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Been drinking some of my BiF beers over the last week or so (very slowly) so here's some thoughts! Double Daisy Cutter Pale Ale As I said previously, something about Daisy Cutter's hop profile just does not agree with me - it comes across as overly harsh and flat. Maybe I just like the more citrusy hops better? Batata Obscura This one was awesome, lots of depth of flavor that developed over the course of drinking the bottle! I think I just need to keep seeking out these spiced beers - I do have a Ghost Face Killah in the fridge I've been meaning to try... (  )Scurry Delicious oatmeal stout/porter/altbier/whatever, but what surprised me the most was how well the flavor is lingering even after I finished the bottle. Also the label is super adorable. 
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Nov 22, 2013 02:54
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Podima posted:Also the label is super adorable. Off Color's labels are the poo poo. I actually want just a bunch of their empty cases for storage. I honestly think they're cool enough where you could leave them out. Also, I cannot stop thinking about the gin barrel Troublesome at FOBAB.
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Nov 22, 2013 03:12
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danbanana posted:Also, I cannot stop thinking about the gin barrel Troublesome at FOBAB. I really wish I had gotten another glass at Northdown. drat me for showing some restraint!
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Nov 22, 2013 03:14
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Podima posted:I do have a Ghost Face Killah in the fridge I've been meaning to try... ( THIS WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA  
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Nov 22, 2013 03:21
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Bag of Sun Chips posted:I really wish I had gotten another glass at Northdown. drat me for showing some restraint! A friend awkwardly cornered Laffler at FOBAB to gush about it. Then got his autograph on the program. And by autograph, I mean a drawing of a mouse.
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Nov 22, 2013 03:24
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First beer day since FoBAB, and I decide to dig into: "European Sour Blend" (basically this thing: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/de-molen--alvinne--haand-loverbeer-esb-sour-ale/214928/) Did not like this at all. It almost had that really nice Bon Chien type of wine character, but instead it came across as a bunch of harsh vinegar that wasn't at all helped by the almost complete lack of carbonation. Dumped it. Crooked Stave St. Bretta (Fall), from the BIF box Docjowles sent me. This is really good. I would compare it directly to Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca, but a bit brighter and more citrusy. Tasty beer. Thanks Docjowles! Gotta figure out when to drink the others...
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Nov 22, 2013 03:35
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Cervixalot posted:What is the verdict on the rest of the Surly stuff? They had Bender, Coffee Bender, Overrated, Furious, Hell and Cynic. I thought Bender was a solid brown ale, but I'd take Goose Island's, Brooklyn's or Smuttynose's over it. Coffee Bender is a next level beer though. Furious is excellent also. I would love to get my hand on Furious, Abrasive and Coffee Bender again. Angry Grimace posted:I never much cared for it, but this also means that Rayon Vert is being discontinued Ah well gently caress. Guess I should buy some cases of it then. I literally go through a case a month between my girlfriend and I. I'll have to refrigerate them though so they aren't all Brett bombs. It's a shame they're getting rid of it though, it really helped add diversity to their line-up. Oh and speaking of their packaging, their new 650ml bottles are ugly. They look odd with how tall they are compared to the label/imprints on the bottle. Speaking of breweries with a lack of diversity in their line-up, I just remembered Sierra Nevada used to have Glissade which I loving loved. They are also getting rid of Tumbler for Flipside. It seems that every beer they brew now (outside of their regular line-up) is an IPA. They do have Narwhal and their Ovila beers, but their line-up is heavily IPA skewed. I love Ruthless Rye and Celebration, but I wish they'd moved Glissade to Summer and kept Tumbler. Perhaps they release a lot more variety in California, but what makes it to NJ is mostly hop forward beers.
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Nov 22, 2013 03:59
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Midorka posted:I thought Bender was a solid brown ale, but I'd take Goose Island's, Brooklyn's or Smuttynose's over it. Coffee Bender is a next level beer though. Furious is excellent also. I would love to get my hand on Furious, Abrasive and Coffee Bender again. Furious, Coffee Bender, and Cynic are the main Surly beers I would regularly grab in the Twin Cities. Furious would be a strong contender for desert island beer if I absolutely had to pick. Overrated has a way shorter shelf life than Furious (basically treat it like an Enjoy By), so check dates carefully. I can't immediately think of any canned saisons better than Cynic.
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Nov 22, 2013 04:07
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air- posted:Furious, Coffee Bender, and Cynic are the main Surly beers I would regularly grab in the Twin Cities. Furious would be a strong contender for desert island beer if I absolutely had to pick. Overrated has a way shorter shelf life than Furious (basically treat it like an Enjoy By), so check dates carefully. I can't immediately think of any canned saisons better than Cynic. I've never had Cynic, but there's Sly Fox Grisette and St. Feuillien saison. I don't know how they compare though.
