Well, that was an epic 4 days. I went out to work Thursday/Friday/Saturday to work a booth for a local beer organization.
So I flew in Thursday to Denver, seeking my fame and fortune. I would like to think that I came, saw and conquered the rocky mountains, but judging by the way I feel today I was chewed up and spit out!
My personal highlights of the show -
#3 - California and San Diego once again showing beer world dominance. Pizza Port wins small and large brewery of the year.
#2 - Fantastic support staff working with the Brewers Association and the Denver conference center. From recruiting volunteers in the Denver area to allow burned out brewers to take breaks, to the personal notes they left for us in care packages. The Denver area shows again how to take a massive **** storm of people and turn it into one of the worlds best festivals.
#1 - My good friends from the Utah Brewers Co Op showing the world again that Utah can make great beer. The UBC takes home gold medals for several beers, as well as Midsized brewery of the year. I was so excited to hear the great news for a misunderstood and under appreciated community of fantastic brewers.
My low lights -
#3 - Every god damn year when ever someone drops a glass, everyone within a 50 foot radius stops what they're doing, to point and yell OOOOHHHHHHH!! It's not even amusing the first time, but the 300th time made me want to put an ice pick through my ear.
#2 - Pretzel necklaces make even the hottest woman look like a complete ***** head.
#1 - The annual Saturday night ****show. Frat boys, douche bags, and people who don't appreciate beer in the least seem to all flock to Saturday night. It's not exactly uncommon knowledge that Saturday night is brutal, booth workers are burned out and the ratio of people looking to try great beer goes straight down the toilet. At least 75% of people visiting our booth picked beers based on "what will get me loaded the fastest?" or "HOOOOOWEEEE that beer has a pretty label!"
All that bad stuff aside, this is always a great weekend. Brewers and people in the Beer community are some of the coolest and down to earth people on the planet.
Did I mention I was actually at a beer festival? I drank some amazing beer! I seemed to be on a mission for big stouts, in one afternoon I was able to try Great Divide - Espresso and Barrel Aged Yeti, Goose Island - Burbon County Stout, and The Bruery - Black Tuesday. As well as my first actual encounter with Sam Adams - Utopias. The guys at Shorts brewing in Michigan were super cool and made some really interesting beer, their Spruce Pilsner was really surprisingly awesome.
Denver has an amazing beer bar scene. I finally got to head to Falling Rock in Lower Denver downtown area when it wasn't jam packed, and had some fantastic beers before getting on my plane Sunday afternoon. FreshCraft really did a great job with their beer list and good food, really a model of a solid beer bar/pub. I sure am glad I don't drink only low point beer anymore, I'm 37% sure I would have died. Even with my pretty damn high tolerance I drank myself sober 2 of 3 nights... and I would also like to give a nice round of applause to the ladies of Denver.
After 3 days solid of sleep deprivation, working, drinking and talking, everyone in my group was exhausted and burned out. It sure is nice to be back in SD, and working on re-hydrating and gearing up for San Diego Beer Week!
Cheers to Denver! Cheers to festival goers! Cheers to Brewers! Cheers for more than 4 hours sleep!
