There are not many things that I would choose to do over watching a Syracuse Orange men’s basketball game, but the opportunity to go to the Florida Brewers Guild Beerfest in Tampa is apparently one of those things. It was probably a good decision, now knowing that we (yes I use we in this case) lost and I likely would have spent the afternoon miserable at home otherwise. The festival at least gave me an environment that I could not possibly be miserable in. So you might ask what do you do in preparation for such an event? The answer, of course, would be to have your comrades over to the house for a bacon cake and coffee breakfast before piling into the car for the 90-minute drive. There is nothing like a nice healthy breakfast of bacon and eggs (in cake form) to start the day off right. There were certainly no complaints from Gregg, Wayne, and Joe.
Of course there are pecans and apples in there as well to round things out!
We arrived well in advance of the start of the event via an earlier than necessary departure time and the driving skills of Chauffeur Joe. There was more than enough time to walk around the Ybor City area of Tampa a bit and also enough time that we would have considered (what I think was called) the urban race that was going on in the vicinity. Now we still don’t know what the race exactly entailed, but it seemed to be a lot to do with a costume party mixed with a scavenger hunt. It looked like a good time, so maybe next year.
The trolley was on purpose, the finger was not.
This area was less than busy.
There was also plenty of time to grab a bite for lunch before getting to the beer sampling, so we headed to Tampa Bay Brewing Company for some food and, well, a beer.
Just the type of decor I appreciate.
The event started at two and though it was only a few minutes after that when we exited our lunch location, the plazas were already packed and the line at the check-in was down the street of people yet to enter the fray. I am not going to say that we cut to the front of the line, but since we had a limited window for beer sampling lets just say we didn’t wait very long in it!
Just one half of the action early on.
What is a beer festival without this?
A few familiar faces were found among the crowds as I ran into Tom the Beer Guy multiple times during the day. I have to thank him very much for suggesting the event (as I would not have known about it otherwise) and for having some Toasted Coconut Porter on hand to sample again. Though I had no real expectations going in, it turned out to be bigger and better than I thought it would be. It will be going on the calendar for next year for sure.
At the end of the day for us I was also able to meet up with (now award winning home brewer) Mike Melton and a few of his friends at Tampa Bay Brewing Company. It was nice to get to catch up with a really nice (beer) guy. It was a fast and furious afternoon and part of an evening. We definitely all had a great day and I thank the boys for joining me for the fun. I have some interesting video to share as a way to experience the crowds without having gone to the festival so this will simply be the first of two parts of recapping the event.
A little empty outside after teardown.
As a teaser to that second post and a close to this one I will list a few of the beer highlights for me:
- Hunahpus Mayan Chocolate Imperial Stout from Cigar City – Very glad to sample this one since I will not be able to make the release party at the brewery this Friday.
- Tampa Bay Brewing Company – Since I had never tried any of their beers previously and generally enjoyed them all.
- Cream Ales in general – A style that enjoy but cont drink very often. Offhand I remember TBBC and Bold City Brewery having nice ones.
- Iniquity Imperial Black Ale from Southern Tier Brewing – A unique style for me and probably my favorite beer of the day. I immediately went back for a second sample.
Stay tuned!
In keeping with the “Great Divide Brewing Co. Month” theme I have a few more videos to start this week. The first is quite short, but I find it interesting because I know what my little 5-gallon batches of home brew look like when they are fermenting. The second is just another video that helps me get a sense of what the brewery looks like in case I never get back out to Denver to see it for myself.
After these I may be tapped for video content for Great Divide, but I will continue to search. Maybe I will have to make a point to get out to Denver soon with my camera just to make more videos for them?
On to the show . . .
Since we did a fair bit of running around last week with Cousin Adam and Melissa here, I have quite a few pictures from (most of) the places that we visited and a few from after they flew back home. With that, I think more of a pictorial recap is the way to go today rather than many paragraphs of text to go through on a FAT Monday. So, lets see if I can remember where all of these pictures were taken . . .
Heavenly truffle popcorn with parmesan
Sweetbreads with gnocchi
Beef shortrib ravioli
A short stop by Orlando Brewing to try the goods.
