versions of Sue. My first sip of Fortuitous was a bit of a shock to my palate, but the beer grew on me as I finished my 2-ounce pour. It seemed a bit divisive among attendees—some I spoke to loved it, some didn’t. Regardless, such genre-bending beers are the sign of a developing beer community and I look forward to sitting down with a bottle of Fortuitous when it hits store shelves in about a week.

One of the most interesting beers of the day was poured at the homebrew table. Decorated local brewer Brandon Jones presented what he called a Quad IPA that clocked in at upwards of 22 percent alcohol by volume. As it was dispensed, it coursed through a vessel packed with 5-ounces of fragrant Citra hops. The result was an extremely sweet, beautifully smelling 2-ounce pour that you really needed about 30 minutes to slowly, properly enjoy.

Other beers that were recommended to me frequently by respected enthusiasts were Calfkiller Brewing Company‘s Drunken Spider (it ran out before I got to it), Jackie O‘s Bourbon Barrel-Aged Middle of Nowhere (one of my favorites for the day), and Schlafly‘s Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout (I opted for their Black IPA and never made it back for the stout, unfortunately). Notably, California’s Green Flash Brewing Company made it’s Nashville debut at the festival and its beers will soon be on area store shelves thanks to a distribution agreement with Bounty Bev.

Of course, with over 100 beers, a five-hour window for sampling and a lot of double-digit alcohol-by-volume sippers, I missed out on many more than I had. Some are readily available around town in bottles or on draft, some were onetime casks offerings, and for the rest, I’ll get my next shot at some of those beers at Matt Leff’s sister event, the East Nashville Beer Festival, scheduled for March 31, 2012. Tickets for that event go on sale February 1, 2012. Be ready.

Photos

MEN IN BLACK: Nashville upstart brewery Black Abbey generated much of the buzz at the festival with beers like its black IPA, The Fortress, and its smoked pale ale, The Champion.

ARACHNOPHILIA: Word-of-mouth spread throughout the festival about Calfkiller Brewing Company's Drunken Spider, and the keg was drained well before the Winter Warmer ended.

OOH OOH, JACKIE: Guest brewery Jackie O's Bourbon Barrel Middle of Nowhere ranked among my favorites at the festival.

TRIPLE THREAT: Nashville's Yazoo Brewing Company debuted Fortuitous, an adventurous sour beer that blends three varieties of its beer Sue.

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1. Music City Brewer’s Festival 2010: A Quick Look Back
2. Portland Debrief: Part 2
3. Portland Debrief: Part 3