Good Beer, Good People

Brittany and I are no experts on beer - a lot of people at American Craft Beer Fest clearly knew much more about hops, IPAs, local breweries, and everything else having to do with craft beer. But ACBF was the perfect way to welcome Brittany back to Boston and launch our blog. And it was certainly a success.

To be fair, I'm not at the very beginning of my beer learning curve - summer 2011 included many nights drinking beer by a bonfire and watching every Stanley Cup game at Joshua Tree (except the final game, which we watched, amazingly/hilariously enough, at my favorite gay dance club, Machine). Friends have encouraged me to try new beers and learn more about my tastes. This winter I learned about the brewing process at the Sam Adams Brewery in JP. And most importantly, last fall I attended Boston Beer Summit, an event smaller than but similar to ACBF.

At Boston Beer Summit, you could feasibly try every brewery (there were far to many at ACBF for that), could see them all at once (the World Trade Center was much too large), and there was more of a variety beyond American craft beers. ACBF bills itself as "the east coast's largest celebration of American beer," and they're not kidding. Boston Beer Summit was baby size compared to this. I discovered my love of hard cider and mead at the Beer Summit. But ACBF had their priority: BEER.

There were some things I knew going in that I had reaffirmed at ACBF: I don't like a lot of hops or very dark beers and I do like fruit. Luckily there were fruit flavors galore. Off the top of my head, I remember blueberry, apricot, watermelon, and passionfruit. One thing I learned at ACBF: American ales tend to be more hoppy, which made my tasting experience a little difficult. I now can say 100% I don't like IPAs because ACBF had a lot of IPAs.

There were over 500 different beers to try, so we knew we'd have to move fast, and even then we couldn't try it all. A fun-looking booth and short lines were key to getting us to try your beer. Unfortunately we lost track of our tasting checklist, but we remember the stand outs. And I definitely remember my favorite brewery: Kona Brewing Company. They set the record for farthest distance traveled to ACBF (5,069 miles) and I'm so glad they made the trek.

With a booth near the entrance, Kona was one of the first places we tried - and was the last one on our way out the door. Brittany and I tried to go for a different beer at every brewery so that we tried as many as possible. At Kona, Brittany went for the "Wailua Wheat," which they described as a "wheat beer with a little bit of passionfruit in it," and I tried the Koko Brown, a "toasted coconut brown ale."

The Wailua Wheat (American Pale Wheat Ale 5.4%) was light and actually had a strong taste of passionfruit, which I loved. I can definitely imagine laying out in the sun with a book and some of this beer. The Koko Brown (American Brown Ale 5.5%) was equally delicious in a totally different way. It was described as having a coconut flavor, which it definitely did. But it struck me as very similar to the coffee and mocha style beers I had tried in the past. Delicious.

There were plenty of other beers worth writing about, of course. Beer Works' Godzilla (American Strong Ale 15%) sounded intimidating, and for good reason. Brittany tried it first and wasn't a fan, but I actually quite enjoyed it. It had a lot of flavor and you could definitely feel the higher alcohol content as it went down. Pretty Things was great and was Brittany's favorite brewery.

Beyond the beer, we quickly learned that the people are one of ACBF's greatest assets. Whether it's observing some interesting folks, learning about the beer from an enthusiastic brewer, or chatting with some of our fellow buzzed beer-drinkers, we were entertained all night. We saw someone with a lot of tassels, some neon yellow pants, a bachelor party, and friends, family, and couples of all ages. Three Heads Brewing was one of Brittany's favorite breweries...because she liked the guys at the booth. A guy named Sumir wanted to make sure we got his name spelled accurately in our blog. (Hey, Sumir!) On the T home, we met a couple guys who were the friendliest people we met all night.

This post really doesn't cover the enormity that was ACBF. Visit their website to learn more about the festival itself. And ask us if you want to see the videos that didn't make the video cut.

American Craft Beer Fest: 5 Rules (VIDEO)

American Craft Beer Fest was everything we imagined: too many options to keep track of, busy crowds, and a lot to learn about beer. Before we even made it to the event, we realized we were two of the youngest people headed to ACBF and we had a lot to learn.

