Press Release 1: Annapolis Craft Beer & Music Festival



Second Annual Annapolis Craft Beer and Music Festival Date Announced

Over 100 Artisan Beer Tastings 

Music of all Varieties on The Pilsner Stage

Arts, Crafts, and Specialty Food

Annapolis, Maryland (August 15, 2013)—The date for the second annual Annapolis Craft Beer and Music Festival has been announced for Saturday, September 21, 2013, at The Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. The festival hours are Saturday, 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm.

The Annapolis Craft Beer and Music Festival -- the only craft beer festival of its size in and around historic Annapolis with 35 breweries represented pouring over 100 craft beers -- combines award-winning artisan beer tastings from regional and national artisan breweries along with music of all varieties on The Pilsner Stage. Attendees have the opportunity to shop for gifts from dozens of arts, crafts, and specialty food exhibitors and purchase oysters on the half shell plus other delicious Maryland cuisine in the food concessions court.

According to Jim Barthold, of City Dock Productions, “in just a few short years, craft beer has developed a tremendous following among men and women of all ages. There are literally hundreds of craft beers being brewed today, each with its own distinctive characteristics. Tasting and comparing brews has become an activity of the beer enthusiast. This is a festival whose time has come, there is no other event like it in Annapolis.” Mr. Barthold explains, “The Annapolis Craft Beer and Music Festival combines the rare experience of sampling craft beers while listening to eight local popular bands…selecting from a menu of food items ranging from crab cakes to knockwurst and shopping among arts and crafts exhibitors."

A general admission ticket includes a souvenir pilsner glass, samples of craft brews, and music of all genres all day long under the music pavilion tent. For details and to purchase tickets:


Advance group sales of 10 or more are available and a limited number of discounted tickets are being sold at specific times on the festival's website: www.theannapoliscraftbeerandmusicfestival.com. The festival will benefit The Arts Council of Anne Arundel County which seeks to promote cultural attractions and the arts: http://annearundelartscouncil.org/

The Navy-Marine Corps Stadium has ample parking, which makes it the ideal venue for the Festival. Directions: take Rt. 50 to Annapolis, take exit 24 (Rowe Blvd) and make the second right onto Taylor Ave. to the entrance at Gate 5. Parking is $5.00 per car.


Well-known for its maritime culture, colonial heritage and charming downtown shopping district on the Chesapeake Bay, Annapolis is the epicenter of entertainment and cultural events for the state. To ensure widespread awareness of the festival, the event is being aggressively marketed throughout the region with a multimedia advertising and publicity campaign via TV, cable, print, radio and online, as well as through posters, postcards and brochures.

And, after the festival, visitors can stroll through the brick-lined street of historic Annapolis! Plenty of nearby hotel accommodations in every price range, continuous shuttle bus service to downtown and all of the many shops, restaurants and attractions of historic Annapolis are just some of the amenities visitors will enjoy while visiting the City of Annapolis for the weekend. Check the festival website at www.theannapoliscraftbeerandmusicfestival.com for accommodation suggestions.

The Annapolis Arts and Crafts Festival is produced by City Dock Productions, an event management company with more than 37 years of experience presenting arts and crafts festivals, music festivals, wine festivals and other consumer product shows and public events. For details, call Jim Barthold at 410-263-4012.

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Beer Fest Fashion: A Guest Post From Beer Guy PDX

I threw up the Brewfus Signal for some guests posts, and with the quickness, Wolf, AKA Beer Guy PDX, responded. Today's post had me laughing and cringing while I read it. This guy gets me, and I think this post will be right up your (the readers) alley. Keep reading for tips on how to stay safe during a beer fest, and be sure to check him out afterwards at http://www.beerguypdx.com/. You can also find him on Twitter (@beerguypdx )! Thanks again for answering my distress call, Wolf. Much appreciated!