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Nov 22, 2013 04:15
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Midorka posted:I've never had Cynic, but there's Sly Fox Grisette and St. Feuillien saison. I don't know how they compare though. I have tried the St. Feuillien one and I'm not a fan of the zestier, or I guess peppery saisons. I recall it had a lot of coriander among a variety of herbal flavors going on, while Cynic had more restraint on the spice. Overall, Cynic being more yeast/fruit forward while finishing subtly on the spice seemed more refreshing to me. e: looked up on BA/RB - GINGER. That sharp flavor was what put me off to be exact. air- fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Nov 22, 2013 |
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Nov 22, 2013 04:33
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crazyfish posted:Wrong thread. Take ye to the homebrew thread! Oh thank god! A store near me just got in Alpha Klaus. The tricky part is that they already had Alpha Klaus a month ago so who knows which bottles are 2012 vintage. That beer is still fantastic after a year though. danbanana posted:Off Color's labels are the poo poo. I actually want just a bunch of their empty cases for storage. I honestly think they're cool enough where you could leave them out. Oh man that gin barrel Troublesome was fantastic. I've never had a gin barrel aged beer before but that and the lemon radler were loving great.
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Nov 22, 2013 04:39
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I'm drinking a Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout, this is so close to being great. I love the aroma, it's strong of earthy roasted coffee, bourbon and oak. The flavor is very front-loaded, but even then it's mild. Coffee and bourbon come to mind, but there's nothing that sticks out. The flavors seem a bit muddled and I find the body thin. This is close to being great in my eyes.
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Nov 22, 2013 04:43
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Midorka posted:I find the body thin. This is true for all their non-anniversary BA'd beers.
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Nov 22, 2013 05:11
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Never got around to telling this story, but once Todd Alstrom was on Twitter making fun of Hurricane Sandy victims that got towed out of his parking lot. I called him out about it on Twitter and he tracked down my BeerAdvocate account and banned it. Good times! http://beerstreetjournal.com/tweet-from-beer-advocate-founder-gets-bad-feedback/
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Nov 22, 2013 05:27
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danbanana posted:This is true for all their non-anniversary BA'd beers. Usually true, though I had Sixteen at FOBAB and found it pretty thin. Glad you enjoyed midorka.
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Nov 22, 2013 05:31
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danbanana posted:This is true for all their non-anniversary BA'd beers. Pretty much. At least their barrel aged offerings are a little bit easier to get and sometimes sit on shelves, but I'd rather have a KBS over Peruvian, Breakfast Stout over Brewhouse Coffee, and Backwoods Bastard over Bourbon Scotch. It might be the Michigan homer in me, though.
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Nov 22, 2013 05:33
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Bag of Sun Chips posted:Pretty much. At least their barrel aged offerings are a little bit easier to get and sometimes sit on shelves, but I'd rather have a KBS over Peruvian, Breakfast Stout over Brewhouse Coffee, and Backwoods Bastard over Bourbon Scotch. It might be the Michigan homer in me, though. Its not the homer, I'd agree on all three, although for pure coffee flavor, its hard to beat Brewhouse. Breakfast Stout just has so much else going on. And yeah being able to buy Peruvian for a month or two is nice.
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Nov 22, 2013 05:38
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kylejack posted:Never got around to telling this story, but once Todd Alstrom was on Twitter making fun of Hurricane Sandy victims that got towed out of his parking lot. I called him out about it on Twitter and he tracked down my BeerAdvocate account and banned it. Good times! I still cannot believe no one has overtaken them in the beer community. They're just such utter assholes, there is no way I'd give them one red cent for their festivals. Hell I refuse to even give them the $0.0001 cents they'd get in ad revenue from reading reviews on their site, I hit RateBeer instead. Hopefully What The Funk grows and thrives and I don't have to even contemplate Extreme Beer Fest ever again.
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Nov 22, 2013 05:41
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Docjowles posted:I still cannot believe no one has overtaken them in the beer community.
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Nov 22, 2013 06:02
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Docjowles posted:I still cannot believe no one has overtaken them in the beer community. They're just such utter assholes, there is no way I'd give them one red cent for their festivals. Hell I refuse to even give them the $0.0001 cents they'd get in ad revenue from reading reviews on their site, I hit RateBeer instead. The thing that's hilarious is that the site looks like its from 2000 and its still the pre-eminent one. Probably because RateBeer is actually worse. The biggest problem of course, is that you can't just migrate reviews from that site to a competitor. If someone did that, I imagine there'd be serious competition.
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Nov 22, 2013 06:03
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SUPER HASSLER posted:What it is, is that there are like half a dozen attempts to overtake them in the beer community and they're fighting against each other for recognition instead. Who other than Ratebeer and Talkbeer (formerly beertrading.org) is there?