A bit of window shopping in Daytona.
This one was a bit different.
Available in all sizes.
Stopping by the speedway before the crowds arrive.
Soon to be filled.
Soon to be littered with trash.
Taking in some nature.
Another visit to see our manatee friends.
The rains kept us inside at Redlight Redlight
Passing the time with a Brooklyn Cookie Jar Porter and board games before friends arrive.
Enjoying a Saturday afternoon with a good friend.
Surely there are a few stops along the way that didn’t make it into today’s post, but we do occasionally give the camera a rest during our travels. Looking back, there are a few pictures that I wish were taken, but that only means that a return visit is in order!
In continuing with the “Great Divide Brewing Co. Month” I wanted to pass along some good information about the brewery as a follow up to yesterday’s beer review. So when I found this video, it immediately became the perfect content for today’s post. Since the video is (a quick) five minutes long, I will keep my writing short to leave more time to watch it.
Now on with the show . . .
Cheers!
The official first post for “Great Divide Brewing Co. Month” will start with your regularly scheduled beer review tomorrow. Discussing some of the product seems to be an appropriate way to start such an event. So for today, I have for you another entry for “Food And Travel Monday,” which in the past has been respectfully referred to as “FAT Monday.”
As a first for The Wife and me, we awoke quite early on Saturday morning to head down to Tampa for a weightlifting competition. We had a very good reason, as Cousin Adam was to compete in the bench press at the Raw Unity Powerlifting Championships that morning. Certainly check out the site (and results) to satisfy your curiosity, but this is an occasion where I can let some pictures tell most of the story for me.
Waiting on deck.
You could sit one of me on either side of the bar.
The important part (as I am concerned) is that Cousin Adam set a meet record and won the lightweight division by lifting 363 pounds while weighing in at the 132-pound weight class. Try to wrap your head around that for a moment. Obviously a big congrats goes out to him and I know all of the family and friends there supporting him were more than proud. By the smile on his face after, I would say he was pretty pleased as well!
Collecting some hardware.
Lightweight and Heavyweight champs
After leaving there late Saturday morning, our day continued to be excellent as I was able to visit Cigar City Brewing on our way back to Orlando.
The welcome sign.
Fortunately, since we were there at about 11:01, they open their tasting room at 11 on Saturdays and since they had to unlock the door for us, maybe we arrived 59 seconds earlier than I thought. One of the good things about being the first and only people there initially was that, as The Wife later put it, I could get “my beer geek on.” For what turned out to be 90 minutes or so, we were able to talk all things beer with Mike Melton, about Cigar City and beyond.
A brewery is a happy place for me.
As we worked our way through sampler paddles including Jai Alai IPA, Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale, Blueberry Maduro, Winter Warmer, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, and Berliner Weiss (guest tap) I was able to gain a lot of good information. Visiting a brewery, hearing more of the back-story, and getting to meet some of the people almost always makes me appreciate the product even more and this was no exception.
A few of the participants.
It is certainly tough chose favorites among a lineup of beers where none of them are bad, but I will say that if I had to choose only two to have again they would be the Jai Alai IPA and the Winter Warmer. The Wife also really enjoyed the Winter Warmer (I believe referring to it as a “glass of awesome”), but her surprise co-winner was the Berliner Weiss. Even though the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie really grew on me, I went with a growler of the Jai Alai to take home for future enjoyment.
Some of the where the magic happens.
Maybe there is a prize for drinking the contents of this bottle?
You can always take some home with you.
I have gone on a bit longer than usual, but that should be evidence enough of how much I really enjoyed the entire day (also check out the recap from The Wife). A big thank you to Mike for allowing me to bombard you with questions for a while and for giving me some excellent tips to help me with my home brewing experiments as well as providing additional inspiration to keep chasing my beer dreams.
Say hello to Mike when you stop by on Saturdays
The things happening at Cigar City Brewing in the near future (and beyond) are very exciting, especially for me in Central Florida where we may soon see bottles on the shelves. I would expect to see more awards and medals on their wall as the months and years pass. The visit this weekend will not be my only one and if any of you have the opportunity, do yourself a favor and stop by to drink some good beer with some good beer people.
