This weekend, brewers and beer-drinkers alike make their annual migration to Denver for the granddaddy of all zymurgical events, the Great American Beer Festival. The good folks at the Brewers Association have brought in 578 breweries and over 2,000 beers in 84 different categories for this truly epic event.
And I'll be in the thick of it, reporting back to you.
While I'm no novice to 100+ brewery fairs, this is my first of this particularly large rodeo, so I plan to make the most of my short time there. Here are a few things on my to-do list:
- Check in with greater DC-area breweries in attendance: DC Brau, District Chophouse, Mad Fox, Port City, Flying Dog, Lost Rhino, Brewer's Alley, Union, Heavy Seas, Monocacy, Blue Mountain, Devils Backbone, Starr Hill, and whoever else I missed
- Show some love for producers who ship to our market
- Harrangue top notch breweries not yet distributing to our area to get on it
- Spread the word ASAP on the medal situation, especially for our hometown heroes
- Get the scoop on the latest sudsy happenings
- Meet up with any of the #DCBrews crew who happen to be in town
I'll be tweeting out live updates from @dcbeer, instagramming (is that a verb yet?) from dcbeer, and posting at least a few roundup pieces here on the site as quickly as my beer-slowed fingers will allow. Maybe a couple days or so.
Wish me luck, #DCBrews.