Beerfest: A sellout crowd and great diversion

Cincinnati Beerfest/Courtesy: Me

Sometimes the right thing comes up at the right time to take your mind off the other things you are dealing with at the current time. I really needed it this past weekend.

Last weekend, the second weekend in February, was one of those weekends. The Lovely Bride and I didn't do a ton, but we went to one event we'd been looking forward to. Beerfest.

Honestly, the event wasn't the all-out party that you'd think it was. It was the 4th Annual Cincinnati Beerfest, a celebration of the Craft Beer movement.

Most of you reading this are friends of mine and you all know how much of a fan we've become. Look at it like being a wine connoisseur.

I might add at this point, the picture isn't deceiving, the place was absolutely packed. The crowd was estimated at around 6,000. I can't argue with that. And yeah, there was a percentage of them that were there to just get drunk. But, at $30 a head, most were there to try new and exciting flavors of beer.

The Lovely Bride Enjoys/Courtesy: Me

And there were plenty of them. The popular favorites, Dogfish Head, Stone, Rogue, Left Hand, Sierra Nevada and a whole lot more. There also were some smaller breweries that had some pretty good stuff too. I've already found a couple of good local Microbrewers here, Rivertown and Mt.Carmel, this night I found a new one, Elevator Brewing from Columbus, Ohio.

We didn't spend an inordinate amount of time at the event, a couple of hours. And yes, before you ask, I stopped sampling after the 1st hour and nursed a bottle of water the rest of the night. But we had a great time.

Me at Beerfest/Courtesy: TLB

We spent a good 20 minutes just waiting to get in. The reason. The line. General admission ticket holders couldn't get in until 7:30 or an hour after those who paid $60. We were armed though. Armed with a 4 oz. tasting glass and 25 drink tickets, we were good to go.

We started out at the first booth we saw, Dogfish Head. We thought they had a Palo Santo Marrano, but they didn't so we ended up with an India Brown IPA.

We worked the room, Elevator's Porter, a Bell's Stout, Founder's version of an Ale, Left Hand's Milk Stout...all great beers. (If you are wondering, I love me some Stout beer...and some Porters) The other kind of funny thing, each table had, along with their beers, a container of water to wash out your tasting glass with before the pour.

I wonder sometimes if we've just picked up an odd habit or we are onto something. Proof, really is in the pudding. Over the past year, sales of Budweiser and Miller Products are down some 12-percent, while craft beers continue to gain market share. Yeah, I've had my fair share of their products, and didn't think anything about it at the time.

Maybe it's just age. Maybe it's just selectivity, I don't know. I don't really drink to get drunk anymore, I don't need to. I drink beers because I enjoy them. Because I've discovered there are an incredible amount of creatively crafted versions of beer. No, I don't like them all, but there are so many of them, it will take a long, long time before I repeat myself.

Next time you find yourself in a restaurant or bar, go ahead, try something different. Try something that's not the same thing you've tried over and over again, you might come to realize what we have....there's a whole new world out there.

This is what passed for fancy beer when I was a kid...or at least a clip. Enjoy some Bob and Doug McKenzie : (yes, they pre-date "spuds")

Yes, I am a Beer Snob....

Beach Brown Tale Ale//Courtesy: Me

Those who have known me a long time know that I enjoy my beer. At a point in my life, it was in mass quantities and I wasn't picky about it. But as I've gotten older....that has changed.

I couldn't really tell you when that changed. But it did. Somewhere along the line, I realized that while immensely popular, really, Budweiser, Miller Lite and Coors all pretty much taste the same...like carbonated, lightly flavored water.

Maybe it was in Nashville. There was a brewpub there that I became enamored with, the Blackstone brewery. It's still there. They had large tanks where they made their own beer. And it had flavor. It tasted good. Really good.

In a way, I guess that my beer tastes have developed like people who are into wine. It took me awhile to realize that I wanted quality with what I'm drinking. Even after leaving Nashville, I still didn't stray much outside an occasion Pete's or Canadian beer. Sometime in the past 5 years, that changed. I don't drink for quantity anymore, haven't for a long, long time. Sure, I'll have a couple of beers at a sitting, but if you are drinking the good stuff, 2 or 3 are plenty.

You see, TLB (The Lovely Bride) and I are big craft beer fans. The good stuff. The stuff made mostly by individuals...or smaller companies. They have names like Great Lakes, Dogfish Head, New Belgium and Bells. And the stuff is good. If you drink it, no, taste it while you drink. The beers are really, really good.

Dunedin Brewery tanks/Courtesy: Me

Smooth, flavored with texture. There are multiple types. Me, I'm a dark beer fan, I drink a lot of Porters, Brown Ale's and stouts. TLB loves her wheat beers and IPA's (India Pale Ales). But we are both fans, big fans. We'll go out of our way to visit a restaurant or pub that either makes their own or has a big beer selection.

Today, we went to a place called the Dunedin Brewery. We had lunch...and beer. For me it was a slightly malty, chocolaty brown ale with the name Beach Brown Tale Ale, TLB had a wheat, flavored beer. It was good, really good. You know it was fresh, heck, the tanks were in the restaurant. The burrito that I had with it, wasn't bad either.

Back in October of 2009, we ventured up to Cleveland. We ended up at the Great Lakes Brewpub. Not only did we go eat and have a beer there, we took a tour of the brewery. What a wonderful experience. Very, very cool...and samples afterwords.

Dunedin Brewery/Courtesy: Me

In Atlanta, one of our favorite places to go: Taco Mac. We loved the food, great wings and even greater nachos. But the draw was the beer selection. 200-plus, at least 60 of them on tap, fantastic stuff. Bet you didn't know that the perfect compliment to wings and nachos...Rogue Chocolate Stout beer. Try it, you understand what I'm saying.

I have a couple of friends who have made their own beer. I envy them. I've read up on it, to see if it was something I would be interested in. I'll admit, doing that is a bit over my head. I'll stick to tasting.

The moral of my post I guess is this. For anyone who has never experimented, never had anything more than Bud or Miller, try something new. They are corporate behemoths who are trying to squash the Craft Beer movement. Really, it is true, they are. Their sales are dropping, Craft Beer sales, are growing...through the roof.

If you have the chance, try something different. Break out of the circle. You'd be surprised at the variety of beers out there. You'd be even more surprised, just how good they actually taste.

Check out the trailer to a really cool and somewhat revealing movie, Beer Wars: (We've seen it, very good)