Though there was really no food involved, I consider a beer tasting event (of sorts) qualifies for my “Food and Travel Monday” since it was held at a place that does serve food. I suppose that I could also justify it as travel post since we had to drive a whole fifteen minutes to get there. Either way this is what you are getting from me today!
Around midday Saturday as I was attempting to completely cover myself in paint while working around the house, The Wife was reminded via Twitter of a “meet the brewer” type event going on that evening. The Brew Crew was hosting a meet and greet with Larry Bell (Bell’s Brewery) at the Eola Wine Company in Winter Park. With the promise of some special beers on tap and that we would be seeing our friends Emily and Ian, I was glad to clean myself up in time to get there.
The tap handles that would provide the flight. (Thank you Emily!)
Though I was familiar with a few beers from Bell’s, there are far more that I have never tried so it was an easy decision to go for the flight of six that was on draft for the evening. I did actually take a few notes as I was tasting, really only to decide how I would rank the beers in the end and for what I may want to try again sometime. With that quickly out of the way, I was able to enjoy the flight and the company.
The parties shall remain nameless.
Since I have somehow misplaced my notes, it is fortunate that I can remember how I put them in order after sampling all six. The order that I drank the samples was . . . Double Cream Stout, Amber Ale, Barleywine, Hopslam, Sparkling Ale, Two Hearted Ale.
A shot of my long lost notes.
The top two to me were clearly the Double Cream Stout and the Hopslam. They were both very nice and since they are completely different I settled on a decision of a tie for the top spot. After that the next rung on the ladder was definitely the Barleywine. Beyond that the other three were clearly a tier below and I could make the argument of a tie between them. The Amber Ale was OK, but that is just a style that never does much for me. The Sparkling Ale and the Two Hearted Ale suffered a bit from lack of carbonation for whatever reason. With that, I will just call it a tie for first, a clear second, and a three way tie for third. See how I make up the rules as I go along?
The Wife got an action shot.
It was no surprise that Larry Bell was extremely nice (based on our short conversation) and it was an excellent outing for a few hours on a Saturday evening. I certainly encourage anyone to take advantage of an opportunity to try some good beers and meet some good beer people when given the chance.
Looking ahead to some possible travel destinations for 2010 felt like the correct way to approach the first “Food and Travel Monday” of the year. Maybe as the year goes on I will use Monday for another purpose, but for now there is no reason to change things up.
Time to hit the road!
A few of these places are very likely in our travel plans for the year and a few of them may not happen at all. In both cases I started to think of what breweries I could stop by while in each of these cities. Without putting too much thought into it on the first pass, here is what I came up with for my brewery wish list based on these locations. If there are others that are nearby that I forgot to include, be sure to suggest them. It is unlikely that I will get to them all, though I will do my best if given the opportunity!
Baltimore – A place that we have yet to go but is almost a certainty for this year:
- Flying Dog Brewery (about 1 hour or so away in Frederick, MD)
- Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (about 2.5 hours or so away in Milton, DE)
- Troegs Brewing Co. (about 1.5 hours or so away in Harrisburg, PA)
Seattle – A city we are excited to have a chance to return to. It may also turn into some time in Vancouver, BC or Washington wine country or Portland, Oregon and its surrounding area. Unfortunately Newport, OR (Rogue) and Bend, OR (Deschutes) may be a bit too far away to make it to each of them.
- Elysian Brewing Co. or Pyramid or maybe Redhook Ale Brewery (Seattle area)
- Hopworks Urban Brewery or Deschutes Public House or Hair of the Dog Brewing Company or Full Sail Brewery or Rogue Distillery & Public House (Portland area)
Don't forget to gas up!
New Orleans – High on the list for The Wife and how can I argue that?
- Abita Brewing Company (Abita Springs, LA)
Central and Northern New York State – Familiar stomping grounds for both of us.
- Middle Ages Brewing Company (Syracuse, NY)
- Matt Brewing Company (Utica, NY)
- Sackets Harbor Brewing Company (Sackets Harbor, NY)
Florida – Our backyard that we have only started to explore.