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Nov 22, 2013 06:05
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I don't want to hate too hard on the online beer community, but I'm going to guess that many of the BA regulars just don't see an issue with it. White, priveliged, well-to-do males being insensitive and/or shitlords is a recurring theme on the internet. So even if a place like RB or Talkbeer is putting up competition, a lot of people are going to ask what's wrong with BA in the first place and lol fags with their lame gay sites hold on lemme post a meme. Also as much as WTF is basically a rare beer fest by virtue of being barrel aged or sour beers from popular breweries, it at least doesn't basically advertise itself as WHAELZFEST like Extreme Beer Fest does, so not doing EBF is not only a good way to avoid the Alstroms, but is a good statement on not encouraging the ridiculous tick culture aspect of beer nerdery.
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Nov 22, 2013 06:18
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Just got back from the local bottle shop (australia) and I found out that we got a new shipment from America. Stuff I got that I've never seen here in before: Lagunitas Lil sumpin sumpin Lagunitas double ipa, I forget the name DFH festina peche Great divide hoss rye lager Stone levitation ale Evil twin Ron and the beast ryan Stuff I didn't get A bunch of stuff from Elysian, are they any good? Stone ipa Evil twin black and tan pairing thing I will probably pick up the last two at another point, pretty excited by this haul. We will be getting other stuff from Lagunitas, great divide etc. In Feb and march too!
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Nov 22, 2013 07:12
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Eejit posted:I don't want to hate too hard on the online beer community, but I'm going to guess that many of the BA regulars just don't see an issue with it. White, priveliged, well-to-do males being insensitive and/or shitlords is a recurring theme on the internet. So even if a place like RB or Talkbeer is putting up competition, a lot of people are going to ask what's wrong with BA in the first place and lol fags with their lame gay sites hold on lemme post a meme. Personally, I think things will become less concentrated. Having been a beer seeker and homebrewer for several years, the luster of chasing Moby after Moby has worn off. With the rise of craft beer, new breweries and one offs are becoming impossible to keep up with. With that, I hope that the culture is mellowing and becoming less competitive, but more supportive (ie Let's support local breweries and not overreact over gimmicky beers.). The sperg lords will always be there, as in any sub-culture, but as craft beer becomes more mainstream it'll have more outlets; ranging from groups seeking nuance to "Dads who like craft beer". Something Awful is an example of that, as are numerous other communities including Babble Belt, the Mad Fermentationist or commercial examples like Beer Geek TV.
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Nov 22, 2013 07:31
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Midorka posted:Speaking of breweries with a lack of diversity in their line-up, I just remembered Sierra Nevada used to have Glissade which I loving loved. They are also getting rid of Tumbler for Flipside. It seems that every beer they brew now (outside of their regular line-up) is an IPA. They do have Narwhal and their Ovila beers, but their line-up is heavily IPA skewed. I love Ruthless Rye and Celebration, but I wish they'd moved Glissade to Summer and kept Tumbler. Perhaps they release a lot more variety in California, but what makes it to NJ is mostly hop forward beers. Out of 9 year rounds and seasonals 4 of them are IPAs, that seems pretty normal these days. If people would stop buying so many goddamn IPAs maybe breweries would focus on different stuff. I think it was sometime last year when IPAs became the best selling craft beer in grocery stores (overtaking seasonals, many of which were IPAs to begin with).
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Nov 22, 2013 12:26
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wildfire1 posted:Stuff I didn't get Yin and Yang are good so long as they're fresh, but not worth ten Koalas or whatever each. Elysian's regular beers are generally okay, but nothing too exciting, with the exception of Dragonstooth Stout, which is a great cheap beer.
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Nov 22, 2013 12:51
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I drank a beer by Elysian called Superfuzz Blood Orange Pale Ale and it was really, really good and I wish I could buy it here in CT. I had it on tap in PA once. I think I drank three of them with lunch I liked it so much.
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Nov 22, 2013 13:55
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crazyfish posted:Who other than Ratebeer and Talkbeer (formerly beertrading.org) is there? At FOBAB, there were guys passing out cards for a new site called beerfora.com. It's... sparse.
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Nov 22, 2013 14:50
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So it's come up a couple times- most recently in the trade thread because people are going to be bringing kickass poo poo they traded for RIGHT?- but it's probably time to stop talking and get another Chicago bottle share together. If I put together a google doc, people will sign up?
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Nov 22, 2013 16:31
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danbanana posted:So it's come up a couple times- most recently in the trade thread because people are going to be bringing kickass poo poo they traded for RIGHT?- but it's probably time to stop talking and get another Chicago bottle share together. If I put together a google doc, people will sign up? Depending on when I'd want to come, but I don't really have anything good because I'm a bad collector  .