-Hipster Brewfus



It's summer in the Pacific Northwest and that means Beer Fest Season is in full swing here in Portland, Oregon. I'm not exaggerating when I say this is the time of year you'll find great beer-related events going on almost every weekend in my burg and surrounding environs. Of course, the major beer festivals like the highly celebrated, often imitated, but never duplicated Oregon Brewer's Festival can be like a trip to grown-up Disneyland and it takes some planning to do them right. This can often be quite a daunting endeavor for the beer fest noob. If that's you, I'm here to help.

I'm a beer festival veteran. I've been to all of the big, local ones many, many, many times. Hell, I've been to all of the tiny, little-known ones, too. I know my way around the Buzz Tent, let's put it that way. I've been at this for a long time and I've learned all the tricks for making beer festival attendance more fun, efficient and awesome, and I'm going to share those tricks with you RIGHT NOW.

Just like a seasoned mountain climber braving the harsh conditions of Mt. Hood, a beer festival attendee has to have the right equipment. Check out the photo below and read all about the essential gear needed for a successful day at a beer fest:




1) Cargo shorts. I know cargo shorts are hideous, but they are costume de rigueur for beer fests. Why? Ginormous pockets. You are going to be carrying all kinds of stuff and you'll need immediate access to that gear...which isn't easy when you have a tasting glass permanently attached to one hand. Yes, your tush looks amazing in those skinny jeans, my young friend, but you'll have a helluva time trying to dig that last taster token out of your tiny, tight pocket when you're three sheets to the wind. I know what you're thinking: I'll just bring a backpack. You'll be sorry! Backpacks get mighty heavy after a few dozen beers. Additionally, I happened to walk past the lost and found at the last beer fest I attended, and guess what I saw...lots of lost backpacks. I'm just sayin', cargoes are the way to go!

2) Pretzel necklace (not shown--eaten). You'll get hungry, that goes without saying. There are usually food carts and snack booths at most beer festivals, but the lines can be long and the prices are just this side of felonious gouging. Make sure your snacks are always within reach and IMPOSSIBLE to misplace. The pretzel necklace is the greatest invention of all time. Get yourself some string...some pretzels...tada!

3) Obscure brewery hat (and/or other prominently displayed piece of logo apparel). The idea here is to wear a conversation starter. Every other putz will be wearing a hat from Well-known Brewery. You? You're a rugged individualist. Your hat from Woodchipper Suds or Crazy Larry's Brewpub will set you apart from the crowd and get lots of questions coming your way from beer drinking supermodels. Okay, the supermodel part is a big, fat lie, but lots of hairy beer geeks will strike up conversations with you. Hey, I've met some of my very best friends at beer fests. That's no lie.

4) Sunscreen. Contrary to popular belief, the sun does shine occasionally in Portland. For gawd's sake, Melvin, lather up! Sunscreen prevents skin cancer and premature aging. Learn it, know it, live it!

5) Wads and wads of cash. Most beer fests are cash only affairs. Save yourself a mess of stress and load up on the greenbacks before you go. The last thing you'll want is to run out of taster tickets and find yourself stewing in a long line at the only ATM for miles around.

6) Beer tap scepter. Because...you know...it's a gawd damned beer tap scepter! Don't judge me.

7) Festival appropriate t-shirt. Your t-shirt should let everyone know that you're a beer fest pro. Acceptable shirt styles: old, worn shirt from a previous year of the festival you are currently attending; trendy craft brewery shirt; macro-brewery shirt just for the irony; zany, wacky shirt that tells everyone that you are ONLY there for the beer; no shirt because, well, you're drunk. I like my awesome lederhosen t-shirt. I get absolutely zero compliments on it. Women hustle their children and pets away from me. The crowd literally parts when that crazy guy walks by. It's perfect.

8) Beer gut. A beer fest is the one place where a fellow like me can display an ample beer belly with pride and aplomb. You know, I didn't just wake up with this gut one morning. It took lots and lots of semi-professional beer drinking to get it into this kind of shape. Don't hate. Keep drinking those fine craft beers and you can have one of your own someday!

9) Sensible shoes. Now, you may be tempted to wear sandals on a warm summer day, but that is a bad, bad idea at a crowded beer fest. Why? Have you ever had a hundred buzzed people step on your toes? Effing ouch! Those lines are long, slow! , and filled with some inebriated fest goers. Save your tootsies and wear close-toed shoes. Steel-toed boots are always an acceptable option. too.

