Epcot Food and Wine Festival Craft Beer Review, Canada Cart Adds Apple Ephemere, Norway Replaces Bud with Einstok

Continuing from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6, our tour concludes with virtually every item available reviewed on price and quality.

Last and ummmmmmmmm maybe not least is this year’s Craft Beer Marketplace, which has moved to the Odyssey Building that connects the Test Track area in Future World East with the World Showcase area around Mexico. Historically, Craft Beer has enjoyed its own booth right on the way into World Showcase.

The new area  may or may not be less convenient. Last year, I’d pick up a 22-ounce Dogfish Head Namaste in a souvenir cup for $12.25 most days before beginning the trek through World Showcase. This year, you’d have to go a bit out of your way up through Future World East and toward Test Track with your eye on a six-ounce Punkin Ale. This year’s area is an air-conditioned, dedicated space potentially away from the crowds. Depending on the time of day and whether or not I’m in attendance, it has a fun bar feel or a sad retirement home feel.

Hopefully whoever typed up the definition of “craft beer” was not the person that screwed up the name of the Goose Island, which is 312 for the area code of where the beer is produced, rather than some sort of Dr. Strangelove countdown. Also note the odd placement of the wording that each beer comes with snack mix, something that was not offered to me on my first purchase.

Also, food.

The $3.75 House-made country pâté with picked carrots and farmhouse bread that seems to have arrived without the bread. I am not a pâté person and didn’t care much for this mixture of unnamed ground meat and fat minced into a sort of crumbly blob of cold meat fat stuff. I’m not saying don’t order it, I’m just saying expect to be served four decent slabs of pâté.

The $3.50 Muffuletta pinwheels with house-made pickles sounded promising, but the sour, vinegar-y juice from the pickles was soaked up by the pinwheels long before we ordered them, resulting in a soggy mess of brine and tears. Too sour for me.

Eight whole wheat crackers that look and tasted suspiciously like water crackers arrive alongside the Spicy pimento cheese dip for $3.75. The spicy dip is similar/the same as what’s served with the slider from Hops and Barley and has a nice kick to it, helped by the peppers and onions sprinkled on top. It’s not necessarily a compelling dish, but it’s the most edible here and pairs nicely with the beer.

Onto the beer. We’re going to assume the “cost” of the snack mix is $1 and the beer “actually” costs $3.50 each, like most at the other Marketplace beers that don’t arrive avec snacks.

Sierra Nevada Kellerweis

Store price: 11 cents/ounce

Festival price: 58 cents/ounce

ABV: 4.8%

Rarity: Very common

Value: Below average

Like most Sierra Nevada brews, Kellerweis is very good and very available at most grocery stores around the country. Like most hefeweizens, it’s a light beer with banana and clove notes with a crisp aftertaste and no hop bitterness. With the low ABV and ease of access, this would not be my single choice here, but it’s a nice introduction to the style.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

Store price: 19 cents/ounce

Festival price: 58 cents/ounce

ABV: 7%

Rarity: Seasonal, so it’s only available in the fall and potentially only at nicer grocery stores/specialty stores in the 31 states where they distribute.

Value: Great, relatively speaking

If memory serves, Dogfish Head’s very popular seasonal pumpkin ale enjoys the highest ABV at the festival and is arguably the best beer served at any Marketplace. The flavor is spiced pumpkin with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The flavor profile is not for everyone, but you only have to commit to a 6-ounce cup or as part of a flight, a 4-ounce cup. Try to ignore the obnoxiousness that is the pumpkin craze and give it a whirl.

Shiner Wild Hare Pale Ale

Store price: 12 cents/ounce

Festival price: 58 cents/ounce

ABV: 5.5%

Rarity: “Feels” Rare

Value: Average

While it seems like stores stock a lot of Spoetzl’s Shiner varieties, the Wild Hare Pale Ale seems difficult to find. This is a relatively hoppy beer considering the thin mouthfeel with a mildly bitter aftertaste. Pretty average overall.

Abita Purple Haze

Store price: 10 cents/ounce

Festival price: 58 cents/ounce

ABV: 4.2%

Rarity: Very common

Value: Below average

Abita’s fruity purple haze is a good “beer alternative” for someone that doesn’t like the traditional flavor profile of most lagers and ales. It’s a little artificial tasting with a prominent raspberry flavor balanced nicely with the wheat and hops. It’s awfully expensive at the Festival as a 6-pack runs around $7.49 at most grocery stores across the country, but you may have success forcing this one on someone that rolls their eyes whenever you pop open one of those Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout.

Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale

Store price: 13 cents/ounce

Festival price: 58 cents/ounce

ABV: 4.2%

Rarity: Common

Value: Average

Distributed by the monolith that is InBev, Goose Island beer became more prevalent in 2012 after the company purchased Goose Island for 38.8 million. Their Urban Wheat is decent with a mildly sweet aroma and a touch of bitterness in the middle, surrounded by bland grains and wheat. Not outstanding, but you could do a lot worse.

Florida Beer Co. Sunshine State Pils

Store price: 13 cents/ounce

Festival price: 58 cents/ounce

ABV: 5%

Rarity: Rare outside Florida

Value: Average

Virtually nothing good comes out of Florida. This season’s American Horror Story, based around a circus of murderous curiosities is based in Florida, presumably after the producers flew over and saw just what we’re dealing with down here on the way to a more pleasant destination. Anyway, Florida Beer’s version of the German-style pilsner is a good effort from a company that generally puts out beer in different flavors of cough syrup. As is typical from the style, it’s lightly hoppy with a grassy citrus flavor. Prima Pils it is not, but you’re probably not going to find it back home, which means you may want to take the opportunity to see how we suffer.

Magic Hat Dream Machine IPL

Store price: 11 cents/ounce

Festival price: 58 cents/ounce

ABV: 5.7%

Rarity: Relatively common

Value: Below average

At least it’s not #9. Magic Hat’s IPL is a decent “India pale lager” with pine-y hops and a crisp, tangy aftertaste. While absolutely forgettable, the ABV is a bit higher than others and it’s a relatively straightforward beer.

Terrapin Rye Pale Ale (Not Pictured)

Store price: 14 cents/ounce

Festival price: 58 cents/ounce

ABV: 5.3%

Rarity: Common in the south and up the east coast, but rare elsewhere

Value: Good

A personal favorite, Terrapin’s Rye Pale Ale is a citrus-y American pale ale balanced nicely with the sharp, spiciness of the rye. It’s not for everyone, but it’s worth a taste as one of the better examples of the style.

Continuing the world’s best coverage of the Canada Cart, we return to see that they’ve exchanged the Cherry Ephemere for Apple Ephemere and added the wines on tap to the menu.

Apple enjoys a hefty dose of green caramel apples up front with a slightly tart, bread-y finish, ultimately coming in at 5.5% ABV. It’s quite good and quite rare on draft, though both La Fin and the Pistoles are more complex with 9% ABVs.

In related news, Disney may have dropped Maelstrom, but they replaced Bud Light with Iceland’s Einstok White Ale. This is the only location in the United States that offers it on draft.

$8.50 buys you 16 ounces of 5.2% Icelandic White, an excellent witbier that dwarfs the likes of Blue Moon and Hoegaarden on taste and  quality. It’s still not Norwegian, but it’s one of the best and most interesting beers now available in World Showcase. Einstok’s Dopplebock will be the exclusive winter beer available all over Hollywood Studios once the Osborne Lights start up next month as well.

The bottle conditioned version is more yeast-y, but anyone that enjoys beer should add the draft to their World Showcase shortlist.