Beer flowed at Flying Saucer’s annual beer fest on Lake Ray Hubbard

Along with beef and banh mi.

GARLAND — Beer, beef, and bánh mì. All three were guzzled and gorged on at Beerfeast 2012, Third Annual Spring Beer Festival at The Flying Saucer on Lake Ray Hubbard on Saturday. Thirty tap beers and 30 bottled beers flowed freely under the shade of a tent while Nammi, Easy Slider, and Jack’s ChowHound served up everything from popsicles to pulled pork.

Keith Schlabs, partner at Meddlesome Moth and The Flying Saucer, started both his bars and Beerfeast with the mission to “bring craft beer to good people.” With brews heralding from Deep Ellum to Belgium, Beerfeast is the perfect opportunity to expand one’s palate. Rarities were tapped at random times throughout the day, offering even those familiar with The Flying Saucer’s normal 200 plus beers a taste of something new.

Staff at Beer Feast 2012

Austin-based brewer Jester King brought their Whiskey Rodeo, a whiskey barrel aged imperial stout that Jester King anticipated would be “the most ludicrously expensive beer ever sold in the State of Texas” thanks to its inclusion of Kopi Luwak (“weasel”) coffee. The beer also included chipotle pepper and smoked malt to make this one of the most complex beers available.

Schlabs was excited that brewers traveled to Dallas to showcase their beers — beers with weasel by-products in them, beers with names like Tramp Stamp, He’Brew Hop Manna, and Good Juju, and beers from local brewers who pour their hearts and souls into each draught. Beerfeast is a toast to the artisan craft of making beer worth drinking and is certainly an event that couldn’t return soon enough.