10) Bluetooth headset. Just kidding! Only a total d-bag would wear a b-tooth to a beer fest!

11) Swag bag. I don't know about you, but if some brewery is going to be giving away pens, stickers, bar mats, bottle openers, whatever, I'm taking that stuff home by the fistful! Bring a handy tote bag to tote home your swag. Mine is a compactable Arrogant Bastard bag. It fits neatly into my cargo pockets until needed.

12) Water. I highly recommend bringing along your own water bottle. They will charge you up the wazoo for a bottle of H2O at most beer fests. Hydrate, homie, or you could end up in the first aid tent. This is some serious beer consumption you're engaged in and keeping yourself adequately watered is a must. Plus, bringing your own reusable water bottle is the enviro-awesome thing to do.

13) Bus pass. Beer Guy PDX frowns on drinking and driving. Make sure you are fully prepared to get to and from your beer fest without the need to drive. Seriously, I'm not joking here. Purchase a day pass for mass transit. Prearrange a cab. Impress your sweetie with a limo! Hell, call me and I'll pick you up. It's all good, as long as you aren't dragon-breathing it down the 84 freeway after a long day of beer tasting.

14) Notepad and pen. Most beer geeks have a weird, unstoppable, freaky desire to document all of their beer conquests. That's me. If that's you, I strongly suggest bringing along a little notepad and some kind of writing instrument to get the job done. Many people keep track of their drinking history with a smartphone or iPad. That's fine, but I recommend against the electronics. Keep your nose off the screen and enjoy the beer and atmosphere!

15) Shades. I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can, watch you weave then breathe your story-lines...

16) Smile. Share lots of these with your fellow craft beer enthusiasts. We are a beer-loving, fun-loving community and we should all do our best to make every beer festival as enjoyable as possible for everyone. With great beer comes great responsibility. Go forth and make new friends! Finally, be kind to the people serving the beer. Most of those folks are volunteers devoted to making sure you have a fun day at the beer fest. Remember that a please and a thank you will mean a lot to them and validate their self-less efforts.

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2013 Beer Bloggers Conference or: Brewfus Takes on Boston

If you were following my Twitter feed in the latter portion of this July, you may have been shocked, appalled, and even offended by a barrage of tweets that occurred over the span of 72 hours. If you happened to be one of the few that un-followed me, or were offended, I am not sorry. Because I was having the time of my life in Boston, at the Beer motherfuckin' Bloggers Conference. Yeah, that's right. 150 or so alcoholics beer bloggers, all gathered in one hotel for a weekend of beer, beer, food, and beer. And cheese. So much cheese.

For the non-bloggers, something like the Beer Bloggers Conference could be incredibly boring. Asides from all the drinking for breakfast, drinking for lunch, and drinking for dinner, there are a lot of incredible opportunities to learn from all aspects of the industry. It would be easy for me to inundate you with all the information I was slapped in the face with, but I'm not going to do that. If you want to learn more about the finer aspects of the Conference, there are other bloggers who do that way better than I do. And If I have my way, I will have a list of other blog posts from other attendees chronicling their Beer Blogger Conference 2013 Adventures. As I write this, I still haven't figured out the direction of where this post is going, but whatever. We'll figure it out together on this wild ride...

Alright, get on the bus!

Friday

I arrived here, after a grueling overnight 10+ hour train ride:

Boston Park Plaza Hotel. Could be worse, right?

Everyone else was still in Portland for the pre-conference excursion, and it was only 8:30 in the morning. I had about 6 hours to kill before all those slackers got back to Boston. What the hell was I going to do?