About halfway through ACBF we started to take note some of the lessons learned, and made a video about the event along with some tips and tricks to help get us through the next beer festival.

1. Don't make eye contact unless you want to talk. Don't get us wrong, we met some interesting people at ACBF and we're not anti-social. But we learned that if you don't want to make conversation with someone, don't make eye contact - some people are happy to stop and chat and keep you from moving on to the next brewery.
2. Wear a pretzel necklace. We can't tell you how many times we regretted not having a pretzel necklace. It was at least every time we tried a new beer and every time we saw one of the dozens of more well-prepared beer drinkers wearing their own necklaces. We were prepared with food - some granola bars and cookies - and even bought some (mediocre) fried dough, but it just didn't compare to the pretzel necklaces. Some really ambitious people had full-size soft pretzels around their necks and one guy had a duct tape belt of various snacks. We were impressed.
3. Wear stretchy pants. 3.5 hours of beer drinking. Enough said.
4. Hydrate. Key to ACBF's motto: Respect Beer. There's no way we weren't leaving ACBF sloshed, but drinking water kept us on our feet and feeling fine the next morning. And thankfully, ACBF provided plenty of water throughout the event.
5. Pee before you need to. Do not wait to pee until you can't wait any longer - anticipate the line and go early. We even used the bathroom at the start of the event, when there was no line at all, just to be safe.

These five tips can probably help get you through a lot in life, but we definitely think they'll help you survive your next beer festival. 

Stay Pretty & Drink Real Beer

I just want to prelude this post by saying that we will stay true to our beer on a budget promise as the summer goes on, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to launch our blog and my first night back to this beautiful city with the American Craft Beer Fest at Seaport World Trade Center. 5,000 people, 550+ types of beer, and fried dough in one room... impossible to pass up. We went into the night prepared for all conditions after a warning from a friend that he had no recollection of his return home. Snacks, umbrella, camera, and flip cam in tow, we patiently awaited 6:00 as it poured down rain on the 5,000 beer lovers (some prepared with ponchos, others refusing to let the rain slow down their skirt lovin' selves).

As soon as I caught the scent rising up from the basement of the convention center, I knew this would be worth the wait and $48.47 ticket price. We made some executive decisions as the festival began, mostly that we would keep track of which beers were our favorite in the provided pamphlet and we would videotape as much of the event as possible. Looking back at these objectives, they seemed reasonable until you've spent about an hour in a room with the challenge of trying every beer in it. Long story short, we lost track with about an hour left, the pamphlet didn't make it back to Brighton, and some of the video may act as a future PSA for the effects of too much beer. One rule that did pan out - don't wait in line if there's a shorter one next to it. Never ever choose to wait five minutes for Sam Adams when Ass Kisser volunteers have the tap ready for you.

ACBF was not only a tutorial on beer drinking, but beer vocabulary as well. Lucky for us, the pamphlet included a long list of terms we had probably heard countless times, but never learned like "Hops" or "Lager".  Walking from vendor to vendor never failed to be entertaining with the number of booty shorts for sale reading "I Heart Hops" on said booty, as well as my personal favorite slogan for Pretty Things Beer: "Stay Pretty & Drink Real Beer" - Words to live by. I was also seriously impressed by Three Heads Brewing - their beers were a lot smokier than the beer I'm used to drinking, but their personality in advertising and general vibe had my attention. I'd much rather drink a beer knowing it came from three guys with character than from a cardboard cut out of Sam Adams.

I'm not a woman with many regrets, but I will never go to a beer festival without a necklace made of pretzels ever again, all that gives you is food envy that results in the consumption of fried dough doused in cinnamon and sugar (I don't hate it).

I can't end this post without noting the absurd people you will inevitably meet at a beer festival. Bachelors, soldiers, people flying solo, and people in groups, either way, you'll never feel alone, and that's the glory of beer-lovin' Bostonians.

Recommendations:
Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project: American Darling
Three Heads Brewing: The Kind IPA (American IPA / 6.8%)
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery: You can't go wrong with anything Dogfish