Slightly Too Much

 Beer News  No Responses »
Jun 242010
 

Again this week I have rambled slightly too much in introducing each of the stories.  At least one of the articles is a bit long as well, so this is another good time to cut the intro short to give you extra time to read it all.

So for this week we have . . .

  • This first one is a good follow up to the mention of lawmakers helping out craft brewers last week.  There is also a nice, relatively short video with some commentary from some famous faces in the world of craft beer.  Actually, if you watch that first you will already have heard many of the quotes that appear in the text of the article.
  • It is no secret (at least among those who ask) that I love me some beers from Great Divide Brewing Co, so it was easy for me to choose to share this story of their recent/current expansion.  It is a happy day when you find out that more of your favorite beer will be available.
  • Surely I have to be biased a bit toward the brewery in this case (even not having sampled any of their brews), but I have enjoyed wines from the winery included in this trademark battle as well.  Legal jargon tends to make my head spin, but I think this article explains the situation pretty well.  I just don’t understand the ultimate decision.
  • There is a nice craft brewery for sale if you meet the parameters that the current owners have laid out.  For the record, if in the future there are brewery owners out there whose kids don’t have an interest in taking over when they are ready to step aside, give me a call!
  • From what I read (and don’t hear) about the recent Boston Beer Week, it was a fantastic collection of events.  I say don’t hear because we have not heard from The Brother-in-law and The Father-in-law since they attended the American Craft Beer Fest on Saturday!
  • Though not an official scientific study, I would say that we all know that the coach will allow a little beer to be consumed before their next match coming up on Sunday.  All of our running friends always say to eat and drink the same as you normally would before any race so your system does not throw you a curve.  Now we know that the drink can also include beer.
Fabio Capello 006 Slightly Too Much

Go finish your beer first! (via http://www.guardian.co.uk/)

Cheers!

 Posted by Lucas at 4:00 pm  Tagged with: ,

Over Thinking and Obsessing

 Travel  No Responses »
Jun 142010
 

Over thinking and obsessing on what should be pretty simple decisions are things that I fall into quite often.  Sometimes that works to my advantage, but there are also times where it drives me (and The Wife) insane.  Now within my constant obsession with the world of beer, I have an enjoyable event to fixate my mind on for the next few weeks.

The beer festivals that I am used to going to here in Florida are typically involve an entry fee and a (relatively) short window of time (4 hours or so) in which to get your beer sampling in.  A few weeks from now I will be attending a festival that involves a fee that will equate to a number of tickets which you trade in for samples of beer.  Those tasters range from 1 ticket to 6 and you can buy additional tickets if you choose to do so.  I understand this approach since the drinking windows are about 10 hours per day over a three day festival and without tickets there would be many (more) people passed out on the grass.

4534142653 294379fbc5 Over Thinking and Obsessing

Expecting a much busier scene than this.

Now to explain what I will obsess over for the next three weeks.  Since the tickets will be involved, I feel the need to have a plan of attack rather than sample randomly as I often do without such parameters.  The festival’s website has the list of what will be roughly 150 beers to choose from, though not how many tickets each will run you.  So that helps and gives me much to think about, though not having the cost of each hurts me in developing a specific plan of attack.

There are a handful of bullet points that I am going into this evaluation process with:

  • Though there are some familiar favorites on the list, focus on beers that you have never had and have heard good things about.  This is a focus going into most any beer festival for me.
  • Since this is an international beer festival and there will be many brews that I have never even seen, maybe it makes sense to pick a country or two to focus on.  I do purposely lean towards American breweries not because I do not enjoy beers from other places, but because there is so much out there in the US and I have much work to do just to put a dent in it.  So though I might mix in a few beers from other places, I will likely focus on the US beers that I have yet to try.
  • Maximizing the number of tickets I have is important.  I plan on having the number of tickets that comes with the entry and (maybe) buying a few extra as soon as we get there.  When those are gone we are out.  Do I focus on just a few of those 5-6 ticket samples, do I go for a bunch of the 1-2 tickets brews, or a balance somewhere in the middle? 
  • A good friend of mine is likely to join us at the festival.  Perhaps we can combine forces (tickets) to sample a wider range of the beers available?  That could be a good tactic.
  • Be efficient with our time there.  We are going to this festival because we need to be in the area for another reason, so I have no intention (or desire) to spend very much of one of the 10 hour windows there.  I would like to move on to other things even though it would be interesting to see what condition the crowd is in toward the end of the 10 hours.
4414829931 b251d26465 Over Thinking and Obsessing

Probably even more busy than this.

