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Guest Post: Top 10 Things I Learn at the Jupiter Craft Brewers Festival

17 Feb

Having attended a few conventions and festivals before in my life for all sorts of different reasons, I thought naively that the Jupiter Craft Beer Festival would be a calm collected day of beer snobs sampling craft brews from many of the best brewers in the area and the country. Boy was I in for some culture shock. I expect it’s a lot like sending someone who’s lived in a cave their entire life to a Star Trek convention and saying “this is what normal people do for fun.” Either you embrace it and enjoy yourself, or you walk around staring in horror at the ridiculousness going on around you. Throughout the day I would learn ten very important lessons that I would wind up sharing on my twitter (@BigDamnGeeks), though I now elaborate a bit more on them for you since I am not confined to the 140 character minimum. They are as follow:

  1. “Beer is your friend.” Like any good friend it has your back and makes you feel more confident for a time. But if you spend too much time with it, it’ll hit you in the gut and leave you puking in the bushes.
  2. “It only takes several little tiny cups of beer to get little tiny girls drunk and stumbling into people.” Pretty self-explanatory.
  3. “When drinking avoid trees at all costs.” Having a previous drunken encounter with a terrible turtle piñata, I can tell you for certainty that people with booze should not be near our friend the mighty tree. Climbing them should be strictly prohibited.
  4. “The mustache makes the man.” The longer or more ridiculous, the more people will flock to you and want to be seen with you. Not always a good thing, by the way.
  5. “When drinking Mike (MikeLovesBeer.com) has tunnel vision and avoids all things not directly in front of him.” Again, self-explanatory. While looking for him he must have passed me like 3 times and completely blown by me.
  6. “Phil (DosBeerigos.com) will “S the D” for a beer. Or Mention of his blog.” Er, not need to repay that site plug Phil. I’ve never seen a grown man make the international hand symbol for a BJ so much before in my entire life. Luckily, we have video evidence that you WILL see in the near future.
  7. “Tiny old men in pinstripes are hysterical.” Being short, gray haired, in pinstripes and surrounded by a plume of cigar smoke apparently makes you a stand up comedian.
  8. “Pretzel necklaces are not fashionable according to Mike and Phil.” Though they beat the hell out of a five dollar bratwurst.
  9. “Ernie drove Bert to drink. He’s running around here somewhere…” A man dressed as Bert from Sesame Street was running around drinking all day. Again, look for it in the video.
  10. “And finally, the only place you’ll see more glazed looks than a beer festival is at a Dunkin Donuts.”

So there they are, the 10 things I learned at Jupiter Craft Beer Festival. If you ever have the chance to go to one in your local area, I highly recommend it!

Peter Jurewicz is the creator of Big Damn Geeks, a blog dedicated to all things geeky, and a graduate of Full Sail University in Orlando, FL with a degree in film.  He is also the younger yet taller brother to Mike of MikeLovesBeer.com.

Brewtopia Festival 2008

25 Nov

Along with my fellow beer blogger Danno we attended the Brewtopia Festival on Saturday November 22nd at the Morikami Park in Delray Beach, FL. This was my first time to the park ever let alone for a beer festival. The park is well back off of the main road going through a thick forest like area on a very narrow road. One might think they are on their way to Crystal Lake for a meeting with Jason. But then you come up the area where the festival is taking place. Parking was in a big field for $3, which was cheaper than what I saw advertised.

I have to say that the organization was done very well to get in. You first were ID’d then proceeded to a trailer where you paid your admission and were given your wristband. Then you were ID’d again prior to receiving your sampling glass.

A view of the setup when we first arrived. Not as many people yet.

A view of the setup when we first arrived. Not as many people yet.

Right in front of the big white tent where all the beer was were food vendors and a row of outhouses. I had an early feeling that the outhouses may become an issue later on in the evening. More on that to come. As you walked into the tent they had it very easily set up with imports on the right and American craft brews on the left. Down the middle were a few tables of bigger distributors. We started on the right but mostly stayed on the left hand side for most of the night trying the different brews from all of the heavy hitters of craft brewing like Dogfish Head, Stone and Brooklyn. While sampling we walked around collecting the free swag of stickers and coasters from where ever we could and just watched as more and more people came in.

The cool Florida night made it very enjoyable as opposed to a blistering hot summer afternoon like at the Treasure Coast Beer Festival. The tent also helped with the noise as it did not reverberate off the concrete enclosure at the TCBF either. Also the over abundance of attractive women both working the booths and in attendance for the beer helped make it a very enjoyable festival.

Just thought this was a fun banner from Dogfish Head.

Just thought this was a fun banner from Dogfish Head.

As I mentioned the out houses earlier, when it came time to have to visit there was quite a line. I understand that it is out in a field and actual plumbing really wasn’t available. Also the fact that some of the houses locking mechanisms were broken to where they said Occupied when no one was actually in it helped slow things up a bit too. Luckily a few helpful people in line kept an eye on all stalls and started directing traffic if you will and it did help speed things up a bit.

We visited our friends at the BX Beer Depot table and sampled their home brew milk stout and hefeweizen, both of which were very good, before deciding to leave for food. While the thought of a sausage and peppers sandwich does sound appetizing we opted to go elsewhere for our food.

All in all we had a very good time and enjoyed most of the brews that we sampled. Stone was probably my favorite brewery there and I can’t wait to pick up a couple bottles of Arrogant Bastard Ale to review on here. I have to believe that this fest did extremely well. I by no means am a math wiz but have to say by the time we left there were well over 500 people there not including staff. I would be very surprised if it was a success and didn’t have one again next year.

Treasure Coast Beer Festival Review

14 Sep

Yesterday me and Chris along with my fellow beer blogger Danno and his wife Amy attended the first annual Treasure Coast Beer Festival in downtown Ft. Pierce, FL.  It was held in the lower floor of the newly constructed parking garage in the downtown area.  This was nice so that everyone wasn’t out in the beating sun all afternoon.  Upon paying our admission we were given our TCBF mini mugs for all our tasting needs.

We worked our way around the perimeter sampling from many of the top breweries in America that were present.  Many of these tables had actual representatives from the company there to explain the different beers that they offered for tasting.  Unfortunately some did not and were only run by volunteers but that wasn’t that big of deal.  Many of the breweries had literature on their different brews along with little pieces of swag like stickers, coasters, buttons, etc.  Two very well placed water coolers were put out to allow people to wash out their mugs in between tastings so not to contaminate the taste of each beer.

Some of the brewers that I sampled were the following: Dogfish Head, Yuengling, Sierra Nevada, Samuel Smith, Shipyard, Lagunitas, Rogue, Bell’s, Brooklyn,Terrapin.

The festival also included food provided by Hurricane Grill as well as some independent vendors.  The local PP Cobb General Store had a booth and provided $1 off coupons for when you buy a mix and match six pack.  There was a free raffle for 4 baskets of beers, which none of us won.

Overall we all had a really good time and after speaking to the even organizer hope that this does become an annual thing.  The Treasure Coast Beer Festival was well organized in a nice location and with some great breweries.  We look forward to this happening again.