What a fantastic day I had yesterday. I got the opportunity to volunteer at the Colorado Springs Beer Festival and get free entry to the days events. It was a real neat day.
I started the day off at 10:00 schlepping beer vendors material into the event site. I spent most of the morning with the rep from Boston Beer Company, hauling his beer to the very back of the park. He was a real stand up guy and I got a free six pack of the Blackberry Witbier for my troubles. It was a pretty good start to the day. As a volunteer we were expected to help out in any way we could and they would take care of us throughout the day. They started by giving us all shirts, lunch, and water all day. A pretty good bargain seeing as how I was just there to learn about beer and try to get in the festival for free.
My duty for the morning was to pour beer at the Newcastle table. They have a summer seasonal out called Newcastle Summer Ale, which is not bad, and I poured that all morning. It was a top beer. I was pouring non stop while my partner pouring the Brown Ale did not get many takers. After a couple of hours of flirting with pretty women, doing most of the work and just having a plain good ol time, I was given my reprieve.
I headed out into the heart of the beer festival. I hit every tent that served good craft beer. It was great fun and some great beer. The only issue I had with the fest is that it seemed to have mostly distributors and not actual brewers manning the tents. As I said earlier I was serving Newcastle and I certainly dont work for them. They had a tent serving Stone Ruination IPA but no-one from stone beer. If you were there just to taste it would have been great, but those of us who are hop heads and love talking beer it was a bit of a let down when you asked "So tell me about the hops or malts you use," and the guy pouring says "man I just drive the stuff around." Maybe next year they can get some more brewery participation.
But overall it was a great tasting experience. I tasted:
Sierra Nevada--Juniper Ale, Barley Wine, and SUmmer camp series Beers--They were awesome, see below
TommyKnocker--Black IPA--- It was great
Del Norte--Amber Lager---Ehh
Bristol Brewing--Beehive Honey-wheat---Nothing Special
Stone Brewing---Ruination IPA--Amazing
Biwerworks---Wiesbier--Incredible--The brewer was present and they talked a good game
Lefthand Brewing--Stranger Pale ALe-- Not bad
Odell---IPA--Always a good beer
Boulder Beer--Buffalo GOld--Take it or Leave it Nothing Special
Colorado Mountain Brewing--Panther IPA--A decently hopped IPA
Rock Bottom--Malt Liqour-Silver Bullet--Ehh
Newcastle- Brown Ale, SUmmer Ale- Both were very Tasty
I tried a few more but they got lost in the shuffle.
My best experience of the day was talking to the people at Sierra Nevada. They of course make Torpedo, which is the McDowell House beer. I love it. We got to talking about home brew and thier beer, what htye are coming out with soon, the summer camop series, we just sat and talked for a couple of minutes and it was awesome. This is what craft beer is all about. I even got to leave with one of thier brewery signs. They were great spokemen and great beer people. They made the day for me.
It was a great day of beer and I cant wait for the next one. The Manitou Springs Lager Fest is just around the corner and I hope to Volunteer again. I think volunteering to drink beer all day is not a bad career move. Huzzah!!!
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| Some Schwag I got from the Beer Fest |
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