Eat all of the caramel apple french toast. And take a nap.
I ended up taking a seat and striking up conversation with some trouble maker, who goes by the name of Joesph. I'm pretty sure he has a slight case of schizophrenia, as he also goes by the name of CraftBeerCoach. Joe is also the creator of a upcoming craft beer app that goes by the name of BrewHorn. We totally became BBC13 BFFs. We sat and chatted until my room was ready. It was still only about 11:30 by this time. HURRY THE HELL BACK TO BOSTON EVERYONE ELSE! In all actuality, I couldn't be too upset. I had been on the train for 10+ hours, and only a few hours before that, I was on a plane coming back from Kentucky. It had been a long day, and I no doubt smelled awful.

Fancy digs, right? And the door makes "beep boop" sounds. Future style.

After lunch with Joe at Stoddards Fine Food and Ale, it was time to be...social.

Things kicked off with the trade show, which was fun. Lots of beer samples from Heavy Seas, Woodchuck, and others. Cabot Cheese was there, plugging up our insides. I was interviewed for something, and remember making a fool of myself (I've never been interviewed before, and on camera) pretty hard. There was some weird hemp cereal (other BBC13 attendees, did you eat this? It tasted like sawdust and bark) that I grabbed, too. I figured "fuck it, it's free" and threw it in my cheese bag (purse). It was a lot of people, in a little spot, in the midst of a lobby that was as busy as...something really busy. Seriously, that lobby was packed with people at all times. Enough beer to get a little buzz on, some snacks, and we we're on our way.

And this is where the fun really began. We piled on the bus for a beer soaked ride to Boston Beer Company for dinner, beer, and Jim Koch. It was...goddamned awesome. We get there to a spread of chairs, each one with can of Boston lager, and a really beautiful bottle opener. Luckily for me, there was no one sitting to the right of me. SCORE! We listened to Julia Herz (from CraftBeer.com) talk about how important we are to the beer industry. After she dropped some nuggets of wisdom, Jim Koch was up next. In the same candor he displays on TV and on print, he was in great form. He spoke to us about the history of the building we were in, and what it was like making craft beer, before craft beer was craft beer. It was a lot of fun, and seemed genuine and personal. Not a rehearsed or canned speech he had prepared. It was blatantly obvious from the number of times "ummm" was peppered through out the speech. Between Cambria from The Bruery and I, we were giggling our asses off. It was a great keynote speech, no doubt.


BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!

Jim brought us in back, to a room full of barrels, where years and years of future releases of Utopias were sitting before us. And then you know what that man did? That motherfucker poured some 10th Anniversary Utopias for each of us, and sat and bullshitted with us, and told us how Utopias came to be. And it was awesome. After that, there was a full spread of food and beer. And some of the beers were experimental batches. It was truly an unforgettable experience

There were cupcakes too. And I ate all of them.
.
We capped off the night with a hell of a party at Stoddard's, with beer being provided from the extremely generous Heavy Seas brewing (my local guys!). THIS...was one hell of a party. Hugh Sisson joined us, and gave us a toast that will stand the test of time, with his pirate-y inflection. And then...we drank. Man, did we drink. This was one of my favorite things of all of BBC13. It really gave me an opportunity to see and meet my fellow bloggers in our natural environment and state of mind; At a bar, and drunk.

The beer was flowing, friendships were being formed, and we're surrounded by our peers. Not only were we in one of my new favorite bars, but the beer was free, plentiful, and tasty. You couldn't ask for a better time. And if you complain about free beer, at a beautiful bar that closed their doors for us, then..well.

Seriously though:

Look at all those miserable people

I stumbled back to my hotel room, didn't drink enough water, and passed out.


Saturday


To be fair, that baby is what woke me up in time to start my day, and not miss anything. But still, shut up.

Today was the day when a whole lot of science was about to be dropped on us. I was nervous, excited and still slightly drunk.

That's ok Jake, I'm here to make you feel better, baby.
With bottles popped at 9:30 in the morning, It was on. Current State of Beer Blogging, How To Pour A Heineken, How To Be A Social Media Jester, How Beer Bloggers Are Way Better Than Wine Bloggers, and all those other important topics. I took away a lot of helpful things which I will sum up in a handful of tweets.