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Nov 22, 2013 16:35
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Wamsutta posted:I drank a beer by Elysian called Superfuzz Blood Orange Pale Ale and it was really, really good and I wish I could buy it here in CT. I had it on tap in PA once. I think I drank three of them with lunch I liked it so much. I don't even know how many of these I've had. First I was buying them in DC, then it became my go-to (with Pivo Pils) while I was in the PNW.
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Nov 22, 2013 16:37
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ChiTownEddie posted:Depending on when I'd want to come, but I don't really have anything good because I'm a bad collector Ok. So ChiTownEddie isn't invited. Anyone else? (Kidding! You don't buy our beer-ship with whales. Bring whatever you want, except pink bottles or that loving Beard beer.)
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Nov 22, 2013 16:37
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I might be able to be down for a Chicago bottle share, it all depends on timing. I have a bottle of 1998 Triple Bock if anyone's interested. (I also have non terrible beer)
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Nov 22, 2013 16:38
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Eejit posted:Also as much as WTF is basically a rare beer fest by virtue of being barrel aged or sour beers from popular breweries, it at least doesn't basically advertise itself as WHAELZFEST like Extreme Beer Fest does, so not doing EBF is not only a good way to avoid the Alstroms, but is a good statement on not encouraging the ridiculous tick culture aspect of beer nerdery. That's a decent point. The rare/EXTREMEBRO aspect was part of what first attracted me to EBF, but after my first trip it wasn't the reason I returned. Yes, there have been some great (and some terrible), unique beers at EBF, but to me the best thing about it was the amount of access we got to the brewers. Each brewery staffs its own table, so you're basically being served beer by the guys who made it from boil to kegging. Virtually all of them love their products and love talking about them. In my experience it's a unique opportunity to get to know the guys behind the beers, and that's why I kept going back. I mean yeah, if you wanted to wait in the KBS line for an hour before it released and kvetch about getting a tiny little pour before it kicked, you could do that. I'd be hanging out at the Heavy Seas table chatting with their brewer about how they'd developed a new method of wood toasting that let them use unusual things like pear wood to age on. Or the Dark Horse table, where they decided halfway through the evening session that Plead the 5th beer floats would be a great idea, so they went out and bought vanilla ice cream and started making them. Bonus points for them being the closest table to the sugar waffle stand. Also, I'd argue EBF's recent requirement of an OMGEXTREME session beer from each brewery has helped encourage the development of many decent low-ABV beers. Berliners are big; goses, gratzers, and other odd beers have a larger market, and in general it's getting easier to drink well without one pint making it impossible to drive home. That's a good thing for the market and a good thing for drinkers. I haven't decided if I'm going to hit EBF this year or not; a friend has offered me a ticket so I've got the opportunity if I decide to. I'm tempted, if only to see how much of that intimate brewer access remains with the move to a larger venue. Also because Boston is a fantastic town for a vacation, even when it's snowed in.
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Nov 22, 2013 16:42
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I bought tickets to EBF  As much as I think Todd is a douche, I'm not going to deprive myself of an experience because of it.
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Nov 22, 2013 16:46
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HatfulOfHollow posted:I bought tickets to EBF What session? I have the following week off and am debating going.
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Nov 22, 2013 16:48
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danbanana posted:So it's come up a couple times- most recently in the trade thread because people are going to be bringing kickass poo poo they traded for RIGHT?- but it's probably time to stop talking and get another Chicago bottle share together. If I put together a google doc, people will sign up? I'm in!
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Nov 22, 2013 16:49
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danbanana posted:Ok. So ChiTownEddie isn't invited. I'd be interested in doing a goon bottle share. As it is, the guy I usually do them with is leaving town for good in a couple weeks so that well will dry up =\.
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Nov 22, 2013 16:51
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A few years ago, I attended one that was a total shitshow - overcrowded, not very well organized, and half of the attendees were popped-collar idiots who were only there to drink as much of the highest ABV liquid they could find. As a result, the police had a fun night. As it was winding down, my group was kind of bummed at how bad the atmosphere was. We ran into the Shipyard crew who happened to feel the same way - wrong crowd, bad venue, etc etc. We all bitched for awhile, and then one of them started rummaging around underneath their table and said "I don't want to have to load this back into the van." Hello firkin of barrel-aged Prelude! The next hour was spent drinking a great beer and walking around and socializing with all the other brewery workers at other tables after the attendees had mostly left. That's when it clicked that people should be above beer on the list of reasons to go to beerfests. This is the only reason I go to big beer events anymore.
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Nov 22, 2013 16:54
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Me in Reverse posted:What session? I have the following week off and am debating going. Session C. I'm going up with my girlfriend and we're making a mini-vacation of it.
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Nov 22, 2013 16:58
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