- Dunedin Brewery (Dunedin, FL)
- Tampa Bay Brewing Company (Tampa, FL)
- Cigar City Brewing (Tampa, FL)
It will be a good year if I can get to even a handful of these and from what I know right now there is a fair shot at it happening. Just another reason that it will be a great year!
It continues to be a great thing that friends send me beer related emails and pictures quite often. Even better than that is when I can take one of those messages and turn it into a guest post (of sorts). Some of my reasons for doing that today are as follows:
- I ate way too many Christmas cookies last night and am feeling a bit sluggish today.
- I am attempting to make “The Artist Sometimes Known as Ken” a household name in the New Year.
- I am pretty jealous that I don’t have a sampler paddle like that anywhere in my near future.
- Maybe some of you are in that area of Massachusetts and this might persuade you to stop in for a pint.
With that, I bring you his message of good beer this holiday season (of course minus the incessant use of curse words) . . .
Here is a glimpse of my lunch today… (8) 6 oz beers. Here is what we had, plus a good sandwich.
We go back every time we come up to Mass. Beer before shopping in 10 degree weather, if you pee your pants, at least its warm for a while.
http://www.northamptonbrewery.com/index.php
Black Cat Stout: A full bodied, rich and creamy, dry Irish stout. It is deeply complex with lingering notes of roasted coffee. Great on its own, but even better with dessert.
Daniel Shays Best Bitter: This English style best bitter starts off malty on the palate and finishes hoppy; named for our area’s historic “bitter” rebel.
Old Brown Dog: An old favorite, “a malty beer with a little hop bite” best describes this nut-brown ale. It won a silver medal in the Great American Beer Festival.
Black Boots: The evil twin of our Blue Boots IPA, it’s our first Black India pale ale. A dark ale that’s anything but malty, it has all the hoppiness you expect from our IPAs
Jess’ Goodbye Rye P.A.: An India pale ale brewed with rye. It has a hoppy, spicy bite, a dry finish, and some say the bitter sweetness of a friend leaving. Brewed to commemorate 9 years of hard work.
Humbug: Our Holiday ale for 2008 a hybrid IPA, darker in color with an intricate hop aroma. Strong enough for the holidays.
Mean Green: This double India Pale Ale is a hop hammer. Loads of hops and a solid malt backbone, this balanced ale is the dry-hopped until delicious.
Pucker Power IPA
All lined up and ready.
A job well done!
Thank you to Ken for today’s post. It is nice to know that the beer still flows well in the cold of the great white north!
A vacation is always well complimented by a brewery tour and I was lucky enough to visit Allagash Brewing Company when we visited Portland during our stay in Maine a few weeks ago. It took us an hour and a half or so from where we were staying but it was so much fun that there were no complaints during the car ride back.
The location of the brewery is far from downtown Portland and is nowhere near the water, but is definitely worth a visit when you are there. The location is basically next door to their original building, which they now use mostly for storage.
The home of Allagash
The tours take place Monday through Friday at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm. We were fortunate to be the only ones at the 11am tour that day. Maybe most people have something against drinking before noon, but it was also well after the busy summer season. We were able to sample the White, Dubbel, Tripel, Grand Cru, and Four Ale (four malts, four hops, and fermented four times). Since The Wife volunteered to drive that day I ended up with the bonus of a second tasting of basically everything! They were all very good, but I became partial to the Dubbel and the Four Ale.
The wife modeling some apparel
All in a line
Hard at work
Kate gave us a ton of information both during the tasting and while on the tour. It is great when the person doing the tour is so knowledgeable about everything going on at the brewery. It is amazing what only 19 employees are able to do. A big thank you to Kate for a great time at Allagash!
Here are a few of the many pictures from our visit.
Me lagging behind
Bottling area
Just making the safety glasses look good
Big bottles . . . compare to the keg behind
Some of the good stuff hiding
Just yesterday, since I was wearing the apparel, I took the opportunity to pose with some Allagash brews pulled from the shelves here in Florida. I am officially a fan!
Showing off the goods
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