The good and the bad, I want to remember it all...

Last year, after attending the Florida Brewers Guild Beerfest in Ybor City, I set a personal misison to be able to attend the Brewer's Ball this year.  For those who are unaware, the Best Florida Beer Championships is a "not for profit organization founded by craft beer lovers, homebrewers, and commercial brewers in the Tampa Bay area."  To sum up their mission, it is to promote craft beer in Florida through both commercial and homebrewing competitions. This all culminates with the Brewer's Ball, a "small" festival and celebration of craft beer in Florida.  500 people, period.  28 Gold Medal winning Florida beers.  13 mystery homebrews from around the state.  Live music.  Free food.  Amazing raffle prizes.  And then the award for "Best in Show" as well as a prize for Best Homebrew (voted on by the attendees after tasting them all).  Bring your own glass (or use one of their plastic cups) and taste away.  Yes, this is a free-pour-your-own event.  And you can go back for anything you want.  Skipper's Smokehouse is a great venue for rock and blues bands, and it lends itself well to this very loosely-structured event.  One of the most enjoyable things - as always - is getting to meet many of the brewers whose beers I greatly enjoy.

I was especially excited to meet and spend some time talking with Mark Robertson of Pensacola Bay Brewery in - yes, you guessed it - Pensacola.  They are a new brewery to the scene, but have some very good beers.  I had their Lil Napolean IPA last year at the FBG Fest, back when Mark was still brewing out of his back yard!  Now they are a "real" brewery and the quality is still excellent.  I was very impressed with two of their Gold Medal winners, the DeLuna Extra Pale Ale (actually a Kolsch) and the Banyan Brown Ale.  I really look forward to visiting Mark up in the Panhandle at some point and checking out the brewery in person.

The big story of the day was Swamp Head Brewing's seven golds and also taking first and second in the Best of Show.  Their Blackwater Floridian Dark Ale was the big winner, with their Smoke Signal Smoked Porter taking the second spot.  I got to try both and they were incredible.

Of course, Cigar City was represented in grand fashion, offering up five of their best beers (including the highly touted Hunahpu Imperial Stout), and it is always fun to hang out with the CCB guys (and their better halves).  It was also great to see Peg's Cantina get recognized for their Dancing Cody IPA, which is an incredible beer brewed by Doug Dozark.

So a grand time was had by all, no question.  This is definitely an event worth going to, and taking whatever steps are necessary.  It is a lot of fun to try top-notch beers that are not otherwise available in the area, as well as meet and spend time talking to other craft beer lovers.

I am looking forward to this coming Saturday now, which will bring the official release of Cigar City Brewing's Hunahpu Imperial Stout.  If you have not had this beer, it is simply divine.  Not for the faint of heart, and not for your fizzy-yellow-water drinkers.

Cheers!!

New Year, New Perspective, New Opportunities

It is amazing what just the flipping over of a calendar page can do for one's psyche.  In reality, nothing about the fabric of space/time changes, but it feels really good to put difficult things behind you in a symbolic manner.  Looking forward to 2011 (as laid out in my previous post) I have a lot of things I want to accomplish.  But life has a funny way of happening while you are making plans.  Just in the past ten days, new opportunities and revelations arise.  But those are for another day...

I recently wrote a beer review for Stone Brewing's Lukcy Basartd, a beer I genuinely enjoyed.  The original Arrogant Bastard was a very influential beer for me in my craft beer journey, and I said so in the article.  Naturally, my editor and the magazine tweeted a link to the article, as they always do.  And i got this response:

Yep... that's Greg Koch, owner and brewmaster at Stone Brewing.  So, that felt pretty good to have that kind of affirmation.

I also learned that there is a new craft beer bar opening in St. Petersburg.  It will be within the next few weeks, and the guy in charge seems to have a good plan.  What makes it funny, though, is that it is opening in a location at the base of the building that I used to work in!  It figures, after five years there, just a few short months after I leave, a craft beer bar opens there.  Not that it would have kept me there... *shudder*

And finally, I was asked to write an article on the Cigar City Brewing label art contest that was announced today.  It's nice to be the one people come to for something like that.  Makes me feel like I am contributing and part of the scene.

I am sure the days and weeks ahead will reveal more and more good stuff.  I feel it, and I look forward to the surprises.

Cheers, all.