My favorite part of all of this though, was the industry bloggers. It's incredibly re-affirming that these dorks are just as dorky as us, and get to be dorks with places like The Bruery, Woodchuck Cider, Schlafly, and Oskar Blues. Sometimes I have "fuck it" moments, and seeing them up there, working a dream job just gave me the momentum to keep chugging along. These guys gave us all kinds of useful tips!



No, but in all seriousness from my vantage point, seeing these established breweries have people out here with us lowly beer bloggers speaks a lot about their level of respect they have for us. But there was one nagging question I had:


Short answer? Yes. Great!

The rest of the afternoon was a haze of food and beer pairings, and Frank Evers making a lot of fart noises with his mouth.


Frank Evers is the Draught Master from Heineken, and all preconceived notions were dumped out the window when he was done. He gave one of the most fun, and entertaining talks all day. And yes, educational too. 

After a morning and afternoon of "blah blah blah," we were whisked off for the next stressful, hair raising, and fun adventure. Speed Blogging at Burke Distributors.

Look at all these rabblerousers, all drunk and tweeting about butts.

A group of local breweries had 5 minutes to pour us a beer, describe it to us, and have us...do things on the internet about it. Be it Tweet it, Instagram it, Facebook it, Untapp it, whatever. Screw that noise. I don't work well under pressure, and I barely could get a signal to my phone. I spent the time drinking the beers, and staring at my phone with a dumb look on my face. Most of the fun, honestly, was getting your tweets up on the huge screen displaying the twitter feed for "#BBC13." Pretty sure I did some of my best work that day. But nothing compares to #buttsbuttsbuttsbuttsbuttsbuttsbutts. And when all was said and done, you took your blue ticket that everyone was dumbfounded about, and got some ice cream from an ice cream truck parked outside for us (I got Spider-Man)! Yeah, that was a killer touch. Well played, Burke. Well played indeed. 

I also learned (much later) that references to ejaculation on social media, no matter how good a beer is, is generally frowned upon. 

Did I mention there was cheese? And cheerleaders?

I have no idea who this is.
Dinner time! We got back on Death Bus 2013, and headed off to Harpoon. My god, Harpoon really rolled out the red carpet for us. They had our crowd sourced beer brewed just for us (an Imperial White IPA), had some awesome fresh baked pretzels and mustard (which I almost drank-it was that good), our own little tour of the joint, and the spread of food was enough to make me die. And again, all the beer we could drink. But seriously, the food. And the cheese. So much food and cheese. I think we had like, a 25 year old cheddar. And when I ate it, I died. So good. Harpoon definitely set the hospitality bar about a mile higher than anyone ever has.

To sum up my visit to Harpoon:



At this point, my phone was dead and it was time to head back to the hotel for the Saturday Night Beer Social. Let me sum it up for you: 9 breweries, blogger bottle share, free bottle free-for-all at the end of the night, and social media. Like I said though, my phone was dead, so I grabbed my pen, and my Moleskin beer journal and made like a high school girl- "Dear Journal..."

Later that night (earlier that morning), I somehow found my way up on some floor way high up in the hotel, with a private room full of other bloggers, and parties were had, beers were drank, and debauchery abounded. At 4am, I decided to call it a morning. One. More. Day.

Who doesn't want this at 2am?



Sunday

I'm pretty sure I was dead at this point. I had no inclination to put another beer to my lips. I just wanted to be alive and not die. All morning, in my head I was singing "being alive is great, and dying...not so great."


Today would be a great day though, because we were getting our first real live demo of BrewHorn App. I am not going to tell you about the app now. BUT...you can go to the website (http://signup.brewhorn.com/), follow him on twitter (@BrewHornBeerApp), or wait until he gets his shit together and puts together something I can put out on the blog. I can tell you this though. This app will make you think, and it will be incredibly useful. 

"That's the hypotenuse, and there is where you put in the flux capacitor."
The rest of the morning was full of other bloggers and writers talking about blogging and writing. The things that they have learned over the years to help them become successful, and the things that don't work. Another powerful session where I learned a lot more. I must have a hell of a bloggers arsenal now:


It was really cool of all of them to get up and speak in front of all of us (even though by this point the herd had thinned by a good 25%) and pass on whatever knowledge and wisdom they have acquired over the years. Maybe one day I'll be up there, also.