Using those thoughts I already have a bit of a short list that I would be happy to sample a few from since I expect that I have expensive taste and the tickets costs will be high for each.

  • Breweries I get products from here, but beers I (think I) have not tried yet.
    • Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Ale
    • Dogfish 120 Minute IPA
    • Great Divide 16th Anniversary Wood-Aged Double IPA and Chocolate Oak-Aged Yeti
  • Breweries I don’t see here much or at all.

Now you can see that I have already put too much thought into it just days after I found out that we would be going!  The short list will continue to grow into quite a long one and hopefully my obsessing will turn into and enjoyable and successful time at the festival.

Stay tuned for the recap.

 Posted by Lucas at 1:00 pm  Tagged with: ,

The Great Orlando Beer Festival

 Breweries, Travel  2 Responses »
Apr 192010
 

Though I really enjoy attending beer festivals as part of the crowd who will be sampling the beers, I think I enjoy volunteering and especially pouring at festivals even more.  So when given the option of the two for The Great Orlando Beer Festival over the weekend, The Wife I jumped at the opportunity to help out with the event and hang out with our friends from The Brew Crew.

4534142421 129bc28291 The Great Orlando Beer Festival

The vegan bratwurst caught The Wife's eye.

When we showed up a little more than two hours before the event started there were only a few people wandering around the tents that were lined up and waiting.  Within the next half hour the action picked up quickly as the beer arrived and set up began.  We helped unload the beer from pallets and get them to the tents before distributing the bins that would hold the beer and ice.  All of this was helped by Andy and the boys at the Southampton booth starting to ready the bacon that would accompany their beers that evening.

4534775380 0a4c9b7c8a The Great Orlando Beer Festival

Southampton in the set up lead early on.

Then the beer was unpacked and put on ice as the appropriate signs were put up at each station.  The ice flying around is a pretty crazy thing to watch as people run bags of it from the truck to each end of the venue.  As all of this was happening I noticed another familiar face in the distance and took an opportunity to go say hello to Tom the Beer Guy as he was readying the OB product for the afternoon.

4534142597 b47ebbdc8d The Great Orlando Beer Festival

Unpacking the goods for the day.

Many times as a volunteer you will be assigned to a task or a booth, but on this day we were able to pick a station after the initial set up was taken care of.  The Wife and I were fortunate (and I was very excited) to end up behind the table where we would pour Avery and The Bruery products.  With The Bruery being a fairly recent arrival to the Orlando area, our tent became busy very quickly and stayed that way for most of the day.

4534775442 b0a6c58e7b The Great Orlando Beer Festival

My better half modelling some of the product.

Much of the enjoyment that I get from pouring at these events come from meeting people who are really interested in the beers and want to discuss it.  That of course includes the beer industry folks that I meet along the way.  Early on (just before the event started) I was able to meet Luke from Swamp Head Brewery as he stopped by for a sample.  As the day went on I also met Craig from Swamp Head, Mike from Florida Micro Beverage, many of the guys from the Central Florida Home Brewers, and also ran into the familiar faces of Tom the Beer Guy (again), Jeremy (previously met at CTT), Josh from Big C, and our good friends Emily and Ian (who were our neighbors for the day).  Surely I am forgetting a few people, but that is a good part of the list.  I guess sometimes if you stay in one place the interesting people come to you!

4534142653 294379fbc5 The Great Orlando Beer Festival

Things starting to pick up.

The Wife stayed at the booth for the entire day, but I finally took an opportunity toward the end to leave for a few minutes to visit one booth that I was particularly interested in.  My short time away gave me an opportunity to visit Craig and Luke and sample the beers from Swamp Head Brewery.  I had my first ever taste of their Cottonmouth (Wheat), Wild Night (Cream Ale), and Big Nose IPA.  My style preferences drew me to the Wild Night and Big Nose the most, but I really enjoyed all three.  Usually at the end of a beer festival your taste buds are beat from constant sampling, but having not done that I trust my palate in this case.  As I was leaving, I asked for a refill of the Wild Night to go back with and not only got that, but got it in Swamp Head souvenir via the generosity of Craig.

4534776260 c45d949749 The Great Orlando Beer Festival

A new contender for favorite beer vessel.

Since I fly the orange and blue of another school I have not had much reason to visit Gainesville in the past, but I now really would like to get up there to see exactly what Craig and Luke are up to.  I now know that I can sample their beers at a few places nearby, but it is always good to go to the source when you can.

The whole afternoon was very much fun as expected and I am already looking forward to the event next year and to seeing some of my new friends at future beer gatherings!

 Posted by Lucas at 10:56 am  Tagged with: ,
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