American Craft Beer Festival

Just when I'm flat out of things to say, I have a full day like I did on Saturday.

I have resolved that whenever I'm feeling a bit of a lull, I need to grab a camera. Photos tell stories.

After a long morning walk with Rosie, and a long walk through the city during the afternoon, I was a bit spent and dehydrated. What a perfect physical state for a Beer Festival!

Beer Advocate's 2008 American Craft Beer Festival had its final of three sessions at the Seaport's World Trade Center, a building I had never entered. $40 landed me a plastic tasting glass, and full access to hundreds of interesting beers.

I had the schedule planned out, wanting to maximize efficiency. 3.5 hours, one 2 oz drink every 5 minutes = 84 oz of beer = 7 bottles. I figure 7 bottles of boring beer at a nearby bar would have cost over $40 with tips, so it justified the expense on a purely cost per fluid ounce basis.

So, I'm getting a bit jittery when we elect to pregame at the bar next door, ambling over to what has now become an incredibly long line. After 25 minutes in the queue, we're finally inside around 6:30, throwing off all of my calculations.

Nevertheless, it was time to dust myself off and begin drinking.

The beauty of the glass we received was that the 2 oz line was somewhere in the middle of the vessel. I'd say the average portion we received was 2.5-3 oz.

Since I have been on an IPA kick of late, I would estimate that 75% of what I tasted were IPA's and Pale Ales. Most of my decisions were made by simply figuring out what brewer's line I was standing in, finding them in the guide pamphlet, and picking their pale ale. Not much of a science to it.

Most off-the-shelf standard beers have alcohol contents in the 4.5-6% range.

I do recall many of the beers I tasted had alcohol contents in the double digits.

As expected, small portions of beer add up, especially when many are 11% booze. While my camera on hand was the pocket Sony without the auto-shake protection, I think the out-of-focusness of the shots complemented our inebriated states come 8pm.

Overall, what a cool event! I'd do this again next year in a heartbeat.