Where to begin…there’s so much I could go over, but I’ll keep the details brief and I’ll start with the morning of:

Much to my surprise, I had a message and wall post from John Gonzalez (Gonzo) asking if he could interview me. I wasn’t really sure what led him to me, but I was excited nevertheless. Around 12:30PM, my father was kind enough to pick up my girlfriend and me to drop us off. Upon arrival, we had about a 10-15 minute walk just to find the end of the line where we patiently moved like a traffic jam for about half an hour. Once we were in, it was pretty easy to move about, despite there being well over 5,000 people at the festival. The atmosphere was fantastic. There was good music, the smell of the camp fires as they burned steadily in various places where we could stop for a quick warm up, a nice sense of cheer and of course…pretzel necklaces.

Overall, I think the photos taken by Lizzie Photo give a great account for just how much fun we had at a great event; however, here are a few of my favorite things from the day:

Favorite Beer: Kuhnhenn Barrel Aged 4th D

Favorite Surprise Brewery: Big Rock – Fantastic imperial stout and an IPA that tasted a LOT like Pliny the Elder. Girlfriend LOVED the wheatwine!

Number of Beers Consumed: Classified

Favorite Moment: Running into a guy who not only had a copy of my spreadsheet, but he was also going over it carefully, planning his next beer

Coolest Moment: Being interviewed by Gonzo and then having him join us for the 3PM tapping of the Barrel Aged 4th D. Hopefully I’ll be able to post a link for that soon.

Weirdest Moment: Having my left peck patted while being asked how I’ve been doing

I know those are only a few parts of an amazing day, but I don’t want to make this too long by going on about excellent beers & great friends, which I could easily do, especially since my girlfriend was able to get a ticket the day before and having her there as well, made it even more fun.

Cheers!