Or...maybe not.

Welp...that about wraps up my first Beer Bloggers Conference. There are other bloggers who also documented their experiences, and I would love to compile a list of links. Each person had a different experience, and each person documented it differently. its great to see all the varying posts. 

I hope you're jealous, I hope you read it all, and I hope I didn't bore you to death.



Oh, and this happened:



I made SO many friends that now live inside my computer.

The End.

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A Hipster, Still in Kentucky

You know who loves Louisville? Batman. He probably loves beer, too.

Decided to stick around for the second half of my Kentucky Adventure (here is the first half)? You must be a glutton for punishment. When we last left our hero, he was a few hundred miles from home in what seemed to be a craft beer wasteland. In one weekend, I set to prove myself wrong.

Lets go on an adventure!

My first stop of this little trip I had planned was Apocalypse Brew Works, located not even a 10 minute drive from my hotel. The street was empty. The patio area was empty. Gates locked. You getting the idea? They weren't open. Womp Womp. I looked at my watch, it was only 12:30pm, I was about 4.5 hours early! Time to go to the next brewery on the list! About a 15-20 minute drive from where I was, New Albanian Brewing stood, waiting for my arrival.

New Albanian

Each character int he mural, is part of a label of their beers. How cool?!

New Albanian Brewing (technically located in Indiana). Oh man, I fell in love immediately. Cozy little place, very modern looking, lots of bright colors, primary colors, sharp features. Modern and clean. There were about a dozen tables, and a bar in the immediate area I was in when I arrived. If I'm not mistaken, there is another seating area on the other sides of the tanks located directly in the center. I took the first table in front of me, and sat my ass down. Slack jawed, and stupid eyed, I looked around and was just so happy to be there. Only about 45 seconds had passed since my arrival, and I already loved this place. All the beers on tap were displayed above me, each one on its own panel, and beautifully illustrated. I couldn't make my mind up for the life of me, so did the smart thing, and got me a flight. And ordered some food. They had a menu to rival their beer choices. I silently fist pumped in my head.

I had a picture of my flight, but my old stupid phone decided it was corrupted, and I had to delete it. The flight is served in this foot and a half, arched wooden thing. It was kind of elegant, and most importantly, holding my beers. I was so excited. I didn't know what I was getting, because I asked the waitress to "surprise" me, and she seemed all too happy to do just that.


Pulled BBQ pork, with goat cheese.

I have found I am rarely disappointed when
I give the instructions of "just surprise me."
I seriously enjoyed every beer I had. The real standouts were the Conesmoker (a smoked IPA, how different does that sound?), Elector (an imperial red), and the Tafel (A Belgian table beer. I didn't even know that existed). There were still a few I didn't get to try, but again, I enjoyed each beer in that flight.

I was tempted to grab a growler of something, but realized traveling with a growler would be more trouble than I felt like dealing with. I could have bought it, filled it and just left the empty growler when I left, but felt that was a huge waste. So, quick goat thinking, looked over at the bar, and saw they sold Bombers. SCORE! I picked up a bottle of their Back and Blue Grass (style name) And Elector. I haven't drank them yet, but plan to soon! I spent some time chatting with the woman at the bar (an owner I believe), paid my tab, bid a fond farewell, and drove off to the next place.

If you find yourself in New Albany, Indiana, go here. The decor is modern and sharp looking, the food is great, and the beers were some of the best I had in the area. And it wouldn't be right If I didn't mention how AWESOME the label art is.

This was inside the Men's Room





















Against the Grain


I drank too much beer, and died.

Alright, the next place! The next place being Against the Grain. Downtown Louisville's own brewery, nestled inside the famous Louisville Slugger Stadium. I had no idea where I was going, so I ended up parking a good 10 blocks way. Ugh. Well, at least I could walk off all the beer I had consumed. Just to make room for more...Walking inside, this place is AMAZING. Huge open ceilings. Everything is brick and wood. There weren't too many people in there, so I grabbed a seat at he relatively empty bar, and ordered me another flight. You'll have to bear with me, as I actually didn't take any pictures. The names are damn hilarious, and the beers were equally as tasty.

Slippery When Tett
Sofa King Wheat Arted
Boom Gose the Dynamite!
Brown Note
Polish Joak

Of all the beers, Polish Joak and Boom Gose the Dynamite were both very well done. Joak is a smoked beer, almost a Pilsner in nature. Crisp, sharp, almost tart. And there is smoke and you're all "WTF?" I love when breweries don't just have your standard IPA on tap, and make an effort to offer something a bit different. Having this, a brown, and a gose on the list show good faith.

I chatted with Sam J. Cruz, el Presidente for a few moments, and told him I'm from Baltimore, and his face lit up. He told me to get in touch, and stay tuned for important and exciting news regarding Baltimore. So now I'm waiting! If it means an AtG brewery coming to Baltimore, I will be stupid excited. I picked up a (really comfortable) t-shirt, finished off the last of my flight, and got the hell out.

The atmosphere was awesome. I really wish I had gotten more pictures. It was relaxed and mellow. the brew tanks were easily visible on the second floor above the bar, through a huge set of windows. All of the exposed brick and wood give it such a rustic feel. And being inside a baseball stadium is admittedly pretty awesome. I bet it is THE place to be when a game is going on.

Against the Grain is ALSO a smokehouse. Unfortunately though, I had already eaten prior, and beer was fighting for every inch of open space inside my belly. But if it's anything like their beer, I bet it is damn good.



Apocalypse Brew Works



Picture this, if you will...It's 5:30 pm. The same patio area, of the same empty brewery from earlier, except this time PACKED with people. I have found the Apocalypse. The place was packed. seriously. I was able to squirm my way to the bar, and found an empty spot at the 4 seat bar. The inside was tiny. Ever been to Relic in Plainville, Ct? You know how it was before Mark moved into the larger portion? Like that. Just a little bigger. Nano Brewery FTMFW! To my left was the tiny area where they had some awesome stuff brewing. The woman who poured my beers was such a wonderful, warm, and kind lady. I feel awful, as I can not remember hers or the gentlemen (who was one of the brewers) that I spoke with, name. I didn't sample ALL the beers, but I sampled a good amount.

They pour more like a bar, full size drinks. You basically pay for a pint. Except in their case, you're getting a red solo cup.I asked if I just get half pours, so she was nice to count two pours of different beers as one beer.I enjoyed, every single damn beer I had. Seriously. From what I learned, Apocalypse Brew Works is a collection of home brewers, who decided to bring about the end of the world. And with the quality of the beers, I hope they don't succeed, because I want to drink this beer all the time.

They had an incredible list for such a small joint. Check it out:

1, 2, 3...10. 10 different beers on tap!

Of the 10, I tried 5 different beers.

Watermelon Crack
Big Bad Barleywine
Fallout Dust
Cream-ation
O'Danny Pivo

I strayed out of my comfort zone, ordering both a Barleywine (definitely English style, and DEFINITELY a beer I would drink more of) and a Gluten free (O'Danny Pivo).I enjoyed every beer I tasted, I enjoyed the coziness of it all, and I enjoyed the company. I am actually anxious to get back to Apocalypse Brew Works, as I just about fell in love with every inch of the tiny place, and every drop of beer I had.



Another new t-shirt in hand, and a sticker, I closed the chapter on this awesome beerventure.



So, I guess I'm willing to admit that Kentucky wasn't quite the craft beer wasteland that I thought it was. In fact, there is actually some remarkable beer to be had in Louisville (and Kentucky in general. And next to Louisville). I'd love to make the trip down to Lexington, because I know there is still more beer to be had. Alas, maybe one of these days. And if you find yourself stuck in Kentucky do what I tell you and go to one (or all) of these breweries. In one DAY you can hit all these breweries, but to really enjoy each thing each brewery has to offer, I would keep it to an entire weekend. There is a beer for everyone, at each one of these breweries, and they are all good!

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